Spring Intern’s Most Anticipated Reads of 2024

Description:

Parasite meets Such a Fun Age in a scorching debut that is as heartbreaking as it is thrilling, examining the intersection of race, class, and female friendship, and the devastating consequences of everyday actions.

What I’m excited about: 

I love stories where a character’s “perfect” life unravels a bit (you’ll see this in some of my other picks, too). Couple that with two mysterious deaths and a double-agent? I know there will be plenty of surprises in this title.

Description:

A gripping memoir of one woman’s self-discovery inside a top Wall Street firm, and an urgent indictment of privilege, extreme wealth, and work culture.

What I’m excited about: 

I have a soft spot for memoirs – an opportunity to embody new people, perspectives,lifestyles and experiences. I also have soft spots for getting the inside scoop on the ultra-rich and the trope of people losing themselves in their work. Naturally, Private Equity is my perfect storm. One sentence from its description really hooked me: “Carrie’s story illuminates the struggle for balance in a world of extremes: efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune.” I can’t wait for this read, which is surely as thrilling as it is reflective.

Description:

Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor, but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.

What I’m excited about: 

Remember when I said I liked when “perfect” lives unravel? The trope is back in this debut thriller, but in a much different way. The protagonist deals with a mental health spiral that leads her to the center of a police investigation. Even she doesn’t know what happened, but she knows she needs to protect her daughter from whatever will happen next. Personally, I haven’t read something similar to this before, and I can’t wait for the story to unfurl.

Description:

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view • From the “literary icon” (Oprah Daily) and Pulitzer Prize Finalist whose novel Erasure is the basis for Cord Jefferson’s critically acclaimed film American Fiction

What I’m excited about: 

I’m committed to giving more classics a shot this year, and what better motivation to finally read Huckleberry Finn than getting to follow it up with a modern retelling by such a celebrated author? The raving reviews have convinced me to add this to my list, including: “One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him” (Kirkus), “Who should read this book? Every single person in the country” (Ann Patchett) and “Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book” (Hernan Diaz, author of Trust)

Description:

Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel has a problem: the legendary Gresham Trust has been depleted by decades of profligate spending, and behind all the magazine covers and Instagram stories manors and yachts lies nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to attend his sister’s wedding at a luxury eco-resort, a veritable who’s-who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs, and seduce a woman with money.

What I’m excited about:

Kevin Kwan’s previous works – the Crazy Rich Asians series and Sex and Vanity – have completely enraptured me before, and I have a feeling he’s going to do it again with Lies and Weddings. Kwan is a master of mixing up money, love, and scandal to create the ultimate rom-com. Need I say more?

Description:

A vivid, blistering memoir that takes readers inside the high-stakes drama and hubris of the trading floor, a rags-to-riches tale of Citibank’s one-time most profitable trader, and why he gave it all up—a Liar’s Poker for a new generation.

What I’m excited about:

For everything I said I was looking forward to in Carrie Sun’s Private Equity, double it for The Trading Game. It’s description reads more like a thriller than a memoir, with phrases like, “Soon you are dreaming of numbers in your sleep—and then you stop sleeping at all” and, “You want to stop, but you can’t. Because nobody ever leaves.” Author Irvine Welsh described it as “The Wolf of Wall Street with a moral compass,” which sounds pretty good to me.