Jan 3 2024
Books We Want to Read in 2024
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown – Feb. 13, 2024 (Claire)
A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus. A young woman that works in a NYC bookstore has one of her favorite customers die right in front of her. The last book he was reading was “The Book of Doors”
Magical allies, fantasy thriller, reluctant hero, cozy bookstores, and mysterious libraries – yes, please!
Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay (May 2024) (Steph)
bookish book. a librarian gets a job in Ireland, working with her favorite author. She has to deal with her grouchy son who runs her bookstore. Grumpy / sunshine trope.
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perrin (March, 2024) (Claire)
For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.
Debut – English setting
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay (June 2024) (Steph)
Cursed film. In 1993, a group of filmmakers made a movie called Horror Movie, but something happened and only 3 scenes were ever released. Now, 30 years later, there is talk of a Hollywood reboot. Only one cast member remains and he is determined to help get this film out. This author has become pretty popular recently. Cabin at the End of the World and others.
Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford - January, 30, 2024 (Claire)
A woman’s decision to compete in a British Baking Show gives her a new found independence, makes her confront long held secrets and brings new fame. A huge-hearted, redemptive coming-of-old-age tale, a love story, and an ode to good food
Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose (April 2024) (Steph)
Three estranged siblings reunite to settle their mother’s estate after she passes. They find old home videos and decide to watch them. One video shows their father, bloody, and a dead body, and a pact between their parents to get rid of it… then the video ends. Author of The Perfect Marriage.
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr by April 2 (Claire)
Clayton Stumper might be twenty-six years old, but he dresses like your grandpa and drinks sherry like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.
When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton's life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. As Clay begins to unpick the clues, he uncovers something even the Fellowship have never been able to solve—and it's a secret that has the potential to change everything
Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda (April 2024) - Steph
Debut author. A serial killer targeting women in Alaska. Lots of books taking place in Alaska lately and I am here for it! Recommended for fans of Harlan Coben, Lisa Gardener, and true crime junkies.
The Fox Wife by Yangzee Choo (Claire)
Feb 2024 - fantasy set in China in Manchuria, 1908 (read on Netgalley – loved this)
A young woman is found frozen in the snow. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes involved, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and men. Bao, a detective with a reputation for sniffing out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now.
Meanwhile, a family that owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments, but not the curse that afflicts them―their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. Now the only grandson of the family is twenty-three. When a mysterious woman enters their household, their luck seems to change. Or does it? Is their new servant a simple young woman from the north or a fox spirit bent on her own revenge? Dual storyline, magical realism, historical
Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles (April 2024) Stephanie
Dual timeline, based on a true story about an American librarian named Jessie Carson. She takes a leave of absence in 1918 from her job at NYPL to rebuild in France. She establishes the first ever children’s libraries in France… and then disappears. The second timeline is in 1987. A librarian working at NYPL stumbles upon the story of Jessie and becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her. There is almost NO information that I could find about Jessie Carson online, so I need to read this and see if they ever discovered her fate. I am always fascinated by missing persons cases.
Sleeping Giants by Rene Denfeld March 2024 (Claire)
From the bestselling author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted, a compelling and poignant story of sibling bonds, foster children, monsters masquerading as caretakers, terrifying secrets, and the power of love to right even the most egregious wrongs.
Former “If All of Rochester Reads” authorMissing boy was swept away on an Oregon beachSister cares for a polar bear at the local zoo
Happily Never After by Lynn Painter (March 2024) (Steph)
Sophie just found out her fiancé is cheating. She hires Max, a professional wedding objectors, to call off the wedding. Now a fellow love cynic, she wants in as a wedding objector. Can two love cynics fall in love with each other?! Wedding Crashers vibes.
Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon (February 2024) - Claire
A haunting and beautiful memoir from a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot's genocide in the 1970s but who finds hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother's kitchen. With over 20 Khmer recipes included, Slow Noodles will resonate with readers who loved the food and emotional truth of Michelle Zauner's Crying in H Mart, and it has the staying power of Loung Ung's First They Killed My Father. Slow Noodles is a testament to the power of culinary heritage to spark the rebirth of a young woman’s hopes for a beautiful life.
Everest Inc: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World by Will Cockrell (April 2024) (Steph)
One of my weird interests is Mount Everest. 90% of all climbs are now guided expeditions. This book delves into the Himalyan guiding industry. Interviews with climbers, Sherpas, etc. “Armchair Mounaineers.”
Heavy Hitters to Mention (Stephanie)
Knife by Salman Rushdie
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (April 2024): historical fantasy. Not my cup of tea, but she is very beloved. Any recommendations from fantasy readers for beginners?
The Fury by Alex Michaelides (January 2024): author of The Silent Patient. Thriller, group of famous friends whose island trip is upended by murder.
Darling Girls by Sally Hepworh (April 2024): Great thriller writer. I read The Soulmate. This ones involves bones being buried beneath a house.
Bride by Ali Hazelwood (February 2024): Popular romance author (The Love Hypothesis). Writes romcoms about women in STEM field. This is a total departure from her normal novels. Paranormal romance about a vampire and werewolf.
Claire’s Heavy Hitters:
The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley May 2024 (sequel to the Guncle)
Kristin Hannah - the Women Feb 2024 Set in Vietnam War
Funny Story by Emily Henry Daphne moves to her fiance’s lakeside hometown, only for him to dump her for his childhood love. With a dream job of “Children’s Librarian”, Daphne needs a roommate, and of course finds her fiance’s ex-fiance, and of course, love and hijinks ensure. (Claire)
Love the humor in Emily Henry’s romancesThe Main character is a librarian! What else do you need to know!April, 2024 release
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson (heavy hitter)
the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.
April, 2024Author of “The Devil in the White City”
The Hunter by Tana French (heavy hitter?)
It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or less: he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.
Continuation of Cal Hooper story from “The Searcher” March, 2024
