New month, new books! Book Light is our Dandelion Chandelier curated list of the most-anticipated new book releases every month, and next up is March 2024. So what are the best new new novels, poetry and essay collections, memoirs and other nonfiction books to read coming out in March 2024? Our intrepid team has been exploring and here’s what we found: 35 new book releases coming soon that we cannot wait to read.
what are the most anticipated new novels and nonfiction book releases for March 2024?
Wondering what to read in March 2024? We’ve surveyed the landscape, and rounded up a list of the best new books coming this March.
The best new new novels, poetry and essay collections, memoirs and other nonfiction books to read coming out in March 2024.
It’s Women’s History Month, and as always there are a number of important new nonfiction books about the contributions, achievements and challenges of women in the U.S and abroad. And in general, there are just a LOT of great new reads coming in this month.
new novels and poetry March 2024
There’s a lot going on the world of fiction this month, including new novels and poetry collections from acclaimed authors including Helen Oyeyemi, Percival Everett, Cristina Henriquez, Xochitl Gonzalez and Téa Obreht. The buzzy debuts include new novels from Jennifer Croft
The best new new novels, poetry and essay collections, memoirs and other non-fiction books to read coming out in March 2024.
new memoirs, essay collections and other nonfiction books March 2024
The new nonfiction releases in March 2024 include essay collections from Morgan Parker, Emily Raboteau and Geraldine DeRuiter. A new work from Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And a treatise on “slow productivity.”
the best new novels and nonfiction books coming in March 2024
Here’s our pick of the top new book releases of March 2024 – novels, poetry and essay collections, memoirs and other nonfiction – that we cannot wait to read. Pre-order your favorites now!
The best most anticipated new novels and nonfiction book releases, with rave reviews, to read among the books coming out in March 2024.
new book releases March 5, 2024
1. Parasol Against the Axe: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi.
In this latest novel from one of our favorite writers, “the Czech capital is a living thing—one that can let you in or spit you out.” Here’s the plot of Parasol Against the Axe. “For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting.”
It sounds as charming and inventive as Gingerbread – and we can’t wait to read it.
2. The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft.
The author is an International Booker Prize-winning translator and Women’s Prize finalist. The plot of her new novel reminds us of one our favorite novels from one of our favorite authors: Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey. In The Extinction of Irena Rey, “eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.” We are All. In.
3. The Great Divide: A Novel by Cristina Henriquez.
The Great Divide is a work of historical fiction about the construction of the Panama Canal. With a kaleidoscopic view of the engineering feat and those who were a part of it, the novel “explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers—those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.”
4. Anita de Monte Laughs Last: A Novel by Xochitl Gonzalez.
This is one of the most anticipated new books of March 2024, surrounded by lots of early buzz. In a plot that reminds us of Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Disorientation (which we loved), Anita de Monte Laughs Last is the tale of a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death. “Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, this is an examination of power, love, and art, asking who gets to be remembered and who is left behind.”
5. Fruit of the Dead: A Novel by Rachel Lyon.
Fruit of the Dead is “a contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld.”
6. Help Wanted: A Novel by Adelle Waldman.
The author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. returns with a new novel that’s a take on work in contemporary America. At a big box store in upstate New York, a group of shift workers band together to get one of them promoted to manager.
7. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport.
In Slow Productivity, the author harnesses the wisdom of historical writers and thinkers to radically transform our modern jobs. “Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – he lays out the key principles of ‘slow productivity,’ a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment.”
8. Can’t We Be Friends: A Novel of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe by Eliza Knight and Denny S. Bryce.
Here’s an interesting and modern twist on the historical novel, just in time for Women’s History Month. Two writers collaborate to write “a novel that uncovers the boundary-breaking, genuine friendship between Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, and iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe.”
9. 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le.
The first work since he published The Boat in 2008, Lit Hub describes this book-length poem as one “that continues to grapple with the complexities and contradictions of the diaspora experience, at once articulating the racism and oppression of life as a refugee while also expressing a need to not be defined by that experience.”
new book releases March 12, 2024
10. Until August: A novel by Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Anne McLean.
Until August is a rediscovered novel from the Nobel Prize–winning author of Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude. “Ana Magdalena Bach has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels by ferry to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.”
11. American Flannel: How a Band of Entrepreneurs Are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home by Steven Kurutz.
In American Flannel, a New York Times reporter traces the journey of entrepreneurs like Bayard Winthrop, who was determined to recreate a favorite shirt of his youth by starting a new apparel company. He shines a light on other trailblazers as well: the “Sock Queen of Alabama;” a pair of father-son shoemakers; and a men’s style blogger who led a campaign to make “Made in the USA” cool.” Could the apparel and accessorie
12. Great Expectations: A Novel by Vinson Cunningham.
Great Expectations is a novel about a young Black man who spends eighteen months working for a young Black Senator’s presidential campaign (think: Obama). “Along the way, he meets a myriad of people who raise a set of questions—questions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhood—that force David to look at his own life anew and come to terms with his identity as a young Black man and father in America.”
13. Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against ‘the Apocalypse’ by Emily Raboteau.
Lessons for Survival is “a probing series of pilgrimages from the perspective of a mother struggling to raise her children to thrive without coming undone in an era of turbulent intersecting crises.” The author goes in search of birds, spending time in city parks where her children may safely play while avoiding pollution, pandemics, and the police. “She bears witness to the inner life of Black womanhood, motherhood, the brutalities and possibilities of cities, while celebrating the beauty and fragility of nature.”
14. If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury by Geraldine DeRuiter.
The James Beard Award–winning blogger behind The Everywhereist shares – in a series of essays – how food and cooking have stoked the flames of her feminism.
15. The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems by Hala Alyan.
In this new collection of poetry, The Moon That Turns You Back, the author “traces the fragmentation of memory, archive, and family—past, present, future—in the face of displacement and war.”
16. You Get What You Pay For: Essays by Morgan Parker.
In You Get What You Pay For, “the author of Magical Negro traces the difficulty and beauty of existing as a Black woman through American history, from the foundational trauma of the slave trade all the way up to Serena Williams and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” It sounds as promising as Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe – let’s hope so.
new book releases March 19, 2024
17. The Morningside: A Novel by Téa Obreht.
The author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland returns with a work of speculative fiction, The Morningside. “After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse.”
18. James: A Novel by Percival Everett.
James, the latest work from the acclaimed novelist, whose book formed the basis for the Oscar-nominated film “American Fiction,” is a reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.
19. Memory Piece: A Novel by Lisa Ko.
The award-winning author of The Leavers returns with Memory Piece, “a new novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life?”
20. Expiration Dates: A Novel by Rebecca Serle.
The author of In Five Years and One Italian Summer returns with Expiration Dates, a whimsical new romance. “Daphne Bell believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together. She has been receiving the numbered papers for over twenty years, always wondering when there might be one without an expiration. Finally, on the night of a blind date at her favorite Los Angeles restaurant, there’s only a name: Jake.”
21. The Black Box: Writing the Race by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Distilled over many years from the author’s Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, “The Black Box is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of legendary writers. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison.”
22. No Judgment: Essays by Lauren Oyler.
In No Judgment, her first collection of essays, the author writes “about topics like the role of gossip in our exponentially communicative society, the rise and proliferation of autofiction, why we’re all so ‘vulnerable’ these days, and her own anxiety.” Or as Lit Hub says, she writes about “revenge, gossip, Goodreads, expats, autofiction, vulnerability, anxiety, and spoilers.” Sounds good!
new book releases March 26, 2024
23. There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib.
“Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, the author witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads him into a lyrical, historical exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models.”
24. On Giving Up by Adam Phillips.
In On Giving Up, the acclaimed psychoanalyst “illuminates both the gaps and the connections between the many ways of giving up and helps us to address the central question: What must we give up in order to feel more alive?”
25. Worry: A Novel by Alexandra Tanner.
Described as “Frances Ha meets No One Is Talking About This, this debut novel follows two siblings-turned-roommates navigating an absurd world on the verge of calamity—a Seinfeldian novel of existentialism and sisterhood.”
most anticipated new novels and non-fiction books coming in March 2024
That’s our take on the best most anticipated new novels and non-fiction book releases with rave reviews to read among the books coming out in March 2024. What’s at the top of your list this month, dear reader?
