Who would have thought a month ago that we would all be isolated in our homes? And, while some of us are reading more, I know I’m having a hard time concentrating. There are some excellent May releases coming out, though. If you can’t place holds at your local public library, mark your favorite books from this list for future consideration when libraries reopen. Or, pick one or two to purchase from your favorite independent bookstore. Here are the May treasures in my closet. If you’ll notice, May 5 is going to be a big day in the publishing world. But, take these publication dates with a grain of salt. Even while I was writing this, I found four books whose publication dates had changed.

Raise your hand if you’re ready for Mary Kay Andrews’ latest novel. Who isn’t right now? Hello, Summer introduces Conley Hawkins who left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, years ago. After ten years of hard work, she finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister at the family newspaper. Even worse, she’s in charge of the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.” But, news in the town turns it into a scandalous hotspot after Conley witnesses an accident, and the story behind it gets dangerous. Add in some romance, and it’s time for a terrific escape novel. (Release date is May 5.)

Amy Jo Burns takes readers to a West Virginia mountaintop trapped in time in her novel, Shiner. An hour from the closest West Virginia mining town, Wren Bird lives in a cloistered mountain cabin with her parents, the only visitor her mother’s lifelong best friend. Every Sunday, Wren’s father delivers sermons in an abandoned gas station, where he handles serpents and praises the Lord. He’s convinced of his divinity, and he has a strange hold over the community. Then, one summer, a miracle performed by Wren’s father turns to tragedy. As Wren’s world shatters, she learns the truth of her family’s harrowing history, and searches for a different future for herself. (Release date is May 5.)

I recognized Caroline B. Cooney’s name because of her book, The Face on the Milk Carton. Her new thriller is Before She Was Helen. Clemmie goes next door to check on her unlikable neighbor Dom, but he isn’t there. Something is, though, something so stunning and beautiful that she photographs it on her cell phone, and makes the mistake of forwarding it. When the picture hits the Internet, Clemmie realizes fifty years of carefully hiding under names not her own could be ruined by one careless picture. And, while she found a work of art, the police find a body, along with Clemmie’s fingerprints. Now, her quiet life comes crashing down as her dark past returns. (Release date is May 5.)

I’m a fan of A.J. Devlin’s Cobra Clutch. It went on to win the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Devlin now brings “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead back, taking the pro wrestler turned private investigator into the cutthroat world of women’s roller derby in Rolling Thunder. When a team’s coach disappears, the women hire Jed to find him. It’s a witty, violent mystery, just as good as the first one. (Release date is 5/15.)

The cutline for Tiny Imperfections by All Frank and Asha Youmans says, “All’s fair in love and kindergarten admissions.” At thirty-nine, Josie Bordelon is no longer the “it” black model of the ’90s. She’s director of admissions at the most sought after San Francisco private school, single, and determined to keep her seventeen-year-old daughter from making the same mistakes she did. But, Etta is supported by the family matriarch in her passion for ballet. Meanwhile, Josie’s best friend thinks all Josie needs is to get back out in the dating world. (Release date is May 5.)

Laura Hankin’s Happy & You Know It is described as “A dark, witty page-turner about a struggling young musician who takes a job singing for a playgroup of overprivileged babies and their effortlessly cool moms, only to find herself pulled into their glamorous lives and dangerous secrets. (Release date is May 19.)

What’s better for a beach read than a romantic comedy called Beach Read by Emily Henry? Augustus Everett and January Andrews are polar opposites. He’s an acclaimed author of literary fiction. She’s a bestselling romance author. But, they do have something in common. For three months, they’re living in adjoining beach houses, broke and bogged down with writer’s block. Then, they make a deal to force themselves out of their creative ruts. He’ll write something happy, and she’ll write the Great American Novel, taking field trips to expose themselves to the other person’s world. And, they’ll both finish a book. Maybe. (Release date is May 19.)

Fans of Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile mysteries will want to check out Harper Kincaid’s Bookbinding mystery, To Kill a Mocking Girl. Quinn Victoria Caine returns to her hometown of Vienna, Virginia to start her new life as a bookbinder in her family-owned bookshop, Prose & Scones. Maybe it’s not comfortable bumping into her ex, Scott, or his fiancee, Tricia, Quinn’s former high school nemesis, who shove their recent engagement in her face constantly. That doesn’t mean Quinn wanted to find Tricia dead in the road, or become the prime suspect in the police investigation. (Release date is May 12.)

Rigged is the fourth in the Jake Longly series by D.P. Lyle, but I hadn’t read previous ones and still enjoyed this book. Tommy “Pancake” Jeffers’ first love was Emily Patterson who he hasn’t seen since middle school. But, she’s on the verge of divorce and Longly Investigations is looking into the finances involved. When Emily doesn’t appear for her meeting with Pancake, he goes looking, only to find her body and that of her boyfriend. Pancake calls on Jake and his team to investigate the murder. (Release date is May 19.)

Susan Mallery’s The Friendship List may be just the story of friendship and support we need right now. It sounds like “The Bucket List” for women. Two best friends realize they have to change their life after single mom Ellen Fox overhears her son say he can’t go to his dream college because she needs him too much. If she wants him to live his best life, she has to convince him she’s living hers. So, she teams up with her best friend Unity Leandre who creates a list of challenges to push Ellen out of her comfort zone, everything from “go sky diving” to “wear a bikini in public”. But, Unity doesn’t need to change. What’s wrong with a widow in her thirties still sleeping in her late husband’s childhood bed? Somewhere along the way, the two friends discover that life is meant to be lived with joy and abandon. (Release date is May 26.)

The Tourist Attraction is Sarah Morgenthaler’s debut romantic comedy, and it just looks fun. When Graham Barnett named his diner in Moose Springs, Alaska The Tourist Trap, he meant it as a joke. Now, he’s stuck slinging reindeer dogs to an endless string of resort visitors who couldn’t interest him less. And, he’s definitely not interested in the enthusiastic tourist in the corner. He has a strict “No tourists” policy. Two weeks in Alaska is the top and only item on Zoey Caldwell’s bucket list. And, she falls in love with Moose Springs at first site. And, there just might be more to the grumpy owner of a diner than meets the eye. (Release date is May 5.)

Kate Morse’s sequel to The Burning Chambers is The City of Tears. The historical novel reunites readers with Minor Joubert and her husband Piet as they travel to Paris to attend a royal wedding intended to finally bring peace between the Catholics and the Huguenots. Despite the celebrations, within days of the ceremony, thousands will be dead in the streets and Minou’s family will be scattered to the winds. (Release date is May 26.)

In The War Widow, Tara Moss takes readers to post-World War II Sydney. The war may be over, but journalist Billie Walker’s search for a missing young immigrant will plunger her right back into the danger and drama she thought she’d left behind in Europe. She’s happy to be home after years spent as a war correspondent, but the rejoicing at the end of war is tarnished by the loss of her father, and the disappearance in Europe of her husband, Jack. And, the newspapers are sidelining her, giving jobs to returning soldiers. She’s a survivor, though, and reopens her father’s private investigation agency. Eventually, the women of Sydney turn to her, first for divorce cases. Then the son of immigrants goes missing, and Billie’s new case turns dangerous. (Release date is May 5.)

A Full Cold Moon is the latest intriguing police procedural by Lissa Marie Redmond. Buffalo police detective Lauren Riley is working Homicide while her partner on the Cold Case team is laid up. One night, a visitor from Iceland is killed in an alley just feet from his hotel. Before Riley even has a chance to investigate the Buffalo connection, she and an FBI agent are sent to Iceland, following the trail of an influential businessman who may know the secrets behind the death. (Release date is May 5.)

Francesca Serritella is known for the nonfiction essays she writes with her mother, Lisa Scottoline. Ghosts of Harvard is her debut novel, the story of a sister grieving the loss of her brother. Cady Archer arrives on Harvard’s campus to begin her freshman year, looking only for answers to the question, what really happened to her brother, a schizophrenic savant, the night he died? Eric left behind a secret blue notebook, and Cady’s determined to investigate. Her amateur sleuthing turns up clues that grow increasingly sinister, and she begins to hear voices connected to ghosts of Harvard’s past. If Cady listens to those voices, will they lead to the truth about her brother or down a path to her own destruction? (Release date is May 5.)

Anna Solomon, author of Leaving Lucy Pear, now brings us The Book of V. The story intertwines the lives of three women across three centuries as their stories of sex, power, and desire finally converge in the present day. Meet Lily Rubenstein, a Brooklyn mom in 2016, Vivian Kent, a senator’s wife in 1970s Washington, D.C., and the Bible’s Queen Esther. Their lives are connected in surprising ways that deepen their individual stories. (Release date is May 5.)

In Exile Music, Jennifer Steil takes an unexplored slice of World War II history to tell the story of a young Jewish girl whose family flees refined and urbane Vienna for safe harbor in the mountains of Bolivia. Orly had an idyllic childhood filled with music when she grew up in Vienna in the 1930s. Her father plays the viola in the Philharmonic and her mother is an opera singer. But, when the Germans arrive in 1938, Orly’s family price refugee visas for La Pax. Even as the number of Jewish refugees grows, her family is haunted by the music that was once their livelihood. Orly and her father adjust, but her mother only grows more distant. When the war ends, Orly must decide between the love of her new home, or the pull of her past in Europe. (Release date is May 5.)

There’s quite a bit of buzz about Elisabeth Thomas’ debut, Catherine House. The author’s years at Yale inspired the seductive, gothic-infused novel of literary suspense. It’s set within a secluded, elite university, and follows a dangerously curious, rebellious undergraduate who uncovers a shocking secret about an exclusive circle of students…and the dark truth beneath the school’s promise of prestige. (Release date is May 12.)

There are some other treasures here that might appeal to you as well. Just a reminder, again. Check for changed release dates.

Carrey, Jim and Dana Vachon – Memoirs and Misinformation (5/5)
Danler, Stephanie – Stray (5/5)
Guzlowski, John – Little Altar Boy (5/21)
Masad, Ilana – All My Mother’s Lovers (5/26)
Mayne, Andrew – The Girl Beneath the Sea (5/1)
Panowich, Brian – Hard Cash Valley (5/5)
Stivers, Carole – The Mother Code (5/5)
Swarup, Shubhangi – Latitudes of Longing (5/5)
Walker, Harriet – The New Girl (5/19)

And, these six books arrived today from HarperCollins, May releases. Jinx is claiming them as his.