37 Books from my 2023 Reads for Your 2024 List

As I have done for a number of years now (here’s last year’s edition), I am making suggestions for your 2024 to-read list based on my favorites of 2023. Let’s get started.

History and Politics (13)

There was a lot of important travel for me this year, particularly to troubled areas, like Nicosia and Jerusalem but also to areas that had seen violence in recent times, like Sarajevo and Belgrade. I also had a chance to see magnificent places, informed by literature I had read ahead of time, particularly Iceland and the expanses of Wadi Rum in Jordan.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ilan Pappe (Youtube Review) (Goodreads) (Bookshop) (Amazon)

The first book in this list definitely changed the trajectory of my Youtube book review channel, but was also so helpful for me to read as I spoke with Israelis and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, in Israel, in the Old City of Jerusalem and East Jerusalem, and near the border of Gaza at the Erez Crossing and Sderot. Many who didn’t like what was said chose to shoot the messenger and call him into question, but the major facts of the book are not disputed by serious people. Even the historian Benny Morris, who so many people called up to “refute” Pappe, gives a range of 600,000–760,000 Palestinians who were driven from the…