January 2025 — A New Series for a New Year

New year, new beginnings! Cast aside your tired old resolutions and consider expanding your reading repertoire to include a new series (or two!). It may seem Sisyphean to commit to tackling a large backlist, but there are many shorter series — some complete and some just getting started! You could also try a series in an adjacent genre for a challenge that might be a bit less daunting.

To help those willing to branch out, I am listing some series that have either published a continuing title in 2024 or will be releasing an entry in 2025. I have tried to suggest some lesser-known series, in a variety of genres and lengths. The links below are to the first book in that series, but you can jump in anywhere you would like!

	*Blood and Ash - Jennifer Armentrout* Genre: "Romantasy" "A maiden destined for ascension finds herself torn between duty and forbidden desire for her guard, amidst a fallen kingdom's violent resurgence."
	*Finlay Donovan - Elle Cosimano* Genre: Humorous Mystery "Witty, fast-paced adult mystery series follows struggling suspense novelist and single mom turned-amateur-sleuth Finlay Donovan, whose fiction begins to tread dangerously close to the truth."
	*My Favorite Thing is Monsters - Emil Ferris* Genre: Adult Graphic Novel "The fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes as she tries to solve the murder of her beloved and enigmatic upstairs neighbor."
	*Six Tudor Queens - Alison Weir* Genre: Historical Fiction "A dramatic six-book series in which each novel covers one of King Henry VIII’s wives."
	*Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson* Genre: Fantasy "An epic series about a war between humans and the mysterious Parshendi species on the planet Roshar."
	*Sworn Soldier - T. Kingfisher* Genre: Horror Novella "Centers around Alex Easton, a retired soldier who becomes entangled in supernatural mysteries, reimagining Poe and ancient European myth."
	*Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi* Genre: Translated Literary Fiction/Fantasy "Set in a peculiar bijou back-street Tokyo cafe, where a cup of coffee offers more than just a caffeine buzz, and the opportunity to go back in time is open to anyone who can follow the strange set of rules."
	*Thursday Next - Jasper Fforde* Genre: Fantasy "Follows an ace, time-traveling literary detective who must solve a Genre War and save the Bookworld by entering the classic works she is sworn to protect."
	*Highway 59 - Attica Locke* Genre: Mystery "A black Texas Ranger reluctantly returns to East Texas to solve crimes while navigating long-simmering racial fault lines."
	*The Lost Night Files - Jayne Ann Krentz* Genre: Romantic Suspense "Three women use a cold case podcast to find out the truth of what had been done to alter them on a night none of them can remember."
	*Indian Lake Trilogy - Stephen Graham Jones* Genre: Horror "An obsessed slasher film fan must protect her hometown from a real-life killer who is mirroring the topes that she loves."
	*I.Q. - Joe Ide* Genre: Detective Fiction "Natural genius Isaiah steps up to help solve cases in his neighborhood that the police can't or won't touch."
	*Perveen Mistry - Sujata Massey* Genre: Historical Mystery "Set in the early 1900s in India and inspired in part by India's first female attorney, Mistry is devoted to investigating cases that address women's legal rights."
	*Knockemout - Lucy Score* Genre: Romance "A collection of small-town romance novels centered around the fictional town of Knockemout, Virginia, where residents often settle disputes with fists and beer."
	*The Watchers - A.M. Shine* Genre: Gothic Horror "An eerie, gothic series with Irish folklore elements about unseen creatures who capture humans and observe them like pets."
	*Southern Reach - Jeff VanderMeer* Genre: Climate/Science Fiction "A secret agency that keeps losing researchers sent on expeditions into a place known as Area X, an uninhabited and abandoned coastal area of an unnamed country which nature is gradually reclaiming."
	*Loyal League - Alyssa Cole* Genre: Historical Thriller "Civil War-set trilogy filled with suspense and romance centered on a secret society of Black spies working to topple the Confederacy,"
	*Red Rising - Pierce Brown* Genre: Science Fiction "In the distant future, humanity has expanded onto every planet using terraforming to support life and society has been separated into social castes bioengineered to fulfill various roles."

Summaries adapted from publisher marketing materials

January's Featured Review

The God of the Woods - Liz Moore

A literary mystery that earned this year's Goodreads Choice Award. Complex characters and misdirection are at play, social issues are deftly probed, and the interweaving timelines elevate this whodunnit above the standard fare.

Hop on the Holds List

The Stolen Queen - Fiona Davis

Nemesis – Gregg Hurwitz

Open Season – Jonathan Kellerman

Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 – Lisa Unger

Nobody’s Fool – Harlan Coben

Quote of the Month:

"Wear the old coat, and buy the new book" - Austin Phelps

Bookish News and Links:

Want personalized recommendations? Fill out a questionnaire to get a customized list sent directly to your email

Love Lists? Try these:

Epic Reads suggests 40 book series from a variety of genres that you can consume from start to finish.

Forbes Magazine has compiled a list of what they believe to be the 30 greatest book series.

The 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards, the New York Times top ten of 2024, and the New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 are now available online.

NPR has also updated its "Books We Love" schematic with titles from 2013 through 2024.

Every year, Lit Hub tallies up the results from over 60 lists to create their Ultimate list, ranking how many times books were included in popular "books of 2024" lists.

For you nonfiction fans, Lit Hub has also compiled its list of 50 "Noteworthy" titles for 2024.

Adaptation News: Upcoming movies and shows based on books:

The Netflix adaptation of 100 Years of Solitude based on the masterpiece by Gabriel Garcia Marquez has received some good reviews after its release in mid-December.

For the young and young-at-heart, Paddington in Peru, the third movie based on Michael Bond's beloved bear, will arrive in theaters on January 17.

On January 26, CBS (and Paramount +) will air Watson, a series set following Sherlock Holmes' death, centered on Arthur Conan Doyle's loyal sidekick.

Recent Reads

I have recently finished reading The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim and My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir by Sarah Moss. I also just finished listening to How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

I am currently reading The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. I am also listening to the audiobook of Middle of the Night by Riley Sager.

What is your favorite series? Do you have to start at the beginning of a series or can you hop around? Fill me in: jnmegan@gpl.

Until next time: Be safe, be well, and be well-read!

Joelle

So, who am I, anyway? I am a resident of West Groton, with a husband, 3 children in college (and one at GDRHS) and a Samoyed that keeps my vacuum well-employed. I am currently working part time at the Groton Public Library and in a former life I was a Director or PR/Marketing at a high-tech consulting firm. My BA is in Psychology, but most of my time was spent in college earning a Concentration on the Novel. That is all to say that I make no claims at being an expert of any kind and my thoughts, opinions and mistakes are solely my own. I am just a person whose passion for books has continued to grow from the moment I was first able to grip and gnaw on them. I have been devouring them ever since.

Jan 01, 2025 / Joelle M Egan