Reading books is one of the best things you can do to spend your time creatively and productively. Not only does a good book help you pass the time, but it can also be very beneficial for your mental health. Books make you travel inside the imaginative world of the writer.
During the recent COVID-19 crisis, most of us have a lot of time on our hands. Many of us may not even understand what to do all day with all this free time that we are not used to having. This is probably the perfect time for you to read a bunch of good books, depending on whatever genre/niche it is that you are interested in. So, today, we look over eight books that you can read this April/May.
Little Secrets
Author: Jennifer Hillier
Release Date: April 21, 2020
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Martin’s life is a fairytale. She married her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They are admired in their community and are a loving family. Up until the day their son, Sebastian, is taken.
A year later, Martin is a shadow of herself, and the FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded, and she and her husband rarely ever speak. The only thing that keeps her going every day is the unlikely chance that Sebastian might one day reappear. She hires a personal investigator to start the case where the police left off, but they end up finding much more than she ever thought she would. A mother frustrated by the disappearance of her child discovers she might have had the story wrong all along.
The Book of Longings
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Release Date: April 21, 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction
In her fourth fiction book, Sue Monk Kidd uses her acclaimed narrative talents to bring forth the story of a young woman named Ana.
Ana grew up as a part of a wealthy family in Sepphoris. The family had relations with Galilee’s ruler. Ana is rebellious as well as ambitious. She has an intelligent, curious personality and a courageous soul. She craves for a life she can be proud of but fails to find an outlet for her unique abilities. Disregarding the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced females. When she meets the 18-year-old Jesus, each of them is drawn to and enriched by the other’s spiritual and philosophical ideas. He becomes a floodgate for her intellect, but also the awakener of her heart.
The Book of longings is an inspiring account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her while living in a time, place, and culture devised to silence her.
Afterlife
Author: Julia Alvarez
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Genre: Domestic Fiction
Antonia Vega, an immigrant writer, has the earth shaking under her feet. After just retiring from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts, one after another. The disappearance of her sister, finding an undocumented pregnant teenager on her doorstep, Afterlife is a compact, agile, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of awe and suspicion, it asks: How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to the close ones we have lost?
The Book of Lost Friends
Author: Lisa Wingate
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Lisa Wingate brings to life stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold off.
This one is a new novel inspired by historical events. It is a story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post- Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its connection to her own students’ lives.
Eight Perfect Murders
Author: Peter Swanson
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
A chilling tale of psychological suspense and a homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very smart killer has started acting on his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders.
To protect himself, Malcolm begins looking into possible suspects and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal does not count on the investigation, leaving off the trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leave more victims dead- and the noose around Malcolm’s neck grows so tight that he might never be able to escape.
Where the Lost Wander
Author: Amy Harmon
Release Date: April 28, 2020
Genre: Romance
A family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss, in this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail.
The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected that she would be a widow at twenty. She sets off to the West with her family, eager to leave her grief behind her in the past. She forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.
But life on the road is full of tragedies, hardships, struggles, fear, and death. When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, all they have left behind are the promises that they had once made. They have ripped apart. They can not turn back, can not go on, and neither can they let go. To find each other, both of them will have to make sacrifices. To save each other and eventually make peace with who they are.
You Deserve Each Other
Author: Sarah Hogle
Release Date: April 7, 2020
Genre: Fiction, Romance Novel
Naomi Westfield has the picture-perfect fiancé: Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to a part of. They never fight, and their wedding is only three months away. And she is miserably sick of him.
Naomi wants out, and there is a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment. They both go head-to-head. Pranks, fights, and whatever they could think of to make the other person end the engagement. As the time comes closer and closer, Naomi finds her resolve to slip.
When your nemesis also happens to be your fiancé, happily ever after becomes a lot more complicated in this funny, lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy debut.
If It Bleeds
Author: Stephen King
Release Date: April 21, 2020
Genre: Horror fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
If It Bleeds is a 2020 group of four previously unpublished novellas by American writer Stephen King. These stories are “If It Bleeds,” “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” “The Life of Chuck,” and “Rat.” Originally scheduled to release on May 5, 2020, the release was pushed up due to the coronavirus pandemic.
