The Best Books I Read in 2024
This is the 11th consecutive year in which I’ve published my end-of-the-year book list. These are my favorite books from the year, with my entire reading list linked at the end. I love to read and this is meant to be fun, so please treat it in that spirit.
I know some of you will be disappointed that I don’t read more planning, engineering or urbanism books. I’m sorry, but they rarely interest me. I do read many of these books during the year, but unless I remember them (I generally read them in hardcover and don’t mark them down anywhere), they don’t make my list. So, this post is the actual list of books that I read in the past year.
I read only what interests me. That means I shift topics broadly but sometimes go really deep into something I’m fascinated with. I get through about a book a week, half of them in audio format and the other half on Kindle or by evening lamplight (I read mostly before I fall asleep). Oh, and I save all my fiction for family vacations and end-of-year baking; I mostly read nonfiction.
Neither I nor Strong Towns get any kickbacks or compensation of any sort for these recommendations. That’s also been a source of stress with this list — friends who write books and are upset with me that they don’t make the top five — but, please, chill out. The older I get, the more I’ve found myself unwilling to spend time on books that I don’t find an immediate urgency around. They might be amazing books, but if it’s not what I’m burrowing into at the moment, I’m very unlikely to dive in.
So, I hope you enjoy this list even a fraction as much as I’ve enjoyed reading these books.
"The Demon of Unrest" by Erik Larson
I was out for a walk with a good friend of mine, Vince Graham. Joe Minicozzi was also with us. We all stepped up on a parapet of what seemed like an old fort and Vince pointed out across the water. “That’s Fort Sumter.” What? I felt a bit unprepared, like when someone famous walks by but you only recognize them fully once they are passed. I generally knew the historical significance of Fort Sumter but, at that moment, I recognized how little I knew about what happened there.
This book was circled on my list before it came out, not only because Erik Larson is a great writer (this is his third time on one of my best-of lists) but also because I’ve been craving a book on this topic. Larson delivers by capturing all of the intrigue and tension following Lincoln’s election up to his inauguration, showing how secession — and, ultimately, civil war — went from a fringe idea to an unstoppable wave of action.
Today’s political divisions are a backdrop to the narrative, but they are brought in by the reader, not the author. Larson allows the historical characters to speak in their time. Yet, it is hard to hear their rhetoric, and the many human blunders of assumption and intent they committed, and not reflect on our own times. Those who don’t know history may be doomed to repeat it, but knowing the history of the prelude to the American Civil War may simply give you a better seat.
Either way, the book is engaging, fast-paced, and informative. "The Demon of Unrest" is my top book of the year and I can’t recommend it enough.
"The French Revolution & What Went Wrong" by Stephen Clarke
My affection for this book is likely influenced by the fact that I read it during a trip to France, but I know I would have enjoyed it even if I wasn’t up close and personal with the locations of the drama. Although, after reading a section about the mob ripping a soldier apart and putting his head on a pike to be paraded around Town Hall Square, I walked over to the window and looked out at the square. It was set up to host some part of the 2024 Olympics, a happy and modern veneer for a square that saw many a head separated from its body during the late 1700s.
I think most humans will have a difficult time processing something like the Palace of Versailles, but the overlay of this book made the experience even more bizarre. As my family and I walked through the bedchamber of King Louis XIV — one of the hundreds of similar rooms in the palace — it was impossible not to picture the daily waking up ceremony, where France’s rich and powerful competed for the privilege of handing the king his shirt, watching him eat breakfast, and even standing around him as he took a bowel movement. It was all part of a strategy to raise money while keeping your enemies close, but I can’t imagine being the family that paid big money for the hereditary appointment allowing them to remove the king’s chamberpot each day. Yet, someone did, as others did for hundreds of menial posts, all to have privileged access to the king.
Perhaps the best part of this book is that Clarke is British — unapologetically so. He invites the reader to laugh along with him at the folly of it all. Revolutions are messy, but enough time has passed now where British humor is perhaps the best way to understand the French Revolution.
"Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament" by Jonathan Bernier
I’ve read a lot of books that touch on this topic, but this one was a direct challenge to pretty much all of them. It was not an easy read, nor a beautifully written book, but it delivered in a huge way on the core premise of the title.
Theologians have long debated the timeline and authorship of each book in the New Testament. Consensus has the majority of books written after the Roman destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, some many decades later. This has been the consensus for some time now; most historical studies of the Bible start with this as an underlying assumption.
Bernier lays out an argument that places all of the books prior to A.D. 70. It is a historical argument based entirely on the record; there were no leaps of faith, so to speak. I’ve read enough about this topic to know this is a radical and important set of assertions, but not so much that I can specifically point out any shortcomings in the logic. The writing might not be beautiful, but the elegance of the logic was.
"The Infinite Game" by Simon Sinek
There are times when Simon Sinek comes across as a walking TED Talk, but I think that has more to do with the subject he works on than his actual persona. When I’ve stopped to listen or when I’ve read his stuff, I find it deeply insightful. It is the pop music equivalent of literature, but pop music is good fun. And sometimes profound.
I wrote about cities as an infinite game in "Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution" and am bringing that concept back in my next book, so I had more than a passing interest in how Sinek would handle the topic. His take is on leadership, but the same insights apply to our collective commitment to a place.
A promotion or a bonus provides satisfaction at work, but being part of something bigger and more meaningful than yourself — or than any one person — provides true motivation. When you recognize the infinite nature of what we are trying to do with our cities, it clarifies so many of our struggles. And it creates far more possibilities for doing good. This is a concept worth embodying.
"Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency" by Andy Greenberg
When I first heard about cryptocurrency from a friend of mine (someone of above-average intelligence, but nowhere near a genius) one of his main arguments to me was that crypto was untraceable. That seemed absurd to me, but I lacked the deep knowledge to explain why. That and lots of seemingly intelligent people were making the same case. Well, turns out it’s pretty simple.
Anyone who has taken the GRE to get into graduate school has been exposed to logic games. If John can’t sit next to Jane on the bus, and Jane has to sit in front of Bill, and Bill and Betty must sit together, then what is the seating order? Well, if you know one person in the blockchain — or if you can just become one person in the chain — you can start to deduce all kinds of connections. The blockchain ledger is public, after all.
The book is written in a fast-paced and fun kind of way. And the people doing this investigative work are going after some truly bad people, so it’s fun to cheer for them to make their mark. And if you’ve wanted to learn more about cryptocurrency but struggle with the crypto-bro propaganda, this book will give you just enough insight to ask the right questions (and be skeptical of claims of untraceable anonymity).
Honorable Mention:
"Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity" by John Bergsma
I read this right after "Rethinking the Dates of the New Testament" and the two tied together nicely. The author argues (among other things) that John the Baptist likely had some association at one point in his life with the Essenes, the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He traces the Essenes' unique form of Judaism to some of John’s work and, subsequently, to the Jesus movement and early Christianity. I found it thoughtful and challenging.
"The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life" by Nathalie A. Cabrol
This book was an easy read, and not just for me — I think it would be easy for someone only casually interested in the topic. Even so, it exposed me to lots of mind-blowing insights that I was previously unaware of. This wasn’t a UFO book; it was a serious scientific exploration of what life may look like out there and why we’re likely to encounter it, in one form or another, shockingly soon.
"Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E. Ambrose
I’m sheepish about putting this book under “honorable mention” since it is one of the greatest American books ever written. It goes here because I’ve read it before. I just pulled it out again as a refresher prior to a trip to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. It is difficult to believe that these are humans — rather modern humans — doing these things. Meriwether Lewis trading wardrobes with an anxious tribal leader as a show of faith in a tense moment (if we are ambushed, they’ll kill me) is a moment of bravery in leadership that I think about often.
"Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America" by John M. Barry
This probably had a bit too much (super fascinating) engineering stuff for the average reader, but it was a quick read and had enough insight to make it memorable. Two things stand out. First, the debate between engineering factions (their supposedly reasoned conclusions influenced, of course, by politics and money) felt very modern. Second, the wholly disposable way that former slaves and the descendants of slaves were treated 60+ years after emancipation was shocking. I’m glad this book was written.
"The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy" by Stephanie Kelton
I waited to read Kelton’s book until I thought I could do it with an open mind. I’m not sure if I succeeded. I found the arguments less intellectually rigorous than I thought they would be. In Kelton’s world, money is a construct of the state (we are captive to it) without any underlying acknowledgment that the state is a construct of the governed (it is captive to us). The “people’s economy” feels like a centralizer’s fantasy where overeducated theorists are empowered to optimize economic policy for what they measure as the greater good. So many people have asked me to read this book, which I now have. I’m glad I did, but let’s be clear: it is not a “best book” or even an “honorable mention.” These ideas are important to be familiar with, but this book is merely apologia for our current bad economics.
If you’d like to see all of the books that I read this year, do make sure to check out my list on Pinterest. You can also go back and see my recommendations for 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.
Charles Marohn (known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) is the founder and president of Strong Towns and the bestselling author of “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis.” With decades of experience as a land use planner and civil engineer, Marohn is on a mission to help cities and towns become stronger and more prosperous. He spreads the Strong Towns message through in-person presentations, the Strong Towns Podcast, and his books and articles. In recognition of his efforts and impact, Planetizen named him one of the 15 Most Influential Urbanists of all time in 2017 and 2023.