Beth Babcock of Nonesuch Books in South Portland with her favorite book of 2024, “The Moorings of Mackerel Sky” by MZ. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Read any good books lately?

That question will likely get some pretty interesting answers when asked of someone who reads – or writes – books for a living. So to compile a year-end best books list, we asked a dozen Maine authors, booksellers and librarians to name the best book they read in 2024, and explain why. It didn’t have to be a new book, just something they read this year that impressed or awed them. And something they’d like to share with others.

Here then is our list of the books, who picked them and why, in their own words:

‘Wolf at the Table’ by Adam Rapp (2024) — Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, longtime Boothbay Harbor resident

Rapp is a strikingly bold writer of sentences — very refreshing at a time of writerly fidgeting and tweezing in an effort to offend no one (and thus make no difference). Rapp stands right up to large  subjects — here, an engrossing, multigenerational middle-America saga, at the sinister heart of which lurks weird old John Wayne Gacy, the Chicago serial killer who posed as a clown to entice his victims. Rapp is a celebrated playwright and consequently good at showing things as well as telling them. And his gift for portraying a large cast of highly individuated and memorable characters is exceptional. Rapp is from Illinois and comes by his Americana natively and with alluring confidence. Plus, he owns a starkly keen eye for the genuinely creepy — something I envy, and which in its seriousness reminds me of Flannery O’Connor.

‘The Moorings of Mackerel Sky’ by MZ (2024) — Beth Babcock, owner of Nonesuch Books & More, South Portland

The debut novel by local author MZ (Emily Zack) is set in a small, coastal town in Maine and follows the lives of several residents. There is loss, there are struggles with substance abuse, there are difficult family relationships but there are also mermaids and hope and joy. I have not read a book like this before. The characters are complex and engaging; the story is compelling. To read it is to let go and immerse yourself in the world the author creates. And her ending is fitting and true and made me so happy.

‘The Hunter’ by Tana French (2024) — Stephen King, bestselling author, longtime Bangor resident

I read a lot of good books this year, but the one that comes naturally to mind is “The Hunter,” by Tana French. She writes gorgeous descriptions of the Irish countryside, and the town reminded me of my own little town (Durham) when I was growing up. She’s great on how country people keep secrets from outsiders, and the climax is — quite literally — fiery.

‘Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood’ by Ed Zwick (2024) — Tess Gerritsen, bestselling author, Camden

As a lifelong movie lover, I’ve always been curious about “how the sausage is made” behind the camera. Veteran director Ed Zwick (“The Last Samurai,” “Glory”) holds nothing back in his memoir, spilling secrets about the personalities, the heartbreak, the prodigious talent, and the grindingly hard work that go into making a great movie.

‘The Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley (2024) — Martha Waters, author of the ‘Regency Vows’ novels, Portland

If you’d told me in advance that my favorite book of the year would involve the 19th century Arctic explorer Graham Gore (a real historical figure) time-traveling to near-future London as part of a secret government program, I would have been skeptical. But this book is so genuinely delightful that I’m almost at a loss for words. Describing a plot that merges time travel, commentary on the legacy of colonialism, and a love story in any sort of coherent way is difficult, so I’ll just say: this book manages to simultaneously be incredibly clever, very funny, and surprisingly emotional, with a convincing romance at its heart. It’s the sort of weird, smart genre mashup that I love the most, and I’m looking forward to re-reading it for years to come.

‘A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon’ by Kevin Fedarko (2024) — Elisabeth Doucett, executive director of Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick

Fedarko is an author and journalist who focuses on the American Southwest and frequently works with photographer Pete McBride to develop stories. The two plan to chronicle a thru-hike of the canyon, a thru-hike being a long-distance, one-way trip, from the beginning to the end of a trail. But this story goes beyond a simple adventure. Fedarko shares the awe-inspiring beauty and isolation of a world that very few see. He acknowledges and grows in his own understanding of the role of the Indigenous people that have lived in the Canyon forever and how it is part of their sacred life. He has a keen self-awareness of his own failings combined with a wry sense of humor that draws you in and keeps the story entertaining.

‘Sipsworth’ by Simon Van Booy (2024) — Monica Wood, author of ‘How to Read a Book’ and ‘When We Were the Kennedys,’ Portland

In this gentle, profound, beautifully written novel, an elderly woman moves back to the small English town of her childhood and waits to die. When a mouse shows up one night, her life begins to expand, first owing to her care of this wee creature, and then to the humans she enlists to help. It sounds treacly, but it’s anything but. Van Booy addresses the bravery of aging, the human need for fellow creatures (of all sorts), and the quality of memory.

Portland author Monica Wood, seen here at a reading at Falmouth Memorial Library in September, picked “Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy as the best book she read this year. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

‘Miss MacDonald Has a Farm’ by Kalee Gwarjanski (2024) — Andrea Kazilionis, head of youth services, Gray Public Library

The book is a reimagining of a classic nursery rhyme, emphasizing the importance of farms and local food. An added bonus is that the author is a Maine resident and hosted her book launch at Gray Public Library. We have multiple copies of the book that are always checked out because kids and their grown-ups simply love it.

‘James’ by Percival Everett (2024) — Phillip Hoose, author, winner of the National Book Award for ‘Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,’ Portland

It is an upside-down version of Huckleberry Finn, told by Jim, the slave. Jim runs away when he finds out that he is about to be sold and wrenched apart from his wife and daughter. He is joined by 10-year-old Huckleberry Finn. In Jim, Everett has found the perfect character to decry the evil of slavery. He doesn’t waste the chance. Page by page, he throws in the reader’s face the guilt and shame and crime of slavery, and the resilience of the slave, who was always on tenterhooks. Being caught with a book, or even a pencil, brought the lash. With wit and wisdom, through unforgettable scenes, Everett challenges us: How could we have done this? How could we have caused such suffering? Everett’s writing is fresh and laced with humor. “James” is a mighty weapon against those who would scrub slavery from our history books.

‘The Midnight Feast’ by Lucy Foley (2024) — Nicole Clark, adult services supervisor at McArthur Public Library, Biddeford

It follows the perspectives of four characters surrounding the opening weekend of an exclusive seaside resort in the U.K called “The Manor”: its founder, its architect, a kitchen staff member, and a mysterious guest who arrives with a mission to expose dark secrets that have been buried in the Manor’s surrounding forests for years. Adding to the intrigue is that from the outset, readers know that a body will be found at the end of the weekend’s festivities…but whose body it is must be deduced and revealed as the pages turn. The novel’s many layers, folk horror elements, and unreliable narrators come together masterfully to craft a story that feels impossible to put down, even when it takes unsettling turns. It is a must-read for fans of murder mysteries, gothic symbolism, and oh-so-satisfying revenge.

‘Orbital’ by Samantha Harvey (2023) — Lily King, award-winning novelist, Portland

In this slim, stunning novel we are put on a space station for a day with six astronauts, 250 miles up. These women and men from five different countries eat, float, exercise, and run experiments in labs, our planet always out the window. They circle the earth 16 times a day, 16 dawns and 16 dusks, the earth a “glassy, distant orb with its beautiful lonely light shows.” They never lose their awe. There are no aliens or malfunctions, no psychotic killer among them. In fact, instead of conflict the astronauts occasionally feel a sense of merging. The tension here is the beauty, the preciousness, the utter miraculousness of our planet from this distance, and our own inability to feel this miracle, to treasure it, to preserve it. The experience of reading “Orbital” was physical, forceful. I’ve never actually felt transported like that before. I will never forget the feeling.

‘Nuclear War’ by Annie Jacobsen (2024) — Josh Christie, co-owner of Print: A Bookstore, in Portland

A marriage of fascinating nonfiction and gripping fiction, Jacobsen imagines on a second-by-second basis what a nuclear exchange would look like. On every step of the way, she backs up her narrative with the history, strategic plans, and intelligence from half a century spent on the nuclear brink. Deeply researched, with dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts, the book left me with a much deeper understanding of just how real — and how close — mutually assured destruction could be. It’s among the most terrifying books I’ve ever read, but also deeply compelling and impossible to put down.