Top 10 best books of 2024 released in Canada

As the cozy season approaches in Canada, it’s a great time to curl up with a good book.

The annual Best Books of the Year list from Indigo has landed for 2024.

Indigo looks at favourite reads from hundreds of employees and customers through the course of the year, said Brandon Forsyth, a buyer at Indigo.

After narrowing down the list, a committee of book lovers read the entire shortlist and “vigorously debate” the books over one week.

“The list is definitely a labour of love and something Indigo holds near and dear to its heart,” said Forsyth.

This year, the top 10 books include Northern Ontario, Indigenous-Canadian author Tanya Talaga’s novel The Knowing.

Here are the top 10 books of 2024:

Here One Moment: A Novel, By Liane Moriarty

From the beloved author of Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall, and The Husband’s Secret comes a moving novel of love, marriage, family, and trying to find certainty in a fragile world.

The story follows a group of people flying on a plane from Hobart to Sydney. A “psychic” announces, in middle of the flight, how and when everyone on board will die.

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most?

Intermezzo: A Novel, by Sally Rooney

An exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family, from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney, Intermezzo tells the story of two brothers. Peter, a successful lawyer in his thirties who is juggling relationships with two different women, and his younger brother Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player.

Just for the Summer, by Abby Jimenez

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

The Briar Club: A Novel, by Kate Quinn

Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbours into unlikely friendship.

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, by Yuval Noah Harari

For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?

The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga

In her book, the Anishinaabe author explores the lost parts of her family lineage while presenting Canadian history from a fresh, untold perspective. Talaga draws inspiration from the story of her great-great-grandmother, Annie Carpenter, whose past she uncovered through her late great-uncle.

real ones: A Novel, by Katherena Vermette

Lyn has her pottery artwork, her precocious kid, Willow, and the uncertain terrain of her midlife to keep her mind, heart and hands busy. June, a Métis Studies professor, yearns to uproot from Vancouver and move. With her loving partner, Sigh, and their faithful pup, June decides to buy a house in the last place on earth she imagined she’d end up: back home in Winnipeg with her family.

The Ministry of Time: A Novel, by Kaliane Bradley

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

A Song to Drown Rivers, by Ann Liang

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue — convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighbouring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Lead Photo: Dom J