7 Books I Plan to Read in 2024

Like many readers, I’m a lot better at adding books to my TBR than I am at moving books from my “Want to Read” shelf on Goodreads to the “Read” shelf. I’ve decided that one of my goals for 2024 is to clear out some of my backlist and read books that I already own before I buy new ones. There are plenty of books on my selves that I already own and everyone keeps telling me I “have to read”. With that in mind, here are seven books I plan to read this year.

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He’s good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he’s also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.

In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio’s timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors’ crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.

Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He’s going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn’t get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He’ll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him.

In The Cut by Michael Lockett

Life in Appalachia is like a kid standing in the center of a seesaw. It’s a fragile balance, somewhere between the old world and the new, flat-broke or getting by, rooted in place or getting out. Sometimes, folks here lose footing, lean too far one way or another. If one end of the seesaw comes down hard, it knocks them right off. These are stories of hard-scrapped, everyday Appalachians. Think laid off miners, moms who garden and can food, gravediggers, dishwashers, Mennonite farmers, and big-box store cashiers. They inhabit hollers, rust belt towns, trailer courts, and farms. In the Cut , A teen faces a pregnancy scare as a mountaintop removal mining operation threatens her home. A twenty-something Chile’s dishwasher returns to his small town from the city to deal with his hoarder mom and her pet raccoon. A third grader destroys a schoolmate’s Lisa Frank art kit after her methed-out mom crashes into a small-town football hero’s car, and two moms come face-to-face in the checkout line at Walmart after their daughters plan to run-off to Florida and things end tragically. But it’s not hardship that defines these folks. Rather, it’s their dynamic nature, their resilience that spurs them to get on with life the best they can. With little resources, no easy pass, no money-bought solution, no ready way out, In the Cut will leave you somewhere between the balance and the fall.

Peace and Turmoil by Elliot Brooks

Thirty years of peace have graced the lands of Abra’am. The waning bloodshed from the War of Fire has ended, and the new generations have only the horrid tales of their forefathers to remind them of their countries’ pasts. Poverty no longer prevails, the sights and palms of men have grown soft, yet four nations dictate more power than they know. Civil unrest stirs amongst the first, the heir to the throne of Mesidia and the Guardian to its Dagger questioned by a growing rebellion. To its south lies a country of scholars, the mighty nation of Xenith, liberators of the War of Fire and Guardians of the Amulet. Over the Dividing Wall lives the newly freed Sadie, a kingdom with an assassin for a prince and an insurgence at its heels. The fourth is the ancient realm of Eve, the Land Across the Sea, gifted and cursed with the Sight as it shows them what’s to come. 

Only one knows the fate of the world, but all will be pawns in its reckoning. 

Branches by Adam Peter Johnson

For one man, the past few years have been a downward spiral. A series of debilitating seizures. The sudden loss of his mother. The rise of a fascist leader and a successful coup to retain power—a nightmare that unfolds through endless doomscrolling online and threatens the safety of his suburban middle-class family.

After a series of tests, he’s shocked to discover the explanation for his seizures: he’s been living in the wrong universe. A drug trial promises to return him to the timeline where he belongs. With his job gone and tanks in the streets, he jumps at the opportunity.

Take a trip through alternate timelines filled with surprises and second chances. Travel paths not taken. Question the nature of fate. And search for an answer to the biggest question of all: in a world that feels like it’s spinning out of control, is it possible for one person to make a difference?

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he’ll return the world’s captured gods.

Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can’t control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can’t hurt those she loves. Again.

But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn’t learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole.

So, those are the seven books I want to read this year. There are plenty of other books I want to read, but I’m going to make a concerted effort to read these seven in particular.

Are there any books you want to read this year? Have you read any of the books on this list?

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