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We’re now into the final month of 2024, and what an eventful year it has been.
The year has seen the US presidential elections, Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine and attacks on Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, a continued growth of AI algorithms, a very Brat summer, and a tumulous public feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
With so much drastic change taking place around the planet in the world of politics and culture at a disarming pace, it is through books that we can begin to try and make sense of it all – and if not, we can, through literature, at least find solace and an avenue for self-reflection and growth amid the trials and tribulations of navigating today’s world.
We’ve come up with a varied list of 5 brilliant books that you should be reading right now. A list of captivating novels and non-fiction books from around the world that provide you with the analysis to understand the world around you. To offer you the room to reflect on and better understand what makes you you and us us. Or simply help you get lost in a fascinating world with memorable characters.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a monumental name in journalism and storytelling. Earlier this year, the author of the celebrated Between the World and Me published The Message, his first book in 5 years – a deeply personal book about politics, history, identity, oppression, and writing, and how they come together to shape the world around us.
In The Message, Coates recalls experiences from his recent travels to Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine, contextualising his observations and experiences with political and personal history to create a magnanimous work about what it means to write – how it is through the power of words and writing that we can understand the nuances of human experiences and the intersectional struggles of marginalised people everywhere.
Coates’ observations, the quality of his writing, and the rigour of the research he puts into everything he writes about define The Message. His observations of life in occupied Palestine, to which he dedicates the largest section of his book, are particularly powerful. “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes.
The Message is a poignant, thought-provoking, and unquestionably relevant book that digs into the power of language and literature. Through unflinchingly raw personal experiences and recollections, as well as some meticulous research, Coates’ latest book is a forceful account of what it means to be.
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney is one of the best-regarded novelists to have debuted in the last decade. In September this year, six years after the celebrated Normal People, which has since been adapted into an equally-beloved TV series, and three years after her third novel Beautiful World, Where Are You hit the shelves, Rooney released her fourth novel, Intermezzo, which is every bit as good, captivating and nuanced as her previous three.
Intermezzo is about two brothers and how they navigate through their complicated relationships and grief. Riddled with the sharp observations that have defined Rooney’s writing, the novel wistfully captures the essence of living in 2024 and the struggles that come with it. She writes about relationships, depression, as well as the invisible bonds that hold families together even as they drift apart.
Rooney is able to capture the essence of the – often indescribable – feeling of existing like very few others can. In Intermezzo, there aren’t good or bad characters. There are people. People with flaws and shortcomings that stem from their own insecurities and traumas that manifest in different ways. This is at the core of Intermezzo, which is engrossing, accessible, and offers an excellent gateway to Rooney’s writing for those who haven’t yet picked up any of her books.
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
What if you had a doppelganger? What if that doppelganger stood for the exact opposite of everything you believed in? What if that doppelganger was famous? What if people started mistaking you for that doppelganger?
For author, activist and journalist Naomi Klein, these questions are not theoretical but ones she has had to contend with every day for years, for she has a doppelganger – one who has the same name and even looks like Klein but has a very different view on virtually everything.
In Doppelganger, Klein reflects on contending with people mistaking her for feminist-activist turned conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf. Klein digs into personal experience and why people mistake her for Wolf, making their differences the crux of an analysis of the deep political polarisation of today’s world.
Doppelganger is a uniquely powerful book. Not only is Klein’s experience with her doppelganger uniquely interesting to read, but the commentary on right-wing politics and how it ferments in people through messaging and community is seriously informative, thought-provoking, and helps us make sense of a lot of the political realities that feel impossible to wrap our heads around.
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
With Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza continuing for well over a year, and with prominent Palestinian voices facing erasure and censorship, it is more important than ever to engage with Palestinian art and literature.
Susan Abulhawa is one of Palestine’s best-regarded authors, and her debut novel Mornings in Jenin published all the way back in 2006, is an excellent book to revisit or pick up for the first time, for it is more relevant now than even when it was released 18 years ago.
Mornings in Jenin is about Palestinian existence. It is about the millions of people living under occupation in the West Bank, in Gaza and in the Diaspora. It is about perseverance and struggle. It is about the indomitability of persistence – of resistance.
Abulhawa’s debut novel is also a reminder that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine has been going on for close to a century and that it did not start last year. It is a fantastic, impassioned story penned by one of Palestine’s best writers.
Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir by Daniel Ray
A pioneer of contemporary New York fashion, Daniel Day, more commonly known as Dapper Dan, is credited with introducing high fashion to hip-hop culture and stands as one of the most distinguished and well-regarded names in contemporary American fashion.
But before establishing his now-legendary boutique on 125th Street in Harlem, New York City, dressing the likes of Beyoncé and Jay Z, and being included in Time Magazine’s Most Influential People list of 2020, Dapper Dan was born in Harlem in poverty, a decade after the Harlem Renaissance – the cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature and politics – of the 20s and 30s, smack dab in the middle of World War Two.
In his memoir, the pioneering fashion designer reflects on his experiences living in destitution in New York City. He recalls hustling to survive, falling on the wrong side of the law, and finding nourishment in books when he left the streets after he listened to and was inspired by a Malcolm X speech – and the forthcoming journey that ultimately led him to become the trailblazing fashion designer he stands as today.
Dapper Dan’s New York Times best-selling memoir is poignant, inspiring, and unapologetic. With a sharp eye for culture, politics, identity, and fashion, Dan seamlessly weaves his personal journey with the rich, collective history of Black Harlem in the 20th century to create a captivating book brimming with style and substance.
Words: Hamza Shehryar
