Readers know that April was a huge month for excellent books.
(Don’t believe it? Check the links for interviews with Tom Perrotta, Anna Dorn, Yann Martel, Xochitl Gonzalez, Jason Reynolds, Patrick Radden Keefe, Maria Semple and more who published last month.)
And May looks to be packed with terrific reads, too.
So read on for the titles coming out this month, and start planning your May reading days with this collection of fiction, memoir, nonfiction, biography, nature, sci-fi, fantasy and more.
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May 5
“The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of “Olive Kitteridge” returns with a story of a high school teacher in his 50s who must come to terms with a life-changing secret.
“John of John” by Douglas Stuart (Grove Atlantic)
The author talked about the book with our correspondent, discussing his travels to research this story about a father and son, and also why he decided to rewrite the entire second half of the book.
“Platform Decay” by Martha Wells (Tor Books)
Longtime readers know I love Martha Wells’ thrilling and hilarious “Murderbot Diaries” sci-fi series, which has gained fans since the premiere of the Apple TV+ adaptation. Part-human, part-machine, Murderbot would prefer to be left alone by humans so it can watch its serials and soap operas. Relatable, right?
“Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr.” by Lerone Martin (Amistad)
The author, who is the faculty director of the Martin Luther King Institute at Stanford University, explores the young life of the American civil rights hero.
“Wolf, Moon, Dog” by Thomas Wharton (Pegasus)
Wait, so this is a novel about a dog who keeps getting reincarnated over and over throughout history? Yes, please.
“Five Weeks in the Country” by Francine Prose (Harper)
This novel imagines an awkward, real-life encounter when Hans Christian Andersen came to stay at Charles Dickens’s home as the latter’s marriage was falling apart.
May 12
“Radiant Star” by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
Leckie is another sci-fi titan whose novels I enjoy, and this book sees her returning to her Imperial Radch universe. Here’s what she had to say about AI and Octavia E. Butler the last time she and I spoke.
“The Tapestry of Fate: An Amina al-Sirafi Adventure, Book Two” by Shannon Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
In the second novel of the Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, Chakraborty sets her pirate protagonist out onto the high seas for some perilous pilfering after being dragged into her partner’s problems.
“Trail Work: Restoring the Paths and Stories of America’s Public Lands” by Dillon Osleger (Heyday)
Osleger is an ideal guide to California’s trails: The son of two geologists, his childhood babysitter was geologist Eldridge Moores, the main character in John McPhee’s “Assembling California.” A former backcountry ski guide and mountain bike racer, Osleger pores over maps (and quotes Robert Macfarlane) as he takes readers on a journey across trails and over public lands.
“Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000” by Barry Walters (Viking)
Walters, who famously came out in a 1986 Pet Shop Boys review in the Village Voice, looks at how LGBTQ performers, fans and industry types helped to push boundaries and remake the mainstream through music.
This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores
May 19
“On Witness and Respair: Essays” by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner)
Ward, one of America’s finest writers and a two-time National Book Award winner, delivers an eclectic collection of nonfiction pieces, essays and speeches, including one on discovering the work of Southern California’s Octavia E. Butler.
“Palaces of the Crow” by Ray Nayler (MCD)
Nayler, the author behind 2023’s much-loved intelligent octopus novel “The Mountain in the Sea,” returns with a tale of four young people – and some very special crows – caught between the carnage of the advancing armies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.
“Dog Days” by Emily LaBarge (Transit Books)
In this singular work from California’s independent Transit Books, the publisher behind the juggernaut of “I Who Have Never Known Men,” LaBarge crafts a unique, original narrative out of the events and aftermath of her family’s 2009 abduction.
May 26
“The Midnight Train” by Matt Haig (Viking)
The latest from the bestselling author of “The Midnight Library” returns to that world for a tale that’s described as a “magical, time-travelling love story.”
“A Fortune of Sand” by Ruta Sepetys (Ballantine)
Sepetys, one of our finest historical novelists for younger readers (or, really, readers of every age), is publishing her first novel for adults, a glittering, sometimes unsettling look at a high-powered family in 1920s-era Detroit.