Fiction Books By Diverse Authors to Read in 2024
I bring real big book planning energy to the beginning of the year. When you spend December collecting books from everyone’s favorite or most anticipated book lists, it’s hard not to. In addition to the books on The Connected Reader 2024 Read Along list, I’ve made a list of ten fiction books from diverse authors that I’m looking forward to reading in 2024.
What books are on your list? Have you read any of these?
Fiction Books By Diverse Authors I Want To Read In 2024
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
Gonzalez wrote Olga Dies Dreaming, which I read last year and really liked, so I want to check out this new book. Anita de Monte is well-known in the art world in 1980s New York City, and dies unexpectedly. Raquel is a first gen-college student in New York City in 1998, and becomes involved in Anita’s story. Dual perspectives, 80s/90s setting, compelling women characters – let’s go! This one is out March 5.
Oye by Melissa Mogollon
I’m always up for a book with an interesting structure and this looks like it may fit the bill – the story takes place through a phone call conversation. Using that structure, we learn about the main character, Luciana, a high school senior living with her mother and grandmother in Florida, navigating a hurricane, a medical diagnosis, and general family drama. Bonus points because the author is a high school educator. This debut novel is out May 14.
Family Family by Laurie Frankel
Frankel has been a sure bet for a good story the last few years – they’re the author of This is How It Always Is and One Two Three – and this one sounds like it will continue the trend. India is a famous actress working on a new movie that depicts adoption in a way that isn’t true to her experience as an adoptive mother. She says so to a reporter, and chaos ensues. This one is out on January 23.
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
LibroFM
The summary of this book calls it a “love letter to mothers and grandmothers, and to all the women who are still fighting-painfully, ferociously- for a way to live on their own terms” and this is for me. Set in Toronto, this alternates perspectives between 9-year-old Swiv and her grandmother, Elvira. It was recommended by @thecrazybookhoarder in their top books of 2023 and I’m excited to read it this year.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
This one opens in the 1970s in Pennsylvania, where a skeleton is found in a construction site. We are then transported to a community in the past to learn what happened. I saw McBride speak about this book through the Inprint Reading Series in Houston a few months ago and I’ve been meaning to read it ever since. The end of the year is not when I have literary fiction reading energy, though, so beginning of 2024 it is.
The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
The summary of this book is wildly compelling. It takes place in two time periods; the first is The Great Transition – a movement of climate change workers where the two main characters, Kristina and Larch meet. Thirty years later, we are in a post-climate crisis world. Kristina disappears and Larch and their daughter, Emi, search the world for her. I got some Station Eleven vibes from this and I’m very curious. Fun fact: I don’t know this author personally, but they were the same year as me at my college and very involved in politics on campus, so when I saw the name it caught my eye.
Hula by Jasmin Iolani Hakes
LibroFM
I went to Hawaii in 2013 and I was obsessed with our stop at The Bishop Museum, a museum dedicated to Hawaiian history, which I realized I knew very little about. This novel, written from the perspective of Hawaiians, by a Hawaiian author, has me intrigued. This one is from 2023, so it’s available now.
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
I realized this year that I have read zero, or close to it, books by Palestinian authors. Local Houston author, Sim Kern, shared a few recommendations back in the fall and I want to read them this year. This one is about three generations of a Palestinian family and sounds like the kind of epic family story I love. This was published in 2018.
The Apology by Jimin Han
This one is described as a “sweeping intergenerational saga” and that’s all I need to know. But I’ll tell you more: A South Korean women dies at 105 and uses the afterlife to stop a curse from following her family. Ghost stories don’t always work for me but I am really interested in this one.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Even if you don’t use the links, I highly recommend checking out Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for access to tons of titles while still supporting an indie bookstore.
0 Comments