As we’re already 16 days into the new year, I find myself anticipating the book releases of 2024. Although I typically don’t seek them out this early, I’ve selected a mix of books that I genuinely find intriguing and that I would love to read. These are just a few of the new book releases that have caught my attention, and there are sure to be many others. Therefore, it’s important to choose new releases wisely since they can sometimes be overrated and disappointing. It’s always a risk to purchase early. Hopefully, these books won’t disappoint if I do decide to read them. Which ones are you interested in?
The novel “Acts of Forgiveness” tells the story of a woman, Willie Revel, who faces a crucial decision regarding the Forgiveness Act, which could potentially provide financial redemption for her family. To qualify, she must prove her family’s descent from slaves, uncovering hidden truths and exploring the complexities of family and forgiveness along the way.
Expected Publication: February 13, 2024
Why I’m interested: This debut novel promises a compelling family narrative with a historical fiction aspect, as well as the intriguing backdrop of a first female president.
The collection “American Spirits” by Russell Banks delves into the mysterious and often perilous dynamics of various characters within the backdrop of American politics, offering a suspenseful and intense exploration of communal hostilities and everyday tragedies.
Expected Publication: March 5, 2024
Why I’m interested: As a fan of Russell Banks’ work, I’m drawn to this collection due to its gritty portrayal of the societal issues prevalent in the US.
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A poetic, rich, descriptive story about a fragmented Jamaican family and a daughter determined to reclaim her home. After hearing about her father’s passing, Pearline unexpectedly leaves her daughter and grandchildren in Brooklyn to return to her childhood home in Jamaica. However, Pearline is unprepared for her father’s mysterious dying wish that she find her siblings, whom she hasn’t seen in 60 years, and uncover the secret that tore her family apart. Moving between time and place, from Cuba to Montego Bay and from Brooklyn to Havana, The House of Plain Truth follows Pearline as she reconciles what she thought she knew about her family and the truth of their origins. Based on the author’s own family history, this sensitive, insightful novel delves into the conflicting loyalties within a family, the true significance of home, and the sacrifices a woman must make to finally achieve her desires.
Expected Publication: January 30, 2024
Why I’m interested: This Caribbean novel is by the author of Tea By the Sea, which I have yet to read but is on my To Be Read list. This family story is set in different cities and explores themes of family secrets and the true meaning of home. Hemans is a Jamaican author, so I’m really looking forward to this one.
A poetic exploration of the hidden heritage of Black Appalachians, through compelling storytelling along with nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poet laureate of Kentucky.
Many are surprised to discover that Black people live in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised by our presence are astonished that we have persevered.
Years ago, while baking a jam cake, O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson felt the presence of her late grandmother. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; her ancestors were there too, stirring, measuring, and cooking alongside her. These were her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and created a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.
As a skilled cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes deeply rooted in the past, rich with flavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Granny Christine’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vibrant life through stunning photography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.
As the custodian of her family’s stories and cherished dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens, and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the land of the mountains for over a century.
Expected Publication: January 23, 2024
Why I’m interested: This book is by Crystal Wilkinson, and I adore her and her writing! I believe I have read all of her works, and I recommend that you do so as well. You can start with any of the following: The Birds of Opulence, Blackberries, Blackberries, Water Street, and Perfect Black (poetry). Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts delves into family, food, and the legacy of Black Appalachians. Do I need to say more? It’s going to be exceptional!
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When the enslaved Jim hears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island to plan his escape. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his death to evade his violent father who has recently returned to town. This sets the stage for the dangerous journey down the Mississippi River, as they seek freedom in the Free States and beyond.
While many parts of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain the same, such as encountering floods, unexpected death, and encountering scam artists, Jim’s character is portrayed in a new light, showcasing his agency, intelligence, and compassion in a revolutionary way.
Filled with compelling humor and astute observations, James is expected to be a significant literary event and a key piece of twenty-first century American literature.
Expected Publication: March 19, 2024
Reason for Interest: I’m definitely interested in this one. Anything by Percival Everett is on my to-be-read list. I’m particularly intrigued to see how Percival Everett reimagines The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I’m expecting the satire to be exceptional, considering Everett’s talent in this area.
I suppose it would be fitting to explain that I am talking into a dictaphone and the lovely Helen will be typing out my story for you to read. She will have a certain amount of creative control—sorting out moments when I get a bit tongue-tied or slightly muddled—but I have told her to leave in as much as possible, so as not to miss any of the important bits. This is my account of the Cavengreen Hotel murder, best we get that bit in early on.
The peaceful setting of Cavengreen Hotel has been shattered by a shocking murder. Hector Harrow, the hotel’s concierge, has been accused and is determined to clear his name.
Hector enlists the aid of Helen, a retired publisher, to document the shocking crime that has unfolded, with the intention of publishing a truthful account.
Amid interruptions from a nosy journalist and the egotistical antics of the hotel’s new owner, American Dave, Helen works tirelessly to keep Hector focused on finishing his book.
As suspicions fall on different guests and one makes a shocking confession, Hector must navigate a web of secrets to uncover the truth.
Expected Publication: January 31, 2024
Reason for Interest: I’m intrigued by this because it feels like a unique take on a murder mystery. Although I don’t usually read murder mysteries, I find myself enjoying them when I do. This one seems to have a cozy mystery vibe, but I could be mistaken. I’ll have to wait and see.
It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor
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and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardised by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks and illicit intrigue. A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.
Expected Publication: January 9, 2024
Why I’m interested: Well I read her 2019 debut novel Such a Fun Age and was disappointed that she wasn’t able to go all the way with the storyline. If you read it you know what I mean. Come & Get it is her third novel but I hope to see that her storytelling has gotten more realistic and can actually stand up since she writes about real societal pressures. I’m curious.
Nayan Olak is mounting a run for general secretary of the union that has become the center of his life since losing his family in a tragic accident twenty years earlier, when he finds himself inexorably drawn to an inscrutable woman he keeps seeing around town. Passing the run-down house where she—Helen, he’s learned her name is—lives with her teenage son, Brandon, he wonders why they’ve returned to this place, and why they appear so guarded. As Nayan’s involvement with Helen and Brandon deepens, his differences with his rival in the race to lead the union, a privileged young woman named Megha, spin out of control. While he unknowingly barrels toward long-held secrets about how his and Helen’s pasts might be connected, much more is threatened than his chances of winning.
In one sense a tragedy in the classic mold, tracing one man’s seemingly inexorable fall, The Spoiled Heart is also an explosively contemporary story of how a few words or a single action—to one person careless, to another, charged—can create a domino effect whose consequences could never have been imagined. A vivid exploration of the mysteries of the heart, how community is forged and broken, and the shattering impact of secrets and assumptions alike, it is a blazing achievement from one of Britain’s foremost living writers.
Expected Publication: April 16, 2024
Why I’m interested: I read The Year of the Runaways which was shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize in 2015 and I really enjoyed it. Sahota is a very good writer who pays attention to detail. I’m excited to see where this story will go.
The free-standing successor and next novel by the author of the critically acclaimed The Last Thing You Surrender , Leonard Pitts, Jr.’s 54 Miles launches forward twenty years to the fateful weeks of March 1965—from the infamous “Bloody Sunday” march at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on the 7th to the triumphant entry into Montgomery on the 25th that climaxed the voting rights campaign—and the families who find themselves confronting the past amid another flashpoint in American history. Young Adam, who has been raised in Harlem by his white father, George, and Black mother, Thelma, goes back to his parents’ home state of Alabama to participate in the voting rights campaign, only to be brutalized in the Bloody Sunday melee. He is still recovering from this when he is struck a heavy emotional blow, learning for the first time—and in the cruelest way imaginable—that George, who has raised him as a son, is not, in fact, his biological father. Rather, Adam is a child of rape, a discovery that explains so much about why his mother is sometimes so distant. Adam is sent spiraling by what he learns and Thelma is drawn back, for the first time in twenty years, to the South she both hates and fears. The reckoning that results may result in an incalculable loss. Meanwhile, Thelma’s brother Luther is also spiraling, but in a different way. Forty-two years after his parents were lynched before his eyes, and twenty years after the man who led the lynch mob walked out of court a free man, Luther has just made a shocking discovery. He‘s found the murderer, Floyd Bitters, helpless and enfeebled in a rest home—unable to move or even to speak. The old man is literally at Luther’s mercy. And Luther, who has never overcome this trauma that defined his life, is suddenly forced to relive it all again as he grapples with the awful question of what justice now demands.
Expected Publication: July 23, 2024
Why I’m interested: If you’ve just started
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