MAY BOOK CLUB PICKS

Hello, book lovers! From bestselling author duo Christina Lauren’s epic second-chance romance amidst a literal treasure hunt to Akwaeke Emezi’s highly anticipated You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty (the film rights for which sold for a whopping seven figures nearly six months before the novel’s publication), the literary landscape is positively littered with exciting new books. Plus, “Polin” shippers will be delighted to hear that the next season of Netflix’s Bridgerton will focus on Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington. But we’ve got a lot to cover, so without further ado, enjoy this mix of stories from the book world.

STANDOUT READS BOOKTRIB’S DISCUSSING

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren: “For those who have been waiting for a National Treasure or an Indiana Jones-style mystery nestled within a romantic comedy, wait no longer!” In Something Wilder, an adventure guide must lead her ex-boyfriend on an excursion to find Butch Cassidy’s stash of gold. But “if the awesome action-adventure plot doesn’t have you hooked, the second-chance romance will.”

Trust by Hernan Diaz: “Pulitzer Prize Finalist Hernan Diaz presents a story that begins with the accumulation of extraordinary wealth and ends with an illusion of power. A monumental piece of storytelling told in four overlapping sections, Trust defies conventional narrative form, providing different, often conflicting, perspectives on the wealthiest fictional family of the roaring ’20s.”

The Emma Project by Sonali Dev: This unique and captivating spin on Jane Austen’s Emma is sublime romance at its best! Readers find themselves rooting for the characters. “Swooning over their steamy, hidden, forbidden romance. Cheering on their causes. Our hearts breaking over their hidden pains and past hurts. Sighing with satisfaction as these two eventually achieve their hard-earned HEA.”

The Legacy of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson: The Molly Southbourne trilogy introduces readers to a hoard of deadly doppelgängers, and in this Q&A, Thompson explores the human interest in duplication from folklore to psychiatry.

Jon Land’s May Thrill List: In this month’s offerings, villains span from fantastically fictional to terrifyingly true. These selections from thriller expert Land feature authors Jack Carr, Brian Klingborg, Don Bentley and more!

NEWS FROM THE BOOK WORLD

Bridgerton Season 3 Will Focus on Penelope and Colin: The sensational Netflix series plans to “diverge from the order of Julia Quinn’s romance novels,” opting to skip over book 3, “An Offer for a Gentleman, which puts older brother Benedict (Luke Thompson) at the center of the romantic shenanigans” and “ jump ahead to book 4, Romancing Mister Bridgerton.” — Entertainment Weekly

The U.S. Book Show Begins Next Week! “Humorist David Sedaris will open the U.S. Book Show on May 23, livestreaming from Publishers Weekly’s office in Manhattan.” And “Actor and producer Oscar Isaac will appear … Tuesday, May 24 to discuss Head Wounds: Sparrow, a neo-noir graphic novel from Legendary Comics, developed by Isaac and Jason Spire.” — Publishers Weekly

Get Banned Books Delivered to Your Doorstep Via New Subscription Service: In support of the American Library Association’s statements about recent book bans, a Missouri bookshop has created a subscription service called Getting the Banned Back Together, from which a portion of the proceeds benefit another banned books program. — Skylark Bookshop

Hunger Games Prequel Adaptation Casts its Young President Snow: “Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid) is set to play the young Coriolanus, who Donald Sutherland portrayed in the Hunger Games” films, in the forthcoming adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. — Tor.com

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES WORTHY OF NOTE

The Horror Writers Association announces its 2021 Bram Stoker Awards® Winners, including Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw; Yiyun Li Wins the 2022 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story; A. N. Wilson wins the 2021 Plutarch Award for The Mystery of Charles Dickens; Dawn Turner’s Three Girls from Bronzeville wins the inaugural Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award; Wesley Morgan wins the 2022 William E. Colby Award for The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley; Fortnum & Mason announces its 2022 Food & Drink Awards, including six book categories; the African Speculative Fiction Society announces its shortlists for the 2022 Nommo Awards; the shortlist has been announced for the Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize; the shortlist for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction has been announced; and CLMP announces the finalists for the 2022 Firecracker Awards.

MORE BOOKS THE MEDIA’S BUZZING ABOUT

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub: “A love letter to a bygone era on the Upper West Side and a timeless family bond,” Straub’s nostalgic new novel follows a time-traveling daughter wanting to spend time with her aging father. — The New York Times

Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri: “Translating Myself and Others is a reminder, no matter your relationship to translation, of how alive language itself can be. In her essays as in her fiction, Lahiri is a writer of great, quiet elegance.” — NPR

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi: “Emezi’s three-dimensional characters and beautifully descriptive writing pull the novel together.” The author’s first romance story “is a stunning portrait of one woman’s search for beauty and life after trauma.” — The Harvard Crimson

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