You know how sometimes you go into a store and you just can’t find a single thing you want to buy? And there are other days when everywhere you look you see something you just have to own? For me, the month of May has been the later situation when it comes to book releases. Everywhere I turn… my email inbox, instagram, magazines, the bookstore displays, Target… there are books… books I want to read, own, devour.

Maybe it’s just that my personal taste in literature is the flavor of the month in May. Maybe it’s that widening my reading preferences has introduced me to new writers who have become my favorites. Maybe it’s that finally, after a long shut down, things are starting to open up again, including the launching of big time books.

Who knows? Either way, there are a ton of amazing titles being released and I want to get my hands on ALL OF THEM. In case you are looking for a good book or want to stock up for your summer reading, here are 6 books at the top of my list.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty

** All of the links below will send you to Amazon. If you prefer to shop small and use an indie bookstore, contact Birdy's Bookstore for amazing and friendly service from my favorite bookseller, Alex. **

Young Adult Titles

Lucky Girl by Jamie Pacton

There are a dozen reasons why I want to read this book, but the two at the top of the list are:

I read The Life and Medieval Times of Kit Sweetly, the authors first book, and LOVED it.
Jamie Pacton is a Wisconsin author. Not only do I love supporting fellow Midwest writers, but this book, like her first, takes place in Wisconsin and I can’t wait to read which local spots she included in the plot.

On top of that, it sounds amazing.

58,643,129. That's how many dollars seventeen-year-old Fortuna Jane Belleweather just won in the lotto jackpot. It's also about how many reasons she has for not coming forward to claim her prize.

Problem #1: Jane is still a minor, and if anyone discovers she bought the ticket underage, she'll either have to forfeit the ticket, or worse... Problem #2: Let her hoarder mother cash it. The last thing Jane's mom needs is millions of dollars to buy more junk. Then... Problem #3: Jane's best friend, aspiring journalist Brandon Kim, declares on the news that he's going to find the lucky winner. It's one thing to keep her secret from the town, it's another thing entirely to lie to her best friend. Especially when... Problem #4: Jane's ex-boyfriend, Holden, is suddenly back in her life, and he has big ideas about what he'd do with the prize money. As suspicion and jealousy turn neighbor against neighbor, and no good options for cashing the ticket come forward, Jane begins to wonder: Could this much money actually be a bad thing?

Stay tuned because this summer I’ll be interviewing Jamie about this book, the Wisconsin connections in it, and more! To be sure you don’t miss it, subscribe to my education focused YouTube channel by clicking here.

Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

If you’ve been following me for a hot minute, it’s likely you know that my favorite writer on the planet is Maggie Stiefvater. Not only is Maggie and incredible wordsmith and prose-crafter, she also tells fantastical stories. When you use your logical portions of your brain the events seem to be entirely implausible, but Maggie’s story skills are so strong, that she gest you to believe every single word she deliciously prepares and feeds you. I am also in awe of her ability to craft secondary characters and they way those secondary characters take on a life of their own. I wrote about this in a piror blog post when I re-read her book, Sinner last summer, but am stoked to see her skills in action again as she takes Ronan, a secondary character from the Raven Boys Saga, and gives him his own series. Admitedly, I’m a book behind in the series. I tried to listen to the first book, Call Down the Hawk, on Audible and just couldn’t get on board with the narrator’s voice (this is a rarity for me… I listen to a book a month and barely ever have qualms with the tone/diction/accent/etc of the narrator but struggled with this one.) But no worries, I now have two new hardcovers to enjoy!

Here’s what the book is about: Something is happening to the source of the dreamers' power. It is blocked. Diminished. Weak. If it goes away entirely, what will happen to the dreamers and those who depend on them? Ronan Lynch isn't planning to wait and find out. Backed by his mentor, Bryde, he is ready to do what needs to be done to save the dreamers and the dreamed . . . even if it takes him far from his family and the boy he loves. Jordan Hennessy knows she will not survive if the dreaming fails. So she plunges into a dark underworld in order to find an object that may sustain her. Carmen Farooq-Lane is afraid of the dreamers -- which is why she's agreed to hunt them down. The closer she gets, though, the more complicated her feelings become. Will the dreamers destroy the world . . . or will the world be destroyed trying to eliminate the dreamers?

In the remarkable second book of The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater pushes her characters to their limits -- and shows what happens when they start to break.

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

This endorsement alone hooked me… “The Princess Diaries meets Crazy Rich Asians in Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After, a ‘refreshing, spot-on”’(Booklist, starred review) story of an ordinary Japanese-American girl who discovers that her father is the Crown Prince of Japan.”

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in―it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi―or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”―and her mom against the world. But then Izumi discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess. In a whirlwind, Izumi travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight. Izumi soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself―back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairy tale, happily ever after?

Adult Titles

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Last month I (obsessively) listened to Beach Read and fell in love with Emily’s storytelling style. Similar to my own “feel good fiction” approach, Emily tells stories about women’s lives, their thoughts, their ambitions and the shit that happens to them each day that makes them want to pull their hair out. If you are a fan of Jennifer Weiner, you’d love Emily too. She had previously written books for young adults, but Beach Read was her first adult title and The People You Meet on Vacation is her second. Take a quick read of the blurb below to see if you are going to be just as excited as I am to read this one this summer.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Hail Mary by Andy Weir

This is a book I will definitely be listening to. I am sure, just like The Martian and Artemis (a story about a high-stakes heist on the moon… it was as great as it sounds!), there will be tons of scientific words… theories and concepts my word-nerd brain might struggle to handle, hold, and process alongside the plot. Listening allows my brain to skip the "how do I pronounce that” part of reading and focus on the “what does that mean” part.

If you too are a fan of futuristic science settings and situations, check out the summary of Andy Weir’s newest Science Fiction bestseller.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?

Where the Grass is Green and the Girls are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger

In the Fall of 2018 I wrote a blog post entitled Guilty Pleasure all about how I devoured Lauren’s book When Life Gives You LuLu Lemons. I was finding every possible excuse to listen a little longer. Do the kitchen floors needs scrubbing? Is there another load of laundry to fold? Maybe I’ll just drive around the block one more time… I couldn’t get enough of the witty female cast and their intertwined plights. To say I wishlisted and waited with baited breath for this new book by Lauren would be an understatement. At the time of my writing this (Saturday night) I’m counting down the hour until it releases on Tuesday and I can download it on my phone. The good thing for you, is this blog post goes live on Wednesday and you won’t have to wait at all.

A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. Recognized by millions across the country, thanks in part to her flawless blond highlights and Botox-smoothed skin. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all. Until . . . Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. She has degrees from all the right schools and can helicopter-parent with the best of them. But Skye is different from the rest. She’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup. Until . . . Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky seventeen-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity. Until . . . One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: will they have what it takes to survive the truth?

Alright. Which one are you going to pick up first? Or maybe you have another recommendation for me? Let me know in the comments! As a reminder, I keep track of the books I read over here in the WordNerdopolis Bookstore, so you can check back any time you are in need of a solid selection. Just like this list, my book choices typically bounce back and forth between adult and YA/MG titles, so there is likely a little something for everyone.

Happy reading!

Amanda

** All of the links above will send you to Amazon. If you prefer to shop small and use an indie bookstore, contact Birdy's Bookstore for amazing and friendly service from my favorite bookseller, Alex. **

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