New Releases: May 2024 Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

FICTION

The Ministry of Time by Kalaine Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. .  . By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.. .what she does next can change the future. An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? — From the publisher. 

Oye, by Melissa Mogollon. Mogollon debuts with a coming-of-age comedy, told as a series of one-sided telephone conversations between Luciana, a struggling Colombian American high school senior, and her older sister Mari, who shines academically. Luciana's family finds themselves in the path of Hurricane Irma and are unable to convince Luciana's wildly independent grandmother Abue to evacuate, so they reluctantly leave without her. The storm changes course, leaving Abue safe, but when they return from their road trip they discover that she is seriously ill with cancer. At the hospital, Luciana is called upon to act as translator/referee between the medical staff and her family. At home, the need to keep Abue in check often requires Luciana to be the adult in the room. In the hours they spend together, she learns about her grandmother's traumatic childhood and the reasons for her fierce need for independence. Through this experience, Luciana learns to be herself and to see death as new beginning. . .  The unique structure of the novel and its emotional and often hilarious dialogue will appeal to all audiences.—Joanna M. Burkhardt. Copyright 2024 Library Journal. 

Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau.  Lau tells the captivating story of Emily Hung and Mark Chan. Emily, pressured by her mother's matchmaking attempts, proposes a fake relationship with Mark to keep their parents at bay. As their pretend romance deepens, however, their feelings become real. Alongside this blossoming love, Emily's strained relationship with her family, especially her older sister, takes center stage. A last-minute family trip opens up an opportunity for Emily to face her feelings for Mark and a much-needed conversation with her estranged family. Lau skillfully explores themes of family dynamics, personal growth, and defying societal expectations. . . This story invites readers to reflect on generational communication and the pressures of living up to familial expectations. VERDICT An inspiring romance for those seeking a story of personal growth, familial reconciliation, and true love.—Michelle Mistalski. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

NONFICTION

The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos & Lisa Dickey.  Journalist Stephanopoulos (All Too Human), who was senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy during the Clinton administration, has collaborated with Lisa…to pen a history of the White House Situation Room… Note that the book does not analyze the actual decision-making. VERDICT Personal accounts drive this highly recommended book's powerful accounts of the crises handled over 60 years in the Situation Room.— Zachary Irwin Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on theEdge of Space by Adam Higginbotham.  In this gripping history, bestseller Higginbotham (Midnight in Chernobyl) recaps the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger soon after liftoff, killing all seven crew members, and the tragedy’s roots in a culture of negligence and recklessness at NASA… Higginbotham’s colorful narrative contrasts the eager idealism of Challenger’s crew, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, with the arrogance of NASA honchos who dismissed warnings and casually gambled with the astronauts’ lives. His account of the engineering issues is lucid and meticulous, and his evocative prose conveys both the extraordinary achievement of rocket scientists in harnessing colossal energies with delicate mechanisms and the sudden cataclysms that erupt when the machinery fails. The result is a beguiling saga of the peril and promise of spaceflight. (May) Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly. 

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoe Schlanger.  Schlanger, a staff writer at the Atlantic, debuts with an astounding exploration of the remarkable abilities of plants and fungi… Investigating whether plants can be said to have personalities, Schlanger describes ecologist Richard Karban’s ongoing research into whether differences in how strongly individual sagebrush plants respond to internal and external distress signals are consistent over time… There are mind-bending revelations on every page, and Schlanger combines robust intellectual curiosity with delicate lyricism… Science writing doesn’t get better than this. (May) Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.