See PEOPLE’s Must-Read Books of Fall 2024: Best Fiction, Thrillers, Memoirs and More

Mar. 15, 2025

PEOPLE’s must-read fall 2024 books.

With new releases from old favorites like Jami Attenberg, Richard Powers and Roddy Doyle, plus a spate of fabulous newcomers who might become your new author to watch, readers of all ages can spend the fall hitting the books, even if their school days are far behind them.

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In postapocalyptic Manhattan, acid rainstorms have ravaged the city, and Mira’s stranded in a building with ghosts, a headless man and talking roaches. A moving exploration of grief and survival. —Lisa Greissinger

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Orthodox Jewish wife Rina has embraced hard work and self-sacrifice, but when the men of her community engage in wife-swapping, she breaks. Stunning, steamy and unique. —Marion Winik

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Single mom Ivy Cooper, 52, falls hard for sexy younger musician Ansel until his unwillingness to commit gets to her. A searingly honest portrayal of obsessive attachment. —Mary Pols

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Dubliner Paula Spencer is 66, sober, rid of her abusive husband and finally content. But when her daughter moves in with her, she must confront secrets and shame. A riveting, indelible portrait. —Robin Micheli

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The Cohen women’s lives diverge in dramatic ways after the death of their patriarch. As each makes life-altering choices to escape the past, they discover there’s no running from who you are in this dramatic page-turning novel.

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A wedding between terrified North Dakota farmer Gary and former goth Kismet—notwithstanding aspiring home-wrecker Hugo— forms the crux of this heart-wrenching story of how human lives are susceptible to nature’s impact.

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The celebrated chef’s zest, humor and generous spirit come through brilliantly in this captivating fictional take on her WWII work in Asia for a U.S. spy agency. –Robin Micheli

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After she’s turned away from the Waldorf for being an unaccompanied woman, Daisy Harriman hires Gilded Age architect Stanford White to design a clubhouse for women. —Lisa Greissinger

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The wry, charming gay actor David Win, the half-Burmese son of a single mom, begins his story with a prep school scholarship. As his star ascends, England changes too, in dangerous ways. —Marion Winik

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History unspools in this luminous journey that interweaves a 3,000-year-old board game, AI and floating cities. It’s part history of how we got where we are today, part futuristic warning of where we might be headed, and all-around delightful.

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A Connecticut parent can no longer resist becoming the person he’s always been in this singular memoir of transition. Full of unexpected heroes and heart. —Marion Winik

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After his wife, Diana, dies of leukemia, Bock must navigate solo parenting and love after loss, while preserving his wife’s memory for the dynamo at the center of this moving family love story — his daughter. —Andy Abrahams

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Pamela Harriman, who became Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law, a Democratic Party powerhouse and U.S. ambassador to France, aimed to “live a life on her own terms”—and certainly did. —Richard Eisenberg

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In this delightful collection of keenly observed and elegantly written vignettes fromThe Observer’s food writer, he invites us all to embrace those “small moments of joy.”  —Lisa Greissinger

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A hauntingly compelling gothic about five reclusive siblings grieving their mother. They’re stubbornly entrenched in their Appalachian bog, until an unsettling secret comes to light. —Caroline Leavitt

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When the mayor’s wife is murdered at the Shady Palms Corn Festival, one of the Brew-ha Cafe crew is a suspect. Her friends decide to investigate in this witty cozy mystery. —Wadzanai Mhute

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When Clove’s mother is imprisoned for murdering her spouse, Clove starts a new life. But with a possible new trial approaching, Clove is forced to revisit the past in this smart, whiplash suspense. —Caroline Leavitt

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After an acquaintance dies mysteriously and leaves her a house in Ibiza, lonely retired math teacher Grace Winters sets off on a life-changing journey in this wise, inspirational tale. —Mary Pols

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In this back-to-the-future noir set in the all-Black Curdle Creek, widow Osira is catapulted into the past to do penance for the town’s crimes — and her own. Funny and terrifying. —Caroline Leavitt

source: people.com