All the Lists Say These Are the Best Queer Books of 2024
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The Best Queer Books of 2024, According to All the Lists
During the “Best Books of the Year” season, I’ve been going through and picking out which queer books get featured on the biggest lists. My plan was to mash all this information together into a Frankensteined spreadsheet and then share with you the queer books included on the most “best of” lists. Luckily, I was saved a step, because LitHub already made an Ultimate Best Books of 2024 List that includes best-of lists from 39 outlets. I just went through that and pulled out the queer books.
The Best Books Coming Out in January
Honing in on January, specifically, there’s already a lot to celebrate. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón has a new kids’ picture book that’s been illustrated by Gaby D’Alessandro—And, Too, the Fox—and a West African trickster god makes an appearance in the magical middle grade novel As You Wish by Nashae Jones.
In nonfiction, Preston Lauterbach’s Before Elvis: The African American Musicians Who Made the King is coming out just as conversations about the Black origins of American music have resurfaced again with certain reactions to Beyoncé’s cowboy/Texas/country-centered halftime show on Christmas.
January’s Best Book Club Books
I like the idea of taking a step back and reflecting on the previous year as a group. In fact, January might be the perfect time to have a low-key meet-up where your book club members are just chilling and thinking of how they want the club to look in the coming year. If you do decide to restructure things, I’ve got a few articles that could help you breathe fresh life into things: there’s one focused on virtual book clubs, one that rounds up 2025 book groups, and if you’re looking for monthly pick inspo, our 2025 Read Harder Challenge tasks are already out.
But, if you’re just trying to see what January has in store for now, there’s a new reality bender from Han Kang, the story of a real-life Black opera singer born during slavery, a shimmering romantic fantasy steeped in Chinese mythology, and more.
The Best (and Worst) Sci-Fi Movies of All Time & More SFF Links
You know how I love a list! Since we have already covered the supposed best sci-fi movie, let’s end it with this list from Collider about 10 of the worst. And much like the best movie, I don’t think I would have come up with any of these except Plan 9 from Outer Space, but that’s the movie’s whole thing—it’s famous for being the worst. That’s like someone asking you to recommend a shoe brand and you say, “Nike.” Everyone already knows Nike!
The Best Audiobooks of 2024, and More Library News
“Hour upon hour, residents marched to the lectern—grandparents, home-schoolers, veterans, teachers, merchants, farmers, students—an unlikely cross-section of this little community united in one mission: defending their public library against what they saw as a hostile takeover by the Warren County Board of Supervisors. It didn’t work. The all-Republican board voted 4-1 early Wednesday to take greater control over Samuels Public Library, which was honored as Virginia’s 2024 Library of the Year but has clashed with conservative county leaders over LGBTQ-themed books and now finds its future plunged into uncertainty.” The Samuels Public Library just keeps taking hit after hit after hit.
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