Book Shelf: My most anticipated reads of 2024
Ten upcoming books I can't wait to get my hands (and eyes) on.
New David Nicholls, Elizabeth Strout, Emily Henry, and Catherine Newman. Coco Mellors’ highly-anticipated second novel. Bri Lee’s first work of fiction. Two juicy debuts, including the first fiction from imprint Joan. A story of food and a serial killer, based on a real case. And Leslie Jamison’s memoir.
Here are 10 yet-to-be-released books I can’t wait to read in 2024.
Blue Sisters, Coco Mellors
5 June
I loved Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Mellors’ well-received 2022 debut, and Mellors’ candidness around the road to publication; it took her five years to write the book, and then came the publisher rejections before she finally got a deal. Her second novel sounds just as brill:
Avery, a strait-laced lawyer living in London, is the typical eldest daughter, though she’s hiding a secret that could undo her perfect life forever.
Bonnie was a boxer but, following a devastating defeat, she's been working as a bouncer in LA, until one reckless night threatens to drive her out of the city.
And Lucky, the rebellious youngest, is a model in Paris whose hard-partying ways are finally catching up with her.
Then there was Nicky, the beloved fourth sister, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie and Lucky reeling. When, a year later, the three of them must reunite in New York to stop the sale of their childhood home, they find that it's only by returning to each other that they can navigate their grief, addiction and heartbreak—and learn to fall in love with life again.
The Work,
3 April
Lee’s fourth book, but her first novel, sounds sexy and pace-y and clever, exploring art, power, and love:
Lally has invested everything into her gallery in Manhattan and the sacrifices are finally paying off. Pat is a scholarship boy desperate to establish himself in Sydney's antiquities scene. When they meet at New York's Armory Show their chemistry is instant - fighting about art and politics is just foreplay.
With an ocean between them they try to get back to work, but they're each struggling to balance money and ambition with the love of art that first drew them to their strange industry. Lally is a kingmaker, bringing exciting new talent to the world, so what's the problem if it's also making her rich? Pat can barely pay his rent and he isn't sure if he's taking advantage of his clients or if they are taking advantage of him, and which would be worse? … The Work is about the biggest intersections of life: of art and commerce, of intimacy and distance, of talent and entitlement, and of labour and privilege.
You Are Here, David Nicholls
30 April
If you haven’t already started watching One Day, the new Netflix series based on Nicholls’ hit novel, please do. It’s exceptional (I’ll be writing more about it next week), and it made me immediately pull out my old, worn copy for a re-read. I enjoyed Sweet Sorrow too, and You Are Here sounds very promising indeed:
Marnie is stuck. Stuck working alone in her London flat, stuck battling the long afternoons and a life that increasingly feels like it's passing her by.
Michael is coming undone. Reeling from his wife's departure, increasingly reclusive, taking himself on long, solitary walks across the moors and fells.
When a persistent mutual friend and some very English weather conspire to bring them together, Marnie and Michael suddenly find themselves alone on the most epic of walks and on the precipice of a new friendship.
Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout
13 August
Strout’s writing is among the most comforting we have, so I just know this book is going to feel like a warm hug:
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William.
Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. Together, they spend afternoons in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Sandwich, Catherine Newman
18 June
We All Want Impossible Things was a a tearjerker about friendship, illness, memory, joy, and the meaning of a good life - in which Ash sculpts her life around her best friend, Edi, when Edi is diagnosed with terminal cancer. So I have high hopes for Sandwich:
For the past two decades, Rocky has looked forward to her family’s yearly escape to Cape Cod … This year’s vacation, with Rocky sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, promises to be just as delightful as summers past—except, perhaps, for Rocky’s hormonal bouts of rage and melancholy. (Hello, menopause!) Her body is changing—her life is, too. And then a chain of events sends Rocky into the past, reliving both the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers.
It's one precious week: everything is in balance; everything is in flux. And when Rocky comes face to face with her family’s history and future, she is forced to accept that she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.
Thanks For Having Me, Emma Darragh
27 February
The first fictional release is almost here from Joan, the Allen & Unwin imprint which launched in 2020 with Nakkiah Lui at the helm. I’ve only heard buzzy endorsements for the debut, which plays daringly with form; it’s a series of stories that build to create a novel, described as “a shoebox full of old photos: they aren't in chronological order and few are labelled.”
Mary Anne is painfully aware that she's not a good wife and not a good mother, and is slowly realising that she no longer wants to play either of those roles. One morning, she walks out of the family home in Wollongong, leaving her husband and teenage daughters behind. Wounded by her mother's abandonment, adolescent Vivian searches for meaning everywhere: true crime, boys' bedrooms, Dolly magazine, a six-pack of beer. But when Vivian grows up and finds herself unhappily married and miserable in motherhood, she too sees no choice but to start over. Her daughter Evie is left reeling, and wonders what she could have done to make her mother stay.
Funny Story, Emily Henry
23 April
Emily Henry’s books are always warm and funny, comforting and clever. I’ll save it for a tough week, or a circuit-breaker to a reading slump, and I know I’ll love it:
Daphne always loved the way Peter told their story. How they met, fell in love, and moved back to his hometown to begin their life together. Too bad it turned out to be more of a prequel to Peter's actual love story with his childhood best friend, Petra.
So that's how Daphne's next chapter starts: stranded in a too-small town, propositioning Petra's heartbroken ex to move in. As roommates of course. A temporary solution until she gets a new job literally anywhere else.
Miles is the exact opposite to Daphne, and it's mostly just unbearably awkward until one drunken night. A tenuous friendship formed, Miles convinces her to give this idyllic town one last summer - he'll show her why he loves it and if they happen to post deliberately misleading photos of their adventures together, so be it.
But as Daphne starts to fall for the town, she is faced with a question: is Miles an interlude in her great love story with Peter or was Peter was just a footnote to that time she fell in love with her ex-fiance's new fiance's ex boyfriend?
Splinters, Leslie Jamison
22 February
Jamison is a genius - did you read her piece in The New Yorker which I linked in last week’s summer reading round-up? - and I cannot wait for this:
In her first memoir, Jamison turns her unrivaled powers of perception on some of the most intimate relationships of her life: her consuming love for her young daughter, a ruptured marriage once swollen with hope, and the shaping legacy of her own parents' complicated bond. In examining what it means for a woman to be many things at once--a mother, an artist, a teacher, a lover--Jamison places the magical and the mundane side by side in surprising ways.
Butter, Asako Yuzuki
6 March
This is based on a real case, and it sounds compelling and unsettling. Oh, and the cover is killer.
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.
Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?
Evenings and Weekends, Oisín McKenna
9 May
McKenna’s debut sounds like it packs a lot of character and relationship development into a compressed timeline. Set over two days, I reckon it would be right at home among the run of books set during heatwaves that I read this summer:
Maggie is 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with a future in the home town she once fought to escape, she’s beginning to wonder if having a baby will be last spontaneous act of her life.
Ed, a bike courier, can’t wait to settle down with Maggie. But she doesn’t know that he has a secret history with Maggie’s best friend Phil.
Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, whilst falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith already has a boyfriend, and they’re about to be evicted from their warehouse commune anyway.
Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother. She’s just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.
As Saturday night approaches, each of their lives look set to change forever. Taking place over two blisteringly hot days in the feverish capital, this is an addictive drama, painfully relatable to anyone living for the evenings and weekends.
Any 2024 releases you have your eye on that I should add to my pre-order list?
Until next time,
Britt
I can’t bring myself to watch the new One Day show, despite it being my favourite book. I’m not ready for the heartbreak 😭😭😭
Thank you for these!!