The Read More! Reading Challenge suggestions for the month of May are to read something short or to read a mystery or crime fiction!
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Something Short (a novella, short story/stories)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Genre: Literary fiction; Magical realism; Translations
Description: At a century-old Tokyo coffee shop rumored to offer patrons the chance to travel back in time, four customers reevaluate their formative life choices.
Every Heart a Doorway – Seanan McGuire
Genre: Fantasy fiction; Gateway fantasy
Description: Children have always disappeared from Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere … else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced … they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter. No matter the cost.
The Strange Library – Haruki Murakami
Genre: First person narratives; Illustrated books; Literary fiction; Surrealist fiction; Translations
Description: In a fantastical illustrated short novel, three people imprisoned in a nightmarish library plot their escape.
All Systems Red – Martha Wells
Genre: First-person narratives; Science fiction
Description: As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure,” confesses the AI narrator of this fast-paced SF adventure. After hacking its own governor module and overriding its programming, security droid “Murderbot” ends up saving lives instead of ending them — but only because letting all the humans die would interfere with its favorite activity: binge-watching some 35,000 hours’ worth of entertainment media. All Systems Red’s snarky protagonist and suspenseful, action-packed plot should have readers eagerly anticipating future installments of the Murderbot Diaries.
A Mystery or Crime Fiction
The Paris Apartment – Lucy Foley
Genre: Thrillers and suspense
Description: A vigilante enforcer on South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation enlists the help of an ex to investigate the activities of an expanding drug cartel, while a new tribal council initiative raises controversial questions.
Winter Counts – David L. Weiden
Genre: Crime fiction; First person narratives
Description: A vigilante enforcer on South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation enlists the help of an ex to investigate the activities of an expanding drug cartel, while a new tribal council initiative raises controversial questions.
The It Girl – Ruth Ware
Genre: Psychological suspense
Description: After John Neville, the man convicted of killing her best friend April 10 years earlier, dies in prison, expectant mother Hannah Jones, after new evidence surfaces proving his innocence, reconnects with old friends to solve the mystery of April’s death and realizes they all have something to hide–including a murder.
A Spy in the Struggle – Aya De Leon
Genre: African American fiction; Romantic suspense
Description: The author of the Justice Hustlers series follows the FBI recruitment of a savvy young lawyer who uses the wits of her impoverished youth to infiltrate an extremist activist group that is being exploited by a biotech company.