2024 has begun, and with it, a whole new slate of reading goals! Perhaps you want to pick up a new hobby to meet a New Year's resolution, or want to try new-to-you genres. Another great way to bring in the new year is with a new book series! Here are some great series starters in a variety of genres to get you going.
One of my all-time favorite romance writers is Talia Hibbert, who writes funny, flawed, disabled, fat, and cranky heroines, best known for her steamy Brown sisters series. Start with Get a Life, Chloe Brown, the first in the series. The titular Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer programmer who lives most of her life in a predictable routine. When she narrowly misses getting hit by a car on her daily walk, Chloe decides life is too short to be boring. She creates a list of ways to spice up her life, but never imagines the shake up that comes from her hot new building superintendent, Red. Keep going to see how Chloe's sisters find their happily ever afters!
Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy is sometimes published in full as Lilith's Brood, or you can start with Dawn. This series defies easy explanation but is one of the strangest and most impactful reads of my lifetime. Lilith, a human (you'll see in a second why I clarify that), wakes from a long sleep aboard a spaceship, held by the Oankali, a tentacled alien race that kept humans from extinction and now seeks to breed with them to create superior beings. Questions of bodily autonomy, consent, and freedom are paramount as Lilith navigates her new world throughout the series.
Looking to get into a mystery? Try The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey, the first in the Perveen Mistry series. Set in early 20th-century colonial India, Perveen is the first first female solicitor in Bombay (now called Mumbai) who takes on what should be a simple estate case. After meeting with the three widows of a recently deceased wealthy merchant, Perveen finds the trustee of the estate dead and questions abound. With four in the series and counting, there's plenty more to enjoy for the mystery fans out there.
I believe that YA books are for everyone, and Nnedi Okorafor's Akata fantasy series is no exception, starting with Akata Witch. Set in Nigeria, Sunny was born in New York to Nigerian parents, has albinism, and recently discovered she's a Leopard Person- someone with access to the spiritual world. Soon she's off with new friends to Leopard Knocks, a parallel world where they find their spirit faces and band together to stop a magical serial killer who's wreaking havoc on both worlds. The completed trilogy is a blast from start to finish!
~posted by Jane S.
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