WGN’s Sara Tieman lists her favorite books of 2024

Sara Tieman is not only an ace Promotions & PR Manager for WGN Radio, but she is also a voracious reader (and world traveler!) who has once again read nearly 100 books this year! She joins John Williams to discuss some of the best books she read in 2024. You can check out her entire list below. John Williams also provides a list of the books that he really enjoyed this year. Need a last-minute stocking stuffer? Look no further!

Sara’s Top Picks:
Sipsworth (2024) – Simon Van Booy
There are Rivers in the Sky (2024) – Elif Shafak
James (2024) – Percival Everett
The Women (2024) – Kristin Hannah
Demon Copperhead (2022) – Barbara Kingsolver
Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space (2024) – Adam Higginbotham
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) – Hampton Sides
The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning (2024) – A.J. Jacobs
All the Colors of the Dark (2024) – Chris Whitaker

Sara’s Full 2024 Reading List (as of 12/20/2024):
Of the 88 books, 49 are fiction and 39 are nonfiction (11 were audiobooks)

1. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store – James McBride
2. The Postcard – Anne Berest
3. Unbound – Tarana Burke
4. Accidentally Engaged – Farah Heron
5. Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru – Hugh Bonneville
6. Thicker than Water: A Memoir – Kerry Washington
7. Reykjavik: A Crime Story – Ragnar Jónasson & Katrín Jakobsdóttir
8. Can’t we talk about something more pleasant?: A Memoir – Roz Chast
9. Code Name Sapphire – Pam Jenoff
10. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times – Katherine May
11. Tom Lake – Ann Patchett
12. The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill – Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
13. The Fury – Alex Michaelides
14. Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame – Olivia Ford
15. When You Trap a Tiger – Tae Keller
16. Stash: My Life in Hiding – Laura Cathcart Robbins
17. Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out – Shannon Reed
18. The Faraway World – Patricia Engel
19. Girl Abroad – Ellen Kennedy
20. What the River Knows – Isabel Ibañez
21. The End of the World is a Cul de Sac – Louise Kennedy
22. Seven Days in June – Tia Williams
23. The Women – Kristin Hannah
24. Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
25. Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad
26. How to Solve Your Own Murder – Kristen Perrin
27. H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z – Elizabeth Kolbert
28. Size Zero: How I Survived My Life as a Model – Victoire Dauxerre
29. The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir – RuPaul
30. The Great Divide – Christina Henríquez
31. Blackmail and Bibingka – Mia P. Manansala
32. Wake Up with Purpose!: What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years – Sister Jean with Seth Davis
33. Hunger Winter: A WWII Novel – Rob Currie
34. Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space – Adam Higginbotham
35. The Cemetery of Untold Stories – Julia Alvarez
36. Sipsworth – Simon Van Booy
37. Rabbit Heart: A Mother’s Murder, A Daughter’s Story – Kristine S. Ervin
38. Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson
39. The Years of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning – A.J. Jacobs
40. Sociopath: A Memoir – Patric Gagne, PhD
41. Table for Two – Amor Towles
42. Funny Story – Emily Henry
43. Unbecoming a Lady: The Forgotten Sluts and Shrews who Shaped America – Theres ONeil
44. What the Constitution Means to Me – Heidi Schreck
45. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder – Salman Rushdie
46. This Summer Will Be Different – Carley Fortune
47. My Side of the River: A Memoir – Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
48. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books – Kirsten Miller
49. The Midnight Feast – Lucy Foley
50. James – Percival Everett
51. I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir – Esther Safran Foer
52. The In Crowd – Charlotte Vassell
53. A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home – Frances Mayes
54. The German Wife – Kelly Rimmer
55. Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britan – Amy Jeffs
56. If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska – Heather Lende
57. Eruption – Michael Crichton & James Patterson
58. This Book Won’t Burn – Samira Ahmed
59. The God of the Woods – Liz Moore
60. The Lion Women of Tehran – Marjan Kamali
61. All the Colors of the Dark – Chris Whitaker
62. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood – Marjane Satrapi
63. Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever – Gavin Edwards
64. The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd – Daphne Geanacopoulos
65. We Solve Murders – Richard Osman
66. Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond – Henry Winkler
67. something lost, something gained – reflections on life, love, and liberty – Hillary Rodham Clinton
68. The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie – Rachel Linden
69. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Memoir – Griffin Dunne
70. The Chai Factor – Farah Heron
71. A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall – Jasmine Warga
72. There Are Rivers in the Sky – Elif Shafak
73. The Other Side of Disappearing – Kate Clayborn
74. Book Lovers – Emily Henry
75. The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House – Nancy Pelosi
76. Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thrope
77. Slow Dance – Rainbow Rowell
78. Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm – Isabella Tree
79. One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls – Kate Kennedy
80. Blue Sisters – Coco Mellors
81. Sipsworth – Simon Van Booy
82. One Day in December – Josie Silver
83. Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus – Sandi Toksvig
84. The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook – Hampton Sides (70 pages to the end!)
85. Trash Talk: An Eye-Opening Exploration of Our Planet’s Dirtiest Problem – Iris Gottlieb (currently reading)
86. The Writing Life – Annie Dillard (currently reading)
87. Mr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel – Samantha Silva (currently reading)
88. The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science – Dava Sobel (up next)