Spring has sprung, and it’s time to settle down, enjoy some fresh air and sunshine, and dive into a new book (or two!). This month, we’ve got fiction of all types, including historical, literary, and a touch of mystery. There’s even a story of a second-chance romance that will tug at your heartstrings. There really is something for every imagination out there on our list of new books to read!
The list is rounded out with a murder mystery hinged around famous cook Julia Child. Happy reading!
Sandy’s Selections for May
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls | Literary Saga
Hang the Moon is a story about the people of Virginia in their complexities, tangled family bonds, and explosive romantic relationships. Epic in scope, the novel is a thrill ride through prohibition and change in the American South, where hucksters and opportunists, fallen women, and upright moralists kept their secrets to the grave.
Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge | Mystery
Mastering The Art of French Murder is set in 1950’s Paris and connects with Julia Child and her famous cookbook. This mystery focuses on Julia’s American best friend when she is trying to protect Julia and her sister from being arrested. A body has been found in their cellar, and the murder weapon found nearby is recognizable — a knife from Julia’s kitchen.
The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel | Nonfiction
Two daughters follow their scientist mother to the Arctic in an attempt to “de-extinct” the woolly mammoth. There, they find a nearly perfectly preserved mammoth and embark on a process to bring it back to life. The Last Animal is about scientific discovery, but it’s also about being a mom to teenage girls and enjoying the chaos of life with family by your side.
My Cousin Maria Schneider by Vanessa Schneider | Memoir
Composed like a posthumous love letter to her cousin, Vanessa Schneider’s memoir captures their sisterly bond with tenderness and grace. My Cousin Maria Schneider is an exquisite portrait of a tragic heroine whose story offers a heartrending example of the cruelty of powerful men. Bertolucci made Maria Schneider a star and ruined her life when he cast her in Last Tango in Paris.
A Woman of Influence by Vanessa Wilkie | Historical Fiction
A Woman of Influence tells the spectacular life story of Alice Spencer, who rose from a family of sixteenth-century sheep farmers to riches and power as the Countess of Derby. This book carefully pieces together the true tales of a remarkable woman who outlasted two husbands, accusations of treason, a family sex scandal, countless lawsuits, and three monarchs.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld | Fiction
Romantic Comedy is set on a fictional TV show, “The Night Owls,” which follows SNL in its format as well as in its penchant for male cast members dating the celebrity hosts. But famous wealthy men that host TNO never find any women cast members attractive. A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love until a handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions.
Happy Place by Emily Henry | Fiction
Every year for the last decade, college sweethearts-turned-engaged couples have joined their friends at a cottage in Maine for a weeklong getaway. But one of the couples broke up five months ago and still hasn’t told their best friends. How hard can it be to fake it for one week? Happy Place is a second-chance romance full of vulnerability, growth, and love that tugs on our heartstrings and gives us higher hopes for love.
In Case You Missed It: Here are Sandy’s Selections from May 2022!
The Worth of Water by Matt Damon and Gary White | Nonfiction
The Worth of Water shares how access to safe water and sanitation has changed the lives of 40 million people around the world. Access to safe water at home turns poverty into possibility — unlocking education, economic opportunity, and improved health. The Worth of Water is involved in the pursuit of clean water for everyone globally.
The Price of a Contract by Ellen Kingman Fisher| Historical Fiction
The Price of a Contract is a captivating love story set in the late 1890s that addresses issues with relationships, personal decisions, and business ethics that are timeless. It’s the story of the westward expansion of America, brought on by the trains and the telegraph during the tumultuous era of greed, political corruption, and inequality of “The Gilded Age.”
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan | Literary Fiction
The Candy House centers on a new technology – “Own Your Unconscious” – that allows people to save and share all their memories. The book uses tweets and emails from the future to illustrate what happens when we have access to each other’s most private thoughts. The Candy House delivers an extraordinary combination of fierce, exhilarating intelligence and heart.
Finding Me by Viola Davis | Biography
Viola Davis is the 56-year-old Oscar, Emmy, and Tony-winning actor and the first Black woman to win the acting triple crown. Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to herself. She hopes that this story will inspire the reader to light up their own life with creative expression and rediscover who they are in the world.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel | Time Travel Fiction
Sea of Tranquility is a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later. Sea of Tranquility is told in multiple time periods, including the far future, and there is a pandemic angle that’s satisfying and well-told. Mandel plays with the idea of parallel worlds and presents a puzzle about the nature of time and reality that surprises again.
The Wise Women by Gina Sorell | Fiction
The Wise Women is a witty and wild novel set in New York City about two adult daughters and their meddling advice columnist mother. As the three women confront the disappointments and heartaches that have accumulated between them over the years, they discover that the future may look different from the one that they expected. That future may even be brighter than they’d hoped.
CLASSIC: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier | Suspense Novel
Rebecca is a 1938 Gothic novel – a psychological thriller about a young woman who becomes obsessed with her husband’s first wife. It spans several themes, including love and marriage, death and memory, justice, and deceit. Rebecca was later adapted for TV, film, and the stage, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Academy Award-winning film (1940), starring Laurence Olivier as Maxim and Joan Fontaine as his second wife.
In Case You Missed It: Here’s Sandy’s May reading list from 2020!
What would you do if you had a chance to see five years into your future? Explore that question, try out new recipes in the kitchen, and get a head start on the soon-to-be BBC drama, Miss Austin, told by Jane Austin’s sister, Cassandra. You will be glued to the edge of your seat with this month’s page-turners.
Always Home by Fanny Singer | Culinary Memoir
Singer and renowned chef Alice Waters’s daughter, Fanny, has written this appetite-stimulating memoir, filled with luscious accounts of food. The 60-friendly recipes use only the finest and freshest ingredients, and many are simple enough to create yourself. The bond with her mother and food has defined this daughter’s life.
Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel | History
This is the third installment of Thomas Cromwell’s rise and fall during the English Reformation and the reign of Henry VIII. The Mirror & The Light is written in a unique style that is rich with memory and metaphor. This is a worthy conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s trilogy, one of the great achievements of English literature in this century. You’ll be able to watch it on PBS soon.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle | Fiction
In Five Years is a story of love and friendship that centers on a young woman who plans her life down to the minute until she experiences a one-hour glimpse of her life five years into the future. Nothing she sees in the dream is what she planned, and nothing is the way she expected.
You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen | Mystery
This three-part suicide and murder mystery is a psychological thriller. You Are Not Alone reveals just enough of what is beneath the surface story to keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s about loneliness and the lengths people will go to to be accepted by the “in-crowd.”
Miss Austen by Gill Hornby | Historical Fiction
Jane Austen’s older sister, Cassandra, is the title character of Miss Austen and is the protector of Jane’s literary legacy. Cassandra is searching for Jane’s lost letters in her duty to locate them and destroy any evidence that might compromise Jane’s reputation. Cassandra finds the letters and re-reads them, remembering the Austens’ wonderful family life. Set to be a BBC drama.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King | Fiction
Writers & Lovers is an extraordinary portrait of a young woman artist when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with humor, heart, and intelligence, it’s an exploration of the terrifying and exhilarating leap taken between one phase of life and the beginning of another.
The Silent Treatment by Abbie Greaves | Fiction
After 40 years of marriage and 6 months of silence, a twisting plot reveals the tragic miscommunications of this broken family. The Silent Treatment is a heartbreaking story of love, parenthood, marriage, and loss that leaves each person grieving that they had failed.
If you are an Amazon Prime member, you get a free Prime Read each month. Right now, our favorite is Close to Home by L.T. Ryan and K.M. Rought.
Read Next:
Sandy’s Selections: February Reading List
