In addition to favorite books from last year, it looks like there are some great reads coming out in 2024. 

Start the year out with a trip back to the ‘80s. Set to come out in the US on January 9, Boy George’s memoir, Karma, is sure to be as entertaining as its charismatic subject. The famous frontman for Culture Club and LGBTQ activist has always had a way with words and this book is sure to be as colorful as its subject. 

 

Daisy Goodwin, the force behind Victoria, takes on opera signer Maria Callas in Diva, to be published January 23. The book is a fictionalization of Callas’s rise to international stardom from her beginnings in Nazi-occupied Greece, to her affair with Aristotle Onassis, to the aftermath of that affair when she was replaced by Jacqueline Kennedy in Onassis’s affections. Triumphing over heartbreak sounds like a great way to start the year.

One of the most unusual publications of the year is sure to be Until August, a rediscovered novel penned by Nobel prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez, who passed away in 2014. In what could be the ultimate twist on a girls’ trip, every year, the happily married Ana Magdalena Bach travels to the island where her mother is buried and spends one night with a new lover. I usually just go to a spa, but whatever works for you.  Billed as “a meditation on freedom, regret, self-transformation, and the mysteries of love,’ this surprising offering will be out in March.

Also on the horizon is a a new book of short stories from A Gentleman in Moscow author, Amor Towles. Look for Table for Two to be out in April. They said that the name of the collection came from the realization that “in many of the stories, a critical moment in the tale involved two of the characters facing each other across a kitchen table.”

Food writer Ruth Reichl tries her hand at fiction with The Paris Novel. Set in 1980s Paris, a young American woman discovers food, a vintage dress, and a mysterious painting while making her way in the City of Lights.   

The always-readable Kevin Kwan of Crazy Rich Asians fame will be back in May with Lies and Weddings. Rufus, the future Earl of Greshambury and son of a Hong King supermodel, has been charged with saving the family fortunes by marrying money. However, his heart belongs to the girl next door. Of course, this dilemma results in international travel, adventure, murder, money, and fun. 

Note to friends: if you have a house in Ibiza, feel free to leave it to me in your will. This is the rough premise of The Midnight Library author Matt Haig’s new book, The Life Impossible, set to come out in September. The retired and widowed Grace travels to Ibiza to deal with her new inheritance and her life takes “unexpected turns.” Like getting a free house in Ibiza.