The interesting trend I see in this new crop of books on my May 2017 Book List which covers (compiled from PW, Amazon, NYT) mid-March until the end of April is that I see more nonfiction titles than fiction titles. I wonder if all the difficulty we are experiencing in our politics separating real news from fake news, and fact from propaganda or outright lies is fueling a desire to read books that attempt to be based in fact. Another trend also relates to politics because, while our country is responding to the “America First” message and turning its back on globalism, writing is becoming more global than ever before as the nationalities of the published authors show. One constant: so many great books, so little time. I am reading from older lists right now and will not catch up to this list for some time. When I do catch up the novel American War by Omar El Akkad seems like it might suit my politics, sci-fi, apocalyptic tastes. What titles appeal to you?
Publishers Weekly
April 3, 2017
Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution by Peter Andreas (NF)
Flaubert in the Ruins of Paris: The Story of Friendship, a Novel, and a Terrible Year by Peter Brooks (NF)
What Flaubert had just written: Sentimental Education (F)
Marlena by Julie Buntin (F)
The Happy End/All Welcome by Mónica de la Torre (Sounds like a can’t miss Poetry book)
Fever of the Blood by Oscar de Muriel (Mys.)
American War: A Novel by Omar El Akkad
Somebody with a little Hammer by Mary Gaitskill
Prussian Blue: A Bernie Guthrie Novel by Philip Kerr
The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty by Jonathan Morduch and Rachael Schneider (NF)
The Draw: A Memoir by Lee Siegel
God’s Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America by Louis S. Warren (NF)
Foxlowe: A Novel by Eleanor Wasserberg
April 10, 2017
Long Black Veil: A Novel by Jennifer Finney Boylon (Thriller)
The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science by Marcus du Saufoy (NF)
Man’s Better Angels: Romantic Reformers and the Coming of the Civil War by Philip Fibura (NF)
Cruel is the Night by Karo Hämäläinen (F)
Beck by Mal Peet with Meg Rosoff (F)
At the Lightning Field by Laura Raicovich (Essays)
An American Sickness: How Health Care Became Big Business and How You can Take it Back by Elizabeth Rosenthal (NF)
Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage by Dani Shapiro (Memoir)
Darwin’s First Theory: Exploring Darwin’s Quest for a Theory of Earth by Rob Wesson (NF
April 17
The Golden Legend by Nadeem Aslam (F)
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr. (NF)
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (True Crime)
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Helligman (NF)
The Sun King’s Conspiracy by Yves Jégo and Denis Lépée (Thriller)
Bang by Barry Lyga (F)
Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes by Ann Elizabeth Moore (Essays)
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind Rosenberg
April 24
North of Happy by Adi Alsaid (F)
The Whole Together Thing by Ann Brashares (F)
Good Friday on the Rez by David Hugh Bunnell (NF)
The Last Neanderthal by Clair Cameron (NF)
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (Memoir)
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (F)
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (F) (post-apocalyptic journey)
May 1
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (F)
Season of Crimson Blossoms by Akubakar Adam Ibrahim (F)
The Leavers: A Novel by Lisa Ko (F)
One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of this Will Matter by Scaachi Koul (Essays)
The End of Eddy by Edouard Louis (Autobiographical novel)
Ginny Moon: A Novel by Benjamin Ludwig (F)
The Unruly City: Paris, London, and New York in the Age of Revolution by Mike Rapport (NF)
A Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (NF)
Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky (NF)
Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk (F)
Amazon
Editors Picks, Best of the Month
Bear Town: A Novel by Fredrik Backman
American War: A Novel by Omar El Akkad
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (NF)
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: A Novel by Hannah Tinti
The Woman in the Castle: A Novel by Jessica Shattuck
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg, Adam M Grant PhD (NF)
Void Star: A Novel by Zachary Mason
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the People’s Temple by Jeff Guinn (NF)
Nevertheless: A Memoir by Alec Baldwin (Memoir)
Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr (A Bernie Gunther Novel)
Literature and Fiction
The Stars Are Fire: A Novel by Anita Shreve
If We Were Villains: A Novel by M L Rio
The Woman in the Castle: A Novel by Jessica Shattuck
My Cat Yugoslavia: A Novel by Pajtim Statovci, David Hackston
Spoils by Brian Van Reet
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: A Novel by Hannah Tinti
The Half Wives by Stacia Pellietier
What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nineka Arimah
The Practice House by Laura Mitchell
What to Do About the Solomons by Bethany Ball
Marlena by Julie Buntin
All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan, Jessica Cohen
American War by Omar El Akkad
Bear Town by Fredrik Backman
The Last Days of Café Leila by Donia Bijan
Mysteries and Thrillers
Rag Doll by Daniel Cole
Change Agent by Daniel Suarez
Earthly Remains: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon
The Fix by David Baldacci (Amos Decker Series)
One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline
The Devil’s Country by Harry Hunsicker
If We Were Villains by M L Rio
A Criminal Defense by William L Myers Jr.
Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
The Lost Order by Steve Berry
Biographies and Memoirs
When You Find Out the World is Against You by Kelly Oxford
Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce Wars by Daniel J Sharstein
The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince by Mayte Garcia
Richard Nixon: The Life by John Farrell
Sam Shepard: A Life by John J Winters
The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night by Jason Zinoman
Nevertheless: A Memoir by Alec Baldwin
The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History by Stephan Talty
Arnie: The Life of Arnold Palmer by Tom Callahan
New York Times
March 26
The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution by Ganesh Sitaraman (NF)
The One-Cent Magenta by James Barron (NF)
Quicksand by Malen Perrson Giolito (Thriller)
Ties by Domenico Starnone (F)
Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar (F)
Ill Will by Dan Chaon (F)
The Barrowfields by Philip Lewis (F)
Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato (F)
Irish Fiction
Himself by Jess Kidd
Eggshells by Cartriona Lally
Slipping by John Toomey
March 31
The Evangelicals by Francis FitzGerald (NF)
A Novel of the Century by David Bellow (Les Miserables) (NF)
The Price of Illusion by Joan Juliet Buck (NF)
Blitzed by Norman Ohler (NF)
Sex and the Constitution by Geoffrey R Stone (NF)
Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu (NF)
The Unmade Bed by Stepah Marche (NF)
Down City by Leah Carroll (NF)
Reagan Rising by Craig Shirley (NF)
Jerzy by Jerome Charyn (F)
The Idiot by Elif Batuman (F)
Crime Fiction
Earthy Remains by Donna Leon
The Loving Husband by Christobel Kent
Prussions Blue by Philip Kerr
White Tears by Hari Kunzru (F)
Shot Blue by Jesse Ruddock (F)
April 7
An American Sickness by Elizabeth Rosenthal (NF)
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy (NF)
Ice Ghosts by Paul Watson (NF)
By More than Providence by Michael J Green (NF)
No One Cares About Crazy People by Ron Powers
Unwanted Advances by Laura Kipnis (NF)
The Campus Rape Frenzy by K C Johnson and Stuart Taylor Jr (NF)
The Spider Network by David Enrich (NF)
My Darling Detective by Howard Norman (F)
No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts (F)
Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein (NF)
April 14
Nonfiction
Locking Up Our Own by James Forman Jr
A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes
South and West by Joan Didion
Letterman by Jason Zinoman
Who Lost Russia? By Peter Conradi
Never Out of Season by Robert Dunn
Martin Luther by Lyndal Roper
The First Love Story (Minus the Sin and Sexism) by Bruce Feiler
The Chessboard and the Web by Ann-Marie Slaughter
Fiction
The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World by Brian Boyle
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
Sympathy by Olivia Sudijic
The Dhow House by Jean McNeil
What to Do About the Solomons by Bethany Bell
Crime Fiction
Fallout by Sara Paretsky
The Burial Hour by Jeffrey Deaver
The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
A Fever of the Blood by Oscar de Muriel
April 21
Nonfiction
Hamlet Globe to Globe by Dominic Dromgoole
You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn by Wendy Lesser
The Knowledge of Illusion by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernback
What We Can Learn from Falstaff by Harold Bloom
A Rabble of Dead Money by Charles R Morris
Portraits of Courage by George W Bush
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
Madness Rules the Hour by Paul Starobin
Fiction
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
American War by Omar El Akkad
Marlena by Julie Buntin
One of the Boys by Daniel Magarielm
Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
April 28
Fiction
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yaknavitch
Underground Fugue by Margot Singer
Nonfiction
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot
Tell Me How it Ends by Valeria Luiselli
The Givers by David Callahan
The Golden Passport by Duff McDonald
Phenomena by Annie Jacobsen
Mercies in Disguise by Gina Kolata
The Family Gene by Joselin Linder
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http://thearmchairobserver.com/
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So Many Books, Choose Wisely 