Announcing the May 2026 LibraryReads List

By Rachel Tran | April 15 2026 | LibraryReads

Public library staff across the nation have spoken! Congratulations to the books selected for the May 2026 LibraryReads Top Ten List.


For more information about the program, or to learn how to vote for your favorite upcoming books, visit LibraryReads.org. And, don’t forget, voting for the May LibraryReads list ends 5/1! Check out which June titles we’re loving here.

TOP TEN LIST

A Novel
Five lives. Five stories. Five minutes until the London-bound train pulls into the station—and one of them dies. Who would you choose? Welcome to Five.

It’s off to the races in the explosive eighth book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series—featuring bonus material exclusive to this print edition.

A Novel
The daughter of an automotive magnate escapes to an artistic retreat that holds more secrets—and more intrigue—than she could have ever imagined, in this Prohibition-era novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt to the Sea.

HALL OF FAME

Best friends have one week in paradise to fix their friendship or fall apart in this heart-stopping, utterly romantic new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and One Golden Summer.

A Novel
When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?

A hardworking single mom returns to her seaside hometown and stumbles into a fake dating situationship with a wealthy, workaholic scion, from the New York Times bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script. “This book is like a spicy margarita…sweet and a little salty, tart and hot…I have fallen in love with Dolly and with funny, fizzing Annabel Monaghan!” —Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich

A football star and a die-hard fan entangled in a PR stunt—that only one side knows is fake—might be the right play in this new romantic comedy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lynn Painter.

A Novel
Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout’s new novel tells the story of a chance incident that sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher’s life—a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, parenthood, and the importance of truth in a capsizing world

A Novel
A bookseller with a dream of running her beloved bookstore vs. the owner’s out-of-touch grandson who inherits everything. Game on. From the author of Not in My Book comes another irresistible, bookish contemporary romance.