Sandy’s Selections of New Book Releases for May

by admin May 4, 2022

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 check out a nonfiction book from actor Matt Damon that addresses the difference that access to safe water can make to an entire community. We’ve got fiction of all types, including historical, literary, and even time-travel fiction. There really is something for every imagination out there on our list of new books to read!

The list is rounded out with a classic suspense novel that was good enough for Alfred Hitchcock to make a spine-chilling movie adaptation. You might want to read that one during the daytime. Happy reading!

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’ve 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 of ingredients, and many are simple enough to create yourself. The bond with her mother and food has defined this daughter’s life.