The Penguin Podcast: Episode 12 – The best books of the year

We round-up a year of reading with recommendations from Penguin colleagues of their favourite books of the year and a look at what they are most excited for you to read in 2025.

Click the button below to listen or continue scrolling to explore all of the books mentioned in this episode.

Click here to read the transcript of this episode

Episode 12: Transcript

Rhianna Dhillon:

Hello, I'm Rihanna Dhillon and welcome to the Penguin Podcast. The end of the year is fast approaching and I dunno about you, but it always feels like the new year sneaks up on me across the series, we have had a wonderful time meeting all sorts of authors and penguin colleagues and answering many, many, many Ask Penguin requests and I really hope that you found at least some of our suggestions useful. But before I hang up my headphones for 2024, it feels like the perfect opportunity to look back at some of the literary highlights from the last 12 months here at Penguin. I took a little wonder around the Penguin office to check in with teams across the whole of Penguin and hear about their standout book from 2024.

Joel Richardson:

I am Joel Richardson and I'm the publisher on the Crime and Thriller list at Penguin Michael Joseph.

Rhianna Dhillon:

So do you have a crime book that has been a real standout for you in 2024?

Joel Richardson:

There's a book that I absolutely love, it's just published called Ink Ribbon Read by Alex Pevee, who wrote a brilliant book a couple of years ago called Eight Detectives. It's a hard one to describe because it is so clever and original. Alex is a total genius and he set a goal for himself with this book to write the most original crime novel that he could imagine. So it starts off in a really classic way. It's a group of six friends. They've gone away for a weekend and on a wet afternoon they start playing a game and they start writing these stories and where one of them is a killer, one of them is going to be the victim, but as they start telling the stories, obviously they start finding out one another's secrets. The things that happening in the fictional stories start to play out in the real world, and we know from the beginning that at the end of this weekend, there's going to be a real life murder.

Steph:

My name's Steph. I am campaigns director in e Breeze's food team. My standout book of 2024 is probably Board of Lunch Healthy Even Easier. I've loved working on that with Nathan Anthony, the author, slow Cooking has changed my life, so it's so exciting to see it change so many others lives. Hello, I'm Kate mha, editorial director at Delray.

Rhianna Dhillon:

Exciting. What does that mean?

Steph:

That means that I work across our fantasy and science fiction list, which is absolutely brilliant.

Rhianna Dhillon:

Do you have a fantasy or science fiction standout from 2024.

Steph:

I'm going to have to say Blood Over BrightHaven by ML Wang, which is a absolutely incredible dark academia with just such a gut punch. I don't think I've ever read anything that's affected me quite that much, so recommended.

James Pulford:

Hi, I'm James Pulford. I am editorial director on the Hutchinson Heinemann List and I edit and publish books across nonfiction. My standout book for 2024 is a book called Another England by Caroline Lucas, who was an MP for the Green Party. And what I really loved about this book is she kind of reclaims English national identity from the right and reimagines it in a much more kind of accessible and progressive inclusive way.

Joelle Owusu:

Hi there. I'm Joella Osira and I'm editorial director at Murky Books. And what has been your favourite book of 2024? Oh, that's so hard. There've been so many, especially so many published by Penguin, but I do have to say my standout is Think again by Jacqueline Olsen, so that's her first adult novel and it's based on the Girls Out Late and Girls in Love series and I absolutely adored

Rhianna Dhillon:

It. Was it everything that you wanted it to be?

Joelle Owusu:

Yeah, absolutely. I didn't expect it to be so kind of r and raunchy at Sometimes you don't expect that from a children's author, but I'm so glad she leaned into the characters now being their forties and experiencing those kinds of things, so I'm glad that she kept that in the book. Yeah.

Amy:

I'm Amy Batley and I am a senior commissioning editor in the fiction team at Hutchinson Heinemann, part of Cornerstone. There've been so many amazing books this year. I think probably my standout book that I didn't publish this year was Playground by Richard Powers, which a really beautiful novel he takes on the ocean as his sort of subject in this novel and it's just completely gorgeous, as perfect as you would expect one of his books to be. My name's Jess and I'm a commissioning editor at Century.

Rhianna Dhillon:

What has been your standout from 2024?

Amy:

I have to say it's the Silver Pines Cowboy Romance series by Paisley Hope. These are really spicy sizzling ranch romances and everyone at Cornerstone is obsessed with them.

Dan Bunard:

I'm Dan Bunard and I'm head of nonfiction for Penguin Michael Joseph,

Rhianna Dhillon:

Is there a book that you've loved that's come out in 2024?

Dan Bunard:

Well, there is a book that's come out in 2024, albeit it was published last year, but we've just published in paperback Dame Judy Denture's book on Shakespeare and it's been number one in paperback for the last couple of weeks and it deserves to be. It's a wonderful, wonderful book. It's a love letter to Shakespeare from our greatest living Shakespearean actress who's performed his plays for 65 years and it's incredibly funny, incredibly insightful, and just a beautiful book so I thoroughly recommend it.

Polly Francis:

My name is Polly Francis and I work at Ere as a campaign assistant at Penguin. My standout book of 2024 was the Familiar by Lee Duga. It was a fantasy and I'm such a fantasy girl. It was amazing writing, very lyrical and it felt very autumnal when I read it.

Francesca:

Hi, I'm Francesca. I work in ere in the food comms team. Something that really stands out to me is a book I worked on at Penguin. It is called Sift by Nicola Lamb. It's sort of kind of the elements of baking. It takes everything apart and asks why things happen in baking and there's just so many beautiful recipes in it. It's a really special book and one that I go to again and again for really delicious baking recipes. Is there one recipe that you return to in particular that you can give a little tease for? We made flaky cheese and pickle scones so many times and they've become a bit famous in the office. They're like kind of this really savoury, they're flaky like a croissant, but savoury like a sandwich. They're so delicious.

Rhianna Dhillon:

I'm making my mouth water so much. Thank you so much. See five minutes and now you have a million more books to read from 2024. You are welcome. My next question was what are the Penguin team most excited about in the coming year? So I asked them to select just one book that they're on tender hooks to see hip bookshops in 2025 and for you to read, here's what they said

Francesca:

In 2025. We have a book coming out called Long Day Cook This. It's a really cool book of East Asian and inspired recipes that you just want to sit down on the sofa and eat after a long day at work, and I'm super excited to get cooking from it.

Dan Bunard:

Well, I do have a book that I'm excited about publishing. It's the fifth book that I'm going to be publishing with an author called James Norbury and we did a book with him called Big Pand and Tiny Dragon a few years ago, and we sold a million copies of his books internationally. And he's a wonderful writer. He does these beautiful illustrated parables, I suppose, really, that have a deep spiritual meaning, but they're worn in a very light way. And my 6-year-old son is obsessed with his books, but there are also books which I know are also read by grandparents too. So it's a lovely thing to sort of be publishing someone who has that intergenerational appeal. And yes, this fifth book is going to be a really exciting one.

Joelle Owusu:

I'm so lucky to be publishing. Yes, A Daily Ward's debut novel. She's a poet and she's incredible. And her debut novel is called The Catch, and it's a very weird but proudly weird, mystical, ethereal, whimsical exploration of motherhood and female friendship and sisterhoods all set in South London. And it's not to be missed.

Amy:

I am very excited for a book that's publishing next May called Consider Yourself Kissed by an author called Jess Stanley. It's such a warm, funny, amazing book. It follows 10 years in one woman's Life. She lives in Hackney in London, so lots of recognisable East London locations and it's just the most beautiful book.

Rhianna Dhillon:

And what about 2025? What are you looking forward to reading

Steph:

Hugely? The new book from Ava Reed, which is the follow-up to a study and drowning and it's called A Theory of Dreaming. Ava Reed is such an incredible author and this is one of I think lots of our most anticipated books of next year.

Amy:

I think that one has to be Game On by Kai Stevens, which is a cheerleader romance, but it's kind of, yeah, it's focused on the world of competitive cheer, so Dallas Cowboys type vibe and it's really fun.

Polly Francis:

I'm really excited about the new Holly Jackson, not quite dead yet, which is being published by Michael Joseph and I'm so excited that they acquired her.

Rhianna Dhillon:

Why are you such a fan of Holly Jackson?

Polly Francis:

Because she's just amazing. I've seen her speak, she's just, I love the way she writes. It's very methodical, it's very eerie, very thriller. It's like disgusting thrillers, which I love.

Rhianna Dhillon:

What have you got coming out in 2025 that you're really excited about?

Joel Richardson:

So many things, but the book that comes to mind first is a book called Death at the White Heart, which is coming out in March. It's a brilliant crime novel from Chris Chibnall whose name you might not know, but he is the screenwriter and creator of Broadchurch the television programme. He's also been a showrunner on Dr. Who. He's got an amazing CV from the TV world, but this is his first time writing fiction and it's not inaccurate to say that it really taps into what I loved about Broad Church, and I think so many people did, which is that it's a wonderful intense twisting crime story. But as much as that, it's a picture of a small community, it's a picture of how human beings react when they're put under the pressure of an investigation, how those secrets bubble up and come to life in a small community and it's really, really special.

James Pulford:

I'm really excited about publishing a book called SED is, which is by the historian Helen Carr. And this is a kind of really big ambitious wide angle survey of England in the 14th century, telling the story of what was going on in England, what the kind of conflict was, what the political system was, what cultural life was like, really telling a kind of new history of the country from the bottom up.

Steph:

Oh, there's so much I'm looking forward to in 2025, but in particular, but across SAMSA by Julie Lin. Julie is an amazing Scottish Malaysian chef and we're publishing her debut cookbook in May.

Rhianna Dhillon:

Fantastic. Well, that was a great sneak peek into some of the books and authors that we can expect to read next year, and I'm very excited to get my hands on some of those titles mentioned. I may have snaffled a few already on my little wander around the office. Thank you so much to everyone who's messaged us or sent questions this series. We love hearing from you and I hope you've got loads of great book recommendations. I hope you found out a little bit more about the publishing industry and even heard from some of your favourite authors. I know I certainly have. We really want to hear more about the books and the authors that you'd like us to talk about next year. So if you've got a question for us, you can email the podcast at Penguin podcast@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk and make sure to follow us on our Instagram broadcast channel for more exclusive podcast content.

I'll be back with more authors and ask Penguin questions next year, but in the meantime, you can find all of our episodes from this season wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll also have some bonus podcasts coming your way, featuring some extra special moments from this series that we didn't quite have space for in our episodes. That is all from me, but from all of the wonderful podcast team here at Penguin, we are wishing you the most fabulous festive season and a very happy and healthy start to 2025. See you next year and until then, happy reading.