Emma Roberts has been making her love of books known for years, through her book club and online reading community, Belletrist.
In 2017, Roberts and her best friend, Karah Preiss, founded Belletrist, based on their mutual love of reading. Since then, the two have chosen over 70 books for their club, selected on a monthly basis, ranging from fiction to memoir to short story collections.
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âItâs genuinely whatever moves us,â Roberts told PEOPLE about Belletristâs selection process. âBut I will say this ⊠we try to pick books that we read and then need to talk about. Thatâs what makes a good Belletrist pick. You read it and youâre like: I gotta talk to someone about this â now!â
See all of Belletristâs 2024 selections below.
December: Darkly by Marisha Pessl
Arcadia âDiaâ Gannon is surprised when sheâs chosen for an internship with video game empire, Darkly, which is still haunted by the mysterious death of its owner, Louisiana Veda. But in this page-turner, Dia, along with the other interns, uncover even more secrets hidden within the companyâs walls â including the real reason why they landed their coveted jobs.
November: âDidion and Babitzâ by Lili Anolik
Writers Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, who captured â60s and â70s California in their fiction and nonfiction, are now revered as literary icons. This compelling account details the complicated friendship between the two writers, who died just days apart in December 2021.
October: âIntermezzoâ by Sally Rooney
In the wake of their fatherâs death, brothers Peter and Ivan navigate their romantic relationships â and their grief â in very different ways. This period of mourning also marks a new beginning for everyone involved, in Rooneyâs emotional, highly-anticipated fourth novel.
September: âBright I Burnâ by Molly Aitken
In 13th century Ireland, Alice, the daughter of a wealthy innkeeper, has vowed not to be weighed down by family responsibilities like her mother. Instead, Alice embarks on her own business ventures, but as her profit grows and she announces her marriage to her fourth husband (after the mysterious deaths of her previous three), rumors begin to swirl about Aliceâs true intentions.
August: âFive-Star Strangerâ by Kat Tang
The protagonist of this novel is the best-rated man on the Rental Stranger app, which allows people to hire a fake partner, wingman or parent. When a new patron on the app threatens to upend his favorite role â as the pretend father to a young girl â the main character must confront the walls heâs put up, and look back onto his own history of connection.
July: âLong Island Compromiseâ by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
When businessman Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his Long Island home in 1980, the trauma that impacts him and his family will reverberate for generations. Once the Fletchers learn that their fortune is shrinking decades later, Carl, his wife Ruth and their three adult children must reckon with their privilege in the second novel from the author of bestseller Fleishman Is in Trouble.
June: âThe Friday Afternoon Clubâ by Griffin Dunne
Actor, director and producer Griffin Dunne had a memorable upbringing in Hollywood. As the son of journalist Dominick Dunne, and the nephew to writers Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, he was no stranger to wild parties and celebrity encounters growing up. In this moving memoir, Griffin looks back on it all, as well as the tragic murder of his younger sister, Dominique.
May: âWeird Black Girlsâ by Elwin Cotman
Obsession, destruction and more fill the pages of this short story collection, where strange occurrences begin in a Mexican restaurant, a man is able to live through the memories of his lover and a rural town is haunted by child-punishing tree. Humorous and enticing.
April: âMemory Pieceâ by Lisa Ko
Longtime friends Giselle, Ellen and Jackie once had big dreams, but in adulthood, they find their paths diverging. Giselle, a performance artist, is stuck navigating a new social world. Ellen, a community activist, is facing the gentrification of her neighborhood and Jackie, a coder, is trapped within the darker side of wealth and surveillance. This novel follows the trio across decades in a rapidly changing world.
March: âPigletâ by Lottie Hazell
This novelâs protagonist, who canât run away from her childhood nickname Piglet, has a seemingly perfect life: sheâs engaged to her fiancĂ© Kit, she gets along with his upper-class family and she loves her job as a cookbook editor. When Kit unexpectedly betrays her, and the couple decides to go ahead with their wedding plans anyway, Piglet comes to see that there may be more that sheâs hungry for too.
February: âJust Like Homeâ by Sarah Gailey
Vera has long tried to avoid the house where she grew up, along with its dark past. When her mother calls her home, however, Vera learns that a troubling artist has moved in, and that notes written in her dead fatherâs handwriting have started appearing around the home too. A chilling thriller.
January: âHolding Patternâ by Jenny Xie
In this heartfelt novel, Kathleen Cheng returns home to Oakland after a disastrous breakup where sheâs shocked to learn that her mother is getting married to a tech entrepreneur. While Kathleen helps with the wedding preparations, she also takes a new job at an unconventional therapy start-up, which might just help her to reconnect with her mother.
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