Happy 2024 everyone. It’s my first post of the year and it feels good to be starting over again on a new reading year. I’ll be posting my stats and 2023 favorites next week. Until then I’m sharing my first book of 2024 — which is Emma Cline’s novel The Guest, which came out last May. It’s a dark little character study of a transient on Long Island.
I’ll wait to say more when I review it, but Cline will likely become an automatic read for me in the future because although her fiction seems to have a grim edginess to it, she can write like the wind and she remains a young novelist to watch. I liked her creepy 2016 debut novel The Girls and now this one too. Both have a dark vibe to them but also have a perceptive lens on things that’s skewered to perfection.
Now let’s look at what’s releasing this month. I continue to like compiling these Preview posts as they help point me in a direction about what’s coming out and what might be good. First off, I’m curious about the novel Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (due out Jan. 16) about a woman who makes a life for herself among humans in Philadelphia although she is in fact from a faraway planet. She’s been sent here to report back on the oddities of humans, and at a precarious moment she’s urged to share her message with the world.
I think it’s not really hard sci-fi but more literary fiction that’s a comic critique on social conventions of the day. I have not read this author before, but her two other novels 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas and Parakeet were widely praised along with this new one too.
Another highly touted novel is the debut by Leo Vardiashvili called Hard by a Great Forest, due out Jan. 30, which follows a Londoner’s dark journey home to his native country — the former Soviet Republic of Georgia — to search for his missing father and brother. From amid the rubble and rebuilding, the publisher’s blurb says, “one family must rescue one another and put the past to rest; a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is over.”
Written by a refugee from Georgia, who fled the country along with his family when he was 12, this author’s debut is said to be a powerful story about a family’s long-lost homeland.
Next up is Karl Marlantes Cold War suspense novel called Cold Victory (due out Jan. 9),which is set in Finland in 1946 about two military attaches (one American, the other Russian) who challenge each other to a secret 500-kilometer cross-country wilderness ski race. But later the press finds out and spins it into a proxy battle between democracy and communism, upping the ante and the suspense once the race is underway.
I have not read this author yet, but his 2010 debut novel Matterhorn about the Vietnam War is still widely talked about and heralded.
Meanwhile there’s quite a few new TV shows starting this month that might be appealing. HBO has been advertising the heck out of True Detective Season 4 called Night Country (starting Jan. 14 on Max), which stars Jodie Foster as a detective in Alaska who investigates the disappearance of eight men from a research station. Uh-oh. Can Jodie and her partner handle it? There are six episodes, one releasing each Sunday through February. And if you think Alaska looks cold, think again, the series was filmed in Iceland.
Another murder/mystery series is The Woman in the Wall on BBC One starting Jan. 21, which stars Ruth Wilson as a woman who thinks she’s going a bit kooky due to all her sleepwalking when she finds a dead body in her house and she has no idea whose it is. Uh-oh. Will Ruth’s character get a grip in time?
Though maybe the series Expats (starting on Prime Jan. 26) might be better? It’s based on the 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee and follows the lives of a tight-knit group of expatriates that includes Nicole Kidman living in Hong Kong.
Apparently author Janice Y. K. Lee is the daughter of Korean immigrants who grew up in Hong Kong and left for the U.S. with her family when she was 15. Hmm. I remember her novel The Piano Teacher and I’d like to read The Expatriates too — perhaps before seeing the series.
Another series you might watch for is the war drama Masters of the Air (on AppleTV+ starting Jan. 26), which follows the lives of eleven Allied men in a bomber plane who battle German fighters during WWII. It’s a companion series to Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), and has a large cast that includes Austin Butler, who starred in Elvis, as the lead. I repeat: Austin Butler is in this.
Also, speaking of WWII, a powerful and chilling movie looks to be The Zone of Interest (out in wide release Jan. 7), which is based loosely on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, that centers on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss and his wife (played by actress Sandra Huller) as they strive to build a dream life next to the concentration camp. Scary. The movie has received high critical acclaim, so if I can gather my courage, we might see it.
But if that’s too much war for you then you might check out Season 2 of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans on FX starting Jan. 31. I did not see Season 1 of this docudrama series (I’m not even sure we get FX up here?), but that season chronicled the rivalry between Bette Davis (played by Susan Sarandon) and Joan Crawford (played by Jessica Lange) during the filming of the movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Did anyone see Season 1 of Feud? The new season is Capote vs. the Swans which stars a slew of actresses, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Calista Flockhart, Naomi Watts, and Diane Lane among others. So see what you think.
And lastly in music releases I’ll pick the new album by Green Day called Saviors, which is their fourteenth studio album due out on Jan. 19. The band will embark on a large world tour thereafter. My husband and I once saw them in concert in Ottawa and it was fun, but I’m pretty old now, lol. Here’s the band’s new song called The American Dream Is Killing Me and the zombie video that goes with it. Lol.
That’s all for now. What about you — which releases are you looking forward to it? Happy 2024.
Happy New Year, Susan! Lots of goodies in your post. I wanted to read The Guest last year, but I got distracted by other shiny things. 🙂 I’ll be watching True Detective from the beginning; I never got to see it before so, with the new season coming out, maybe late February will be a good time to start. I’ll be reading short backreads in January. I’ll start February with The Heiress, a January release, and go from there. Happy reading this month!
Hi Carmen, good to hear what you’re dipping into this month. I didn’t find much in terms of books in January that I’m really dying to get to. So I’m mostly reading 2023 books. The Guest is sort of easy & quick. Nothing dense.
We watched a couple seasons of True Detective which were pretty good but not all of the seasons. Some seasons seemed so creepy and harsh that it was like: ick. But for Jodie Foster in Alaska we will return, lol.
We picked up some cold sickness so we’re not starting off 2024 great here. Argh. but alas “sick reading” is steady if you stay in bed. Cheers. Happy month to you.
Get well soon! Happy reading.
thanks Carmen. being sick is dreadful. I’m hoping it’ll be short.
Another Canadian here. I loved Feud and believe we watched it on Disney+. So excited they have a season 2 about Capote and the Swans. Melanie Benjamin wrote a terrific book about that subject. Lots of fun!
Hi Jen, thanks for stopping by. Glad to hear you loved Season 1 of Feud & where you watched it. Yeah I remember a lot of people liking the Melanie Benjamin book. It was popular and I was wondering if the show was based on that book but no — apparently it’s based on another book by Laurence Leamer about Capote.
The actresses seem to be great in both seasons. Enjoy Season 2!
Oh I will have to look for that book! Thank you!
I know I’m a bit curious about the book too. Cheers!
Happy New Year to you, Susan! Hope 2024 is a good one for all of us. I enjoy reading your ‘what’s coming’ posts, though I do think our tastes diverge in reading. Me, a nice murder (not necessarily a ‘cozy’ murder) is best. Ha! I just want to get my ‘reading’ hat back on and get rid of my ‘worry about things’ hat. Sigh. I want to fall into book after book. My goal for 2024. Take care and hope you guys have a nice winter!
Hey thanks Kay. It’s been awhile. Glad to hear from you. I hope you get back to your blog, reading, and less worries! I see you’re more a murder/mystery reader — still I like seeing what you pick up. Sometimes in a blue moon, I’ll pick one up too. Like in my last post I reviewed City Under One Roof … which was a murder / crime book. My favorite crime book last year was probably Dennis Lehane’s novel Small Mercies, wow. But general mysteries I don’t read much.
Wishing you much fun & reading in 2024.
An interesting preview as always. I’ll be checking some of these out over the next weeks. And a very happy 2024 to you. May it be full of good books and no stinkers!
Thanks Dorothy. I’ll try to navigate away from the stinkers. We’ll see.
Happy 2024 & reading to you as well!
You’re off to a roaring start, and as usual I’m taking note of several of your suggestions. Capote vs. The Swans is both kind of weird and kind of fascinating in a literary sense to me…maybe just seeing “Capote” in the title pushed that button. Of the other series you mention, the only ones available to me at the moment will be the fourth season of True Detective on HBO and Expats on Prime. I’ve only watched the first two seasons of True Detective but was impressed by both. I like the standalone aspect of that series, how each season is a whole new ballgame regarding plot and cast.
Emma Cline is a new name to me, so thanks for putting her on my radar. Karl Malantes, on the other hand, is someone I always look for but hadn’t spotted the new one yet. His work is all over the map, and it’s really hard to predict what kind of book he will do next.
Hi Sam, so have you read Karl Malantes? His big novel Matterhorn? A couple people I know said it was really good. But I saw a couple reviews about his new novel that says it doesn’t pick up until the very end. So I’m not sure that bodes well. It could be slow in parts.
Not sure I can get the Capote show here. but True Detective looks good and maybe Expats. See what you think. & Emma Cline is a diamond in the rough, ha.
Enjoy your weekend.
Happy New Year! I look forward to see your stats and 2023 favourites next week. I’ve heard other readers talk about The Guest, hope you are enjoying it! I haven’t really started my reading year yet, but I did acquire lot of books over Christmas, so there is enough to choose from.
Hi Stargazer, Happy New Year to you as well. I hope you got a lot of good books for Christmas. Were they the ones you asked for? I finished The Guest today and it was good stuff. A bit dark /edgy but Cline is sharp.
I need to organize and see what I read this past year and what my favorites are.
Happy reading to you in 2024! Don’t work too hard.
Hi Susan, Happy New Year! And I never got around to reading Emma Cline’s The Girls but as I understand derstand it’s sort of a fictionalized novel about The Manson women and how one young woman is lured into the cult. It’s creepy but I gather very psychologically fascinating. Why do people join up with cults like this? What are they running from and hope to find? And I am a true crime fan, Dateline NBC, Forensic files etc
Hi Kathy, Yes I read Emma Cline’s The Girls — and it is as you describe it. If you like true crime — I think you’d like the book. It does a good job of putting you at the scene of this girl’s awakening in this cult. It’s unsettling. Her novel The Guest is slightly similar in ways to that book … with a protagonist that’s a bit of an outsider who does bad things. Hmm. It’ll be interesting to see what she writes next. Cheers & Happy 2024.
Thanks for the previews! I’ll look for The Woman in the Wall and Expats.
Good Joy. Those two shows look entertaining. Happy New Year!
Happy to hear your first read of the year was a hit. It’s wonderful to find a new author to love. I like the look of that series with Jodie Foster. I’ll have to see if I have a way of watching it. I always like Nicole Kidman too, so I’ll have to check that one out.
Hi Rachel, Happy New Year to you. Yeah those two shows caught my eye. I hope they’ll be good. Enjoy your weekend.
I really like the sound of Beautyland, but I’m sad to see that it is not at any of the libraries near me. Well, it’s still early days for that book, so I’ll look again in a few weeks.
I am still looking forward to seeing some of the 2023 movies, especially Oppenheimer. I don’t have anything on my list yet for movies and tv shows that are coming out in 2024.
Hi Deb, Beautyland isn’t at my library either. In fact, I just looked up all three titles on my list above and they aren’t on order either, which is strange. Perhaps our library is cutting back — though these are big titles! I will wait.
We liked Oppenheimer — though one thread seemed a bit more captivating than the other. See what you think. & Have a great weekend.
Those sound like some good series, especially the Jodie Foster/Detective in Alaska one. Thanks for the list. Happy watching in 2024.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thanks Mae. I hope you had fun in Costa Rica! There are quite a few new series starting this month that look pretty good. Good for cold winter nights. Lol. Happy 2024.
I liked Cline’s The Girls, but I haven’t read any of her other books. Maybe this year. And you always find such good shows to watch! Can’t wait to check some of them out. Happy January! 😀
Thanks Lark. Many new shows! The Girls novel was pretty creepy. Her next one has some similar vibes to it. But I think her writing is getting better. Enjoy your weekend.
So much to look forward to in January! I just got copies of First Lie Wins and Interesting Facts About Science (a novel… I am intrigued).
Have a great week!
Hi Helen: I’ve seen First Lie Wins around and it looks good. I’ll look to see what you think of it. There are a lot of shows in January. Hmm. Enjoy!
Happy 2024 to you, too!
We haven’t watched any of the True Detective shows, but I’ve always been a fan of Jodi Foster and might have to give this progam a try. I think we still have HBO. The Woman in the Wall sounds great/creepy, too! Might be too creepy for me, though. Now, Expats looks like something I can handle. I love Nicole Kidman… never read the book, so I won’t feel compelled to compare it against the series. Looks good! And as a HUGE fan of Band of Brothers, I can hardly wait to start watching Masters of the Air. Somehow we missed The Pacific. Thank you for letting us know about all of these releases.
Hope you get some snow this week!
Hi Lesley, we are getting snow! Yay. Though by Thurs & Fri they are forecasting -20F. Yikes. That’s tough. Puzzle time?
There’s a bunch of good shows this month. We haven’t started any yet but will take them as they come. Masters of the Air looks good. We watched episodes of The Pacific but not the full thing. Hope you enjoy some of these.
I was impressed with your puzzle and might be ready to start one. Cheers. Happy reading./&watching.
Thanks for the heads up about Masters of the Air–I will definitely look for it. My father was a RAF pilot in WWII, and mercifully survived or I wouldn’t be here, so this is a subject near and dear to my heart. And yes to Austin Butler! 🙂
Hi Jane, that’s amazing to hear about your father. It brings perspective to the whole series when you think about him and others there. I will be watching too. Happy 2024.
Happy New Year Susan! Hope you are having a great start to the year. I have not read Emma Cline yet but look forward to your review of this book. I am curious about the series The Expats. I read the book several years ago and enjoyed it so I may have to look into this. I am quite looking forward to True Detective though as I do like Jodie Foster and thought the series was interesting, especially the first season was really good.
Hi Iliana, I’d like to read The Expats too. I’m on the wait list at the library. Also we’ve liked some of the seasons True Detective and I expect with Jodie Foster … we won’t miss it either. Happy watching & reading in the new year!
Happy New Year, Susan. I look forward to reading your thoughts on The Guest. I don’t think I’ve read anything by Emma Cline. I always enjoy seeing which releases you will highlight each month. Beautyland sounds intriguing. Hard by a Great Forest appeals to me too. I may have to check out Expats. I told my husband this morning we may have to temporarily subscribe to the service that has Station Eleven just so I can see that. We’ve been mostly rewatching Doctor Who, trying to catch up to where we left off so we can then finally watch the newer seasons. We’re quite behind, sadly. We have also been watching the new Percy Jackson series on Disney+ and enjoying it. I hope you have a wonderful January!
Hi LF: You know I don’t think I know the series Doctor Who or Percy Jackson. So I’ll have look for those. I didn’t end up watching the series Station Eleven but maybe I’ll go back to it. It was a bit different than the book or my imaginings of it — so I afraid to watch it, lol.
I think you might like Emma Cline’s first novel The Girls … since it’s a California / Manson kind of story. It’s creepy but also quite innocent about these girls who become followers in a cult. It’s a quick read. Cline is a talented writer.
Enjoy your week.& thanks for visiting.