Favorite Library and Indie May Titles
Genres dominate the May LibraryReads List, with two Fantasy novels, two Science Fiction picks, two Crime stories, rounded out by one chick lit and a few literary titles.
Called a stand-alone fairy tale for adults, Naomi Novik’s Uprooted (RH/Del Rey; OverDrive Sample) is the top pick this month. Lucy Lockley of St. Charles City-County Library (MO) offers this description of the Fantasy:
“A young girl is unexpectedly uprooted from her family and becomes involved in a centuries-old battle with The Wood, a malevolent entity which destroys anyone it touches. Fast-paced, with magic, mystery and romance, Novik’s stand-alone novel is a fairy tale for adults.”
The second fantasy, again with a fairy tale feel, is Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (Bloomsbury USA Children’s; OverDrive Sample), a YA book with cross over appeal. Jessica C. Williams, Westlake Porter Public Library (OH) says:
“The human world is in peril. Feyre, a semi-literate girl, hunts for her family’s survival. After she kills an enormous wolf, a fierce fey shows up at her doorstep seeking retribution. Feyre is led to beautiful eternal springs, but the journey is not without danger. Maas masterfully pulls the reader into this new dark fantasy series which feels like a mix of fairy tales, from Beauty and the Beast to Tam Lin.”
The May Indie Next List of 20 titles offers a different distribution – and no overlap with the LibraryReads list.
The list is notable this month for the large number of debuts among the marquee names such as Anne Enright, Lisa Scottoline, Greg Iles, and Matthew Pearl.
Well-known poet Elizabeth Alexander earns the #1 pick for her debut memoir The Light of the World (Hachette/Grand Central; Grand Central Audio; OverDrive Sample), and receives this glowing annotation:
“It is hard to find the right words to do justice to this very special book. Yes, it is by one of our greatest contemporary poets, Elizabeth Alexander, who wrote ‘Praise Song for the Day’ for President Obama’s first inauguration, so the language is gorgeous. And yes, it is a memoir of losing her husband at a young age and so it is, in parts, gut-wrenchingly sad. And yes, it is an ode to an extraordinary man we come to feel we know as an artist, chef, father, friend, and lover. But, above all, it is as beautiful a love story as I have ever read, and it lifts readers up and gives us hope and makes us believe. I will urge it on everyone I know.” —Carole Horne, Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Among the many other debuts is The Turner House by Angela Flournoy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample) which receives an equally appreciative description:
“The greatest testament to the skill of a writer is the ability to make what might seem alien to the reader completely recognizable and utterly engaging. Such was my experience reading The Turner House. Mine is a tiny white family from a small town with no sense of heritage, yet every moment I spent with the Turners — a family of 13 children shaped by the Great Migration to Detroit — I felt at home. Their struggles and joys are universal, yet told with an exacting eye that always finds the perfect detail. This is a truly impressive debut.” —Kim Fox, Schuler Books & Music, Grand Rapids, MI