The Top 50 Books of the Last 5 Years (2020-2024)
A post was recently shared with me that presented "Goodreads Members' Top Books of the Past Five Years". I took a read through the list, and I'll be honest, I was triggered! There were some winners on the Goodreads list, but there was also a bunch of fluff. There are so many better books published since 2020 than what the masses have identified above.
I had to fix it, and there was only one way to do so: I simply had to create my own list.
Enjoy!
An elderly woman befriends an octopus, who in turn helps her solve the mystery of her son's disappearance.
What happens when 4 septuagenarians entertain a hobby of solving cold cases, only to have a body turn up at their retirement home?
It's a love story and a legal thriller, but its authors' deft handling of many tough subjects is what elevates this novel even more.
An exploration of relationships and friendships in Henry's most mature offering yet, centered around a week-long vacation in Maine.
A lovely and cheeky queer story, this traces the evolution of a man as he comes to grips with his professional and sexual identity.
A story of a four tight-knit girls at a small college turns dark when it seems they might have been involved with a frat boy's death.
*Released in 2024, but I read an ARC in late 2023, so it's on that list
What happens when a mom can't connect with her child, and she starts to wonder if her child isn’t just different, but maybe inherently bad?
*Please indulge this outlier -- published in 2016, but I read in 2023.
Both entertaining and helpful, Duckworth systematically lays out a plethora of evidence for why passion + perseverance = success.
Meet protagonist Marian Graves, a woman in determined to fly planes in the early 1900s at a time when women, quite simply, didn't.
Spanning 30 years of the main characters' lives, it's the story of 3 friends inspired to create something great in the world of gaming.
A woman travels to a luxury hotel with plans to kill herself but instead gets wrapped up in the wedding festivities happening on site.
Another great spy thriller from Hayes after 10 long years. Despite some questionable supernatural plot choices, it's still a winner.
The former drummer for Nirvana and founding member of the Foo Fighters shares stories of his life in rock in this memoir.
*Published in 2021, but I read it in 2024.
When sex workers start to turn up murdered, a Philly cop investigates, hoping to stop the trend before her sister becomes a victim.
A better version of the "city dweller finds love in a small town" trope, while also ranking as the funniest book I read in 2022.
A woman returns to the small town where she grew up, despite being the prime suspect in the 5-year-old murder of her best friend.
A nostalgia-inducing romp through the most impactful songs of the '90s, focusing on their meaning to the decade and to music overall.
Set in 1975, the search for a missing child acts as the foundation for Moore's tactful exploration of societal themes of the time.
A stellar offering from author Harper about a missing woman and a history of complicated relationships among friends in a small town.
Years after her cousin's disappearance, detective Maggie D'Arcy is asked to consult an a case with eerie similarities.
A high school girl is thrust into an FBI investigation to try to uncover a drug ring that is terrorizing Native American tribes
When two young gay men are murdered, their fathers join forces to take solving the murders into their own hands.
An exploration of the immigrant experience through the story of two high school students of Pakistani descent, growing up in rural CA.
A land where one’s blood color determines their race is the setting while a secret sect try to infiltrate to infiltrate the government.
Harrow returns to top form with a genre-blending story of a young woman trying to scrape by in a town haunted by its past and secrets.
A stand-alone novel unrelated to her "Divide" series, author Dewes elegantly explores immortality, AI, and what it means to be human.
The journey of a mother and her son as they flee Acapulco for the United States after becoming targets of the local cartel.
It's a love story and a legal thriller, but its authors' deft handling of many tough subjects is what elevates this novel even more.
An old friend desperately needs Lillian's help caring for her kids. There's one catch, though: when the kids get upset, they catch fire
Perhaps the most-hyped book of 2023 lives up to it, as we follow the journey of a young girl as she attempts to become a dragon rider.
Yarros gives us a rarity -- a sequel to a force-of-nature debut that's just as good as the original, and in some ways possibly better.
One other outlier...so what if it came out in 2009? Don't care. I read it in 2024, and it's one of the best autobiographies I've come across in a long time.
A truly excellent start to a trilogy about an orphan who infiltrates an Academy for societal elites in order to uncover a conspiracy.
Skillful dialogue and prose adorn this debut that combines a love story with the search for a mysterious gangster in 1920s Chicago.
Part Seabiscuit, part palace politics, part commentary on societal boundaries and castes -- this novel was great on multiple levels.
When author Christie Tate hits rock bottom, she decides to try a radical form of group therapy, where everything is NOT confidential.
I'm cheating a bit on this one by selecting a 3-book series for one slot, but they're all equally great and all released within the last five years. An action-packed space opera that's great for fans of The Expanse.
It was not the novel I liked the most -- it was slow at times, and seemed to drag on forever -- but it was the novel for which I have the most respect in 2023.
A masterful book, Lehane's best since Mystic River, set against the racial tensions of Boston school busing during the summer of '74.
The reunion of 2 siblings around a mysterious house is the backdrop for this lyrical beauty of a novel, my favorite of 2022.
A beautifully written (despite its lack of quotation marks) character study of a cast of memorable souls that spans 30 years from the end of World War II until the mid-70s.
An ode to Charles Dickens in the form of a modern retelling of David Copperfield, set in Appalachian Virginia over the last 30+ years.
More than a retelling of "Huck Finn" from the point of view of Jim, this is a brilliant treatise on race and slavery in 1860s America.
Whitaker delivers another masterpiece of character development while tackling several tough topics -- a challenging but uplifting read.
Set in a near-future society that feels all too possible, prisoners fight in gladiatorial death matches for a chance at freedom.
Another tightly crafted Southern Noir novel from Cosby packed with social commentary and memorable characters. Possibly his best yet.
Set in 1999, a coming-of-age story about a high schooler who finds himself embroiled in a supernatural missing persons investigation.
A scientist trapped alone in space trying to survive. What worked for Weir with The Martian does again and this time might be even better.
A “one last job” crime caper that ends up with a lot more depth and character development than expected. It's outstanding.
A thought-provoking and heartbreaking coming of age story, mixed with a small town mystery. My clear favorite of 2021 by a wide margin.
One email on the first of every month with a summary and rating of each book reviewed over the past 30 days, and a look at where the year's ranking stands.