10 best books to read in May 2021

       The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel

In her graphic memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother? cartoonist Bechdel crafted wrenching and comic narratives about her relationships with her father and mother. Her latest graphic memoir charts a different relationship: the one between her and exercise. The book explores the fitness fads she’s participated in over the last six decades, including running, cycling classes and “feminist martial arts” as the author explores her fixation on fitness and how it relates to her journey of self-discovery.

2.       Olympus, Texas By Stacey Swann

Weaving elements of classical mythology into a thoroughly modern family saga, Olympus, Texas centres on the Briscoe family, once again the talk of their small town when the prodigal son, March, returns years after he was caught having an affair with his brother's wife. Within days of March's arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended and even the strongest of alliances are shattered.

3.        The Hunting Wives By May Cobb

What happens when a group of housewives gets bored with the monotony of their comfortable, if quiet, lives? Weird stuff. The newest from Cobb (Big Woods) centres on Sophie, a young woman who’s left behind a stressful yet fulfilling career in Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. It should feel idyllic, but she soon realizes life is now too quiet. That is until she takes up with a socialite who’s part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives.

4.       The Woman With the Blue Star’ by Pam Jenoff

A trained historian and former diplomat, bestselling author Pam Jenoff (“The Orphan’s Tale,” “The Lost Girls of Paris“) bring forward the historical drama of Jewish refugees hiding from Nazis in the subterranean tunnels of the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. Sadie, 18, looks up one day through the street grate to see Ella, a Polish girl whose stepmother is aligned with the Germans. The two develop an unlikely friendship as danger flairs all around.

5.       The Last Thing He Told Me’ by Laura Dave

Anxious about a new mystery to get your hands on? In Dave’s plot-twisting family suspense drama, Owen Michaels vanishes, and his new wife and 16-year-old daughter (who is not a fan of her stepmom) attempt to find out not only why and what happened to him but just exactly who the real Owen Michaels is.

6.       Sunshine Girl by Julianna Margulies

If you loved her in “The Good Wife” and “ER,” you’ll likely be interested in learning more about actress Julianna Margulies in her new coming-of-age memoir. Nicknamed “Sunshine Girl” by her family, she writes of her unconventional (and often chaotic) upbringing, her relationships, her rejections and working her way to an award-winning acting career.

7.       Brat: An ’80s Story’ by Andrew McCarthy

If “Pretty in Pink,” “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Less than Zero” continue to stay in heavy rotation on your must-watch list, odds are Andrew McCarthy’s new memoir is as much a no-brainer as Andie ending up with Blane at the prom. The Brat Packer focuses on growing up in New York City in the ’80s, getting candid about lost innocence and the highs and lows of his rise to fame in Hollywood.

8.       While Justice Sleeps’ by Stacey Abrams

From the former Georgia House of Representatives minority leader and gubernatorial candidate comes this political-legal thriller centred on Avery Keene, a law clerk for a Supreme Court justice. When the justice falls into a coma and Avery is tasked with serving as his power of attorney and legal guardian, she discovers secret research into a high-powered conspiracy. Filled with plot twists and turns, it’s being compared to “The Pelican Brief.”

9.       Secrets of Happiness BY Joan Silber

From a master of family dramas comes this new one about a young lawyer in New York who learns that his father has long kept a second family living in Queens. In the aftermath, each family member is caught in their complicated journey, as they come to terms with who they are and what they believe in. Taking place over three continents, Secrets of Happiness is about surprise loyalties, love triangles and how a family can tap into a reservoir of inner strength.

1     A Flaw in Human Judgment, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass. R Sunstein

In Noise, authors Kahneman, Sibony and Sunstein want us to consider why bad judgements are made. They ask how a person—perhaps a doctor or a judge—can be faced with a situation and make a decision today, but, on a different day, may not make that same call. They believe part of the reason is due to noise, the “variability in judgements that should be identical.” In their book, the authors describe the impact of noise across fields, from medicine to law to child services, and break down how it goes unnoticed and how it can be remedied.