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Calling all literary enthusiasts! Are you ready to get your hands on the hottest new reads that will be hitting shelves from July to December 2024? Look no further, because this article has all the details on the most highly anticipated book releases for the second half of 2024. With a mix of genres and authors, these books are sure to captivate readers and make a mark on the literary world. Get ready to expand your reading list as we dive into the top picks for the best July to December 2024 book releases.
(Okay, full disclosure: The above paragraph was written by an AI that analyzed my blog and tried to copy my writing style. How'd it do? I'm a bit disappointed that it didn't mention nachos or make fun of my parents' undying love for Donald Trump. Does this robot even know me? Anyway, I wrote the rest of this post without robot assistance. I promise.)
🌴 Best July-December Book Releases 🎄
I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
Adult Horror
July 16, 2024
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside, through the slasher horror he loves but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
Why I want to read it: It sounds campy but still somewhat deep. I can relate to being a teenage outsider in a small town. I was a weird child. Small towns don't always appreciate weird children. (I wasn't weird enough to serial kill anybody, though.)
Nicked by M.T. Anderson
Adult Historical Fiction
July 23, 2024
The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian port city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to action. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus.
Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for “liberating” holy relics from their tombs. The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas rest in distant Myra, Tyun explains, and they’re rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick. For the humble price of a small fortune, Tyun will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the “dreamer,” will be his guide.
What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides—and alongside even stranger bedfellows—to commit an act of sacrilege.
Why I want to read it: It's based on a true story! That's the quickest way to get my attention in a book blurb. Also, I read the author's other book, Feed, when I was in graduate school. I remember it being creative and funny.
A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher
Adult Fantasy Horror
August 6, 2024
Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.
After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.
Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.
Why I want to read it: I read T. Kingfisher's Nettle & Bone and loved the quirky characters and the humor. I can't wait to read more of her work.
The Seventh Veil Of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Adult Historical Fiction
August 6, 2024
1950s. Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.
So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.
Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.
But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.
Why I want to read it: It's written by the author of Mexican Gothic. I like Mexican Gothic because I'm scared of mushrooms. They know too much. I wonder if this new book will make me scared of anything. I hope so.
Nexus: A Brief History Of Information Networks From The Stone Age To AI by Yuval Noah Harari
Adult Science / Technology Nonfiction
September 10, 2024
Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence. Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
Why I want to read it: The author's other book, Sapiens, gave me a lot to think about. Also, the synopsis of Nexus inspired me to let AI write the opening paragraph of this blog post. I don't think I'll use AI again. I wasn't overly impressed with its intelligence. However, I shouldn't criticize because the AI analyzed my blog. Maybe that means I'm not overly impressed with my own intelligence? Now I'm having a mental crisis.
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
Adult Literary Fiction
September 17, 2024
Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Why I want to read it: I might be the only person who completely adored Leave The World Behind. I haven't seen many good reviews of it. Entitlement doesn't sound like my usual kind of read, but I'm curious! What if I have another unpopular opinion and think it's awesome?
American Scary: A History Of Horror, From Salem To Stephen King And Beyond by Jeremy Dauber
Adult History Nonfiction
October 1, 2024
America is held captive by horror stories. They flicker on the screen of a darkened movie theater and are shared around the campfire. They blare out in tabloid true-crime headlines, and in the worried voices of local news anchors. They are consumed, virally, on the phones in each of our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher worth its salt, we can’t escape the thrall of scary stories. In American Scary, noted cultural historian and Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes the reader to the startling origins of the horror genre in the United States, drawing a surprising through-line between the lingering influence of the European Gothic, the enslaved insurrection tales propagated by slaveholders, and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans, among many others.
Why I want to read it: Because I love horror stories, but I can't explain why. There are a million reasons not to like horror. Maybe I like it because I'm dead inside, and I'm hoping it'll make me feel something. I don't know. Maybe this book knows!
How To Summon A Fairy Godmother by Laura J. Mayo
Adult Fantasy
October 8, 2024
Lady Theodosia Balfour has certainly gotten the short end of the stick—her stepsister, the newly crowned Princess Beatrice, is telling everyone in polite society that Theo, her sister, and their mother are evil, wicked, and horrid people who treated her like a slave. Though Theo knows this isn't exactly true, it seems her life is thoroughly ruined by the rumor. With the Balfour family estate on the verge of bankruptcy, Theo's only path forward is a forced betrothal to the Duke of Snowbell, a foul-tempered geezer who wishes only to use her as a brood mare for spare heirs.
Desperate for help, Theo clings to the only thing that might save her: the rumor of a fairy godmother, one that supposedly helped her stepsister secure a prince. After discovering a way to summon a fairy in Beatrice's old room, Theo thinks her prayers have been answered. But the fairy she meets isn't at all what she imagined. Drop-dead gorgeous, incredibly cunning, and slightly devious, Cecily of the Ash Fairies is much more interested in gathering powerful favors and smoking her pipe than providing charitable magic for humans in a bind.
Before she receives magical assistance, Cecily sets Theo to three tasks, seemingly to prove that Theo is a selfless and kind person, though she begins to suspect there may be more to these tasks than originally stated.
Why I want to read it: Because it sounds funny. One of my goals is to read happier books. This one seems pretty happy.
The Scholar And The Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry
Adult Fantasy
October 22, 2024
Years after a rogue faerie broke free on the battlefields of WWI, killing hundreds and threatening to expose the magical world, the study of faerie magic is forbidden and the doors to faerie country are sealed. But for those who survived, their wounds cannot be fixed by bandages and bedrest. A magical curse requires a magical solution. Clover is determined to find a way to save her brother, Matthew—one of the few survivors of the faerie attack. At Camford, England’s premier magical academy, she’s nobody, just a scholarship witch with no lineage and no connections. But when she catches the eye of golden boy Alden Lennox-Fontaine and his friends, doors that had been previously closed to her are flung open, and she finds herself enmeshed in the glittering and seductive world of the country’s magical aristocrats. Months of joyous friendship and mutual study come crashing down when experiments go awry, and old secrets are unearthed. Years later, when the faerie seals break again, Clover knows it’s because of what they did. And she knows that she must seek the help of people she once called friends—and now doesn’t quite know what to call—if there’s any hope of saving the world as they know it.
Why I want to read it: I can't stop thinking about Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia Of Faeries. I love the world, the concept, the characters, everything. Instead of rereading that book, I should try this one. It sounds similar.
Which new releases are you excited to read?
No mention of nachos? Epic fail, AI. So disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThe Moreno-Garcia book sounds super interesting.
Thanks for sharing. Hope you get a chance to read them
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
I am still trying to wrap my head around the AI paragraph. It definitely seemed like your style. Maybe not as funny.
ReplyDeleteJamie (jannghi.blogspot.com):
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised by the AI paragraph, too. Just how did that happen?
Bwhahah laughing at how badly the AI did at being AJ. You know- this is just more proof that while AI can have its uses, it cannot actually replace real personalities. Also, I did not need more TBR books but now you have me interested in Nicked, and Entitlement. I was already interested in the Teenage Slasher one, and I am reading Sorceress now. It is quite good- very T Kingfisher heh.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't gotten around to Sapiens, but, nevertheless, I think I shall still add Nexus to my list of books I'd like to read before I die.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to I Was a Teenage Slasher! And now I'm adding American Scary to the list because that one sounds SO interesting! In recent years I have discovered that I really like nonfiction books about horror, so this one sounds great to me!
ReplyDelete