Calling All Bookworms: Here's Everything You Should Read This May
Two wholly engrossing memoirs, a masterful work of literary true crime, a couple of thrilling debuts, a wondrously weird short story collection, and plenty of others-the world's in bloom, and great books will always spring eternal. Here, a sampling of some of the hundreds of books being released this May.
No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DiFranco, May 7
Ani DeFranco has written a memoir as fierce, freewheeling, and passionate as her music. Like Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, No Walls and the Recurring Dream charts the evolution of an artist whose voice couldn’t be suppressed by poverty, by misogyny, by record executives-and we hear it, loud and true.
Furious Hours by Casey Cep, May 7
Harper Lee loved a good true-crime story, as evident by her vital contributions to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. In Cep’s thrilling account of an Alabama murderer, his killer, and the lawyer who got them both off, we get to see the To Kill a Mockingbird author hot on the trail of some slippery characters while she struggles to write a worthy follow-up to her iconic novel.
The Farm by Joanne Ramos, May 7
The 'farm' of this blistering novel's title is a facility at which the one-percenters pay for perfect surrogate pregnancies. Equal parts feminist dystopia and immigrant story, Ramos’s debut couldn’t be more relevant or timely.
Orange World by Karen Russell, May 14
A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her novel Swamplandia!, Russell returns to the short form with a collection in which, for one, a woman agrees to breastfeed the devil in exchange for her child’s protection.
Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene, May 14
With shades of Joan Didion’s Blue Nights, Greene’s memoir about the death of his two-year-old daughter in a freak accident offers purely gorgeous prose and startling insights into the process of grief-but also something even more profound: hope. Have your tissues handy.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins, May 21
Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, Collins's devious, richly detailed debut centers on a slave woman accused of murdering her masters.
Other Books Coming Out in May
MAY 7
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna: A Novel by Juliet Grames
Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself by Dr. Jill Biden
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond
Daughter’s Tale by Armando Lucas Correa
Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage
Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman
The Last Time I Saw You by Liv Constantine
The Yankee Widow by Linda Lael Miller
Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination by Brian Jay Jones
The Kremlin Strike by Dale Brown
Life After Suicide by Jennifer Ashton
Let Love Have the Last Word by Common
The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone
The Killer Across the Table by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
I Ain’t Doin’ It by Heather Land
You, Me, and the Sea by Meg Donohue
Riverdish by Ryan Bloomquist and Samantha Gold
The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt’s Chief of Staff by Phillips Payson O’Brien
How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results by Esther Wojcicki
It’s Great to Suck at Something by Karen Rinaldi
No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DiFranco
CSNY by Peter Doggett
Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations by Craig Ferguson
The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy
Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America by Bill Geist
How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
The Words of My Father by Yousef Bashir
Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner
How to Not Be a Dick by Brother
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
Tightrope by Amanda Quick
Blessing in Disguise by Danielle Steel
The Big Kahuna by Janet Evanovich
Robert B. Parker’s Buckskin by Robert Knott
Moneyland by Oliver Bullough
Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews
Fighting for My Life: How to Thrive in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s by Jamie TenNapel Tyrone, Marwan Noel Sabbagh with John Hanc
MAY 14
The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson
Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer
Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank
The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II by Alex Kershaw
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban
A Dog Named Beautiful: A Marine, a Dog, and a Long Road Trip Home by Rob Kugler
The Song of the Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning
Trust Ya Process by Jeezy and Benjamin Meadows-Ingram
Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher by David Cone and Jack Curry
Just Show Up by Cal Ripken Jr.
If She Wakes by Michael Koryta
KD by Marcus Thompson
The Shadow War by Jim Sciutto
Comedy Sex God by Pete Holmes
Brothers Down by Walter R. Borneman
Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary Armies, Operators, and Assassins by Annie Jacobsen
The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning by Scott Galloway
The Ghost Ships of Archangel by William Geroux
Inside Family Guy by Frazier Moore
One Day I Will Save Myself by Elvira Sastre
Obsoletes by Simeon Mills
The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found by Violet Moller
America Was Hard to Find: A Novel by Kathleen Alcott
A Bend in the Stars by Rachel Barenbaum
The Power Source: The Hidden Key to Ignite Your Core, Empower Your Body, Release Stress, and Re-Align Your Life by Lauren Roxburgh
In Pain by Travis Rieder
Bitten by Kris Newby
Emeralds of Oz by Peter Guzzardi
Kissinger on Kissinger by Winston Lord, introduction by Henry Kissinger
The Night Window by Dean Koontz
My Ex-Best Friend’s Wedding by Wendy Wax
Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football by John Urschel and Louisa Thomas
Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz
The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver
Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel by Casey McQuiston
Last Tango in Cyberspace by Steven Kotler
Naturally Tan by Tan France
The Night Before by Wendy Walker
Transformed: A Navy SEAL’s Unlikely Journey from the Throne of Africa, to the Streets of the Bronx, to Defying All Odds by Remi Adeleke
Life to the Extreme: How a Chaotic Kid Became America’s Favorite Carpenter by Ty Pennington
MAY 21
Strangers and Cousins, by Leah Hager Cohen
Biloxi by Mary Miller
Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall
Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations by Admiral William H. McRaven
Cari Mora: A Novel by Thomas Harris
Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich
Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense by Dan Abrams & David Fisher
Truth Worth Telling by Scott Pelley
All the Way by Joe Namath with Sean Mortimer
Agent of Influence by Jason Hanson
Birthday by Meredith Russo
After Life by Alice Marie Johnson
It’s Hot in the Hamptons by Holly Peterson
Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley
Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke
The Favorite Daughter by Kaira Rouda
Aging Backwards: Fast Track by Miranda Esmonde-White
How to Forget by Kate Mulgrew
Heart of Perfection by Colleen Carroll Campbell
Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak
The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind An American Myth by Josh Levin
Cliff’s Edge by Meg Tilly
Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin
The Impeachers by Brenda Wineapple
Reaper: Threat Zero by Nicholas Irving with A.J. Tata
The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister
MAY 28
Aloha Rodeo by David Wolman and Julian Smith
Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini
Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen
One More Lie by Amy Lloyd
Her Secret Son by Hannah Mary Mckinnon
The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
Keep You Close by Karen Cleveland
The Stiehl Assassin by Terry Brooks
Traitor by David Rothkopf
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
How Not To Die Alone by Richard Roper
The Oracle by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell
Release dates courtesy of Publishers Weekly.
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