Books I want to read in 2024

(And literary trends I'm over.)

Happy new year! I hope you’re shifting into this time with relative ease and peace of mind. I’m not sure if I’m going to make official resolutions, but I suppose my hopes for 2024 are similar to the hopes I have every year: to write more, exercise when I can, and be more compassionate to myself and others. 

One of my favorite things about the new year is all the upcoming books to look forward to. Last year was kind of a meh year for literature. Not much captured my enthusiasm. Though I really enjoyed my time with Isabella Hammad’s Enter Ghost, Henri Cole’s Gravity and Center, and Matthew McNaught’s Immanuel. I also checked out Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy and read Amina Cain’s Indelicacy for the second time. Those two were probably my favorites of 2023

I started reading super seriously and paying more attention to the literary scene when I moved to New York in 2020. Back then, I felt compelled to read every new release and develop thorough, spotless opinions. Nowadays, I’m trying to be more discerning and spend less time (and money!) on flashy titles. I love contemporary literature and I still plan to read the new stuff, but I’m over the current trends: 

• “psychological” “feminist” “thrillers” (which usually have a dull political core) 

• realist millennial fiction (the humor is bad, the sentences are boring, so mfa-coded)

• autofiction about writers (I don’t want to read about writers anymore. I’m over it!)

• the choice plot (I’ve just read so many! too many! books about the decision to have or not have a child) 

• identity-obsessed-poetry (often cloying, so 2018!) 

• snarky, disjointed poetry (opposite end of the spectrum from the above, but just as boring)

• novels disguised as short story collections (just call it what it is) 

This year I’m setting my sights on exquisite sentences, well-written arguments, and good narratives. I want to sink my teeth into imaginative writing that is elegant and smart and pretty, or just fun to read. Below are some forthcoming and backlist titles I hope will fulfill those hopes. Feel free to share yours in the comments. (I’d also love to know the trends you’re over.)

New Releases

Dead Weight - Emmeline Clein 

The Singularity - Balsam Karam 

The Moon That Turns You Back - Hala Alyan

Laura’s Desires - Laura Henrikson

Worry -  Alexandra Tanner

Early Sobrieties - Michael Deagler

Mood Swings - Frankie Barnet

Pleasure Principle - Madeleine Cravens 

Victim - Andrew Boryga

Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar 

Backlist

Doppelganger - Naomi Klein

Winter Stranger - Jackson Holbert

If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English - Noor Naga

Hanging Out - Sheila Liming

Let Us Believe In The Beginning Of The Cold Season - Forough Farrokhzad

Philosophy Of The Tourist - Hiroki Azuma

The Furrows - Namwali Serpell 

Annie John - Jamaica Kincaid 

Agua Viva - Clarice Lispector 

The Neopolitan Quartet - Elena Ferrante 

Painting Time - Maylis de Kerangal 

Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen