Vulture’s 2024 Books Gift Guide
After a wave of celebrity memoirs last year made finding a gift for the bookish fans in your life easy, we’re left with a relative dearth of dishy autobiographical tomes in 2024 (with the exception of one by Cher, who always keeps the stans fed). In their absence, however, we’ve still found plenty of gossip and behind-the-scenes tidbits in new books about everything from Dorothy Parker’s Hollywood years to Ted Lasso’s bumpy landing. Several new anniversary editions and boxed sets of beloved books were released this year. And when in doubt, you can always consult Vulture’s list of our favorite books of 2024 (though some are safer gifts than others; we’ve included a few best bets below).
Behind-the-Scenes and Gossip
‘How Directors Dress’
Come for the old photos of Spike Lee looking cool on set; stay for the thoughtful essays on the way fashion and film interact. A24’s new book features a foreword from The Souvenir director Joanna Hogg and writing from style journalists (including Hagop Kourounian — a.k.a. @directorfits) about the stories directors tell with their clothes. —Emily Palmer Heller
‘Nora Ephron at the Movies’
Vulture contributor Ilana Kaplan wrote this gorgeously put together book on the queen of rom-coms, Nora Ephron. Much like an Ephron script, Kaplan’s book looks great and reads breezily but with a depth and clear sense of care you won’t find in just any old coffee-table book. —EPH
‘Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts’
If you’ve been seeing all the headlines about Jason Sudeikis comparing Ted Lasso to “live theater” and accusing detractors of its third season of rejecting the show’s mantra to “be curious, not judgmental,” that was from (a panel quoted in) this book. It doubles as a gift for both Ted Lasso defenders who want to celebrate the show’s legacy and Ted Lasso haters who want to find more tidbits to dunk on. —EPH
‘Didion & Babitz’
This book is a perfect gift for one’s creative friends, professional frenemies, L.A. enthusiasts, and ex-boyfriends. The long, intertwined relationship between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz is teased out here. They came in and out of each other’s lives, each other’s writing, and each other’s obsessive thoughts. Friends turned rivals turned strangers, depicted in a gonzo, overly invested frame by Lili Anolik. It’s a must-read for anyone who worries about being too self-centered and mercenary in their work life. It says, “Don’t worry, you could be so, so, so much worse.” —Bethy Squires
‘Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining’
This is a slightly more affordable edition of the enormous compendium of behind-the-scenes ephemera from The Shining (worth $2,500) that Taschen released last year. —Bilge Ebiri
‘Dorothy Parker in Hollywood’
This is far from the only biography of the famously acerbic writer and hotel dweller, but it’s the first to focus specifically on her time in Hollywood — which she said she hated, though she lived there for many years, writing screenplays and working for leftist causes until she was eventually blacklisted and slid into dissolution. Parker had her hand in many film projects, maybe most notably the original A Star Is Born. For one movie called Lady Be Careful, she was asked to water down all the risqué scenes between sailors and women to comply with the Hays Code; instead, she had “the sailors hook up with each other, resulting in the studio reverting to the original story.” —Emma Alpern
‘Cher, The Memoir: Part One’
We’ll just let this excerpt from Cher’s new memoir (part one, which covers everything from her birth through her relationship with — and eventual divorce from — Sonny Bono) speak for itself:
I also found it strange that, practically from the day we met, Sonny didn’t want to go dancing anymore, even though he knew how much I loved it. He realized I was a better dancer, and that made him feel uncomfortable, but he also didn’t want me going dancing on my own either. I guess he was a little possessive, but the idea thrilled me because it meant he cared. Later I would find out that possessive and caring didn’t exactly go hand in hand.
‘Becky Lynch: The Man’
Rebecca Quin had a relatively long and winding journey to the top, and her New York Times best-selling memoir doesn’t shy away from this. As Becky Lynch, Quin became the first woman to win the main event at WrestleMania, a true feat considering she has no family connections to the industry, had actually quit wrestling years before the WWE first hired her, and entered the business when women were treated as little more than oversexualized sideshows. While she’s refreshingly candid about her struggles, she’s relentlessly charming and infectiously positive, making this a simultaneously fun and inspiring read for not just wrestling fans but also any female athletes or big dreamers in your life. —Anne Clark
Anniversary Editions and Rereleases
‘The Wicked Years’
And you thought the Wicked marketing blitz wouldn’t extend to the original source material? The former theater kids in your life may be surprised that Gregory Maguire’s “reimagining” of The Wizard of Oz is way more adult than they remember (there are vivid descriptions of Elphaba’s pubes and nipples, for example), which was understandably tamed down for the Broadway show and Hollywood movie musical. —EPH
‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell,” 20th-Anniversary Edition
This luxe new version of Susanna Clarke’s alternate-history epic — now 20 years old — is 864 pages of pleasure for someone in need of serious escape. Set in 19th-century England during the Napoleonic Wars, the novel is about what happens when the existence of magic is revealed. Also out now: a 60-page companion book called The Wood at Midwinter, which takes place in a different sliver of the same world. —EA
‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’
We still don’t have a release date for Netflix’s adaptation of best seller The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (though we do know Jessica Chastain will definitely not be in it), but in the meantime, there’s this special edition featuring a septet of metallic rings printed along the fore edges. —EPH
‘Mythos: The Illustrated Edition’
Did you know Stephen Fry is a huge Greek-classics nerd? His Mythos was the first in a series of books retelling stories from Greek mythology, which he later turned into a play. (His version of The Odyssey will be out next year.) This new illustrated edition is basically a coffee-table book but one that makes you seem really smart and cultured even if your understanding of Greek myths mostly comes from playing Hades. —EPH
The Last King of California
Novelist and TV writer Jordan Harper’s books She Rides Shotgun and Everybody Knows are marvels of modern crime and neo-noir, engrossing and visceral reads with unforgettably realized characters fighting their way out of grimly bleak circumstances. His latest, The Last King of California, isn’t exactly new, but this is the first time the 2022 novel is available in the U.S. It follows Luke Crosswhite, who returns to a world of motorcycle gangs, crime, and punishing loyalty after his father starts a prison sentence for a murder Luke witnessed. Sons of Anarchy fans, eat it up. — Roxana Hadadi
Best Books of the Year
‘James’
A reimagining of a classic work of art has become a time-honored — if sometimes spotty — pursuit, and with James, Percival Everett creates an original masterpiece that both complements and rivals one of the most iconic American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Written from the perspective of Huck’s loyal companion, the runaway slave Jim (James), the titular adventures of Mark Twain’s book are instead experienced as the life-or-death trials James faces as he evades capture and strategizes a way to free his enslaved family. There are plenty of references to the earlier novel — and there’s still humor to be found despite the constant danger — but Everett grounds the narrative in James’s rich interior life and a larger historical context that brings new depth to familiar characters. This book will stay with you. —Tolly Wright
‘Help Wanted’
Set at a big-box store in upstate New York, Help Wanted recalls Mike White’s Enlightened in its textured portrayal of how small humiliations and injustices at work inevitably boil over into righteous rage. It’s a novel that lingers in the imagination, by which I mean that after you read it, you’ll think of it every time you shop at Target, forever. —Emily Gould
‘The Freaks Came Out to Write’
If you were reading The Village Voice in the 1990s, as I was, it wasn’t as good as it used to be. That was also true ten years later, and 20 years before, and frankly it was probably what people started saying upon reading issue No. 2 in 1955. What the Voice was, inarguably, was shaggy, sometimes underedited, alternately vigorous and undisciplined and brilliant and exhausting and fun. The infighting in its pages and newsroom was relentless, amped up by the very aggressiveness that enabled its reporters and editors to do what they did. You’ll encounter more than one office fistfight in The Freaks Came Out to Write, this oral history by Tricia Romano, who worked there at the very end of its life. She got a huge number of Voice survivors to talk, including almost every living person who played a major role at this beloved, irritating paper, and good archival interviews fill in the gaps. If you read the Voice in its glory days (whenever those were!), you’ll miss it terribly by the end of this book; if you weren’t there, you will be amazed that such a thing not only existed but, for a while, flourished. —Christopher Bonanos
‘All Fours’
An artist of niche celebrity plans to celebrate her 45th birthday by driving alone across the country, from L.A., where she lives with her husband and child, to New York. But when it comes time to hit the road, she finds herself stopping in a nearby suburb, meeting a younger man who works for Hertz, and spending the entirety of her vacation in a motel that she renovates to Paris-inspired perfection for the cool sum of $20,000. It’s not just that Miranda July’s latest novel is so propulsive you may have to cancel plans or set aside PTO just to scarf it down. It’s that her dazzlingly horny intelligence wrestles with marriage, queerness, and desire in ways sweet and hilarious, making even the smallest sizzle. —Jasmine Vojdani
Bonus: Books for Swifties
‘Invisible Strings’
Taylor Swift scholarship is a bona fide academic discipline now — you can take courses on her image and legacy in schools from Harvard to the University of Florida — and professor (and avowed Swiftie) Kristie Frederick Daugherty is doubling down. Over 100 poets were asked to contribute to this anthology edited by Daugherty, including Pulitzer Prize winners, Instapoets, and a U.S. poet laureate. —EPH
‘Unofficial Taylor Swift Crochet’
Now that the Eras Tour is coming to an end, the Swiftie in your life should be ready to channel their creative energies into something other than friendship bracelets. (Yes, there’s a pattern for a red scarf.) —EPH