Waiting on Wednesday: My Top Picks for May

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

One day soon I will return to posting book reviews (June can't come soon enough). But I thought I'd take the opportunity to list the upcoming May releases that I'm the most excited about.

Only two more days until the release of Jennifer Paddock's The Weight of Memory, which will reconnect me with Chandler, Sarah and Leigh, the character's from Paddock's first novel A Secret World and Walker Galloway, a character from Paddock's second novel Point Clear. The book description explains: "In The Weight of Memory, memory is the common thread running through the storylines of Chandler, Sarah, and Leigh . All three women are from the same hometown, witnessed the death of a boy they all loved in high school, have complicated relationships with their fathers, and ride out Hurricane Katrina together in Destin, Florida." I'm very excited to learn more about these characters and to savor Paddock's prose. I re-read A Secret World two summers ago and I love Paddock's writing.

I'm also excited for Anne Cherian's The Invitation which is released May 14. I learned about this book a while ago and I just re-read Cherian's first novel A Good Indian Wife. I highly recommend the book which is incredibly thought-provoking. I love reading about Indian families and I found Cherian's depiction of an arranged marriage and a man torn between the cultures of India and the US truly insightful.  Cherian's newest book focuses on a group of first generation Indian immigrants.  From Amazon: "When Vikram invites three of his college friends to his son’s graduation from MIT, they accept out of obligation and curiosity, viewing the party as a twenty-fifth reunion of sorts. Village genius Vikram, now the founder of a lucrative computer company, is having the party against his son’s wishes. Frances and Jay regret accepting: Frances, a real estate agent, hasn't sold a house in a year; Jay’s middle management job isn't brag worthy; and their daughter is failing the eleventh grade. Lali plans to hide the fact that her once-happy marriage is crumbling because her American husband is discovering his Jewish roots. Each had left UCLA expecting to be successful and have even more successful children. At Vikram’s Newport Beach mansion, the showmanship they anticipate dissolves as each is forced to deal with his or her own problems. The follow-up toA Good Indian Wife, Anne Cherian’s novel resonates with the poignancy of real life colliding with expectations unmet."

I Couldn't Love You More by Jillian Medoff comes out May 15.  I read Medoff's previous novel Hunger Point when it came out in 2002.  I'm excited to see how her writing has changed--there is a lot to capture in how society has changed. The book description: "Eliot Gordon would do anything for her family. A 38-year-old working mother, she lives an ordinary but fulfilling life in suburban Atlanta with her partner, Grant Delaney, and their three daughters. The two older girls are actually Eliot's stepdaughters, a distinction she is reluctant to make as she valiantly attempts to maintain a safe, happy household." Then Finn Montgomery, Eliot's long-lost first love, appears, triggering a shocking chain of events that culminates in a split-second decision that will haunt her beloved family forever. How Eliot survives-and what she loses in the process-is a story that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved a child."

I am also eagerly awaiting Meg Mitchell Moore's second novel So Far Away which comes out May 29. I thoroughly enjoyed Mitchell Moore's debut novel The Arrivals. Here is the book description: "Thirteen-year-old Natalie Gallagher is trying to escape: from her parents' ugly divorce, and from the vicious cyber-bullying of her former best friend. Adrift, confused, she is a girl trying to find her way in a world that seems to either neglect or despise her. Her salvation arrives in an unlikely form: Bridget O'Connell, an Irish maid working for a wealthy Boston family. The catch? Bridget lives only in the pages of a dusty old 1920s diary Natalie unearthed in her mother's basement. But the life she describes is as troubling - and mysterious - as the one Natalie is trying to navigate herself, almost a century later."

I'm super excited that these books will soon be in my hands!