Friday Top 5: Must-Read New Novels

When it came time to go in search of this week's Friday Top 5, we knew immediately that we must seek out Kathryn & Kerry in order to discover which of the endless number of new novels are actually good.

Here, then, are the five new novels you really ought to read as soon as possible.

1. The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

...fans of Morton's earlier novel, The House at Riverton or Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale will love The Forgotten Garden

Kate Morton is a young Australian author who writes so beautifully that we've been known to fight over who gets to choose her books on our monthly employee picks lists.

In The Forgotten Garden, a woman discovers that her beloved grandmother had a secret past—as a child, she was found abandoned on a ship from England to Australia, with no memory of her past and only a suitcase and a book of illustrated fairy tales to hint at her origins.

We won't spoil the book by telling you more, but we will say that fans of Morton's earlier novel, The House at Riverton or Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale will love The Forgotten Garden.

2. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

The Help is a book about a book, which we always like.

In 1969 Mississippi, a young white woman decides to write—anonymously—about the world of maids & other house help. She collects true stories about the unfair treatment and complicated lives of seventeen black maids, and becomes convinced to become a social activist.

3. Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

A wonderful saga!

In Ethiopia, a nun dies giving birth to twins, and their alleged father disappears. The orphaned boys are left to be raised by doctors at the hospital where their mother worked and died.

"A wonderful saga!" says Kerry, who also told us the novel contains plenty of intrigue and scandal.

4. Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

From the author of Shadow of the Wind, this is another novel that takes place in Barcelona against the backdrop of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

Also available on compact disc.

5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

We had to put this charming book at the bottom of this list simply because we recommend it so often—we do try to be fair.

In the interest of not going on for pages and pages about the merits of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, we will just tell you it's new in paperback, we hope you'll read it as soon as possible.