The Best Books of 2024, as Chosen by Smithsonian Scholars

The world of Smithsonian scholars is vast and limitless—from the oceans to outer space, from the prehistoric past to the dawn of the digital age. This year, they worked to bring the public such exhibitions as “Staging the Supernatural,” a showcase of amazing Japanese woodblock prints at the National Museum of Asian Art; “Reclaiming My Time,” a display of contemporary design at the National Museum of African American History and Culture; “Forensic Science on Trial,” a journey through the history of forensics in the courtroom at the National Museum of American History; and NASA’s Earth Information Center, a look at the state of planet Earth at the National Museum of Natural History. The Smithsonian also welcomed new pandas to the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, hosted its annual Folklife Festival and helped celebrate 25 years of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Smithsonian staff members’ reading tastes are just as varied as their work, a reflection of the breadth of their knowledge and interests. We asked some of these curators, educators and experts what 2024 books they would recommend, and they answered with a wonderfully wide-ranging mix: a deep dive on food and culture in New Orleans, the personal writing of an esteemed saxophonist, a time-travel adventure, and much more. Here are 11 books to add to your reading lists.

Building the Worlds that Kill Us: Disease, Death and Inequality in American History by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz

Recommended by Katherine Ott, curator in the Division of Medicine and Science at the National Museum of American History

History can be fierce and troubling as well as informative and healing. David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz’s newest book demonstrates this through a focus on the history of American health. It is a given that we all die eventually, but the lives that take us there are puzzles of history, gender, race, location and other social factors. And our health is affected in ways many of us are unaware of. The authors are great storytellers, and they begin with the early days of the nation and take us through the elements and decisions wedded to medicine’s efficacy: the physicians and thinkers, industry and commerce, and, most strikingly, the maze of profit and politics that has led to the health care inequities and inefficiencies of today. Human health depends upon much more than advanced technology and effective medications—so much more.

Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women by Diana B. Carlin, Anita B. McBride and Nancy Kegan Smith

Recommended by Elizabeth C. Babcock, director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum

In a year dominated by national elections and public debates about leadership, Remember the First Ladies: The Legacies of America’s History-Making Women provides a timely consideration of the often overlooked, yet influential ways in which presidential spouses have shaped America. Less a series of biographies and more a cogent analysis of the evolution of the role of first lady, this book provides an eminently readable introduction to the women who have filled this role. The first half of the book provides a glimpse into the defining moments that shaped each woman’s approach, while the second half examines the complexities of curating a legacy for themselves and their spouses. Well-researched and drawing on memorable primary sources, this thought-provoking book brings these women to life in a way that enriches our public discourse about gender, politics and presidential leadership, and provides a critically important perspective about women in American history.

Clouds in Space: Nebulae, Stardust and Us by Teresa Robeson

Recommended by Ann Caspari, early childhood education specialist at the National Air and Space Museum

How do you explain something as otherworldly as a nebula to a young child? This beautiful nonfiction book employs the character Nebula to introduce herself. The combination of folkloric illustrations with real images of nebulae makes this, well, nebulous topic more understandable and relatable. In the book, we become a space traveler to explore cosmic wonders with Nebula and see how we are connected to exploding stars, swirling molecules and clouds of stardust. Teresa Robeson’s poetic text and Diana Renzina’s luminous illustrations make an unusually lovely scientific book for older elementary school children.

When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion by Julie Satow

Recommended by Melanie Adams, director of the Anacostia Community Museum

Growing up in New Jersey, I traveled into New York City to view the beautiful window displays. I never thought much about the history of these retail giants until I read Julie Satow’s When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion. This book documents the golden era of American department stores through the lives of three pioneering women: Hortense Odlum, Dorothy Shaver and Geraldine Stutz. These leaders reshaped the retail landscape and championed women’s roles in business during the 20th century. While the book focuses on New York, it also provides short histories of department stores in other parts of the country, such as the St. Luke Emporium, opened in 1905 by Maggie Walker in Richmond, Virginia. Run by African Americans, the store was an opportunity for Black women both to shop and to have careers and become independent. The book highlights how these women turned department stores into cultural hubs of style and innovation while breaking gender barriers in a male-dominated industry.

The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir by Susan Lieu

Recommended by Nicole Dowd, head of public programs at the National Museum of Asian Art

This past May, during the National Museum of Asian Art’s IlluminAsia Festival celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we had the opportunity to host Vietnamese American author Susan Lieu for a poignant conversation on mental health and intergenerational healing, which produced moments of both tears and laughter onstage and throughout the auditorium. Lieu’s book, The Manicurist’s Daughter, spans storytelling of Vietnam War refugees, pressures of the American dream, Asian beauty standards, and how the untimely death of her mother affected her family and relationships for decades after. The book is a moving memoir that seamlessly blends personal storytelling with cultural reflection while simultaneously breaking down cultural stereotypes around grief, intergenerational trauma and mental health.

Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth by Sönke Johnsen

Recommended by Karen Osborn, curator of polychaetes, peracarids and plankton at the National Museum of Natural History

Are you ready to stretch your awareness of other worlds—or, better yet, explore the alien realm that is the vast majority of our own planet? By far the largest living space on Earth lies below the surface of the ocean and above the deep-sea floor. This massive environment is not the empty space that we have long thought of it as. Instead, it is a complex set of habitats organized by factors we are only just beginning to be able to appreciate and measure. In the mysterious ocean, billions of incredible animals survive and thrive, typically looking unlike anything most people have seen before. Biologist Sönke Johnsen weaves his story of ocean discovery with fascinating explanations of the challenges that have shaped ocean animals into the often beautiful, sometimes hideous creatures we are feverishly working to learn from. This book will feed your curiosity, introduce you to the denizens of the deep and make you laugh. Dive in!

Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans by Theresa McCulla

Recommended by James Deutsch, content coordinator for the Smithsonian’s America at 250 Book Project

New Orleans is justly famous for its food—beignets, gumbo and crawfish étouffée, to name just a few. But Theresa McCulla, formerly with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and now with Mars Inc., approaches the city’s culinary delights from a cultural perspective. Covering some 200 years of New Orleans’ history, McCulla convincingly demonstrates how the sensory pleasures of food consumption have been inextricably linked to commodification and violence, resulting from the complicated relations among the area’s Black, White, Creole and Indigenous populations. The book explores the tensions among auction blocks, dining tables, street vendors, sugar plantations, food markets, cookbooks, tourism and much more. McCulla opens our eyes to some of the unexpected ways in which New Orleans has long been an insatiable city.

The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins, edited by Sam V.H. Reese

Recommended by Steven Lewis, curator of music and performing arts at the National Museum of African American History and Culture

At 94, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins is one of American music’s most revered figures and the last living link to the bebop revolution of the 1940s and ’50s. Musicians and scholars continue to study his classic recordings, such as Saxophone Colossus (1957), Freedom Suite (1958) and The Bridge (1962), which established his reputation as one of the greatest jazz improvisers. The New York Review of Books’ new edited collection of Rollins’ writing draws on the six boxes of notebooks he donated to the New York Public Library in 2017. The selections, and the insightful introduction by editor Sam V.H. Reese, trace 50 years of Rollins’ studies of saxophone technique and music theory, along with his varied explorations of science, history and religion. Rollins’ notes also document his evolving understanding of his central place in jazz history. This book offers a uniquely intimate look at a monumental artist.

The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long by Naama Shefi and the Jewish Food Society

Recommended by Julie Botnick, access and outreach archivist of the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History

I often say that each piece of archival material saved is a bit of a miracle, and that is absolutely apparent when reading this cookbook. The recipes in The Jewish Holiday Table survived and were adapted over generations of movement across the Jewish diaspora—the Rosh Hashanah recipes of the Solnicki family span a journey of war and displacement from Italy and Tunisia to Paris and Argentina, while Fany Gerson’s Passover Seder honors her great-grandmother, who started incorporating Mexican ingredients like lime and chiles into her traditional Ukrainian dishes when she immigrated in the 1920s. The Jewish Food Society, which started as a digital archive to document ephemeral Jewish family recipes passed down in oral histories, reveres the past but isn’t stuck in it; the design is modern, the food styling is vibrant, and the recipes are meticulously tested. This is an accessible cookbook for history lovers and a unique way for chefs to gain inspiration for celebratory feasts, though I will warn you to double the recipes if you want leftovers.

The African Decor Edit: Collecting and Decorating With Heritage Objects by Nasozi Kakembo

Recommended by Gathoni Kamau, community outreach specialist and acting head of visitor experience at the National Museum of African Art

Ugandan American designer Nasozi Kakembo’s beautiful book features stunning decor with traditional African heritage objects. It highlights artisans in Africa and their communities, giving context to the furniture, textiles, baskets, rugs and accessories that they create. In addition to showcasing inspiring interiors, the book also contains a sourcing guide to help readers learn about cultural appropriation, the origins of objects and ethical shopping models. The African Decor Edit is thoughtfully crafted and includes personal stories and photos, making it more intimate than your average decor book.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Recommended by Sanchita Balachandran, director of the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute

Preserving cultural heritage is a bit like time travel. As a conservator of archaeological materials, I examine items made in the past to imagine what the lives of those ancient people were like, wishing I could just have a conversation with them. Kaliane Bradley’s swoony speculative fiction thriller The Ministry of Time brings that wish to life. She writes a crisply observed, laugh-out-loud study of a civil servant trying to do a decent job at a very odd assignment: being a guide of sorts to a person literally plucked out of history and brought into our own time. Bradley’s book asks what might be possible—and what hope we as humans might have—if we could meet and truly engage with past people and even our past selves. It’s a novel that takes on some big, existential questions about the weight of history with a lightness and deftness that is utterly unexpected and delightful.

Kayla Randall | READ MORE

Kayla Randall is Smithsonian magazine's digital editor, museums.