We’re entering one of the best times of the year — summer reading season! Starting in May, there are lots of new releases in all types of genres. For instance, Love and Ruin by Paula McClain is coming out in May so be sure to add that one to your TBR list. Here are some other book club recommendations for the month of May.
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
I just finished How To Stop Time and saw the author Matt Haig gave praise to Tin Man by Sara Winman. He wrote in a blurb, “This is an astoundingly beautiful book. It drips with tenderness. It breaks your heart and warms it all at once.”
I enjoyed his book so now I’m curious about Tin Man. I read that it’s a short book (200 pages) but that’s it’s a powerful, emotional read. Sounds like it will be a good discussion read for book clubs. Here’s the synopsis:
[blockquote align=”none” author=””]From the internationally bestselling author Sarah Winman comes an unforgettable and heartbreaking novel celebrating love in all of its forms and the little moments that make up the life of an autoworker in a small working-class town.
This is almost a love story. But it’s not as simple as that.
Ellis and Michael are twelve-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.
But then we fast forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?
With beautiful prose and characters that are so real that they jump off the page, Tin Man is a love letter to human kindness and friendship, and to loss and living.[/blockquote]
My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laurie Kamoie
After being a fan for years, I finally saw Hamilton: An American Musical this year. Such a magical night and it was everything I thought it would be and more (you must go see it!). And something that struck me about the musical was how Hamilton’s wife Eliza is the true hero of the story. So I’m excited there’s a new historical fiction novel about Eliza, a woman very much deserving of her own story. A good one for book clubs and might provide a history lesson or two. Here’s the synopsis:
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From the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy. In this haunting, moving, and beautifully written novel, Dray and Kamoie used thousands of letters and original sources to tell Eliza’s story as it’s never been told before—not just as the wronged wife at the center of a political sex scandal—but also as a founding mother who shaped an American legacy in her own right.
A general’s daughter…
Coming of age on the perilous frontier of revolutionary New York, Elizabeth Schuyler champions the fight for independence. And when she meets Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s penniless but passionate aide-de-camp, she’s captivated by the young officer’s charisma and brilliance. They fall in love, despite Hamilton’s bastard birth and the uncertainties of war.
A founding father’s wife…
But the union they create—in their marriage and the new nation—is far from perfect. From glittering inaugural balls to bloody street riots, the Hamiltons are at the center of it all—including the political treachery of America’s first sex scandal, which forces Eliza to struggle through heartbreak and betrayal to find forgiveness.
The last surviving light of the Revolution…
When a duel destroys Eliza’s hard-won peace, the grieving widow fights her husband’s enemies to preserve Alexander’s legacy. But long-buried secrets threaten everything Eliza believes about her marriage and her own legacy. Questioning her tireless devotion to the man and country that have broken her heart, she’s left with one last battle—to understand the flawed man she married and imperfect union he could never have created without her…
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Startup by Doree Shafrir
The startup culture seems like an interesting, fun world from the outside. But there are plenty of cracks inside as evident by the HBO show Silicon Valley and the novel Startup, which takes a look at the startup culture in New York City. And it turns out the startup culture in NYC is just as messy as in Silicon Valley. Startup is an easy-to-read book. It showcases the ridiculousness of some apps and the competitive world of tech journalism with plenty of wit. I read this one earlier this year and it will make a good discussion one for book clubs.
Here’s the synopsis:
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From veteran online journalist and BuzzFeed writer Doree Shafrir comes a hilarious debut novel that proves there are some dilemmas that no app can solve.
Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech and he’s about to launch a new and improved version that promises to bring investors running and may turn his brainchild into a $1 billion dollar business–in startup parlance, an elusive unicorn.
Katya Pasternack is hungry for a scoop that will drive traffic. An ambitious young journalist at a gossipy tech blog, Katya knows that she needs more than another PR friendly puff piece to make her the go-to byline for industry news.
Sabrina Choe Blum just wants to stay afloat. The exhausted mother of two and failed creative writer is trying to escape from her credit card debt and an inattentive husband-who also happens to be Katya’s boss-as she rejoins a work force that has gotten younger, hipper, and much more computer literate since she’s been away.
Before the ink on Mack’s latest round of funding is dry, an errant text message hints that he may be working a bit too closely for comfort with a young social media manager in his office. When Mack’s bad behavior collides with Katya’s search for a salacious post, Sabrina gets caught in the middle as TakeOff goes viral for all the wrong reasons. As the fallout from Mack’s scandal engulfs the lower Manhattan office building where all three work, it’s up to Katya and Sabrina to write the story the men in their lives would prefer remain untold.
An assured, observant debut from the veteran online journalist Doree Shafrir, Startup is a sharp, hugely entertaining story of youth, ambition, love, money and technology’s inability to hack human nature.
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