One of the biggest blessings this pandemic brings to those lucky enough to be able to stay at home is time to read.
Reading as a form of escapism has never been so important.
As with many industries, publishing has been hit by the pandemic, with launches and promotional strategies derailed. Thankfully there are still plenty of new titles to get excited by this month.
From fashion’s most anticipated tell-all, to memoirs of love, loss and grief, to posing the question: what if Hillary Rodham hadn’t married Bill Clinton?
Read on to see our favourite May releases below.
The Chiffon Trenches: A Memoir by André Leon Talley
This year’s most anticipated fashion memoir is expected to shake the style set to its core. In The Chiffon Trenches, former editor-at-large of American Vogue André Leon Talley takes aim at the magazine’s veteran editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, saying she is ‘not capable of human kindness’. Ouch.
The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver
It seems Lionel Shriver can do no wrong. Her latest book, The Motion of the Body Through Space, touches on the modern cult of exercise through a husband and wife pairing - the husband has decided to take up marathon running while his wife suffers through knee surgery. It was praised by our reviewer Nick Curtis for its ‘sardonic and elegant’ writing and for being a ‘compelling read if, like a marathon, somewhat relentless’.
You can read our full review here and buy the book here.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Felix Ever After fills a much-needed inclusivity gap for the YA genre - its protagonist is a black transgender teen who is discovering identity and falling in love for the first time. It deals with transphobia, catfishing and learning to love yourself.
The Consequences of Love by Gavanndra Hodge
When Gavanndra Hodge was a child, her kid sister died suddenly while the family was holidaying in Tunisia. Now a mother herself, The Consequences of Love is a tale of loss and recovery, trauma and memory. Our reviewer Marcus Field says: “There are scenes that will reduce you to tears, but there’s also humour, forgiveness and uplifting optimism.”
You can read our full review here and buy the book here.
Rodham: What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill? by Curtis Sittenfeld
What would the world look like if Hillary Rodham hadn’t married Bill Clinton? This is what the new novel ‘Rodham’ imagines. The reader is sent back to 1971, where Rodham’s Wellesley commencement speech has been covered by Life magazine, she’s attending Yale Law School, and she’s on the forefront of student activism and the women’s rights movement. And then she meets Bill. In Rodham, she refuses all of his proposals and instead blazes a trail through the next four decades, crossing paths with Clinton along the way.
Looking for Eliza by Leaf Arbuthnot
A widowed writer and a university student in Oxford form an unlikely friendship, bonding over Lapsang Souchong tea. Our reviewer Susannah Butter says the ‘characters are likeable and the plot compelling’ and ‘there’s a lot to identify with, whether you are in your seventies or a millennial’.
You can read our full review here and buy the book here.
Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett
Mikel Jollet, frontman of indie band Airborne Toxic Event, chronicles his chaotic life in this new memoir. Born into one of America’s most infamous cults, Church of Synanon, where all children were separated from their parents at six months old and handed over to the church’s ‘school’. Jollet eventually escaped with his mother and brother and found that life was just as hard outside of the cult.
Find Me by André Aciman
The highly-anticipated sequel to Aciman’s perennially loved novel, Call Me by Your Name, has received mixed reviews. Readers expecting to pick up where Elio and Oliver left off won't see the characters make their first appearance until halfway through the book as the first half focuses on Elio’s father, Samuel, instead. Fans will still get their fix however, as we observe the lovers' lives years after their first meeting.
The Paris Hours by Alex George
Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours melds together the stories from four perspectives: Camille, the former maid of Marcel Proust; Souren, an Armenian refugee; Guillaume, a lovesick artist and journalist Jean-Paul.
Braver Than You Think by Maggie Downs
A timely tale to quell our increasing wanderlust, in Braver Than You Think, Maggie Downs embarks on the trip of a lifetime that her mother, struck with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, couldn’t. Interweaving travel writing with family memories, over the course of a year Downs hikes the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, goes white-water rafting on the Nile and volunteers at a monkey sanctuary in Bolivia. A story of love, grief and travel.
