Each year, BookBrowse subscribers vote on the books that will make up the annual Top 20. Our 2024 list features an eclectic mix of writing and genres, covering books we’ve included in our twice-monthly e-zine as well as write-in nominations. Now, we're excited to bring you the awards for the highest-rated titles across four categories: Top Fiction, Top Nonfiction, Top Debut, and Top Young Adult.
Reading books is a fulfilling, engaging pastime. Reading what other people have to say about books is just plain fun, and an enticing way to find your latest great read. BookBrowse's First Impressions program brings honest, informative reader reviews to discerning book lovers. By only accepting reviews from members, who receive books months ahead of publication, we ensure that the ratings and opinions given are free from outside influence and reflect the personal perspectives of readers.
In 2024, our First Impressions readers reviewed more than 30 books. From those, we’ve chosen the most well reviewed selections to feature below. We hope you enjoy exploring these titles, plus the hundreds in our archives, and we look forward to bringing you more reader-reviewed books in 2025!
As we review new titles at BookBrowse throughout the year, we also strive to bring you intriguing interviews with our featured authors. Author interviews can provide glimpses of the visions behind books we love, make us excited about reading books, and serve as enjoyable reading experiences in themselves, especially when they unfold as in-depth conversations between interviewers and writers. Below, we highlight just a few of our favorite Q&As with authors whose books we covered in 2024.
It's never too early to start getting excited about next year's books. So why not plan your reading alongside our most anticipated books for 2025? Our selections range from work by famous and beloved authors to promising debuts, and can give you a sneak peek of titles we may cover at BookBrowse — including some appearing in our First Impressions program or book club. We hope you discover future favorites on this list and join us next year as we continue to bring you the best new books. If you haven’t already, be sure to also check out our Best Books for Book Clubs in 2025, and if you'd like to see all of our 2025 books we've shortlisted so far, you can do so here.
How are your book club picks looking for 2025? To help book clubs choose their reads for next year, we've compiled a big list of favorites that we think would make great discussion selections. Almost all these books are paired with reading guides and have been featured (or will be featured) on BookBrowse, and all are either recent or upcoming hardcover or paperback releases. Some are even tried-and-tested titles from our own online book club, and we've included the discussion links below for inspiration. If you'd like to see even more titles publishing in 2025, you can check out our Most Anticipated Books for 2025. Happy reading!
Please note that discussions may contain spoilers.
What makes a good book review? With the growth of reader reviews like those on Amazon or Goodreads alongside dedicated book review sites (like BookBrowse), there are more book reviewers and would-be book reviewers than ever. Maybe you're one of them, contributing your opinions on your own blog, on a consensus site, or to a publication. Maybe you want to support the reading community, enjoy reviewing books in exchange for receiving them gratis, or have aspirations to review professionally. Or maybe, as an invested reader of books and book reviews, you just like thinking about aspects of criticism and analysis. No matter your level of interest in reviews or the reasons behind it, you may find it enriching to consider good examples of book reviews written by others. With this in mind, we've put together some excerpts from our own reviewers' work that demonstrate what certain worthwhile elements of a review can look like. We hope you find them helpful.