The Goodreads Editors Share Their Book Picks for May

Of course, the Goodreads editorial staff gets excited about books, too. And we regularly come across specific new releases that we can’t wait to read—or “won’t shut up about,” to borrow a phrase from the colleagues who sit right next to us.
As to be expected, there are always way more great books each month than we have time to read, so we're passing our findings along to you, complete with genre tags, our unhinged commentary, and general enthusiasm. Think of this list as our intel on the books you might not be hearing about absolutely everywhere else, from two people who really, really want to help you find a great read.
On deck for May: medieval horror, the devil goes down to Tennessee, a comedian stumbles across a secret that could really scandalize her conservative family, and a detective story featuring a mystery within a mystery. Oh, also: disco witches of Fire Island. No, really.
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Two art school friends volunteer to test out a biotech company's newest invention, which allows one to absorb the trauma from the brain of the other. This one gives me big Severance vibes, and both my Innie and my Outie are into it.
Genre: Horror
Genre: Horror
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Historical horror is definitely having a moment, and this medieval tale is at the very top of my "dark" reading list this season. Imagine this: The castle has been under siege for months and food is running low. That's when mysterious strangers arrive claiming to be saviors…demanding to be appeased.
Genre: Horror/Historical Fiction
Genre: Horror/Historical Fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Journalist Tarisai Ngangura’s debut novel is a love story and an ode to the idea of home. Written to reflect the oral storytelling traditions of Zimbabwe's Shona ethnic group, the novel invokes the rhythms of a call-and-response to the reader. Early reviewers are calling this work "beautiful" and "stunning."
Genre: Literary Fiction
Genre: Literary Fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: In 1989, members of a secret disco witch coven on Fire Island come to the rescue of a grieving young man who has a dark force lurking around him. Early rave reviews are calling the novel "beautiful" and "weird." One negative review called it "trashy." Sounds like sheer madness of the best kind!
Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Inspired by Patty Hearst’s kidnapping, this debut novel transports readers to the sun-drenched shores of Corsica in 1993, where privileged 17-year-old Séverine is abducted by a militant trio fighting for Corsican independence. When the negotiations for her release fail, the four become unlikely housemates deep in the island’s remote interior.
Genre: Historical fiction (yep…for the 1990s)
Genre: Historical fiction (yep…for the 1990s)
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Cybil and I like to read out book pitches dramatically to each other when the copy ends in a particularly compelling manner. You can bet that I immediately turned to her when the email for this debut hit my inbox, as it's about "eight generations of a Black family in West Tennessee [who are] repeatedly visited by…the Devil"!
Genre: Historical fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: One trick I like to use to find out about new books is following authors I love on Goodreads to see what they are reading. When I saw that my favorite microhistorian, Mary Roach, gave five stars to this book, wherein a struggling writer is tapped to pen a cookbook for a scandal-ridden former TV starlet, I instantly added it to my own WTR shelf.
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: In this debut novel, a Palestinian American woman works as a media fact-checker by day while secretly moonlighting as a stand-up comedian after hours. As she finds her voice (on stage and off), she must deal with her conservative family's judgment. In an attempt at damage control, she stumbles upon a family secret from the 1940s that could really scandalize the family.
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I've got a little fascination with cults and the people who fall for them. Perhaps you relate? In this fresh take on the whole "I can't believe this charismatic dude I'm following turned out to be a cult leader" tale, a small-time con man falls in with an ex-Guantanamo Bay detainee turned social-media imam. Grifters all around!
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I've had a good run of luck so far this year with books about father/daughter duos with nonlinear relationships to time, so I'm eager to pick up Madeleine Thien's latest, about a woman and her father who join an enclave known as the Sea, which stands at a crossroads in time itself. One early reader calls it "a high wire act performed with the skill and grace of a truly great writer."
Genre: Literary speculative fiction
Genre: Literary speculative fiction
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: It's about time someone wrote a dark academia novel from the faculty's perspective! Doctor Walden is the director of magic at Chetwood Academy, which partly involves all the mundane administrative work that comes along with 600 students and partly involves battling demons. Talk about a tough tenure track.
Genre: Fantasy/dark academia
Genre: Fantasy/dark academia
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: The ties between taste and memory have been well documented in the literary world (madeleines, anyone?), so the premise of this fantasy debut intrigued me immediately: What if you could have one last meal with a loved one who has passed on?
Genre: Fantasy
Genre: Fantasy
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I truly cannot put it better than author Melissa Albert's early review: "Pale Fire if Charles Kinbote were a failed-to-launch pop culture-obsessed (not obsessed in the colloquial way, obsessed in the original, deeply unwell way) hypernerd, and the writer he parasitically attaches himself to were the Orb 4, a loose confederation of self-aware creative class Brooklynites writing sci-fi stories within the shambolic Star Rot universe, a darkly autofictional place where members both explore personal and political anxieties through fiction and passive aggressively snipe at each other."
Genre: Fiction/science fiction/metafiction/???
Genre: Fiction/science fiction/metafiction/???
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: A debut thriller with both cults and a serial killer? Yes, please. Here a reporter investigating a series of deaths falls prey to a criminal pill-pushing cult that claims to have a rather extreme cure for bad memories.
Genre: Thriller
Genre: Thriller
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I love classic Golden Age detective stories, and it's pretty rare for me to find a contemporary writer who can evoke that specific genre to my satisfaction, but Anthony Horowitz is one of them. I've loved the book-within-a-book whodunits in his Susan Ryeland series, so I'm thrilled to have Susan back for a third round of amateur sleuthing.
Genre: Mystery
Genre: Mystery
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: The author of the charming romance Ayesha at Last is back with a new cozy mystery series, and this is exactly what I need for my summer reading list! Get ready to follow the detective work of a charming and tenacious widow working to clear her daughter from an accusation that she killed a very unpopular landlord.
Genre: Cozy mystery
Genre: Cozy mystery
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Here's a GREAT mystery hook: A father and son are found dead in their 20th-story Chicago apartment…with seawater in their lungs, floors dry, and fingernail scratches on the ceiling. But wait, there's more! Add in a Mysterious Stranger Who's Not What She Seems, a speculative element, and Africanfuturist themes and this book is shooting right to the top of my WTR shelf.
Genre: Mystery/sci-fi
Genre: Mystery/sci-fi
Sharon can't wait to read this book because: A new Kennedy Ryan book is always an event for us dedicated romance readers. This book, the third in her Skyland series, promises a steamy forbidden romance between ambitious, independent Hendrix Barry and tech mogul Maverick Bell, who's definitely very off-limits.
Genre: Contemporary romance
Genre: Contemporary romance
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: A new essay collection from Rebecca Solnit (Men Explain Things to Me, Recollections of My Nonexistence) is always a literary occasion. In this collection, she focuses on how the road to positive change is always surprising, full of twists and turns, and why you shouldn't lose hope while waiting out the present moment.
Genre: Essays/Nonfiction
Genre: Essays/Nonfiction
Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Carla Sosenko was born with a rare vascular disorder that manifests physically with a mass of flesh on her back, legs of different sizes, and a hunched posture. In her funny and candid memoir, she writes about what it's like to navigate the world with an unconventional look and how she went from trying to hide away to wanting to be very seen.
Genre: Memoir
Genre: Memoir