May 2019 Book List

May 2019 Book List

Don’t judge a book by its title. If you paste the title or type it into Google or Amazon you can get a nice brief summary of the book. I have marked some books that I like with an asterisk. This does not mean that you will like these titles best. I sometimes get a brief description of a book as I am compiling this list but I don’t do a search about every book. Keep your eyes open and you will begin to hear which new books create a buzz on people’s reading lists that is reflected on the internet. If you don’t pay any attention to book talk and like to pick your own selections just dip in and start reading. Summer is coming. Some people get lots of reading done in summer, perhaps on vacations. (Probably not if you have young children.) So many good books, so little time.

Amazon

Literature and Fiction

Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Riots I Have Known by Ryan Chapman

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna: A Novel by Juliet Grames

Walking on the Ceiling: A Novel by Aysegul Savas

Correspondents by Tim Murphy *

The Guest Book: A Novel by Sarah Blake

The Farm: A Novel by Joanne Ramos

Like Lions: A Novel by Brian Panowich

A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do: A Novel by Pete Fromm

The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel by Sara Collins

Mystery and Thrillers

Little Darlings: A Novel by Melanie Golding

Like Lions: A Novel by Brian Panowich

The Paris Diversion: A Novel by Chris Pavone

The Road to Grantchester by James Runcie

The Night Before: A Novel by Wendy Walker

Cari Mora: A Novel by Thomas Harris

The Rationing: A Novel by Charles Whellan

The Last Time I Saw You: A Novel by Liv Constantine

The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver

The Satapur Moontstone (A Perveen Mistry Novel) by Sujata Massey

Biographies and Memoirs

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich

The Apology by Eve Ensler

No Walls and the Recurring Dream: A Memoir by Ani DiFranco

Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the America Century by George Packer

The Deer Camp: A Memoir of a Father, a Family, and the Land that Healed Them by Dean Kulpers

Nothing’s Bad Luck: the Lives of Warren Zevon by C M Kushins

Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations Hallucinations, and Observations by Craig Ferguson

How to Forget: A Daughter’s Memoir by Kate Mulgrew

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark

Nonfiction

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich

The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California by Mark Arax

The Darkest Places: Unsolved Mysteries, True Crimes, and Harrowing Disasters in the Wild by the Editors of Outside Magazine

The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Hotel Marmont by Shawn Levy

Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond *

Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule in the World by Oliver Bullough *

The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics that Helped America Win the Cold War by Antonio J Mendez, Jonna Mendez *

Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life is What You Make It by Adam Savage

Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Last Tango in Cyberspace: A Novel by Steven Lotter

Breach (An Analog Novel) by Eliot Peper

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

The New York Times Book Review

April 5th

Fiction

Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger

Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad

The Blind Worm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha

The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander “Like a JDate for the Dead”

Nonfiction

Skeleton Keys by Brian Switek

Horizon by Barry Lopez

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young (Essays)

Coders by Clive Thompson *

Solitary by Albert Woodfox *

The Club by Leo Damrosch *

The Empire and the Five Kings by Bernard-Henri Lévy

Gullible Superpower by Ted Galen Carpenter

April 12th

Fiction

The River by Peter Heller *

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

The Altruists by Andrew Ridker (Humor)

Women Talking by Miriam Toews

River of Fire by Quirrtulain Hyder

The Alarming Palsy of James Orr by Tom Lee

Nonfiction

Charged by Emily Bazelon

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

Hale by Marc Weitzmann

The Last Stone by Mark Bowden (True Crime)

The Lion’s Den by Susie Linfield (Essay)

All You Leave Behind by Erin Lee Carr

April 19th

Nonfiction

Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert a Caro, Private Eye

Falter by Bill McKibbens

Running Home by Katie Arnold *

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T. Kira Madden

The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of my Father by Janny Scott

The Absent Head by Suzannah Lessard

Ben Hecht by Adina Hoffman

The Notorious Ben Hecht by Julien Gorbach

Fiction

The Club by Takis Würger

Outside Looking In by T C Boyle

A Wonderful Stroke of Luck by Ann Beattie *

Little Boy by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Short Stories)

Naamah by Sarah Blake

Crime

Neon Prey by John Sandford

Who Slays the Wicked by C S Harris

Lights! Camera! Puzzles! By Parnell Hall

The Missing Corpse by Sorcha McDonagh

Fiction

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson

Make Me a City by Jonathan Carr

The Shortlist

That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung

Sing To It by Amy Hempel (Short Stories)

Aerialists by Mark Meyer

April 26th

Nonfiction

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Webb

Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich

Unbecoming by Anuradha Bhagwati

American Messiahs by Adam Morris

What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forché

Greek to Me by Mary Norris

What Blest Genius by Andrew McConnell Scott

Shakespeare’s Library by Stuart Kells

Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Biased by Jennifer L Eberhardt

Fiction

A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian

Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin

The New Me by Halle Butler

Publisher’s Weekly

April 5th

Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud (Short Story)

Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon (NF)

Working: Research, Interviewing, Writing by Robert A Caro (Essays)

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (F)

Confessions of an Innocent Man: A Novel by David R Dow (F)

Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza (F)

The Parisian: A Novel by Isabella Hammad (F) *

Freedom’s Detectives: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan and the Man Who Masterminded America’s First War on Terror by Charles Lane (NF)

Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration by Leonard S Marcus (NF)

Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi (NF)

Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories by Maxim Osipov, trans. from Russian by Boris Dralyuk, Alexandra Fleming and Anne Marie Jackson (Short Stories)

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (NF)

Tombland by C J Sansom (F)

The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaunghnessy (Short Stories)

Fame Adjacent by Sarah Skilton (F)

April 12th

Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren by Colin Asher (Bio)

Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer (Memoir)

Nest of the Monarch by Kay Kenyon (3rd in a series) (F)

Falter: Has the Human Gene Begun to Play Itself Out by Bill McKibben (NF)

Hacking Life: Systematized Living and It’s Discontents by Joseph M Reagle Jr. (NF)

Alice’s Island by Daniel Sánchez Avévalo, trans. from Spanish by the author

Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe by Ella Frances Sanders (NF) *

Clyde Fans by Seth (Graphic Novel)

Flowers Over the Inferno by Ilaria Tati, trans. from Italian by Eken Oklap (Crime novel)

The Polyglot Lovers by Lina Wolff, trans. from Swedish by Saskla Vogel (F) *

April 19th

Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein (F) *

Flowers of Mold by Ha Seong-nan, trans. from Korean by Janet Hong (Short Stories)

Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall (Triple Bio)

The Heartland: An American History by Kristin L Hoganson (NF)

Bitter by Francesca Jakobi (F)

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (F) “the novel loses steam”

Hawk Parable by Tyler Myles (F)

Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse (Fantasy)

Appendix Project: Talks and Essays by Kate Zambreno (Essays)

April 29 th

Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Marlo Benedetti, trans. from Spanish by Nick Caistor (F)

The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 by Ian Kershaw (NF) *

The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation by Matthew McGough (True Crime)

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon (F)

Star by Yukio Mishima, trans. from Japanese by Sam Bett (F)

The Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern by Robert Morrison (NF)*

Waste Tide by Chen Qinfan, trans. from Chinese by Ken Lui (F) *

The Ardlamont Mystery: The Real-Life Story Behind the Creation of Sherlock Holmes by Daniel Smith (NF)

A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas (F)

Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Michael Zuckoff (NF)