Trevor and Paul are back with the fourth annual best of the year extravaganza! In Part I, we count down the first half of our en favorite reads of 2024—and we are once again joined by a cast of friends and listeners who share some of their top books and best reading experiences of the year! Another great chance to grow your TBR pile for 2025!

Shownotes

Books

* The Postcard, by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover

* Gabriëlle, by Anne Berest and Claire Berest, translated by Tina Kover

* Two Hours, by Alba Arikha

* Crooked Seeds, by Karen Jennings

* Fathers and Fugitives, by S.J. Naudé, translated by Michiel Heyns

* Not Even the Dead, by Juan Gómez Bárcena, translated by Katie Whittemore

* Not a River, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott

* The Wind That Lays Waste, by Selva Almada, translated by Chris Andrews

* Dead Girls, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott

* Brickmakers, by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott

* Any Person Is the Only Self, by Elisa Gabbert

* The Unreality of Memory, by Elisa Gabbert

* Ex Libris, by Anne Fadiman

* Rhine Journey, by Anne Schlee

* About Looking, by John Berger

* The Inkal, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius

* Pedro Páramo, by Juan Rulfo, translated by Douglas J. Weatherford

* The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes, by K.C. Constantine

* The Premier, by Georges Simenon

* Two Thousand Million Man-Power, by Gertrude Trevelyan

* Horror Movie, by Paul Tremblay

* A County Doctor, by Franz Kafka

* Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was, by Angélica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin

* Sons, by Robert De Maria

* Brothers, by Robert De Maria

* Fletch, by Gregory McDonald

* Bedlam, by Charlene Elsby

* Quarry, by Max Allan Collins

* A Tiler’s Afternoon, by Lars Gustfsson, translated by Tom Geddes

* One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, translated by

* Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry

* The Carrying, by Ada Limón

* Picnic, Lighting, by Billy Collins

* The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker

* Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limón

* The Hurting King, by Ada Limón

* You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, compiled by Ada Limón

* Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West

* Clear, by Carys Davies

* Malena, by Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Philip Boehm

* It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, by Anne de Marcken

* Last Words from Montmartre, by Qin Miaojin, translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich

* The Preparation of the Novel, by Roland Barthes, translated by Kate Briggs

* Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917 - 1922, by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated by Jamey Gambrell

* The Power of Gentleness: Meditation on the Risk of Living, by Anne Dufourmantelle, translated by Katherine Payne and Vincent Sallé

* Matrescence: On Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood, by Lucy Jones

* Question 7, by Richard Flanagan

* The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan

* Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, by Laura Cumming

* H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

* The Goshawk, by T.H. White

* The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller’s Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece, by Laura Cumming

* The Ice Palace, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Elizabeth Rokkan

* The Birds, by Tarjei Vesaas, translated by Michael Barnes and Torbjørn Støverud

* James, by Percival Everett

* The Trees, by Percival Everett

The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a book chat podcast. Every other week Paul and Trevor get together to talk about some bookish topic or another. We hope you’ll continue to join us!

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