It is a travesty that we haven’t been able to read a new Tia Williams book since that bit of spectacularness that was Seven Days In June, but that wait will soon come to an end! A Love Song For Ricki Wilde sounds like the perfect book, complete with love and history and music and a little magic. Tia Williams knows how to wrench your heartstrings and wring out every tear you thought you had in your body, and I’m sure this new book won’t be any different.

It is November 1914, and Clara is one of the 28 aboard an expedition ship headed for the Antarctic. The boat is marooned, stuck on ice a mere 100 miles from land. This isn’t Clara’s biggest worry, though — it’s instead that she’ll be found out and that the careful identity she’s crafted will come undone. The crew and fellow shipmates cannot know her involvement in the Suffragist movement, even if those skills may keep them all alive. A historical feminist survival story? Yes, please!

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is one of the best cozy fantasy romance books I’ve ever read, so you can imagine how eagerly I’m looking forward to another book set in the same cozy universe. Now, consider the fact that it’s about a grumpy witch looking to regain her stripped magical powers with the help of a historian she once had a one-night stand with? I could scream. Just give it to me already!

I was a huge fan of Olga Dies Dreaming, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Gonzalez’s sophomore novel. This inventive book tells the story of two talented young Latinas in the art world: Anita, a Cuban artist whose work was largely forgotten after she tragically died, and Raquel, a Puerto Rican art historian. Both find themselves overshadowed by their more prominent, wealthy, white artist boyfriends, but when Raquel uncovers some of Anita’s work, her legacy will change everything. I loved the dynamic protagonists, twists and turns, and sense of humor in this book, and I can’t wait for readers everywhere to meet Anita and Raquel.

I’ve been an Aiden Thomas fangirl since Cemetery Boys cracked my Mexican, Dia-de-los-Muertos-obsessed heart wide open. Then along came The Sunbearer Trials, the first book in a Mexican-inspired fantasy duology where teen semidioses compete in high-takes challenges every ten years to keep the evil gods at bay. I was undone! Celestial Monsters is the conclusion to the duology and I am (im)patiently waiting to get my greedy little hands on it. I already know it will do what Aiden Thomas books do: feel like a warm hug, make me ugly laugh and cry in equal measure, and long for a time machine to put the book in the hands of my younger self. We live in the same city, Aiden. Just tell me where to meet you for that galley.

As soon as I read the original French of this charming novel, I was desperate for Gallic Books, the publisher I work for, to translate it into English. It’s a lovely coming-of-age story about a young woman who’s a hairdresser in a sleepy French town. She’s in a dead-end relationship, and even her cat seems to hate her. But then, one day, she picks up a copy of a Proust book — the kind of classic French children are forced to read at school — and finds herself drawn in despite herself. It’s a love letter to Proust, but more generally to reading and a great feel-good novel for anyone who loves books about books. I can’t wait for English-speaking readers to discover it.

Kiley Reid’s debut, Such A Fun Age, is a novel I still can’t get out of my head. So, rather than moving on with my life, I’m excited to have a new Kiley Reid novel to obsess over in 2024. Set in 2017 at the University of Arkansas, Come and Get It follows senior resident assistant Millie Cousins, who just wants to graduate and make enough money to buy a house. When visiting professor Agatha Paul offers Millie an opportunity to help conduct research for her new book, Millie sees an easy way to make more cash. But then a student prank goes wrong, and Millie risks losing everything she’s worked so hard to accomplish.

Ann Clare LeZotte, a deaf author and librarian, wrote the stunning historical fiction series Show Me a Sign, which gives a glimpse into the deaf community on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1800s, where many are born deaf, and everyone knows sign language. It’s a nuanced story and fascinating history. LeZotte’s next novel is Deer Run Home, a middle grade novel-in-verse about a Deaf girl, Effie, growing up in a home where her family refuses to learn sign language. She finds solace in poetry. At school, her ASL interpreter advocates for her and then decides to try and adopt her. LeZotte bases this novel on a true story, and I can’t wait to read it.

I have such deep appreciation for Alice Wong’s work, and I cannot wait for this incredible follow-up to the Disability Visibility anthology. Often, when people see the word ‘intimacy,’ they think of sex. While this book does offer pieces on intimacy as it relates to sex as well as sexual liberation’s important intersections with disability justice, Alice Wong seeks to widen readers’ understanding of intimacy in its many forms beyond sex and romance. Intimacy is about deep connection and that can happen with community, with caretakers, with friendship, and so much more. This collection includes poetry, essays, erotica, and more.

Iron Widow, the first in this duology, was an exciting, action-packed blaze of female fury. Zeitan set out to end a vicious cycle where male pilots of Chrysalises drained concubines to help them protect the realm. She decided to take it over — and then burn it all down. This brutal, satisfying, cut-throat book (that I like to describe as a crossover between the Jaegers of Pacific Rim and the social maneuvering of The Hunger Games) ended with a tremendous triumph and a devastating twist, and I am finding it very difficult to wait for its sequel.

Everything about Salman Rushdie’s stories is surreal — his writing style, the language he uses, the subjects he writes about, all of it. The fact that he isn’t liked by a lot of people for these subjects and the fatwa issued against him in 1989 is known. But August 12, 2022 saw this hate spiral into a traumatic experience for Rushdie as an attempt was made on his life while he was giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder is a collection of Rushdie’s thoughts where he shares his journey of picking himself back up, of art trumping hate, and of becoming hopeful again.

— Sonali Dabade

Listen, y’all. I have been raving about Moon of the Crusted Snow for years, professionally and personally. I got the chance to work with Rice on a story for Sword Stone Table, which was a dream come true. And now there’s a sequel? BE STILL MY HEART. I love a 10-years-later jump from one book to the next, and cannot wait to see what the world Rice envisions looks like — not to mention getting to see what my favorite characters are up to. If you haven’t read the first one yet, get on that, and then rejoice with me in February! (Canadians: it is already out there, you lucky readers.)

Emil Ferris fans rejoice! The long-awaited sequel to the incredible 2017 graphic novel My Favorite Thing is Monsters is almost here! Ten-year-old Karen Reyes is still trying to figure out the murder of her upstairs neighbor and Holocaust survivor, Anka Silverberg, as well as getting caught up in the riotous 1960s, all told through Ferris’s signature style and a nod to B-movie monsters.

Alyssa Cole does not disappoint: she wrote a fun romance about a woman who thinks an African prince is sending her scam emails (A Princess in Theory), pulled off a romance with spies during the Civil War (An Extraordinary Union), and brought the suspense in her social thriller (When No One Is Watching). So, news that she has an upcoming thriller with delicious tropes that include being trapped on an island, a historic estate setting, the past coming to get ya, and a main character having to prove she’s not the murderer is something to celebrate! My fingers are cramping from all the gimme gimme hands I’m doing!

Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts celebrates the culinary legacy of generations of Black Appalachian cooks. Former Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson shares her treasured family recipes, telling the stories of the generations of Black women who perfected them. These foodways are Wilkinson’s inheritance, the legacy of the hands that taught hers. Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts includes close to forty recipes, complete with stunning photos that capture priceless moments centered around family and the great food that brings them together.

I am an evangelist for Juno Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series, a queer witchy high-stakes trilogy that deeply satisfies my love of all things witchy, magical, hilarious, and super sweary. One of my favorite details of the series is that the originator of the titular coven is Anne freakin’ Boleyn because I love me a messy Tudor. Well, apparently, my letter writing paid off because Juno Dawson is giving us a prequel set in Tudor, England, to spend some time with Queen B. Excuse me? My body is ready.

I’ve spent a lot of time on the bookish internet talking about representation and how badly I wish my younger self had so many of today’s diverse books to devour and see myself in. So I’m, of course, tickled to see this collection of classic stories remixed sci-fi and fantasy style in the capable hands of authors like David Bowles, Zoraida Córdova, Anna Meriano, Eric Smith, Amparo Ortiz, and more. We’re getting new takes on Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby, shape-shifters saving kids from brujas, a mermaid story featuring La Ciguapa…my brain is overheating with anticipation. Can’t wait for this!

THIS BOOK. If you can only read one book this year, pick this one! Not only because it’s the size of two books at 640 pages. But also because after many years of remarkable story collections — including a Pulitzer-nominated collection! — Kelly Link is releasing her debut novel. The Book of Love is an amazing, speculative tale of three dead high schoolers brought back to life by their music teacher to help in a possibly world-ending supernatural battle. It has a perfect, crisp New England-y feel and a brilliant plot about good and evil, friendship and magic. It’s one you’ll want to start reading again as soon as you finish the last page!

There are many amazing books forthcoming in 2024, and of these, I eagerly anticipate the next A. G. Slatter book. All The Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns were delightfully dark fairy tales, and I can’t wait for Slatter’s next story, comprised of witches, power, and the ability to speak to the dead. It follows Ellie Briar, who is born to a powerful witch family but is the first non-witch in generations. Slatter’s prose is always inviting yet bold, like listening to a ghost story near the warmth of a fire. I know this book will explore every dark corner of this gothic fairy tale. It’s everything I want in an alluring fantasy.

Historical fantasy books are my jam. So when I heard Leigh Bardugo was releasing a new magical story set in Madrid during the Inquisition? Reader, I died. And then I came back to immediately pre-order it. The Familiar tells the story of Luzia, a scullion whose magical abilities are exploited by her scheming mistress. Things take a turn when the disgraced secretary to the king notices her abilities. He’s trying to regain the king’s favor, who is desperate for an upper hand in his war against Europe. This game could prove deadly for Luzia, which is why she enlists the help of none other than the immortal familiar Santangel.

Sarah Beth Durst’s two previous adult fantasy novels, The Bone Maker and Race the Sands, grabbed me right away, which is a rare feeling for someone who can struggle with fantasy. This book goes in a markedly different direction, following Hannah, whose grief for her mother is making her unsure of how to exist without her. Except maybe she literally doesn’t exist anymore because no one seems to be able to see or hear her. This slippery existence ends up cracking the world open for Hannah. It’s a high-flying premise I’m excited to dive into. Durst’s books have characters I’m instantly drawn to, so I’m hoping this will fit the trend.

If there’s a sapphic book with a Dungeons & Dragons/TTRPG plot, I’m going to read it. Add in a fat main character — look at that adorable cover! — and it shoots to the top of my TBR pile. This is about Hollis, who is trying to reconnect with her boyfriend by learning how to play the TTRPG he is obsessed with…but his group doesn’t allow girlfriends at the table. Good news: Hollis immediately loves the game, too, especially playing with an all-girls group. Bad news: an in-game crush is turning into something real, and Hollis realizes that true romantic connections look very different than her comfortable and distant current relationship.

There’s more to life than romantic relationships, and NPR’s Rhaina Cohen is here to help us think about the possibilities beyond coupledom and the nuclear family. As a (very intentionally) childfree adult, I have a vested interest in the life-sustaining powers of friendship and chosen family. Not to mention that it’s absolutely bonkers that patriarchy and heteronormative culture teach us to expect one person to meet all of our needs and make us happy! This deeply researched book explores alternative ways to organize life and community, and I’m hopeful that it represents a greater shift that will decrease loneliness and increase connection.

A rom-com starring a transmasc professional baseball player — and the cover is so charming! I can’t wait to read it. It follows Gene Ionescu and Luis Estrada, rivals turned teammates thanks to a last-minute trade. As they reluctantly learn to respect each other, they discover that they work well together…on and off the field.

I was completely dazzled by Tommy Orange’s 2018 novel, There There. When I saw he finally had a follow-up, I knew I would read it. I didn’t need to know anything more. Wandering Stars takes readers back to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, follows multiple generations of characters through their time in a Pennsylvania-based residential school, and eventually winds its way to the aftermath of the shooting that took place at the end of Orange’s previous novel. These intertwining narratives are a damning testimony of America’s war on those indigenous to this country.