The 10 Best Books To Read In May

It's finally starting to feel like spring. The sun is out, the flowers are blooming and nature is practically inviting you to bring a book outside and take advantage of this perfect reading weather. And fortunately for you, we've got some great, highly recommended reads for the month of May.

This month's reading list — a mix of picks from Patch staffers and Amazon editors — has something for everyone. There's fiction, nonfiction, politics, fantasy and everything in between. If you like to read, we've got a book (or 10) you're bound to love. Enjoy!

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#1 "The Better Sister: A Novel" by Alafair Burke

The Taylor sisters were always opposites: Chloe was the younger sibling and classic overachiever, and Nicky was the older but not wiser sister with a way of getting in trouble. After high school, they went their separate ways. Chloe attended an Ivy league school, graduated and landed a coveted publishing job in New York City. Nicky stayed close to home in Cleveland, and after floating from job to job and man to man, she married a promising attorney named Adam, with whom she had a son, Ethan. Now, 15 years later, everything has changed. Chloe is married to Adam and completely estranged from Nicky. But after Adam is murdered by an intruder at the couple's East Hampton beach house, Chloe reluctantly lets his son, Ethan, and her sister back into her life. Soon, the police start treating Ethan as a suspect in Adam's death, and Chloe and Nicky are forced to confront family secrets they both wanted to leave in the past.

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#2 "A Lily in the Light: A Novel" by Kristin Fields

For 11-year-old Esme, ballet is everything. She's a talented dancer with great promise, but her life is turned upside down when her 4-year-old sister goes missing without a trace. Suddenly, Esme's comfortable world is shattered, and people she's always trusted are suddenly suspects. Desperate to get away from her broken family, Esme accepts an invitation to join an elite ballet academy in San Francisco. Eight years later, Esme is up for first principal role in Paris. But a call from her older sister brings Esme back into the darkness and family drama she worked so hard to escape. Will Esme miss out on her big break, and will her family finally get the answers they've been searching for?

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#3 "The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World" by Melinda Gates

For the past twenty years, Melinda Gates has been working to reduce inequity here in the U.S. and around the world. In her new book, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder shares the lessons she's learned and explains why if you want to lift society up, you've got to stop keeping women down. This book is an insightful, important read for women and men of every generation.

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#4 "The Guest Book: A Novel" by Sarah Blake

The Miltons are a old money New York family that seems to have it all. In 1935, they still did, and Ogden and Kitty Milton purchased a small private island off the coast of Maine. It was a beautiful, private place, but by 1959, things began to fall apart. Two strangers enter the Miltons' circle: One falls in love with Ogden and Kitty's daughter, and the other makes them question everything they thought they stood for. Then, during an innocent visit to the family's Maine retreat, something happens that shatters the world the Milton family created for themselves. By the beginning of the 21st century, their money's run dry, the island is for sale, and each family member is forced to confront the secrets they'd glossed over for generations.

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#5 "Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee" by Casey Cep

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a preacher in Alabama accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money back in the 1970s. Thanks to a savvy lawyer, he never faced any jail time. But at the funeral of his final victim, another relative shoots and kills Reverend Maxwell. There were hundreds of witnesses, but the murderer was acquitted at trial — thanks to the same lawyer who got Reverend Maxwell off the hook. Sitting in the audience was Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird." She traveled from New York City back to her native Alabama with the idea of writing a true-crime classic about the trial. She spent a year in town reporting, and many more years working on her version of the case. In this book, the author looks back at the case itself and Lee's investigative reporting. It offers a moving portrayal of a beloved American author and her personal struggle with fame and success.

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#6 "The Mueller Report" by The Washington Post

This book contains the findings of the Special Counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as accompanying analysis from the Pulitzer Prize–winning staff of The Washington Post. It's well organized, easily digestible and informative (no matter what your personal political beliefs are).

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#7 "A Job You Mostly Won't Know How to Do: A Novel" by Pete Fromm

Taz and Marnie are a young couple beginning what they hope to be a long and prosperous life together. When they buy a fixer-upper and discover they're expecting their first child, the timing seems perfect. But then Marnie dies during childbirth, and Taz is forced into life as a single father completely unprepared. Set against the wild landscape of Montana, this book follows Taz's trying but rewarding first two years as a dad.

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#8 "From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home" by Tembi Locke

It was love at first sight when Tempi, a black American actress, saw Saro, an Italian professional chef, on the streets of Florence. When they married, Saro's family didn't approve, but the couple made a happy, successful life together in Los Angeles. They adopted a daughter, Zoela, and grew deeper in love with one another. Eventually, though, Saro was diagnosed with cancer, and they reconciled with his family before it was too late. In this beautifully written memoir, Tembi chronicles what happens next in the three summers she spent in Sicily with her daughter, Zoela. Tembi gets to know and love Saro's family and embraces their culture and food, all while reflecting on the incredible love story that brought her there.

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#9 "Riots I Have Known" by Ryan Chapman

An unnamed Sri Lankan inmate has barricaded himself in the computer lab of a New York prison. There's a riot outside, incited by a poem he published in The Holding Pen, the house literary journal. As this inmate waits for the violent chaos to reach him, he reflects on how he got here. He wonders if he should've stayed in postwar Sri Lanka, or should he have remained a quiet Park Avenue doorman? Is the riot his fault? This clever, comical and biting book will keep you mesmerized until the final page. As Alexandra Kleeman, author of "You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine," says, "Ryan Chapman has written a rocket-powered ode to literary creation and mass incarceration. Weaving satire and seriousness into a singularly rambunctious monologue, 'Riots I Have Known' is a breath of fresh air."

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#10 "Game of Thrones" 5-Book Boxed Set by George R. R. Martin

The final season of "Game of Thrones" is here, and there's never been a better time to go back and read the books! This bargain priced paperback set includes the first five books from George R. R. Martin., an author who's been called the J. R. R. Tolkien of our time.

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Looking for even more great books? Check out last month's reading list!

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