The best books and music of 2024

It's almost the end of the year. We've picked our favorite books and music of 2024. Here are some of our favorites.

Fiction Books

• The Coin. A stylish Palestinian schoolteacher obsesses over the large inheritance she can’t access. Yasmin Zaher’s anxious protagonist becomes addicted to purging herself of filth as she detaches from reality. Read more.

• Ghostroots. Across the 12 short stories in her debut collection, ’Pemi Aguda asks how we can move forward while being reminded of the past. Read more.

• Fire Exit. After weeks go by with no sightings of his daughter, a man decides to take matters into his own hands, embarking on a quest that forces him to confront his complicated past as well as the life he never got to live. Read more.

Nonfiction Books

• Grief is for People. In 2019, twin crises hit Sloane Crosley back-to-back. On her path to understanding, she looks to philosophy and art to provide her with a language to explore it all. Read more.

• There's Always This Year. Structured like quarters in a basketball game, Hanif Abdurraqib’s newest release centers on his love for the sport and what it means to go home after achieving success. Read more.

• The Barn. In his revelatory book, Wright Thompson digs through the details of a whitewashed history, homing in on the barn where the murder of Emmett Till took place. Read more.

Albums

• Night Reign. Night ripples with possibility and wonder on composer and singer Arooj Aftab’s fourth solo album. Read more.

• BRAT. What if a pop record were constructed like a MySpace page? That’s the simple but genius premise of Charli XCX’s summer release, a kaleidoscopic dance album that revels in the freedoms of living messily. Read more.

• Tigers Blood. After four albums of gauzy indie rock, Alabama-born singer Katie Crutchfield turned to folk and country for her last album. She further refines those heartland sounds on this album, a stunning set of easygoing downhome tunes cataloging the travails and charms of mid-30s living. Read more.

Songs

• “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1).” Masked Haitian American rapper Mach-Hommy makes cosmopolitan hip-hop that rewards close listening. Read more.

• “Dreamstate.” Dancefloor euphoria has a name and a destination on this trance track that surges and ripples like a wave pool. Read more.

• “TGIF.” For Glorilla, being single is a supernatural experience, and spends this song toasting to this enhanced state over seismic bass kicks and a cinematic horn loop. Read more.