Sprawled in the park on a picnic rug (read: ex-boyfriend's jumper we "forgot" to give back) is our best-case scenario but if the weather refuses to play ball, we'll happily spend May's two bank holidays nestled in an armchair with one of the compelling new releases hitting bookshops this month.
If you're in the market for a historical figure to look up to, check out the 10 women profiled in Michelle Dean's Sharp, out 3rd May – each would make brilliant (and ridiculously witty) mentors. Fans of witty women writers should also grab a copy of The Pisces, in which a brokenhearted PhD student falls in love with a merman on LA's Venice Beach (but not before she's gritted her teeth through an encounter in a hotel bathroom that's enough to put us off Tinder forever).
Whistle In The Dark, Emma Healey's follow-up to her hugely successful debut, Elizabeth Is Missing, is also out this month, while Curtis Sittenfeld's first short story collection will appeal to anyone who liked her last books – or intelligent female narrators in general.
Click on for the books to add to your basket this May.
The Pisces
Melissa Broder
The debut novel from the writer responsible for @sosadtoday (and a devastating collection of personal essays by the same name, which you should definitely check out), The Pisces is a tale of obsessive love in which Lucy, dumped at the side of the road by her commitment-phobic boyfriend, moves to Venice Beach for the summer to recover...and promptly falls for a merman. Broder may be master of the awkward sexual encounter but it turns out she's a dab hand at proper erotica, too. Also taking in addiction, suicide, delusion and a dog hooked on tranquilisers, The Pisces is so much more than fantasy; it's an unflinching exploration of one woman's fragile mental health.
Out 3rd May
America Is Not The Heart
Elaine Castillo
America is Not the Heart is the sprawling, multigenerational family epic about immigration, national identity, and generational divides you need in your life. Castillo’s debut novel centres on Hero de Vera, a young woman who arrives at her aunt and uncle’s house in the Bay Area after being released from political prison in the Philippines. California of the ‘80s is a far cry from Hero’s past life in the Filipino countryside, then fighting the dictatorship in the New People’s Army, and then being tortured in prison. She and her cousin, Roni, set forth into the immigrant communities of East Bay, where Hero has space to explore her bisexuality. But her aunt, Paz, who came to this country by becoming a nurse, and her uncle, Pol, who works tirelessly as a security guard, struggle to relate to this "Hero’s journey". This is the story of three generations of Filipino women making it in America, and you won’t want to miss out.
Out 3rd May
Sharp: The Women Who Made An Art Of Having An Opinion
Michelle Dean
Sharp is a good quality in knives. It’s a better quality in people. The 10 brilliant women — Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm — featured in Michelle Dean’s novel are all characterised by their mental prowess; their sharpness. But "sharp" has another edge, too — these women were often seen as threats to their male colleagues. Dean manages to fit together the story of 10 lives in a compact, readable book. How very sharp of her.
Out 3rd May
Whistle In The Dark
Emma Healey
This story begins at the end. Fifteen-year-old Lana has been found after going missing for four days while on holiday with her mother, Jen. Relieved, the family return to London – but Lana refuses to talk about what happened to her, and Jen cannot leave it alone. Then Lana begins acting strangely... The follow-up to Healey's bestselling debut Elizabeth Is Missing, Whistle In The Dark is at once an absorbing thriller and a beautifully observed study of the relationship between mother and teenage daughter, which, often fraught, is here compounded by Lana's struggle with depression.
Out 3rd May
The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath
Leslie Jamison
In her first collection, The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison proved her prowess as a singular essayist. Jamison combined academic theory, reportage, pop culture and insights from her own life. Essays in The Recovering incorporate a similar blend, but the subject is even more personal. In the book, she tracks her recovery from alcohol addiction, and positions herself amid the many other artists who also struggled with alcoholism. It’s being called the greatest addiction memoir of all time.
Read our interview with Leslie Jamison here.
Out 3rd May
You Think It, I'll Say It
Curtis Sittenfeld
"I once heard that smart women want to be told they're pretty and pretty women want to be told they're smart. And the most depressing part is that I think I agree," says one of the characters in Curtis Sittenfeld’s newest collection of short stories. Since her debut novel Prep, Sittenfeld has made a career in giving voice to the witty, occasionally mean, always truthful thoughts of smart women. The characters in You Think It, I’ll Say It have a lot in common – they’re all middle-aged, married, and established. In one way or another, they’re all haunted by the selves they once were. Reese Witherspoon recently announced she was making You Think It, I’ll Say It into a TV show starring Kristen Wiig, so you might as well get ahead.
Out 3rd May
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