Get Ready to Turn Some Pages With The 10 Best Books Of May

John-Calum or Cal returns from art school to the small Isle of Harris in Scotland, back to his sheep-shearing father and his salt-of-the-Earth grandmother. His father John is dismayed by Cal’s long hair and strange clothes, but Cal is retreating inside even further, hiding his sexuality. As the seasons change, a revelation will bring secrets to the surface.

Pepper Mills moves reluctantly into a retirement home, fearing her health is failing with alarming new symptoms. After a battery of tests, the 77-year-old realizes she’s pregnant. The sudden notoriety is a lot, but so are the decisions Pepper needs to make in this book about choices, mortality and motherhood.

Frankie’s dreams are crushed when her fiancé dumps her right before their wedding. Her best friend George swoops in to take her on her honeymoon to Tofino on Vancouver Island. Frankie sees it as a way to save their fraught friendship, but things come up that lead this trip in a very different direction.

JoJo is sailing away on the ship for her sister’s wedding cruise, determined to fix her intimacy issues. She decides to woo a fellow guest for closure, as he was her first kiss and kind of an obsession for her. She asks her childhood bestie Cooper to be her wingman, but their relationship is on the rocks as well. A scheme to fake-date inevitably pushes them beyond friendship, into a voyage neither anticipated.

"Olive Kitteridge" author Elizabeth Strout returns with another deeply realized character, this time a high school history teacher named Artie. On the outside, the husband, neighbor and weekend sailor seems like he has it together, while inside he’s racked with feelings of isolation. After his world flips upside down, he needs to rebuild it one piece at a time, focusing on what matters most in his world.

Similar to his other best-seller, “The Midnight Library,” this one focuses on a similarly themed train that takes those who have died to their final destination. Wilbur wishes he could go back to when he was happiest, like on his honeymoon in Venice with Maggie and the train allows him to re-live those moments. But to do so, he needs to risk it all.

After a whirlwind romance, Carrie and Johan impulsively wed in Thailand. On their wedding night, Johan is kidnapped by masked men, disappearing forever, or so Carrie thinks. Twelve years later, she’s a happily married mother of twins, running a holiday cottage rental business in England. An online post reveals Johan is alive in Sweden and Carrie suddenly needs to know what really happened.

Every May 1, a serial killer attacks in a small town. In 1992, Jules, the high school queen bee is attacked, but survives. Quinn, a poor teen boy is arrested for trying to break up a fight. A year later, Julia wonders how she survived and Quinn arrived home to find his mother has been murdered. Every May 1 for the next 10 years, the two are consumed with questions, even though the murderer is still out there, ready to strike again.

A young lawyer must defend a man on trial for the murder of a judge. Her opponent happens to be her mentor...and husband. A figure from her past reappears and soon she’s fighting for her client, her marriage, but also to keep her past buried. This novel will serve as the story for Season 2 of “Presumed Innocent” on Apple TV, starring Rachel Brosnahan.

It’s always a good month of reading when David Sedaris drops a new collection of hilarious essays. This one touches on being a caretaker after surgery, befriending Duolingo, a whole lot of outlandish travels across the world and many more wacky yet profound tales.