Good Morning America closed out 2024 with a segment featuring the show’s favorite books of 2024.
ABC reporter Will Ganss unveiled the show’s picks for books in different categories. For “Timeless Tale Transformed,” the selection was Percival Everett’s James, the author’s retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which won the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award.
“It’s got short chapters, so you’ll plow through it,” Ganss said. “It moves really, really quickly. For me, I just loved revisiting this story that I was introduced to as an adolescent.…It is just a joy to read.”
In the category “Out for a Thrill,” the pick was Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, which Ganss called “so much fun to read. I thought I was going to love it just as a suspense thriller; I wound up loving it for so much more.”
The selection for “Sealed With a Kiss” was Abby Jimenez’s Just for the Summer, and the “Fiction for the Fearless” selection was Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s Where Sleeping Girls Lie, which Ganss said was the show’s pick for the young adult book of the year.
The last selection, in the “Rooted in Reality” category, was Kristin Hannah’s The Women. “It’s really great; it’s heavy, so don’t think that you’re just going to be able to read it and then go to a New Year’s Eve party and feel totally fabulous,” Ganss said. “This one’s going to stay with you, OK?”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
