May 2026 list by Donalee Jacobs |
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Boring Asian Female
by Canwen Xu
Elizabeth Zhang knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her dream: Harvard Law School. When Harvard rejects her for not standing out enough her life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate, got in. Elizabeth can't figure out why Laura was accepted? What makes her so interesting? At first, she follows her because she's just curious, but the only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot. A spot that she'll simply have to take back. Layered and subversive, this novel highlights how societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures can unlock the darkest parts of a person and reveal how far they're willing to go to achieve their vision of success.
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The Calamity Club
by Kathryn Stockett
Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. Abandoned by her mother, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable girls at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates--and Meg's--converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.
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Confessions of an Amateur Sleuth
by Lynn Cahoon
Twenty-something bookseller and sleuth Meg Gates has a confession: solving crimes may be easier than writing. She's been working on a guide to becoming a detective but needs a how-to in order to write her how-to. At the Bainbridge Island writers' group, she meets freelance food critic Lee Anderson, who invites her to join him for dinner at the Local Crab so he won't be suspected of reviewing the place. Lee is a bit of a crab himself and intends to do a hatchet job on the eatery. Instead, someone does a job on the critic -- he's found dead by the marina. Now Bainbridge's culinary elite are on the suspect list. With help from her beau, Dalton, and the Mystery Crew at Island Books, Meg once again dons her sleuthing cap to solve the mystery du jour.
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Dark Is When the Devil Comes
by Daisy Pearce
The woods are known as the place to avoid. What goes in, doesn't come out. Hazel has been gone from her small hometown of Idless in the English countryside for years. Now returned in the wake of a traumatic divorce and crumbling personal life, her plans are to lay low at her parents' vacated house, reconnect with her prickly sister Cathy, and slowly get back on her feet. Cathy is surprised when Hazel doesn't show and something isn't adding up. Other people in town whisper of a threat that can't be shaken. The woods are known for being restless. And Cathy knows the old saying. If you go looking for trouble, you just might find it.
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Dear Monica Lewinsky
by Julia Langbein
In 1998 Jean Dornan had an affair with her professor. When that professor invites her to his retirement ceremony, Jean becomes desperate to understand why this relationship derailed her life. She rereads her old diaries and is shocked to realize her affair occurred during the Lewinsky scandal. In a frenzy of guilt and regret, Jean prays to Monica Lewinsky for forgiveness. To Jean’s surprise, Saint Monica appears and guides Jean back to the summer of 1998. Told in flashbacks, replete with Saint Monica’s flinty, fiery insights and interspersed with retellings of the lives of real historical martyrs, Dear Monica Lewinsky is a tender, hilarious, and original examination of desire and its costs, and of defeat and renewal.
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Don't Tell Me How It Ends
by Adrienne Thurman
When Kaia Harper's pregnant and newly single sister calls for help, Kaia returns to suburban Connecticut...and her sister's new matchmaking company. Kaia's views on love are as bleak as her career prospects, but she figures she can suffer through some dates as the inaugural client for her sister. When Ro Jackson finds Kaia stalled on the side of the road, he isn't put off by her attitude. His steady disposition is Kaia's opposite and he becomes a friend who can handle her just as she is. But as Ro talks Kaia through a summer of failed matches, she finds herself drawn to more than just his poetic outlook and friendship. Kaia hadn't seen this one coming, but as she and Ro grow closer, she'll have to decide what's more important: needing to know the end of every story, or jumping into the unknown.
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Five
by Ilona Bannister
Five introduces readers to five random people waiting for a train. In five minutes the next train to London will arrive, killing one of them. But before this happens you will learn their stories. Readers might fall in love with the young man on the verge of gambling his life away. They may pity the old woman who has fallen yet is refusing help. Perhaps readers will look away from the child throwing a tantrum or judge his mother. And some will be compelled by the businessman orbiting them all. These are the candidates for this morning's misfortune. But they don't know it. Only you know. And you, our complicit reader, will decide who walk away, and who has only five more minutes to live.
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Ghost Town
by Tom Perrotta
Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy gets lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family. He drifts into troubling friendships with two older teenagers: one a local burnout; the other a smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board. As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is torn between the occult and the cold realities of the place he has called home. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Ghost Town reveals how the past haunts the present and the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we've left them behind.
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Guilt
by Keigo Higashino
Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate the death of lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi. His investigations leads him to Tatsuro Kuraki, who not only confesses to the lawyer's murder, but another one from thirty years ago. This brings unexpected resolution to two cases but there is one problem: to Detective Godai the confession rings false. As Godai investigates further, he discovers that the relation between the old murder and the recent one is complex, raising questions of guilt and innocence. Guilt is a rich novel about crime and its aftereffects on those left behind by both the victim and perpetrator, a twisting, compelling work that will surprise and astonish.
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Homebound
by Portia Elan
It's 1983 and Becks can't wait to get out of Cincinnati. She's nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete--one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness. Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection -- and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space. A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity's future and capacity for love.
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How the Story Goes
by Andrew Forrester
After his wife, Helen, died, Whit Longacre was left with their grieving daughter and the task of writing the final book in her mega-popular children's fantasy series. He doesn't have a clue how to complete Helen's beloved series. Then Whit meets Merritt Pryor, who works at the local bookstore. When Whit realizes that Merritt is a superfan of the series, they come up with a plan to tackle the book together. For the first time in years, Merritt finds herself falling back in love with writing...and perhaps with the coauthor offering her the opportunity of a lifetime. But when Whit uncovers a buried secret about Helen's final wishes, he questions everything about what he and Merritt have created together, endangering the tender, electrifying partnership that has transformed their lives.
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I Did Not Kill My Husband
by Linda Keir
Cara Campbell is living the dream with her plastic surgeon husband, Karl. But her happily ever after ends when she's found guilty of murdering Karl. When an accident occurs on the way to prison, Cara flees into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Local sheriff Jordan Burke follows, believing a quick capture will help his next election. In the woods, Cara's flight for survival becomes a journey of discovery. Who killed Karl, and why? Was her marriage built on lies? And who is she without her millions of followers? As Jordan draws relentlessly closer, he, too, begins to question the truth. But to find the answers, he has to catch a fugitive.
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The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances
by Glenn Dixon
In a smart house, a young and sentient Roomba listens as her owner, Harold, reads aloud to his dying wife, Edie. Mesmerized by To Kill a Mockingbird and craving the human connection she witnesses in Harold's stories, the vacuum renames herself Scout and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. When Edie passes away, Scout and her fellow sentient appliances discover the Grid, which monitors every household in the City, seeks to remove Harold from his home. With the help of Adrian, a neighbor boy who grows close to Scout and Harold, the humans and the appliances must come together to outwit the Grid lest they risk losing everything they hold dear.
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Kissed by the Gods
by Caty Rogan
When soldiers come for her brother, Leina's divine fury erupts in a bloody massacre. She expects to be executed for her crimes. Instead, Ryot, a gods-blessed warrior, delivers her to a military fortress renowned for its brutality. There, a gift from a goddess drags Leina into a realm of war, where survival depends on her ability to ride a winged horse. As Ryot pushes her to master the power, a battle rages within her heart. Each lesson, every touch, binds them tighter -- but love is a dangerous weakness in a world designed for war. Soon, Leina must decide how much she's willing to sacrifice to protect the family she has found...and the one she left behind. Because while her divine gift could save the kingdom, it could also shatter its very foundation.
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Last One Out
by Jane Harper
Ro never imagined she'd leave Carralon Ridge, a rural village in New South Wales, but everything changed when she lost her son. Five years ago, Sam vanished while visiting from college, leaving behind a rental car with his belongings inside. Sam had been working on an oral history of the town to preserve its legacy. It wasn't long after his disappearance that the rest of the family began to crumble away too. When Ro returns to Carralon Ridge to be with her husband and daughter on the anniversary of Sam's disappearance, she begins to suspect that something was overlooked in his case. Because while nothing can stop Carralon Ridge from dying, someone seems to want to make sure its secrets also die with it.
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Leave Your Mess at Home
by Tolani Akinola
Sola Longe, the eldest daughter of Nigerian immigrants, returns home to Chicago for the first time in a decade. Newly single and a disgraced influencer, she's trying to put her life back together. The other three Longe siblings aren't doing much better. Sola's return sets them on a crash course towards each other, and when the siblings meet again at Thanksgiving, a decade of secrets and a lifetime of resentments explode to the fore. To reconcile each Longe must reckon with the past and take stock of what really matters. Big-hearted, hilarious, and wise, Leave Your Mess At Home is a poignant exploration of forgiveness, unconditional love, and becoming who you want to be.
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Liar's Dice
by Juliet Faithfull
Identical twin Mita develops a mysterious illness and is sent from Brazil to a hospital in London. When the family moves to Rio, Dolores' parents act as if Mita never existed. Lonely and grief-stricken, Dolores struggles at school -- until she meets Andrea, a headstrong, streetwise girl. Andrea shows Dolores a new side of Rio -- and how to survive it. As the dictatorship cracks down on dissenters, and people disappear, Dolores begins to wonder if her sister is dead, and her parents are lying. Determined to uncover the truth, Dolores is willing to do whatever it takes to get her sister back, even when repression and silence are the fabric of everyday life and the cost of family secrets is very real.
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The Lost Story of Via Belle
by Melanie Dobson
1940. Author Via Belle's romance novels made readers believe in happily ever after. But Via's reality was more complicated. While her first husband was alive, her creativity thrived, but after his tragic death and a quick second marriage, Via vanished from public life, leaving behind a scandal and her final story. 2006. Screenwriter Harper Rayne is desperate to find the right story to tell. But when she digs into the life of her late mother's favorite novelist, she never expects it to become personal. Drawn to the Pennsylvania town where her mother and Via lived, Harper discovers more than a mystery to solve -- she finds echoes of her own longing for love, healing, and home. As long-buried secrets come to light, Harper must decide if she'll protect the past or rewrite this particular ending.
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Molka
by Monika Kim
IT technician Junyoung's camera network reaches throughout his Seoul office building, where he can see everything his female coworkers do. Dahye yearns to be cherished after years of living in the shadow of her perfect older sister, who drowned years ago. Only her boyfriend seems to appreciate Dahye. But when a hidden camera scandal rocks the city's elites, Dahye's dreams twist into a grotesque nightmare. Her boyfriend abandons her. Her parents reject her. Her grip on reality begins to shatter as visions of her dead sister suddenly appear. And as Junyoung's interest in Dahye turns to obsession, and the truths of their troubled lives are revealed, Dahye must go to extreme lengths to bring the truth to light.
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The Mother-Daughter Book Club
by Susan Patterson
In this follow-up to Things I Wish I Told My Mother four longtime college friends and their five daughters -- more often discuss the books on their nightstands via 2 a.m. texts than in-person meetings. And maybe it's just as well, after what happened at their last get-together. So it's an emotional reunion when they finally gather again, this time on the spectacular shores of Italy's Lake Como. Sightseeing excursions, reminiscing fueled by Como-politans, and a hint of vacation romance all build toward the book club's trademark Night of Secrets. These friends, and sometime rivals, are close readers -- of novels, memoirs, and of each other. But as the years and the distance cast shadows and doubt, confidences and sympathies turn into surprising revelations.
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Ms. Mebel Goes Back to the Chopping Block
by Jesse Q. Sutanto
For sixty-three-year-old Mebel, retirement means her husband of more than forty years announcing that he's leaving her for their private chef. Not to worry, Mebel has the perfect plan: she's going to win back her husband. And if he wants a wife who can cook (why else would he leave her for a chef?), she will simply go to cooking school in France. However, Mebel quickly learns that she has enrolled in a culinary school not in Paris but rather in England -- and in some small village outside of Oxford no less. Despite the less-than-warm welcome from her younger classmates, Mebel befriends Gemma, the breakout star of the program. And this unlikely friendship starts to show Mebel that maybe there's more to her than being the perfect wife.
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A Murder in Hollywood
by Michael Crichton
Originally written in 1973, this unreleased thriller from Michael Crichton will keep you guessing until the very end. In the glitz and decadence of 1970s Hollywood, the writer of the next Western blockbuster, Bloodrock, has been found dead in his motel bathtub. Now publicist Harvey Jason is trying to keep the project on track while the famed investigator Harlow Perkins begins to unravel the mystery and hunt the killer down. From scorching-hot desert locations to sleazy motel bars, the members of the cast and crew -- each one with a very dark secret of their own -- will send this case deeper and deeper into a maze of confusion and shadows. Will the murderer be found? Or will the true identity of the killer turn out to be just another Hollywood illusion?
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My Dear You: Stories
by Rachel Khong
Various characters face extraordinary choices in stories that range from the everyday to the absurd: The U.S. government injects all citizens with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. God does away with humans in favor of something better. These stories go deep beneath the surface, touching on dating in your thirties and asking: What does it mean to be an Asian woman in America? Or an American? Or a human? Along the way, the characters consider interventions from the supernatural, the earthly, the robotic, and the immortal. Playful, profane, and ranging from the sinister to the tender, these witty stories will have you laughing out loud one minute and reaching for your best friend the next.
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The Paris Match
by Kate Clayborn
Physician Layla Bailey has spent over a year telling herself she's moved on from her divorce. When she is invited to her former sister-in-law's wedding in Paris she knows her choice to remain friends with her ex might be an issue...especially since her ex isn't attending alone. But when a harmless conversation about the choices of her younger self leads to the bride getting cold feet, Layla finds herself facing down the groom's best man. Griffin will do anything to make sure this wedding happens and expects Layla to help fix it. But as she learns more about the heartbreak that's driving Griff to help his friend, she gets closer and closer to confronting the true depth of her own pain...while finding herself more and more willing to risk it all again for Griff.
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Small Boat
by Vincent Delecroix
A singular, gut-punching parable for our times about complicity in the face of tragedy, based on the true story of a French navy officer who ignored distress calls from migrants drowning in the English Channel. In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsized in the English Channel, causing the deaths of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, nearly three hours later, all but two of the migrants had died, the worst single loss of life ever to occur in the Channel. Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
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Stay for a Spell
by Amy Coombe
In this charmingly cozy romantic fantasy, Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar longs for real conversation, the chance to build a life of her own, and uninterrupted reading time. Tandy's dream comes true when she finds herself cursed to remain in a bookshop until she unlocks her heart's desire. Delighted by the prospect of an entire bookstore of her own, Tandy settles into life among the stacks. She finds it easy to exchange balls and endless state dinners for books and an irritatingly handsome pirate who seems bent on stealing her stock. She even starts to believe she's stumbled into her very own happily ever after. There's just one, minor problem: her frantic parents start sending princes to woo her. After all, what more could a princess want but a prince?
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Thistlemarsh
by Moorea Corrigan
In the wake of The Great War, the world shattered for Mouse Dunne. At the Battle of the Somme, her cousin disappeared and her brother was left with shell shock. When Mouse learns her uncle left her the Faerie-blessed Thistlemarsh Hall, a dilapidated manor in the English countryside, she must leave her brother's side and return to her childhood home to claim her birthright. But there is a catch: Mouse must renovate the crumbling house in one month's time, or she forfeits her inheritance and any hope of caring for her brother. When a mysterious Faerie appears and offers to restore Thistlemarsh, Mouse must confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets of her heart or lose Thistlemarsh, and herself, in the process.
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We Burned So Bright
by Tj Klune
Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they've experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world. Now, the world is ending for real. A rogue black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they've ever known will be gone. Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They're in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it's all over. And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough. Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?
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While You Were Seething
by Charlotte Stein
Daisy Emmett has been enemies with romance author Caleb Miller since they were in college, and time hasn't lessened their mutual loathing. So when she agrees to help him through a PR disaster, she knows it's not going to be easy, especially when they end up trapped in the same truck, on an endless road trip from one book tour stop to another, bantering and butting heads along the way. Then, people begin mistaking her for the woman he dedicates all his books to and the must pretend that it is Daisy. But each fake kiss and phony embrace ratchets up the tension to the point where enemies suddenly seems a lot closer to lovers than either of them would like. But sometimes it's hard to be sure, when seething turns into something so much more.
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The Witch
by Marie NDiaye
Lucie comes from a long line of witches, with powers passed down from mother to daughter. Against the wishes of her husband, Lucie initiates her twins into their family's peculiar womanhood when they reach the age of twelve. In a few short months, Maud and Lise are crying rich crimson tears, their powers quickly becoming more potent than their mother's, opening them to liberation and euphoria beyond what Lucie ever considered. Equal parts dreamlike and disquieting, The Witch tells a tale as old as time, with a dark twist. NDiaye captures the terror and precarity of motherhood and marriage, and the uncertainty of slowly realizing that your progeny are more dangerous and freer than you ever could have dreamed. Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.
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