Favorite Books I've Read in 2024 So Far

All of them felt like a hug to me, so I’m passing the hug along to you!

I wish I could wrap every single one of you up in a hug today, if you like to be hugged. Maybe a high five if you don’t? Maybe a nose boop from Socks? It has been such a lucky and exciting few weeks for me and I just want to splash my joy and comfort in your direction. Instead I’ll give you the next best thing: book recommendations! These are my favorite books I’ve read this year so far! All of them felt like a hug to me, so I’m passing it along. And yes, I spent waaaay too much time messing around in Google’s Emoji Kitchen making these graphics.

Also! Don’t forget! Now through the end of March, you can get a Beth March or Socks sticker by either signing up for a paid subscription to this newsletter, or already being a paid member and simply recommending it to a friend!

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Lady Eve’s Last Con

by Rebecca Fraimow

Rebecca Fraimow’s queer space opera doesn’t hit shelves until June, but I’ve already read it twice. It’s a top ten all-time book for me, if I’m being perfectly honest. The prose is so snappy and fresh, the two queer main characters are unlike any I’ve ever read (so testy and untrustworthy and lovable and relatable), the romance and both the games they’re running are breathtaking, and I seriously did not know what was going to happen until the last five pages.

Dear Black Girls

by A’ja Wilson

A’ja Wilson is a living athletic legend — just the fact that I can say “A’ja Wilson” and everyone reading this knows who she is, even if you don’t watch the WNBA — and Dear Black Girls has made her a New York Times bestseller, too. Her book jumped off from the essay she wrote in The Players’ Tribune in 2020, so you can read that first, if you haven’t already, which will immediately convince you to buy this book/send it to everyone you love. It is pure tenacity and charisma and hope.

A Restless Truth

by Freya Marske

You wanna know how much I loved this book? It’s the middle book in a trilogy and I read the other two — which are all men, men, men, men, men — just so I could fully enjoy this one. And boy, I sure did. A murder mystery on a big ship being solved by a couple of witchy sapphics in corsets who can’t keep their eyes/hands off each other. What more could you want in a story?

Here We Go Again

by Alison Cochrun

Logan and Rosemary and Joe's story is laugh out loud funny, and so swoony too. Yes, absolutely, a friends to enemies to lovers road trip. But it's also a mediation on grief, on neurodivergence, on trauma, on loving and allowing yourself to be loved. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll feel so good about being gay.

This Poison Heart

by Kalynn Bayron

This duology is just about the gayest thing I’ve ever read in my life. Like, there’s a solid half-dozen characters in This Poison Heart, and basically everyone’s queer by the time we get to This Wicked Fate. The best queer relationship in book one is between Briseis’ moms. They are the most wonderful parents in the whole entire world and they remind me so much of Uncle Bertie and Aunt Gracie from A League of Their Own, not just because of how deeply and protectively they love Briseis, but also because of how much they love each other, and how lifetime-happy they are together.

This Wicked Fate

by Kalynn Bayron

And then! This Wicked Fate rolls around and Briseis gets her own queer love story and it’s perfect too! Sweet and empowering and terrifying and wonderful. Both a little scared, neither one prepared, etc. These are YA books so they’re lighter on the spice than some of the others on this list, but that doesn’t take anything at all away from the romances. Plus there’s queer family love, queer friend love, and

Valerie Anne

-approved #Horny4Mermaids shenanigans.

At Her Service

by Amy Spalding

I love sweet love. Partnership love. And I love when two people in a relationship are full and whole people all by themselves. Throw in queer community and a protagonist seeing herself the way other people see her for the first time (in the best possible way) and you’ve got a book to hold your hand every single time you think everyone else has it together, except for you. It’s never true. You’re doing so great. If you think you’re not, read this, okay? And stop putting so much pressure on yourself!

Wish You Weren't Here

by Erin Baldwin

I have never read a book that captures the experience of summer camp, the relationship dynamics of summer camp, and the returning camper psyche/vibes like Erin Baldwin’s Wish You Weren’t Here. And with theater kid energy on top of it? This one’s for the misfits, baby! This is the only other book on this list that’s not out yet. It hits stores and libraries in June, and I promise you’re gonna want to go ahead and preorder it/get on that wait list. Whether you’ve been a camper, a counselor, a thespian, or an awkward teen, Fogridge Sleepaway Camp is for you.

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend

by Emma R. Alban

What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said? It’s a sapphic rom-com that’s finally worthy of the Jane Austen comparison. It’s as dramatic as Emily Dickinson on her gayest days. And it’s got a tomboy I relate to all the way down into my sports-loving guts. Oooh and the angst. It hurts so good.