Read Between the Spines

May 2026 Most Anticipated New Book Releases

Contemporary & Literary Fiction | Historical Fiction | Romance | Thrillers & Mysteries | Horror & Gothic Fiction | Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism | Short Stories & Essays | Biography & Memoir | Nonfiction

Contemporary & Literary Fiction

Enormous Wings

Laurie Frankel

At 77, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community ―that would be her 3 grown children―but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She’s pregnant.

Publication date: May 5

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Good News

Alexa Yasemin Brahme

In this stylish and provocative novel, a young artist struggles to find her way in New York City while navigating strained relationships, the reappearance of an ex, and her burgeoning sense of self. A mess, of course, ensues.

Publication date: May 5

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Homebound

Portia Elan

Five lives are entangled across time by one story of survival and hope, uploaded to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries…

Publication date: May 5

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John of John

Douglas Stuart

From the Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Shuggie Bainand Young Mungo comes a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father’s expectations and a son’s desires

Publication date: May 5

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List of All Possible Desires

Dylan Landis

A dazzling novel in stories following Rainey Royal—a young artist coming of age through the tumult of New York City in the ’70s and ’80s—and her family across generations of obsession, betrayal, and reinvention, written with the trademark beauty and precision of Dylan Landis. For fans of Mary Gaitskill and Lauren Groff.

Publication date: May 5

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A Little Bit Bad

Cassandra Neyenesch

A “compulsively readable” (Sophie Stava, author of Count My Lies) novel about a San Diego housewife whose love affair with her neighbor’s roofer is interrupted by a murder.

Publication date: May 5

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Look What You Made Me Do

John Lanchester

A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee. A black comedy of love, trust, resentment, and entitlement, Look What You Made Me Do is the sharply observed and suspenseful story of two very different women from two very different generations, entangled in a battle only one of them can win.

Publication date: May 5

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The Things We Never Say

Elizabeth Strout

Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout’s new novel tells the story of a chance incident that sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher’s life—a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, parenthood, and the importance of truth in a capsizing world.

Publication date: May 5

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The Hill

Harriet Clark

After her mother is sentenced to life in a hilltop prison, Suzanna vows to return to the hill forever. An unexpectedly funny and deeply moving novel about the many ways we punish and return to each other.

Publication date: May 5

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All Them Dogs

Djamel White

A young Irish gangster is caught in a brutal dance between desire and loyalty. By turns savage, erotic, and unexpectedly tender, All Them Dogs is a gripping story of violence, lust, and greed that explores one man’s struggles to find balance in an unsparing world.

Publication date: May 19

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The Burning Side

Sarah Damoff

From the author of The Bright Years, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging.

Publication date: May 19

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Canon

Paige Lewis

Two unlikely heroes embark on quests to win God’s favor in this outrageously entertaining, profoundly heartfelt novel that announces an ingenious new voice in the tradition of Chain-Gang All-Stars, No One Is Talking About This, and Martyr!

Publication date: May 19

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Mare

Emily Haworth-Booth

The story of a horse and the woman who loves her―a lively first novel of not-daughters and non-mothers; animals and animal bodies; and how we find freedom, care, and community in unexpected places.

Publication date: May 19

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The Maidenheads

Benny B. Peterson

Electric, spine-tingling, and filled to the brim with tenderness and honesty, The Maidenheads is a novel about the tenacity of first love, the life-changing power of music, and the difficult, necessary work of becoming yourself.

Publication date: May 26

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The Summer Boy

Philippe Besson

On an island off the coast of France, six teenagers come together for a summer of desire and discovery until one of them vanishes forever, leaving the rest with an enduring mystery.

Publication date: May 26

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Historical Fiction

The Calamity Club

Kathryn Stockett

The multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakable women, fighting for what’s rightfully theirs—and the power of friendship to change everything.

Publication date: May 5

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The Foursome

Christina Baker Kline

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.

Publication date: May 12

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A Perfect Hand

Ayelet Waldman

A richly drawn, captivating, and endlessly amusing novel of love and subterfuge between a lady’s maid and her clandestine lover, set in the country estates of nineteenth-century England.

Publication date: May 19

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Returns and Exchanges

Kayla Rae Whitaker

A sweeping novel of one Kentucky family’s rise and fall throughout the 1980s—a tragicomic tour de force about love and marriage, parents and children, and the perils of mixing family with business, from the acclaimed author of The Animators

Publication date: May 19

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A Fortune of Sand

Ruta Sepetys

The daughter of a powerful tycoon escapes to a glamorous artists’ retreat—where dark secrets and dangerous temptations await—in this gripping Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea.

Publication date: May 26

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Babylon, South Dakota

Tom Lin

From the author of the Carnegie Medal in Fiction winner The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu comes a tantalizing, American West saga about a Chinese American family trying to survive on their Dakota farm as a powerful, mysterious, and morally dubious military secret shapes their lives.

Publication date: May 26

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Romance

Our Perfect Storm

Carley Fortune

Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.

Publication date: May 5

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Verity Guild

Mai Corland

High Priestess Kerasea Vestal has spent her life hiding the truth—that she’s the last surviving heir of the magical bloodline the republic slaughtered. One wrong step could be fatal. But when a senator is brutally killed and a temple blade is found at the scene, all eyes turn to her.

Publication date: May 5

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The Fake Divination Offense

Sara Raasch

From New York Times bestseller Sara Raasch, sports romance gets a Dungeons & Dragons makeover with the next book in the Magic and Romance series that follows half-giant Orok, forced into a PR relationship with a feisty, fan-favorite cheerleader.

Publication date: May 19

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Pot Shop

Laura Piper Lee

To open her cannabis dispensary, a chronically ill woman must defeat the surly doctor next door in this hilarious and steamy romantic comedy.

Publication date: May 19

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The Shippers

Katherine Center

After a lifetime of being bad at love, JoJo Burton vows to solve her intimacy issues once and for all at her sister’s destination wedding on a cruise ship. Armed with pop psychology, she diagnoses herself with a fixation on the neighborhood guy who was her first crush and first kiss. Determined to woo him for closure, she ropes in her childhood bestie, Cooper Watts, as her wingman.

Publication date: May 19

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Score

Kennedy Ryan

A scorching second-chance romance between a talented screenwriter and a phenomenal musician from the New York Times bestselling author of Before I Let Go.

Publication date: May 19

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Dolly All the Time

Annabel Monaghan

A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script.

Publication date: May 26

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Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It

Brooke Averick

Meet Phoebe Berman: despite being a hopeless romantic, she’s about to be a thirty-year-old virgin. With one month before her milestone birthday, she’s determined to finally lose it . . . if her own anxiety doesn’t slow her down. The can’t-miss debut novel from podcaster and comedian Brooke Averick.

Publication date: May 26

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Thrillers & Mysteries

The Fine Art of Lying

Alexandra Andrews

From the critically acclaimed author of Who is Maud Dixon? comes a riveting new novel about a young wife and mother thrust into a world of wealth and privilege, whose rash mistake sets off a domino effect of murder and betrayal.

Publication date: May 5

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Five

Ilona Bannister

Five lives. Five stories. Four will live—one will die. Who it will be? In this slow-burn masterpiece of psychological fiction, the choice is all yours.

Publication date: May 5

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Honey

Imani Thompson

A dark, provocative, adrenaline-rush of a novel about a graduate student who murders bad men and justifies it in the name of feminism, by a bold new voice in fiction.

Publication date: May 5

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The Library After Dark

Ande Pliego

A bookseller must escape the infamously haunted library that holds her darkest secrets, but with a murderer in her tour group, escaping alive is not as simple as it seems, in this twisty locked-room thriller from bestselling author of You Are Fatally Invited.

Publication date: May 5

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Femme Feral

Sam Beckbessinger

Hyper-competent Ellie thinks she’s going through perimenopause, but discovers she’s actually turning into a werewolf in this feminist, dark-comedy debut

Publication date: May 12

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Men Like Ours

Bindu Bansinath

From a brilliant new voice in fiction, a darkly comic and moving story about death, life, and community in a South Asian suburban enclave of New Jersey.

Publication date: May 12

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Cherry Beach

Don Gillmor

A brutal murder exposes secret real estate deals, a corrupt police force, and the dark heart of a city simmering with unrest.

Publication date: May 19

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Last Seen

Lucy Clarke

The Survivors meets Disappearing Earth in this psychologically acute thriller about a seaside community grappling with its dark past as long-hidden secrets begin to inflict new wounds, from million-copy and internationally bestselling author Lucy Clarke.

Publication date: May 19

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Safari Murder Party

Rachel Moore

In this darkly funny, slightly unhinged, heart-pounding thriller, two office rivals must team up to escape wild animals and even wilder coworkers on a corporate retreat gone wrong.

Publication date: May 19

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The Tuxedo Society

Paul Rudnick

If Guy Ritchie directed a James Bond caper starring a queer 007, it might look something like this hilarious and action-packed spy thriller by Paul Rudnick, acclaimed screenwriter and author of Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, that blends espionage and social commentary, with an elite, gay secret society.

Publication date: May 26

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Horror & Gothic Fiction

Decomposition Book

Sara Van Os

An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost, for fans of Mona Awad, Yellowjackets, and weird girl fiction.

Publication date: May 19

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Palaces of the Crow

Ray Nayler

In Ray Nayler’s speculative novel of the recent past, four young teens caught between Nazis and the Red Army survive winter in the woods with the help of a flock of highly intelligent crows with a magnificent secret of their own to protect.

Publication date: May 19

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Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Magical Realism

Absence

Andrew Dana Hudson

In this gripping, moving, and genre-blending speculative debut, the world is unraveling from an epidemic of human vanishing. Two rookie agents from the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs are dispatched to small-town Kansas to investigate a woman who claims to have returned from Spontaneous Human Absence, offering answers that could change everything.

Publication date: May 5

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Broken Dove

Dani Francis

In the heart-pounding sequel to the New York Times bestselling dystopian romance Silver Elite, lines will be crossed, loyalties will be tested, and the fight for the Continent is only just beginning as Wren Darlington finds herself caught in the middle of two wars: one for the fate of her home and another for the fate of her heart.

Publication date: May 5

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The Last Contract of Isako

Fonda Lee

A battle-worn corporate samurai undertakes one last mission on a merciless planet where death is always a mere breath away, in this standalone dystopian epic from the author of the modern fantasy classic Jade City. 

Publication date: May 5

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The Republic of Memory

Mahmud El Sayeo

A Memory Called Empire meets Children of Time in this Arabfuturist debut set on a generation ship on the brink of revolution as its crew begin to ask why they should toil for a people, and an empire, none of them remember.

Publication date: May 5

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The Bone Door

Frances White

When Hop awakens in an ancient labyrinth, he has no memory of his life, or how he got here. He does not recognise the mysterious girl trapped with him. And he certainly cannot identify the shadowy figure stalking him, whispering terrible things… But there is one thing he is certain of: He must escape. The only way out of the labyrinth is through The Bone Door. 

Publication date: May 12

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The Lost Book of Lancelot

John Glynn

A “breathtaking” (Sarah Penner) reimagining of the legend of Sir Lancelot, following the famous knight as he grows up orphaned, falls in love, and attempts to fulfill his destiny at the Round Table—from the bestselling author of Out East.

Publication date: May 12

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Make Me Better

Sarah Gailey

An eerily seductive look at the desire for community connection and self-improvement—and the darkest places inside us all. Urgent and yet timeless, this read is perfect for fans of Shirley Jackson, Ari Aster, and Patricia Highsmith.

Publication date: May 12

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Radiant Star

Ann Leckie

Space opera’s sharpest mind returns to the world of the Imperial Radch in this brilliant standalone from award-winning author Ann Leckie.

Publication date: May 12

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Seek the Traitor’s Son

Veronica Roth

Elegy Ahn did not ask for destiny to find her. She is happy with her life as a soldier, defending her small country from the Talusar, a powerful nation who worships a deadly Fever. A fever that blesses half of its victims with mysterious gifts. But then she’s summoned to hear a prophecy–her, and the most ruthless of Talusar generals, Rava Vidar. Brought face to face, they learn that one of them will lead their people to victory over the other…but they don’t know which. 

Publication date: May 12

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The Tapestry of Fate

Shannon Chakraborty

New York Times bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty sets sail into the second adventure of pirate Amina al-Sirafi as her quest to track down magical artifacts brings her to the island lair of a sorceress whose woven enchantments are impossible to flee.

Publication date: May 12

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Short Stories & Essays

Patient, Female: Stories

Julie Schumacher

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Committee Members, a collection of wryly funny stories about ordinary women—in all their complexity, fallibility, and humanity.

Publication date: May 5

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Entomology of the Pin-Up Girl

Lauren E. Osborn

Winner of the 2024 Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize, Entomology of the Pin-Up Girl delivers a terrific play on the “monstrous feminine”—captivating stories of women shedding their skins and exoskeletons and blurring the boundaries between predator and prey.

Publication date: May 12

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On Witness and Respair: Essays

Jesmyn Ward

The collected creative nonfiction of a singular American writer, Jesmyn Ward, including widely shared classics, three never-before-published speeches, and an introductory essay.

Publication date: May 19

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And How Have You Been?: Short Stories

Maria Judite De Carvalho

A definitive collection of all the late stories of the Portuguese master of the short form, Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated into English for the first time by Margaret Jull Costa. And How Have You Been? reckons with what it means to be human over a lifetime, the small triumphs that recede into the mist of memory, the losses that stay razor-sharp. And always, Carvalho writes with unexpected candor and without apologies.

Publication date: May 26

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The Land and Its People: Essays

David Sedaris

In this new collection, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner, a brother, a lifelong friend, in essays that are “among the best of his career” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Publication date: May 26

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Memoirs & Biographies

Backtalker

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

One of the most influential public intellectuals in the world and the architect of the two biggest ideas to reshape the American conversation about fairness offers the intimate story of how her life gave birth to these ideas.

Publication date: May 5

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Mother Tongue

Sara Nović’

The New York Times bestselling author of True Biz retraces her path out of the hearing world and into the deaf community—and seeks to understand what it means to raise children who are different from her—in this emotionally rich memoir.

Publication date: May 5

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My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past

Tracy Clark-Flory

From the journalist and author of Want Me (an NPR Best Book of the Year) comes a “tender, revelatory, and deeply moving” (Amanda Montei, Touched Out) story of family secrets, sisterhood, and the importance of untangling all that we inherit from our mothers.

Publication date: May 5

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True Crime

Patricia Cornwell

In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalized twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham’s wife Ruth. 

Publication date: May 5

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Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter

Stephanie Fairyington

A tender, moving, and insightful account of queer motherhood and an interrogation of life on the margins of American culture as a self-described “ugly” woman.

Publication date: May 5

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Dog Days

Emily Labarge

Dog Days unfolds in the long shadow of freak violence—where language stammers, time loops, and the body remembers what the mind can’t.

Publication date: May 19

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Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter

Ada Ferrer

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Cuba: An American History comes a heartbreaking yet redemptive memoir about migration, separation, and the love of one family forcing its way through the fissures of history.

Publication date: May 19

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Nonfiction

The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh

James Lasdun

An immersive account of a seemingly loving father’s transformation into a “family annihilator.” Deeply researched, sharply written, and with the page-turning intensity of a Southern gothic novel, The Family Man constructs a masterful portrait of Murdaugh and the mind-boggling crimes that wreaked havoc on his community.

Publication date: May 5

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Rainbow Wisdom: 18 LGBTQ+ Life Lessons for Everyone

Mischa Oak

Joyful life lessons from the LGBTQ+ community to help you move through the world with more harmony, authenticity, and possibility.

Publication date: May 5

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American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed

Isaac Fitzgerald

New York Times bestselling author Isaac Fitzgerald sets off into the heart of America, following the path of the legendary Johnny Appleseed on an epic journey that both takes him far from home and brings him closer to it.

Publication date: May 12

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Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece

Adrian Goldsworthy

From an award-winning historian, the definitive history of classical Greece and the rivalry between its two greatest cities.

Publication date: May 12

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Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children

Mac Barnett

Make Believe is bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett’s rallying cry for art and imagination, and a celebration of the power of storytelling in all our lives. It’s an incisive, intimate, and timely invitation to approach children’s literature not only as an art form worthy of deep study and criticism, but as a portal into the lives of the children.

Publication date: May 12

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Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000

Barry Walters

The definitive history of LGBTQ music, from Stonewall to RuPaul, and its impact on culture and American life.

Publication date: May 12

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Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century

Ece Temelkuran

From the internationally acclaimed Turkish author of How To Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism: A personal exploration of exile and a galvanizing new vision of home.

Publication date: May 12

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Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A.

Jonathan Vigliotti

CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti’s searing firsthand account of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the failures that fueled the catastrophe, and the high-stakes battle over how the city will rebuild ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.

Publication date: May 12

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Dead Bees Still Sting: Tales of Life at the
Edge of Nature

Susan Cormier

For readers of Raising Hare and How to Catch a Mole comes a poetic exploration of life at the precarious edge of nature and human settlement.

Publication date: May 19

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How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University

Theo Baker

Winner of the George Polk Award for his investigation that brought down Stanford’s president, Theo Baker offers a revelatory and gripping account of Silicon Valley hubris.

Publication date: May 19

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The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War

James Verini

In the tradition of John Hersey’s Hiroshima, a terse and piercing look at a critical episode in the Ukraine War, from the award-winning author of They Will Have to Die Now.

Publication date: May 19

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Motherhood Discounted: Care Work in America Before and After Roe

Carolyn McConnell

For readers trying to make sense of America’s political turmoil and eroding reproductive rights, an incisive examination, enhanced with personal stories, of how care work has been extracted and compelled throughout American history.

Publication date: May 26

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