The 欧宝娱乐 Editors Share Their Book Picks for May

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The 欧宝娱乐 Editors Share Their Book Picks for May

Posted by Sharon on May 1, 2025

Here at 欧宝娱乐 World Headquarters, we sort through听a lot听of books each month. Our monthly听Readers' Most Anticipated Books听feature is exactly that鈥攕elections based on the data about the books that 欧宝娱乐 members are placing on their听Want to Read听shelves. Essentially, these are the books that your fellow 欧宝娱乐 regulars are excited about.
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Of course, the 欧宝娱乐 editorial staff gets excited about books, too. And we regularly come across specific new releases that we can鈥檛 wait to read鈥攐r 鈥渨on鈥檛 shut up about,鈥� to borrow a phrase from the colleagues who sit right next to us.
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As to be expected, there are always way more great books each month than we have time to read, so we're passing our findings along to you, complete with genre tags, our unhinged commentary, and general enthusiasm. Think of this list as our intel on the books you might not be hearing about absolutely everywhere else, from two people who really, really want to help you find a great read.
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On deck for May: , , that could听really听scandalize her conservative family, and a detective story featuring . Oh, also: . No, really.

Immaculate Conception
by Ling Ling Huang

Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Two art school friends volunteer to test out a biotech company's newest invention, which allows one to absorb the trauma from the brain of the other. This one gives me big听Severance听vibes, and both my Innie听and听my Outie are into it.

Genre: Horror

The Starving Saints
by Caitlin Starling

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: Historical horror is definitely having a moment, and this medieval tale is at the very top of my "dark" reading list this season. Imagine this: The castle has been under siege for months and food is running low. That's when mysterious strangers arrive听claiming to be saviors鈥emanding to be听appeased.

Genre: Horror/Historical Fiction

The Ones We Loved
by Tarisai Ngangura

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: Journalist Tarisai Ngangura鈥檚 debut novel is a love story and an ode to the idea of home. Written to reflect the oral storytelling traditions of Zimbabwe's Shona ethnic group, the novel invokes the rhythms of a call-and-response to the reader. Early reviewers are calling this听work "beautiful" and "stunning."

Genre: Literary Fiction听

Disco Witches of Fire Island
by Blair Fell

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: In 1989, members of a secret disco witch coven on Fire Island come to the rescue of a grieving young man who has a dark force lurking around him. Early rave reviews are calling the novel "beautiful" and "weird." One negative review called it "trashy." Sounds like sheer madness of the best kind!听

Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction听

by Darrow Farr

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because:听Inspired by Patty Hearst鈥檚 kidnapping, this debut novel听transports readers to the sun-drenched听shores of Corsica in 1993, where privileged 17-year-old S茅verine听is abducted听by a militant trio fighting for Corsican independence. When the negotiations for her release fail, the four become unlikely housemates deep in the island鈥檚 remote interior.

Genre: Historical fiction (yep鈥or the 1990s)

The Devil Three Times
by Rickey Fayne

Sharon can't wait to read this book because:听Cybil and I听like to read out book pitches dramatically to each other when the copy ends in a particularly compelling manner. You can bet that I immediately turned to her when the email for this debut hit my inbox, as it's about "eight generations of a Black family in West Tennessee [who are]听repeatedly visited by鈥he Devil"!

Genre:听Historical fiction

Food Person
by Adam Roberts

Sharon can't wait to read this book because: One trick I like to use to find out about new books is following authors I love on 欧宝娱乐 to see what听they听are reading. When I saw that my favorite microhistorian,听Mary Roach, gave five stars to this book, wherein a struggling writer is tapped to pen a cookbook for a scandal-ridden former TV starlet, I instantly added it to my own WTR shelf.

Genre: Contemporary fiction

What Will People Think?
by Sara Hamdan

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: In this debut novel, a Palestinian American woman works as a media fact-checker by day while secretly moonlighting as a stand-up comedian after hours. As she听finds her voice (on stage and off), she must deal with her conservative family's judgment. In an attempt at damage control, she stumbles upon a family secret from the 1940s that could really scandalize the family.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction听

The Hypebeast
by Adnan Khan

Sharon听can't wait to read this book because: I've got a little fascination with cults and the people who fall for them. Perhaps you relate? In this fresh take on the whole "I can't believe this charismatic dude I'm following turned out to be a cult leader" tale, a small-time con man falls in with an ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee听turned听social-media imam. Grifters all around!听

Genre: Contemporary fiction

The Book of Records
by Madeleine Thien

Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I've had a good run of luck so far this year with books about father/daughter duos with nonlinear relationships to time, so I'm eager to pick up Madeleine Thien's latest, about a woman and her father who join an enclave known as the Sea, which stands at a crossroads in time itself. One early reader calls it "a high wire act performed with the skill and grace of a truly great writer."

Genre: Literary speculative fiction

The Incandescent
by Emily Tesh

Sharon can't wait to read this book because: It's about time someone wrote a dark academia novel from the faculty's perspective!听Doctor Walden is the director of magic at Chetwood Academy, which partly involves all the mundane administrative work that comes along with 600 students and partly involves battling demons. Talk about a tough tenure track.

Genre:听Fantasy/dark academia

Aftertaste
by Daria Lavelle

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: The ties between taste and memory have been well documented in the literary world (madeleines, anyone?), so the premise of this fantasy debut intrigued me immediately: What if you could have one last meal with a loved one who has passed on?

Genre: Fantasy听

Metallic Realms
by Lincoln Michel

Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I truly cannot put it better than author Melissa Albert's early review: "Pale Fire if Charles Kinbote were a failed-to-launch pop culture-obsessed (not obsessed in the colloquial way, obsessed in the original, deeply unwell way) hypernerd, and the writer he parasitically attaches himself to were the Orb 4, a loose confederation of self-aware creative class Brooklynites writing sci-fi stories within the shambolic Star Rot universe, a darkly autofictional place where members both explore personal and political anxieties through fiction and passive aggressively snipe at each other."

Genre: Fiction/science fiction/metafiction/???
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A Thousand Natural Shocks
by Omar Hussain

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: A debut thriller with both cults and a serial killer? Yes, please. Here a听reporter investigating a series of deaths falls prey to a criminal pill-pushing cult that claims to have a rather extreme cure听for bad memories.

Genre: Thriller

Marble Hall Murders
by Anthony Horowitz

Sharon can't wait to read this book because:听I love classic Golden Age detective stories, and it's pretty rare for me to find a contemporary writer who can evoke that specific genre to my satisfaction, but Anthony Horowitz is one of them. I've loved the book-within-a-book whodunits in his Susan Ryeland series, so I'm thrilled to have Susan听back for a third round of amateur sleuthing.听

Genre: Mystery

Detective Aunty (Kausar Khan Investigates, #1)

Detective Aunty
by Uzma Jalaluddin

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because:听The author of the charming romance Ayesha at Last听is back with a new cozy mystery series, and this is exactly what I need for my summer reading list! Get ready to follow the detective work听of a听charming and tenacious widow听working to clear her daughter from an accusation that she killed a very unpopular landlord.听

Genre: Cozy mystery听

Esperance
by Adam Oyebanji

Sharon can't wait to read this book because:听Here's a GREAT mystery hook: A father and son are found dead in their 20th-story听Chicago apartment鈥ith seawater in their lungs, floors dry, and fingernail scratches on the ceiling. But wait, there's more! Add in a Mysterious Stranger Who's Not What She Seems, a speculative element, and Africanfuturist themes and this book is shooting right to the top of my WTR shelf.

Genre: Mystery/sci-fi

Can't Get Enough
by Kennedy Ryan

Sharon can't wait to read this book because:听A new Kennedy Ryan book is always an event for us dedicated romance readers. This book, the third in her听Skyland听series, promises a steamy forbidden romance between ambitious, independent Hendrix Barry and tech mogul Maverick Bell, who's definitely听very听off-limits.

Genre: Contemporary romance

No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain

No Straight Road Takes You There
by Rebecca Solnit

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: A new essay collection from Rebecca Solnit (Men Explain Things to Me,听Recollections of My Nonexistence) is always a literary occasion. In this collection, she focuses on how the road to positive change is always surprising, full of twists and turns, and why you shouldn't lose hope while waiting out the present moment.

Genre: Essays/Nonfiction听

I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used to Have About My Body

I'll Look So Hot in a Coffin
by Carla Sosenko

Cybil听can't wait to read this book because: Carla Sosenko was born with a rare vascular disorder that manifests physically with a mass of flesh on her back,颅颅 legs of different sizes, and a听hunched posture. In her funny and candid memoir, she writes about what it's like to navigate the world with an unconventional look and how she went from trying to hide away to wanting to be very seen.听

Genre: Memoir

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