Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For May, we’re looking at new twists on classic literature, a novel about the realities of living with bipolar disorder, a standalone fantasy book, a plethora of family sagas, how-to books on starting your own podcast and baking sourdough, and a meditation on the joys of fishing.
If you enjoy books that evoke literary classics transplanted to new settings:
Nayantara Roy’s The Magnificent Ruins (2024)
Daphne Du Maurier’s haunting, eerie classic gothic thriller Rebecca meets 21st century India in this inventive novel. Lila has a successful career as an editor in New York City, but she returns home to Kolkata after being informed she inherited the family estate, where many of her relatives still live. Complications ensue.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Jhumpa Lahiri, Anne Tyler, and Louise Erdrich.
Nikki May’s This Motherless Land (2024)*
This novel updates Jane Austen’s classic Mansfield Park to the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Quiet Funke loves her comfortable home life in Lagos, Nigeria. However, it’s all ripped away during a family tragedy, and she soon finds herself living with her mother’s cold and emotionally distant family in England and dealing with tremendous culture shock.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Charmaine Wilkerson, and Chigozie Obioma.
*Ebook also available on Hoopla.
If you love thoughtful contemporary women’s fiction:
Lisa Genova’s More Or Less Maddy (2025)
This novel follows the story of Maddy, a talented college freshman whose life as she knows it is derailed by a mental health crisis and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As she tries to find her way as a young adult, she contends with her overprotective, rigid family and explores an interest in standup comedy.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Jodi Picoult and Jojo Moyes.
If you like dark academia fantasy standalones:
M.L. Wang’s Blood over Bright Haven (2023)
Sciona has battled her way to being the only woman admitted to the High Magistry in the industrial utopian city of Tiran. Though she is an accomplished and educated mage, she is shunned by her fellow magic practitioners. However, her alliance with an exiled janitor may allow them to alter the very course of history . . . if they survive.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of R.F. Kuang and Leigh Bardugo.
If you prefer family sagas:
Ruben Degollado’s The Family Izquierdo (2022)
Multiple generations of the Mexican-American Izquierdo family have come to believe they are cursed. How else to explain the seemingly never-ending personal and medical issues that befall them? The patriarch of the family is dying as his children battle mental illness and divorce proceedings. So, when the eldest son finds a mysterious object buried in the backyard, the Izquierdos suspect they finally know the cause of all their bad luck.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Julia Alvarez and Alice Hoffman.
Michael McGarrity’s Kerney Family Trilogy (2012-2016)
Michael McGarrity is better known for his contemporary Western mysteries about New Mexican lawman Kevin Kerney. These novels are a prequel series that are historical fiction about his family’s longtime history in New Mexico as ranchers and do not require familiarity with the author’s other series. They follow 3 generations of Kerneys, from the 1800s through the Vietnam War, as they try to make a hardscrabble existence in the beautiful San Andres Mountains.
Recommended for those who enjoy the work of Larry McMurtry.
If you want a family saga but as an audiobook:
The Legacy of the Rocking K Ranch: Four Generations of Love, Loss, and Grace (2024)**
This anthology audiobook has a softer approach to the Old West than McGarrity’s work. Four writers, including Mary Connealy, team up to chronicle the lives and loves of four generations of women on a Wyoming ranch. Its time frame is from the mid-19th century to the 1920s.
Recommended for those who enjoy Christian historical romance anthologies by multiple authors.
**Audiobook also available on Hoopla.
If you need nonfiction:
Glen Weldon’s NPR’s Podcast Start Up Guide: Create, Launch, and Grow a Podcast on Any Budget (2024)
Listen to the experts at NPR as they walk you through how to start and run your own podcast. You’ll learn what’s the best equipment to use, how to find and grow your audience, and how to hone your storytelling and voice for optimal listening.
Recommended for anyone interested in starting or improving their own podcast.
Elaine Boddy’s The Sourdough Bible: The Ultimate Resource for Great Bread at Home (2024)
Whether you’re a beginner looking to try baking sourdough for the first time or an experienced hand at it who wants to improve their baking, this book is for you! She walks you through everything you need to know about sourdough starter and loaves, with an extensive focus on troubleshooting everything from timing to ingredients, and provides dozens of recipes, for loaves, rolls, flatbreads, pizza dough, and more.
Recommended for bakers.
Conor Sullivan’s Fishing the Wild Waters: An Angler’s Search for Peace and Adventure in the Wilderness (2021)***
Former Coast Guard officer Conor Sullivan reflects on his hobby of fishing. In this book, he profiles fishing adventures and stories in three distinct and very different locations–New England, Alaska, and Hawaii–for an engaging reflection on the great outdoors and the thrill of angling. He also provides fishing tips that should help you fish right here in Carroll County.
***Ebook also available on Hoopla
Recommended for anglers and outdoors enthusiasts.
What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about for 2025? Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.
Berryville Book Buzz 
I started baking with sourdough starter last year — I need to check out the bible one!
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Yes I think you’d enjoy it! 🙂
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