--- title: There's Always This Year: 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 description: Find out why "There's Always This Year" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172849/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-13T13:08:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:42:36.133Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'There's Always This Year' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172849/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86625a864d6f46e0/698a8d149d83e84f8fb9f804/Theres-Always-This-Year-Hanif-Abdurraqib.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'There's Always This Year' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'There's Always This Year' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86625a864d6f46e0/698a8d149d83e84f8fb9f804/Theres-Always-This-Year-Hanif-Abdurraqib.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # There's Always This Year by [Rachel Sonis](https://time.com/author/rachel-sonis/) ## Rachel Sonis Sonis is an Ideas editor at TIME.  On the surface, Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest book, _There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension_, is, yes, about basketball. But, as with most of Abdurraqib’s writing, it’s also about so much more. In this sprawling offering, the best-selling author and poet explores his childhood growing up in Columbus, Ohio in beautiful, tender detail. Abdurraqib traverses the Golden Era of 1990s basketball and the rise of fellow Ohio native LeBron James (a focal character in the book), while also remembering personal, formative moments of beauty and struggle growing up in the Midwest. But it’s never nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake; here, Abdurraqib delicately shows what it means to remember and revisit your childhood—the places, the people, and the feelings that made you who you are—and love it whole-heartedly, despite its cracks. **Buy Now:** _There's Always This Year_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593448793) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3UFQBja) | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/3Y7FBMv) These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172849/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172849/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension/"},"headline":"There's Always This Year","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:08:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:42:36.133Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172849/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86625a864d6f46e0/698a8d149d83e84f8fb9f804/Theres-Always-This-Year-Hanif-Abdurraqib.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Sonis","jobTitle":"Sonis is an Ideas editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-sonis/"}],"creator":"Rachel Sonis","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt86625a864d6f46e0/698a8d149d83e84f8fb9f804/Theres-Always-This-Year-Hanif-Abdurraqib.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172849/theres-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension/","name":"There's Always This Year"}}]}] ```