Lists
by Powell's Staff, September 29, 2023 9:28 AM
For our final Book Preview of 2024, we thought we’d look at our list by the numbers (since math is such a bookseller forte). On this list, you’ll find 53 books, including 3 memoirs, 4 debut novels, 2 anthologies, 7 follow-ups to debuts that we’ve been rabidly anticipating, 5 new entries into beloved series, and 4 cookbooks. In their blurbs, Powell’s booksellers use words like love (22), funny (6), can’t wait (8), feral (2), spellbinding (1), legendary (2), change (4), hope (3), joy (3), horror/horrifying (7).. to just name a few.
We’re sure you’re going to find so many new books to love on this list. Happy reading!
Jump ahead to: OCTOBER | NOVEMBER | DECEMBER
OCTOBER
by Jesmyn Ward
Sometimes a writer is so good that the mere mention of a new book from them sends a chill down your back. That said, Jesmyn Ward has a new book.
Let Us Descend is a powerful reimagining of American slavery told through Annis, a girl sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her. It is set in the brutal hellscape of the historical reality yet offers repreive in the liberating power of spiritual and ancestral memory. (As Ward said in an interview on the Powell's blog, speaking to the supernatural in Sing, Unburied, Sing: "spiritual legacy allows them, not to transcend their reality, but to access a different understanding of their reality."). Masterful work. As Ta-Nehisi Coates said: “Jesmyn is, quite simply, the best of us.” — Sarah R.
by Benjamin Labatut
I've been anxiously awaiting the release of The MANIAC since reading the author's first book, When We Cease to Understand the World, a brilliant treatise on the human implications of 20th century scientific/mathematical discovery. Labatut is a writer who deals in madness; the central figure of The MANIAC is Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, whose fingerprints trace a path from game theory to AI to the atom bomb. What's most generous about Labatut is that he refuses to moralize about his subjects, instead presenting a spellbinding collection of facts with the occasional flourish of fantasy, as an offering. Curious? Come and see. — Nadia N.
by Elizabeth Hand
A Haunting on the Hill, Elizabeth Hand’s newest (and eeriest) title, is the first officially sanctioned sequel to Shirley Jackson’s legendary The Haunting of Hill House. Those are some big shoes to fill — but Hand is up for the challenge. Our return to Hill House sees the malignant mansion facing off against a group of actors and writers as they come together to practice an original, witchy play ahead of its premiere. The house, of course, finds each of the character’s weak spots and presses, presses, presses until the boiling point hits. I’ll have many of the more horrifying sequences in this book seared in my memory for a while!! — Kelsey F.
by Athena Dixon
Look: there was no way I wasn't going to love this thoughtful essay collection about loneliness (a feeling that's both uniquely isolating and universal)! Athena Dixon is an actual poet, who mixes history, personal stories, pop culture, and more into an absolutely stunning exploration of the self and society; of modern loneliness and what it looks like to be never-alone (see: The Algorithm) but frequently lonely (see: Scrolling The Algorithm). This book will genuinely change your life. — Michelle C.
by Taylor Lorenz
This book from lauded tech reporter and internet-person Taylor Lorenz promises the “story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us.” As a feral child of the internet era, I must say do tell. — Sarah R.
by Ryan La Sala
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, Ryan La Sala understands the assignment. Beholder is infinitely more than what it seems and a masterclass in atmospheric horror. Never before has interior design been wrought into a full-fledged phobia. I'll just add it to the list of weird fears I'm slowly collecting. Thanks a lot, Ryan. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Clarice Lispector (tr. Benjamin Moser)
With the publication of The Apple in the Dark, New Directions concludes their ambitious project of retranslating all of Clarice Lispector's fiction. This book, like many of Lispector's stories, is a sordid tale of a man on the run. His spiritual transfiguration, detailed in enigmatic prose, is a vehicle for the wisdom of this beloved, visionary writer who is finally getting her due in America. Even before its mysteries are revealed, we can expect to be enlightened and changed by The Apple in the Dark. Lispector herself, referring to her fiction, called it "the best one." — Nadia N.
by Lydia Davis
Lydia Davis is a legend for so many reasons: her incredible stories, her incredible essays, her incredible translations, that time she wrote a chapbook about cows. But now we can add “independent bookstore crusader” to the list. Her newest collection, Our Strangers will not be available on Amazon. We adore her; we worship her; and we cannot wait to read this newest collection, which author Catherine Lacey has called “perfect.” — Kelsey F.
by America’s Test Kitchen
America's Test Kitchen (ATK) continues to be an unbiased bastion of light in the corporate-sponsorship-muddled world of modern culinary expertise. Perfect for advanced and beginner cooks alike, ATK reference books are an up-to-date, tried-and-true resource for everything in the kitchen, from recipes to how to choose the right blender. Cheaper than an ATK online membership and more trustworthy than Google, this latest edition is a clear winner. — Laura B.
edited by Jordan Peele
Hello, it’s me, out here screaming about Out There Screaming, the upcoming anthology of new Black horror, edited by none other than Jordan Peele. I mean, excuse me?? Featuring writers like N. K. Jemisin (!!!), Tananarive Due (!!!), Rebecca Roanhorse (!!!), and so many others, this anthology promises to be a new classic. I cannot wait to be thoroughly scared by the stories in it. — Kelsey F.
by Safiya Sinclair
Memoirs written by poets are my absolute favorite type of memoirs and How to Say Babylon is a stunning contribution to its genre. This is a captivating story of Sinclair's struggle to break free of her strict Rastafarian upbringing in Jamaica and reclaim her agency both as a woman and a poet. Sinclair's Cannibal is one of my favorite books of poetry and I was beyond excited to read her memoir. She is an immensely skilled writer whose lyricism shines in every sentence. — Antonia S.
by Bryan Washington
Bryan Washington's Lot and Memorial were two of my favorite queer fiction books of the past five years. I've also loved the food writing Washington's done. Family Meal combines his interests by telling the story of two queer friends examining their history and figuring out their future, while working side by side at a family bakery. Adam P. — Adam P.
by Hailey Piper
I wish this blurb could simply say, "Hailey Piper, I adore you!" You know what? Can it just be that? Fine then. A Light Most Hateful is gonna get real weird right before it gets super demented, but not before it gets oddly beautiful. This one is a journey. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Justin Torres
Blackouts, the long-awaited second book from Justin Torres, uses words and images to attempt to recover and illuminate stories of queer people living in the 20th century. Blackouts doesn't give its secrets away easily, or for free. Torres demands your time and focus, and earns your respect and awe. This is an experimental and moving book, sure to be read and reread in the years to come. — Adam P.
by Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley returns with an action adventure that blurbs have compared to Black Mirror, Julian Barnes, Ralph Ellison, and Jeff VanderMeer. An incredible medley of comparisons that has me highly intrigued. — Olive C.
by Ainslie Hogarth
A new book from author Ainslie Hogarth, whose Motherthing last year was delightfully unnerving! Normal Women promises to be one part existential angst, another part cult story, another part sex-as-healing manifesto, another part mystery. Delicious and horrific. — Olive C.
by Molly Baz
As a self-proclaimed cookbook addict, More Is More has quickly become one of my top picks this year. I love the personal stories Baz shares throughout the book, and the QR codes linking to instructional videos for the more complex recipes are a game-changer. I'll definitely be cooking from this book all winter! — Rudy K.
by Naoise Dolan
I love a wedding, and I love a messy friend group, and love when the two are combined by a literary genius into a glittery, skillful, treat of a novel! Celine and Luke are getting married (probably), and their friends are still in love with them, or very suspicious of them, or watching the drama play out (I relate to this!). Naoise Dolan (of Exciting Times fame!) has written the perfect book for everyone who's ever overheard a bit of gossip about people they don't know and strained to listen harder, or had to struggle their way through any amount of personal growth (so yes, everyone). — Michelle C.
by Teju Cole
We haven't had a new novel from Teju Cole for some time, not since Open City, which was so, so great. That one was in the Sebaldian style of narration in motion across the NYC cityscape at night, and I loved how the narrator's thoughts moved backward and forward, musing across time and space as he walked. Cole grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and his characters tend to straddle Africa and the United States, doing their best to integrate their African and American selves. Everything from the pen of Cole is wondrously complex and thoughtful, and I can't wait for this one! — Jennifer R.
by Molly McGhee
I'm so excited about Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind! Molly McGhee digs into the danger of a dream job (or dream-as-a-modifier job) — in this case, the titular Jonathan has a chance at escaping his crushing debt with a new job entering the literal dreams of workers to make them happier (and therefore more productive). I'm expecting a harrowing look at the lines that get crossed when happiness becomes a tracked metric tied to profit margins, an exploration of the terrifying-and-true business-y phrase, "There's no such thing as work-life balance," and a surrealist gift of a novel that will speak to a very real and encroaching sense of work-forward dystopia. And, every one of the stunning early reviews reference that this debut is funny, which is one of the hardest tricks to pull off! I'm in love. — Michelle C.
by Adam Thirlwell
Here's a fact: sometimes I start reading a book because I like a cover a lot. This was one of those times! It's an excellent cover! Luckily the story inside is just as odd and delightful. Ruinous gossip in the French Republic of Letters. A group of friends banding together to clear a name and change the world. A tale of female friendship, language, and power. They also go to the moon. You know... as one does. — Sarah R.
by Ziwe
No one is better at asking questions than Ziwe! She's iconic, and we're frankly lucky to get a book of essays that brings her unique voice to the many questions around the idea and identity of the "Black friend" in pop culture. Buy this book and get ready to laugh (or laugh uncomfortably while realizing some things about yourself). — Michelle C.
by Melissa Broder
A woman in the shadow of anticipatory grief for her sick husband and aging father takes a solo weekend trip to the desert in hopes of some mental respite. She finds an improbably ancient cactus with a gash in its side. In the gash, a door, which our heroine opens and steps through. After reading Broder's lush, fearless Milk Fed, I would be excited for any new writing of hers, but a "glorious mirage of a book" that's a "brilliant, zany compass, leading us from the sorrow of existence toward the hilarity of someday having to die" (Hilary Leichter, author of Terrace Story)? Is it October 3 yet?? — Claire A.
by Jami Nakamura Lin
I was drawn in by the art, but the writing blew me away. It was just mythos mixed with memory, whimsy mixed with war, and stories within stories. This is a book that you read multiple times and find more and different meaning each time, but that's only half of its charm and magic. — Lindsay P.
by K-Ming Chang
A fever dream about girlhood, friendship, and belonging from a National Book Award Foundation 5 under 35 Honoree — I'm already there. This book sounds so wonderful and so strange. Two young girls, best friends since birth, learn they are descended from a line of dog-headed women and women-headed dogs. They decide to become dogs together, tying a red thread around each of their necks as a tangible sign of their bond, but they get separated and one of them descends into... a dreamworld? An underworld? A place from which her friend must rescue her by rebuilding her human body, wrestling with the joy and horror of intimacy in the process. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, calling the "hallucinogenic prose...wild and alive, a savage yawp of liberating beastliness". I can't wait to experience it for myself October 24! — Claire A.
by Mónica Ojeda (tr. Sarah Booker)
Mónica Ojeda wrote my favorite book from 2022, Jawbone, so when I saw she had a new book coming out (also translated by Sarah Booker), I was rabid for it. And — wow. It’s difficult to know what to say about this book, a swirling, feral narrative about the history behind an online game with a cult following, the siblings that created it, the ethics behind its existence, the very chilling and contradictory descriptions of the game, the other people that circled around the siblings at the time (themselves all interested in different aspects of story and existence). This book is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it’s an incredible achievement and proves what I already knew: that Ojeda is one of my favorite working writers today. — Kelsey F.
by Eskor David Johnson
My roommate and I have been casually searching for a new place to live for over a year where they don't turn the water off without telling you, where the walls aren't paper-thin, and — crucially — where we have in-unit laundry. Apartment hunting is already a farcical nightmare in a capitalist hellscape, and Eskor David Johnson's debut leans into this with one man's specific, fantastical-but-relatable journey for a place to call home — a search that spans terrible housemates, foldout couches, forty-seven lamps, and at least one natural disaster. Also: Kelly Link (the Kelly Link!) called it "an exuberant, maximalist delight." I'm so excited. — Michelle C.
by David R. Slayton
David R. Slayton's Adam Binder series is the queer trailer park fantasy I've always dreamed of. And now he has delivered me... us... a medieval fantasy of epic proportions. An immediate classic, through and through! — Stacy Wayne D.
by Jacqueline Firkins
A second chance at love. A curse. Possibly a few failed attempts at breaking it... This book was cute and witty while tackling the most vulnerable questions that go through our minds during a breakup. Am I worth it? And am I actually cursed? You know! Normal adult stuff! It also happens to have one of the cutest couples of all time. Please, read and swoon. — Lindsay P.
by Zach Schonfeld
Nicholas Cage is one of our most consistently surprising, talented, attracted-to-risk, audacious actors working today. But before there was Nicholas Cage, there was Nicholas Coppola — a young actor, determined to forge his own path, without the help of his famous family’s name. This is the deep dive that Nicholas Cage fans have been waiting for. — Kelsey F.
by Sohla El-Waylly
Sohla El-Waylly. Too good for the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen (they didn’t deserve her!!) but absolutely necessary for your kitchen. I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to cooking but this book is so darn accessible! Start Here doesn’t presume you know what your doing — it says “that’s ok” and helps you learn not only recipes but also the foundational hows and whys that will inspire you to become the home-chef of your dreams. — Sarah R.
by Jon Kung
A co-worker got me excited about this book because they loved Jon's TikTok, and I cannot thank them enough!! The book is full of stunning, accessible recipes and great ideas (all I've ever wanted is one giant meatball with my spaghetti; vegan fried chicken is going to save my family). All of Jon's food is amazing, and this beautiful book is packed with tips and techniques to master the recipes — but I think I'm most excited about how his approach to creating these dishes has me rethinking my personal recipe book and the way everyone's diet and go-to meals are shaped. — Michelle C.
NOVEMBER
by Barbra Streisand
This memoir is going to be nearly 1000 pages long and of course it is! How could it be any shorter! One of the (if not the) most iconic figures of music and film takes to be page to tell the story of her extraordinary career. Wish she would read it to you? You’re in luck: she’s doing the narration on the audiobook! — Sarah R.
by Sigrid Nunez
Sigrid Nunez’s work is such a heartbreaking balm. The Vulnerables, like her other books, aches with pathos and brims with humor, as the narrator looks at the world we live in and what it means to build a life at this moment in time. The Vulnerables goes down easy, but you’ll be thinking about it long after you finish. — Kelsey F.
by Travis Baldree
Bookshops and Bonedust is a love letter to the book all wrapped up in cozy fantasy setting. I fell in love with the dreamy coastal town of Murk, the hodgepodge of memorable characters, and with the joy of finding the right title at the right time. This book left me longing for books I've never read (and for all of Travis Baldree's future books)! — Lindsay P.
by Jesse David Fox
Jesse David Fox has made a career out of loving and thinking about comedy (see: Good One, his podcast where he talks to comedians about their favorite jokes from other comedians). Comedy Book is an invaluable look and critical history of comedy — Fox dives into the interesting questions about how and why comedic moments work, about different eras, the impact comedy has outside the stage, and digs into really specific moments and examples from the last several decades (see: an infamous moment of "too soon" with Gilbert Gottfried). But the really incredible feat Fox pulls off is doing all of this interesting exploration while being entertaining and funny, and avoids stripping out the joy and surprise from a genre that requires both. Or: Fox explains the jokes without doing the famously dull and sweaty act of "explaining the joke." A delight!! — Michelle C.
by Tracy K. Smith
Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of the United States Tracy K. Smith's new book blends lyric memoir, historical documentation, and testament of spiritual practice. Responding to our nation's continued legacy of violent anti-Blackness, she delves into her family history, not only through her ancestors' experiences of racism but of community, resistance, hope, and resilience. She states: "What this process has led me to believe is that all of us, in the here and now, can choose to work alongside the generations that precede us in tending to America’s oldest wounds and meeting the urgencies of our present.” Aleksander Hemon, author of The World and All That It Holds, says, "Smith faces the animal of American history armed with love, metaphor, and enormous courage, and the results are wondrous...A seminal work of American literature." I'm so grateful for this vital, tender book, out November 7. — Claire A.
by Ed Park
Same Bed, Different Dreams is an alternate history that imagines the Korean Provisional Government (an ex-pat run organization that was formed to protest Japanese occupation in 1919 and disbanded after World War II) is still in existence today, and working toward a unified Korea through a giant tech conglomerate. Which means we get to luxuriate in Ed Park's masterful storytelling (never not thinking about Personal Days!) in a deeply researched, deeply compelling speculative book that will consume your attention and shift your view of the world. Ling Ma (of Severance and Bliss Montage!) said it "emits a prismatic intelligence operating on multiple frequencies. I didn’t know I’d been waiting for a book like this until I encountered it." I'm so ready. — Michelle C.
by Rebecca Yarros
I (and basically all of BookTok) loved Fourth Wing. It's been a logistical nightmare trying to keep copies on the store's shelves. I sincerely hope the publisher is better prepared for Iron Flame. I, for one, will be pre-ordering myself a copy, because it's a non-negotiable that I know what's in store for Violet and Xaden. I've been looking forward to this book since the final page of Fourth Wing and its devilish cliff hanger. — Charlotte S.
by E. J. Koh
Ever since reading E. J. Koh’s transcendent memoir, The Magical Language of Others, I knew I’d read anything she writes. Her debut novel, The Liberators, is a sweeping, incredible debut that spans continents and generations. You won’t be able to put it down — I promise. — Kelsey F.
by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks
The cultural influence American Girl dolls had over my childhood cannot be overstated. I had Kirsten, but I'm a Samantha at heart. I would spend hours flipping through their catalogs, reading the books that accompanied each character, and changing my doll's outfits. My mom even helped me organize an American Girl doll club, with invites made on the most adorable American Girl doll stationery. I'll still regularly find myself thinking about American Girl dolls, and I wouldn't have it any other way. American Girl dolls are my Roman Empire and I cannot wait to read Dolls of Our Lives. — Charlotte S.
by Brandon Stosuy and Rose Lazar
I’m a crier. I cry easily and often, and for reasons ranging from unwarranted (can’t open a jar) to unavoidable (unexpectedly hearing the song I listened to over and over and over again as a thirteen-year-old wallowing in the heartache of an unrequited love), and even though the aftershock of every outburst lingers on my face long after (please tell me your home remedies for puffy eyes), I love a good cry. So, when I heard about this “collective, multi-faceted archive of tears,” I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Featuring contributions from everyday people alongside the work of known talents (the three-paragraph Hanif Abdurraqib piece that opens the collection is a stunner), and with beautiful illustrations from Rose Lazar, this anthology is wide-ranging, affirming, cathartic, and contains many good cries. — Tove H.
by Lexi Freiman
A book with a title like The Book of Ayn, with a cover like this? Billed as an irreverent satire that sets its eyes on publishing, class systems, political climates, and so much more? Then, add in a blurb like this from Alexandra Kleeman, "A gimlet-eyed satirist of the cultural morasses and political impasses of our times,” and I’m all the way on board this train. I’m so excited for Freiman to make me laugh, cringe, and sigh (our world is bad!!, etc.) — Kelsey F.
by Joanne McNeil
Lurking is so good, and such a compelling look at how being a person online has evolved in the last few decades. Joanne McNeil's debut novel, Wrong Way, promises to take that wealth of thoughtfulness and knowledge about how tech has crept in and changed us (for better and for worse, but emphasis on worse), and apply it toward a slightly fictional future. Wrong Way follows Teresa, a woman on the edge in the way we're all on the edge (it's capitalism!!), who gets a chance at financial stability as a driver for a driverless car company, and will certainly learn some horrifying things about making choices when the deck is stacked against you and the odds keep getting worse. If you're fascinated by how humans and technology and the world intersect and collide (or if you recognize that that collision impacts pretty much everything else), then you need to read this book. — Michelle C.
by Martha Wells
Oh Murderbot! You're that old friend I’ve been pining to hear from. Granted, one that might not want to be called anything as gushy as “friend” out loud, but still… I’m not embarrassed to admit I’ve missed your rouge SecUnit ways! With a release date of November 17, fall can’t come soon enough!
As if a new Murderbot book isn’t enough, I’m over the moon to hear Martha Wells herself read at the Powells event on release day. Must resist thinking about it all to protect my inner circuitry from overloading! — April C.
Join us for our event with Martha Wells on November 17 at 6 pm at Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing.
by Gabriel Bump
Gabriel Bump's newest book promises to be a fascinating look at humanity, as told through the story of a grief-stricken mother trying to build a new and better society under an abandoned restaurant in rural Massachusetts, the many different folks who are attracted to this experiment, and whether the utopia can survive. Percival Everett called it "funny, sad, sad-funny and funny-sad and just plain smart."
Bonus: read Gabriel Bump's original essay on the Powell's blog from when he released his phenomenal debut, Everywhere You Don't Belong. — Michelle C.
Edited by Carmen Maria Machado and J. Robert Lennon
Introspective, incisive, heartbreaking, brilliant essays about video games (their impact culturally, sure, but also mostly personally) from one of the most unbelievably stacked lineup of writers I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in one volume. For a long time the space where I was meant to write this blurb had 'I'm so exicted omg???' written as a placeholder. After reading, that's still where I land. This topic. These editors. These contributors. Easily my top book of the season. — Sarah R.
by H. E. Edgmon
It's not every day you come across a protagonist that makes you question their motives every single step of the way. Edgmon's mastery of morally gray as a character device is now the blueprint. Delicious in every demonic way, you will be forever changed. Cursed, even. — Stacy Wayne D.
by Lex Croucher
Alice Oseman (of Heartstopper fame) called this book a "delightful, heartwarming, hilarious historical romp, overflowing with queer panic and terrible jokes," and BOY does it deliver on every front. I felt warm and fuzzy my entire readthrough. It's funny and earnest, full of friendship and kindness and dunking on heteronormativity. Reading this book feels like sipping from a sweet cup of perfectly warmed cocoa, made by your favorite local gay barista. — Sophie C.
DECEMBER
by Anthony Veasna So
Most discussions of Anthony Veasna So's writing center around his tragic death. So's first collection of stories, Afterparties, published posthumously, is a shining, devilishly clever love letter to his hometown of Stockton, California. Now we are offered the gift of his unpublished essays, pieces of short fiction, and a draft of his unfinished novel, Straight Thru Cambotown, in the form of Songs on Endless Repeat. Instead of lamenting what So might be writing and publishing were he still alive, it's in our best interest to celebrate all he made in his twenty-eight years on Earth; this collection invites us to do just that. — Nadia N.
by Gabrielle Korn
Set in a dystopic, future Brooklyn, Yours for the Taking follows three women as they get swept up into the strange, enticing, potentially dangerous world of a reclusive billionaire and women’s rights activist. Michelle Hart said, “Yours for the Taking is a spectacular saga about the folly of control and the inheritance of that folly,” and Jill Gutowitz called this one, “a queer love story for the end of the world.” Yes please. — Kelsey F.
by Alice Oseman
Aren’t we so lucky to live in a world where Heartstopper exists? Nick and Charlie are back. They’re in love. University is on the horizon, but I have a suspicion that this series will remain as heartwarming as ever, no matter what this pair of lovebirds faces. — Lucinda G.
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For more reading recommendations, check out our First, Second, and Third editions of the Powell's Book Preview.
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