What we read in 2024

Homer Bookstore showcases last year’s bestsellers.

For the past 30 years, the Homer Bookstore has been compiling and showcasing a list of the year’s bestselling books.

The 2024 list includes 35 books that range from the No. 1 bestseller, “Homestead Kitchen,” a cookbook by Eve and Eivin Kilcher, to “Spawn Till You Die: The Fin Art of Ray Troll” and “Indifferent Stars Above: Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party” by Daniel James Brown. Six books were tied for number 24 on the list — “Kissing Kevin” by Sara Berg, “Horse: A Novel” by Geraldine Brooks, “Kachemak Bay Alaska” by The Homer Foundation, “Storm On Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II” by Mark Obmascik, “Working Boats Coloring Book” by Tom Crestodina and “Cold Mountain Path” by Tom Kizzia.

Homer Bookstore partner Jenny Stroyeck compared the 2023 and 2024 lists.

“Both years, more than half of the top 20 titles are Alaskan books — and no surprise there, as this has been true for many years,” she said. “This is partly from the summer tourists, but I also attribute it to the curiosity Alaskans have about the natural world surrounding us.”

Stroyeck said this curiosity shows itself in the sales of books about mushrooms such as “Alaska’s Mushrooms: A Wide-Ranging Guide” by Gary A. Laursen and books about plants like “Alaska’s Wild Plants, Revised” by Janice J. Schofield, for example, as well as natural history themes and history titles like the Homer Foundation’s “Kachemak Bay Alaska.” She also credits the high number of Alaska book sales to the talents of Alaskan writers.

“Rich Chiappone, Mr. Whitekeys, Ray Troll, Janet Klein, Tom Kizzia and Stacy Studebaker are all writers with multiple books,” she said. “And then there are new writers every year who may only write one book, like Sara Berg and in 2023, Peter Kaufman, Wendy Erd and Derek Stonorov. I think it speaks to the depth of the literary talent in our state.”

According to Homer Bookstore partner Sue Post, books like the Kilcher cookbook and “Kachemak Bay Communities: Their Histories, Their Mysteries” by Janet R. Klein and others are common to the bestsellers list.

“‘Homestead Kitchen’” has been high on the list for several years, with their autographed copies and large fan base,” Post said. “‘Tisha’” by Robert Sprecht has been on the list forever as a book a lot of people know and recommend to friends and family. ‘Kachemak Bay Years: An Alaska Homesteader’s Memoir’ by Elsa Pedersen was out of print for a few years and we encouraged the publisher to reprint, which she did, so it’s nice to have that one back on the list.”

Other books making the list took staff by surprise.

“The big surprise to me this year is ‘The Women’ by Kristin Hannah,” Post said. “Kristin’s books have been popular at our store for quite a few years, starting with ‘The Nightingale’ and on through to ‘The Great Alone’, which is set in Kachemak Bay. I was surprised that her book about nurses in Vietnam made it onto our list in hardcover. I think the topic is close to home for a lot of people and it resonated with readers who lived through that time period.”

Every year, Stroyeck, Post and other bookstore employees share their staff favorites from the list.

“This year, Sue and I are fans of ‘Memory of Lavender and Sage’ by Aimie Runyan, and Lee has been championing ‘Two Nights in Lisbon’ by Chris Pavone,” Stroyeck said.

For Post’s part, the setting of “Memory of Lavender and Sage” in Provence, France, triggered memories of her own time spent in the area when she was an exchange student in her 20s.

“Aimie’s descriptions are very realistic and took me back to a really great time in my life,” Post said.

The bookstore’s bestseller list is compiled by staff tracking sales that come from tourists and locals stopping in for specific books they have heard about and those seeking suggestions for what to read.

“We make a lot of recommendations, and we also have shelves of the bestselling fiction and nonfiction across the country, which, to be fair, may influence what gets purchased,” Post said.

The Homer Bookstore’s 2024 bestsellers

1. “Homestead Kitchen” by Eve and Eivin Kilcher

2. “Kachemak Bay Communities: Their Histories, Their Mysteries” by Janet R. Klein

3. “Kachemak Bay Years: An Alaska Homesteader’s Memoir” by Elsa Pedersen

4. “Uncommon Weather: Alaska Stories” by Richard Chiappone

5. “Tisha” by Robert Sprecht

6. “Alaska’s Wild Plants, Revised” by Janice J. Schofield

7. “Memory of Lavender and Sage” by Aimie Runyan

8. “Voyage of the Alaska Union” by Mr. Whitekeys

9. “Two Nights in Lisbon” by Chris Pavone

10. “The Great Alone” by Kristen Hannah

11. “The Women” by Kristen Hannah

12. “Entangled: People and Ecological Change in Alaska’s Kachemak Bay” by Marilyn Sigman

13. “Working Boats: An Inside Look at Ten Amazing Watercraft” by Tom Crestodina and “Milepost 2024: Alaska Travel Planner” (tie)

14. “Spawn Till You Die: The Fin Art of Ray Troll”

15. “Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder” by Dav Pilkey, “Octopus in the Outhouse” by Stacy Studebaker and “Alaska’s Mushrooms: A Wide-Ranging Guide” by Gary A. Laursen (tie)

16. “Cinnamon and Gunpowder” by Eli Brown

17. “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas

18. “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” by Amy Tan, “Winter Turning: A WOF Graphic Novel” by Tui T. Sutherland and “The Lost Journals of Sacajawea” by Debra Magpie Earling (tie)

19. “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer

20. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver

21. “Wild Robot” by Peter Brown and “A Cold Day for Murder” by Dana Stabenow (tie)

22. “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” by David Grann

23. “Indifferent Stars Above: Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party” by Daniel James Brown

24. “Kissing Kevin” by Sara Berg, “Horse: A Novel” by Geraldine Brooks, “Kachemak Bay Alaska” by The Homer Foundation, “The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II” by Mark Obmascik, “Working Boats Coloring Book” by Tom Crestodina and “Cold Mountain Path” by Tom Kizzia (tie)

In addition to the wide range of genres and publication dates of the books on the list, bookstore staff are excited about new additions to the store.

“One beautiful new, non-local children’s picture book that features Alaska is Jan Brett’s ‘Alice in Winter Wonderland’,” Stroyeck said. “It’s a re-telling in Alaska, where Alice falls down a glacier crevasse instead of a rabbit hole. Lots of Alaskan animals and Brett’s signature beautiful artwork. Like all her books, we’ll continue to sell this one for many years, I’m sure.”

Others include “True Adventures: Mishaps and Murphy’s Law in Alaska” by Dan Presley, stories of hunting and exploring in Alaska.

“Dan and his brother were killed in a plane crash in September, just after he had finished the book,” Stroyeck said.

“A Wonderful-Terrible God: A Journey of Spiritual Awakening in Native Alaska” was written by Seldovia resident Judith Lethin.

“Judith has lived in Seldovia for many years, but much of this book centers on her work in the Lower Yukon communities,” Stroyeck said.

Also new is “Return to Ekeunick’s Time: Defending Waters and Traditions in the Arctic” by Homer’s very own Harold Shepherd, who will be doing a reading from the book at the Homer Public Library on Thursday, Jan. 23 from 6-7 p.m.

Stop by the Homer Bookstore during normal hours, Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., to review the shelves of local and national bestselling books in person. Find them online at homerbookstore.com.

The top three books on The Homer Bookstore’s 2024 Best Selling Books List are on display on Jan. 14, 2025, in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Christina Whiting

The top three books on The Homer Bookstore’s 2024 Best Selling Books List are on display on Jan. 14, 2025, in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Christina Whiting

“Kissing Kevin” by Sara Murnane Berg, photographed on Jan. 14, 2025, is tied for 24th place on The Homer Bookstore’s 2024 Bestseller List. Photo by Christina Whiting

“Kissing Kevin” by Sara Murnane Berg, photographed on Jan. 14, 2025, is tied for 24th place on The Homer Bookstore’s 2024 Bestseller List. Photo by Christina Whiting

Homer Bookstore partner Sue Post poses with one of her favorite reads from 2024, which is also #7 on the Homer Bookstore Bestsellers List, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Christina Whiting

Homer Bookstore partner Sue Post poses with one of her favorite reads from 2024, which is also #7 on the Homer Bookstore Bestsellers List, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Christina Whiting