Year-End Lists

Tim Riley: Favorite Books of 2024

Criticism

• And the Roots of Rhythm Remain

  A Journey Through Global Music
  Joe Boyd
• Cinema Speculation
  Quentin Tarantino
• Hip-Hop Is History
  Questlove
• Lou Reed

  The King of New York
  Will Hermes
• Major Labels

  A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres
  Kelefa Sanneh
• A Little Devil in America

  Notes in Praise of Black Performance
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• Picasso's War

  How Modern Art Came to America
  Hugh Eakin

Nonfiction

• War and Punishment

  Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
  Mikhail Zygar
• You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live

  Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America
  Paul Kix
• How the World Made the West

  A 4,000-Year History
  Josephine Quinn
• Read Until You Understand

  The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
  Farah Jasmine Griffin
• The Washington Book

  How to Read Politics and Politicians
  Carlos Lozada
• The Last Ships from Hamburg

  Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia's Jews on the Eve of World War I
  Steven Ujifusa
• James
  Percival Everett
• Our Moon

  How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are
  Rebecca Boyle
• The Picnic

  A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain
  Matthew Longo
• Against All Odds

  A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II
  Alex Kershaw
• Constructing a Nervous System

  A Memoir
  Margo Jefferson
• The Color of Law

  A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
  Richard Rothstein
• Palo Alto

  A History of California, Capitalism, and the World
  Malcolm Harris
• On Freedom

  Four Songs of Care and Constraint
  Maggie Nelson
• The Only Language They Understand (2017)

  Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine
  Nathan Thrall
• Extremely Online

  The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet
  Taylor Lorenz
• South to America

  A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
  Imani Perry
• King

  A Life
  Jonathan Eig