EUROPE
“2024” in gold letters in center of graphic. The background is a night sky lit up with golden fireworks. Along the bottom is a white-lined graphic of books lined up with a plant.

2024 book graphic ()

It’s officially 2024! No judgement if you’ve already given up on those New Year’s goals. Whether you have set lofty personal goals or just want to try to fit in something for yourself, there is something on this list for you. We have compiled a combination of books that are meant to inspire, teach or simply, entertain you.

This Time Next Year” by Sophie Cousens (Romance) (Fiction) (2020)

Quinn and Minnie are born in the same hospital, only one minute apart, on New Year’s Eve. They live completely separate lives but find themselves reconnected 30 years later. Will these two find love?

Poetry Prompts: All sorts of ways to start a poem from Joseph Coelho” by Joseph Coelho, Georgie Birkett (Illustrator), Amanda Quartey (Illustrator), Grasya Oliyko (Illustrator), Viola Wang (Illustrator) (Children’s) (Non-Fiction) (2023)

Make poetry fun for kids (and adults) when they are provided different prompts to help them learn how to write and read poems. Examples of prompts include creating a poem that rhymes the words “night” and “bear” and writing a poem creating the rules for a werewolf club.

New Year Nuisance” (Holiday Cozy Mystery #4) by Tonya Kappes (Mystery) (Fiction) (2023)

It’s time for the city of Holiday Junction’s annual Sparkle Ball. Local journalist, Violet Rhinehammer’s best friend has come into the town for the fun event. However, Violet’s plans for fun with friends are dampened when the town troublemaker, Hillary Stevens, is murdered. Violet must solve the murder before the killer strikes again.

The Well-Lived Life: A 102-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age” by Gladys McGarey (Health) (Self-Help) (Non-Fiction) (Memoir) (2023)

At 102 years old, Dr. Gladys McGarey is still a consulting doctor. With this book, she shares her secrets of not only living past 100, but also living happily and well into another century. Dr McGarey, cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association, talks about meeting Gandhi, surviving a heart attack, being a mother of six and so much more.

The Chimes” by Charles Dickens (Classics) (Fantasy) (Fiction) (1844)

This is one of the lesser-known Dickens stories that was originally known as “The Chimes: A Goblin Story or Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In.” This novella introduces a poor man, Toby “Trotty” Veck, who loses faith in humanity and believes that his poverty comes from his unworthiness. On New Year’s Eve, he is visited by spirits that try to convince him that no one is born evil. (I notice a trend of Dickens using visiting spirits in his stories).

Someday, Maybe” by Onyi Nwabineli (Contemporary Fiction) (Mental Health) (Grief) (2022) Trigger Warning (TW): Suicide

On New Year’s Eve, a woman named Eve finds out her supposedly happy husband had just killed himself. This novel, from Eve’s point of view, takes you through her journey of grief and healing.

Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life” by Anna Funder (Biography) (History) (Non-Fiction) (2023)

Many people are aware of George Orwell who wrote the classics “1984” and “Animal Farm.” What many people don’t know is that Orwell’s wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, was influential in Orwell’s life and writing. Funder looks at the private life of the two amidst World War II and the Spanish Civil War.

A Castle in the Clouds” by Kerstin Gier (Young Adult) (Fiction) (Mystery) (2017)

Everyone gathers in the Swiss mountains at an old grand hotel for the famous New Year’s Ball. An intern at the hotel, Sophie, finds herself in the middle of an adventure as it is revealed that some guests are not who they appear to be.

More Daily Veg: No Fuss or Frills, Just Great Vegetarian Food” by Joe Woodhouse (Food) (Cookbook) (Non-Fiction) (2023)

If you are trying to be healthier in the new year, Woodhouse can help you out. Every chapter is themed around a different vegetable and tasty ways you can incorporate it into your everyday diet.

Oona Out of Order” by Margarita Montimore (Science Fiction) (Time Travel) (Fantasy) (2020)

At the stroke of midnight bringing in the year 1983, Oona Lockhart will turn 19 and her life will truly begin. Except, Oona wakes up and suddenly 32 years have gone by. Now she is trapped as a 52-year-old woman with no recollection of the missing decades. She is greeted by a stranger who informs her that at the beginning of every new year, she will leap to another age at random. Follow Oona and her unconventional, out-of-order life where she never knows in what year, trend and fad she will wake up.

author picture
Tamala Malerk is a writer and editor with Stars and Stripes Europe. She has been with SSE since April 2022 writing articles all about travel, lifestyle, community news, military life and more. In May 2022, she earned her Ph.D. in History and promises it is much more relevant to this job than one might think.

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