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As we step into May 2023, it’s time for another round of Celebrity Book Club Picks.
This month, we have some exciting recommendations that are sure to satisfy your literary cravings. From thrilling mysteries to heart-warming memoirs, there’s something for everyone on this list.
As an avid reader, I’m always curious about what my favorite book clubs are reading, and I love getting inspiration from their book recommendations.
It’s fascinating to see what books speak to different individuals and why they resonate with them. I believe that books have the power to bring people together, spark meaningful conversations, and expand our perspectives. And what better way to explore new books than with some guidance?
So, let’s dive into the celebrity book club picks for May 2023 and see what they have in store for us!
Reese’s Book Club
For May 2023, Reese’s celebrity book club has picked Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld.
This is a book about Sally, a comedy sketch writer who’s given up on love until she meets pop sensation Noah Brewster. The book explores the complexities of modern love and gender relations, and it’s full of witty observations and relatable characters. It’s a must-read for anyone who loves a good romantic comedy!
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, a late-night live comedy show that airs every Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.
But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.
Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy—it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her . . . right?
With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.
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Read with Jenna
Read with Jenna’s celebrity book club pick for May 2023 is Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.
Chain Gang All Stars is a powerful and unflinching look at the American prison system. Through the eyes of the prisoners, the employees, and the protestors, the book explores the devastating consequences of systemic racism, capitalism, and mass incarceration. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the reality of the modern-day gladiator games.
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
She felt their eyes, all those executioners…
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.
Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).
Oprah’s Book Club
Oprah’s celebrity book club pick for May 2023 is The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.
The Covenant of Water is a stunning and masterful epic of love, faith, and medicine that follows three generations of a family in Kerala, South India, as they seek answers to a strange secret that afflicts them. Verghese’s writing is a hymn to progress in medicine and human understanding, evoking a bygone era and showcasing the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today.
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
From the New York Times–bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret
The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of the major word-of-mouth bestseller Cutting for Stone, which has sold over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
Mocha Girls Read
Mocha Girls Read’s celebrity book club pick for May 2023 is Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a captivating novel that explores the complex themes of identity, disability, ambition, and love through the thirty-year journey of two childhood friends turned creative collaborators, as they navigate the highs and lows of success, fame, and personal relationships.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
From the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.
These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.
Read with Marie Claire
Marie Claire’s celebrity book club pick for May 2023 is Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler.
Adelaide is a relatable and honest exploration of grief, mental health, and the challenges of being young and in love with someone who cannot love you back, as an American living in London falls for a charming Englishman and does everything in her power to hold him together. I loved this book!
Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler
In love . . .
For twenty-six-year-old Adelaide Williams, an American living in dreamy London, meeting Rory Hughes was like a lightning bolt out of the blue: this charming Englishman was The One she wasn’t even looking for.
Is it enough?
Does he respond to texts? Honor his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. But when he shines his light on her, the world makes sense, and Adelaide is convinced that, in his heart, he’s fallen just as deeply as she has. Then, when Rory is rocked by an unexpected tragedy, Adelaide does everything in her power to hold him together―even if it means losing herself in the process.
When love asks too much of us, how do we find the strength to put ourselves first?
With unflinching honesty and heart, this relatable debut from a fresh new voice explores grief and mental health while capturing the timeless nature of what it’s like to be young and in love―with your friends, with your city, and with a person who cannot, will not, love you back.
GMA Book Club
GMA’s May 2023 celebrity book club pick is The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters.
The Nigerwife is an exhilarating and thought-provoking debut novel about a young woman’s mysterious disappearance in Lagos, Nigeria, and her auntie’s determined pursuit of the truth. Walters’ writing style is captivating, the characters are well-drawn, and the plot is full of surprises that will keep you guessing until the very end.
The Nigerwife by Vanessa Walters
In this twisty and electrifying debut novel, a young woman goes missing in Lagos, Nigeria, and her estranged auntie will stop at nothing to find the truth behind her disappearance. Perfect for fans of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Last Thing He Told Me.
Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband; a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria; and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny, moneyed Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives—a community of foreign women married to Nigerian men.
But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation, and even violence. But the more she discovers about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.
An inventively told and keenly observant thriller where nothing is as it seems, The Nigerwife offers a razor-sharp look at the bonds of family, the echoing consequences of secrets, and whether we can ever truly outrun our past.
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble book club pick for May 2023 is The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry.
The Secret Book of Flora Lea is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of sisterhood, loss, and the power of imagination. Set during World War II, it follows Hazel’s journey to uncover the truth about her missing sister, and how a rare book with a connection to her past may hold the key to finding her.
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.
In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.
But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.
Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?
As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.
Netflix
Netflix book club pick for May 2023 is The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly.
The Brass Verdict is a thrilling legal mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat as defense attorney Mickey Haller and Detective Harry Bosch team up to investigate a Hollywood lawyer’s murder, putting their own lives at risk in the process.
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
Defense attorney Mickey Haller and Detective Harry Bosch must either work together or die as they investigate a Hollywood lawyer’s murder in this “epic page-turner” (Library Journal).
Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent’s killer may be coming for him next.
Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent’s killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together.
Hope you enjoyed this list of celebrity book club picks for May 2023! Happy reading! ❤️