17 New Books Coming in May

Chop Fry Watch Learn, by Michelle T. King

Once called “the Julia Child of Chinese cooking,” Fu Pei-Mei taught generations of Taiwanese people to cook through her long-running TV show and many cookbooks. King presents not just a biography of an indomitable woman, but a portrait of how cultures eat.

Norton, May 7

Coming Home, by Brittney Griner and Michelle Burford

In February 2022, Griner — arriving in Russia to play basketball in the off-season — was detained by Russian authorities, who claimed she had hash oil in her luggage. The W.N.B.A. star spent 10 months in a women’s penal colony before she was freed in a prisoner swap; this is the story of her ordeal.

Knopf, May 7

Free and Equal, by Daniel Chandler

If liberal democracy is to survive as a form of government, it needs a complete rethink. So argues Chandler, a British economist and philosopher, in this rousing homage to the political philosopher John Rawls, whose “realistic utopia,” the book contends, provides a blueprint for a society premised on both individual freedom and true equality.

Knopf, May 7