May 2018 Book List

I did not include all the interesting lists from editors, publisher’s and readers for Summer Reading suggestions but you might want to Google them. Some people like to choose a long and meaty selection that will occupy them for most of the summer, some people like lighter fare, such as romances or stories that happen near beaches, some want thrillers or detective stories. We are so rich in writers and good books that it should not be difficult to find something engrossing to read while you soak up sun (or lounge in dappled shade).

Amazon

Literature and Fiction

A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers

Alternative Remedies for Loss by Joanna Cantor

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin

My Ex-Life: A Novel by Stephen McCauley

Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd

The Mars Room: A Novel by Rachel Kusher

Warlight: A Novel by Michael Ondaatje

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood

Tin Man by Sarah Winman

Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by Jess Kidd

Love and Ruin by Paula McClain

Mysteries and Thriller

The Mars Room: A Novel by Rachel Kushner

Star of the North by D B John

It Ends with Her by Brianna Labuskes

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll

Wicked River: A Novel by Jenny Milchman

How it Happened by Michael Koryta

The Dark Angel (Ruth Galloway Mysteries) by Elly Griffiths

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura, Kalau Almony

Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall

The Outsider by Stephen King

A Million Drops by Victor de Ánbol, Lisa Dillman

Biographies and Memoirs

Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn

From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia by Michael McFaul

The Electric Woman: A Memoir of Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine

Robin by Dave Itzkoff

Figures in a Landscape: People and Places by Paul Theroux

Spring by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Tip of the Iceberg: My 3,000-Mile Journey Around Wild Alaska, The Last Great American Frontier by Mark Adams

The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life by Richard Russo

Kickflip Boys: A Memoir of Freedom, Rebellion, and the Chaos of Fatherhood by Neal Thompson

The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West by John Branch

Nonfiction

Talking to my Daughter About the Economy or, How Capitalism Works – and How it Fails by Yanis Varoufakis

Bull Shit Jobs: A Theory by David Graebar

Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James Fellows, Deborah Fellows

Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica: A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, America’s Sport of the Future since 1972 by Roger Bennett, Michael Davies

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt PhD

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia by Mark Galeotti

The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester

Sex Money Murder: A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal by Jonathan Green

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock by Steven Hyden

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

Kickflip Boys by Neal Thompson

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariner’s, One Megastorm and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Only Human (The Themis Files) by Sylvain Neuvel

The Plastic Magician (A Paper Magician Novel) by Charlie N. Holmberg

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

Furyborn (The Empiricum Trilogy) by Claire Legrand

Medusa Uploaded (The Medusa Cycle) by Emily Devenport

In the Region of the Summer Stars (Eirlandia) by Stephen R. Lawhead

Dark Queen (Jane Yellowstone) by Faith Hunter

Artificial Condition: The Murderbot  Diaries by Martha Wells

The Poppy War: A Novel by R F Kuang

King of the Ashes: Book One of the Firemane Saga by Raymond E Feist

Time Was by Ian McDonald

 

NY Times Book Review

 

Apr. 8

Fiction

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

Gun Love by Jennifer Clement

Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen

Tangerine by Christine Mangan

Nonfiction

Russian Roulette by Michael Isikoff and David Corn

Educated by Tara Westover

Blue Dreams by Lauren Slater

Never Remember by Masha Gessen and Misha Friedman

Alt-Right by Mike Wendling

No Turning Back by Rania Abouzeid

I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone

The Making of a Dream by Laura Wides-Muñoz

Watch One with the Gipper: An Aide Recalls Movie Nights with the Reagans by Mark Weinberg

Apr. 13

Fiction

Overstory by Richard Powers

The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman

Stray City by Chelsey Johnson

American Histories by John Edgar Wideman

The Sandman by Lars Kepler

The Ghost Notebooks by Ben Donick

Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue Halpern

Crime Fiction

The Cutting Edge by Jeffrey Deaver

Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry

Black and White Ball by Loren D. Estleman

Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr

Nonfiction

A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

Thinking Without a Banister by Hannah Arendt (essays)

The Marshall Plan by Benn Steil

The Art of Screen Time by Anya Kamenetz

Be the Parent, Please by Naomi Schaefer Riley

To Change the Church by Ross Douthat

A Dangerous Woman by Susan Ronald

Apr. 20

Fiction

Macbeth by Jo Nesbo

The Bible of Dirty Jokes by Eileen Pollack

The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser

Happiness by Aminatta Forna

Paris Metro by Wendall Steavenson

Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles

Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson

The Queens of Innishear by Tessa Gratton

Nonfiction

Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddes

Picasso and the Painting that Shocked the World by Miles J Unger

The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison

Look Alive Out There (essays) by Sloane Crosley

Maker of Patterns by Freeman Dyson

Apr. 27

Fiction

Going for a Beer by Robert Coover

The Only Story by Julian Barnes

If We Had Known by Elise Juska

How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister

Census by Jesse Ball

Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff by Sean Penn

Nonfiction

God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright

State of Resistance by Manuel Pastor

The Promise and the Dream by David Margolick

Make Trouble (Memoir) by Cecile Roberts

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport

Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race by Tim Fernholz

Sharp: The Women Who Make an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean

Wrestling with the Devil by Ngugiwa Thiong’o

The Beekeeper by Dunya Mikhail

 

Publisher’s Weekly

Apr. 6

Dictionary Stories by Jez Burrows (F)

Sharp: The Women Who Make an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean (NF)

The Cutting Edge: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffrey Deaver (F)

The Dark Clouds Shining (last in a quartet) by David Downing

The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World’s Rarest Species by Carlos Magdalena (NF)

Circe by Madeline Miller (F)

Blackfish City by Sam J Miller (F)

A Necessary Evil by Abir Mukherjee (F)

Demi-gods by Eliza Robertson (F)

Apr. 13

Beyond the Map: Unruly Enclaves, Ghostly Places, Emerging Lands and Our Search for New Utopias by Alastair Bonnett

The Little Art(Memoir) by Kate Briggs

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee (NF)

The Art of the Wasted Day by Patricia Hampl (F)

The Human Instinct: How we Evolvedto Have Reason,Consciousness, and Free Will by Kenneth Miller (NF)

Postcards from Auschwitz by Daniel P Reynolds (NF)

Foxby Dubravka Ugresic trans. From the Croatian by Elias-Bursac and David Williams (F)

Apr. 20

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte (NF)

Companions by Christina Hesselholdt, trans from the Danish, by Paul Russell Garnett (NF)

The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe by David I Kertzer (NF)

Beneath the Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King (NF)

Theory of the Bastards by Audrey Schulman (F)

Property by Lionel Shriver (F)

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld (F)

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History of the Century by Kirk W Johnson (F)

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamarlya and Elizabeth Weil (F)

The Art of Reading (Essays) by Damon Young (NF)

Apr. 30

The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel (F)

Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau, trans from the French and Creoleby Linda Coverdale (F)

Sorority by Genevieve Sly Crane (F)

The Electric Women: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine

Alter Ego: A Jonathan Stride Novel by Brian Freeman (F)

Motherhood by Sheila Heti (F)

Tradition by Brendan Kiely (F-YA)

Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience(Memoir) by Allison Pataki

Exit Strategy by Charlton Pettus (F)

Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna by Edith Sheffer (NF)

Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade (NF)

Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon (NF)