Much-anticipated, curious, or simply thrilling, here are some new and notable books out this month.

The Insufferable Gaucho (New Directions) by Roberto Bolaño — The Chilean poet and novelist’s five short stories and two essays, translated from Spanish by Chris Andrews, contain intrigues about “a stalwart rat police detective investigating terrible rodent crimes, or an elusive plagiarist, or an elderly Argentine lawyer giving up city life for an improbable return to the family estate on the Pampas, now gone to wrack and ruin.” Release Date: May 2013.

The Science Delusion (Melville House) by Curtis White — “Asking the big questions in a culture of easy answers.” Curtis challenges the contemporary turn to “scientism” in a defense of arts and culture, which he believes our technology and science-obsessed world now needs more than ever. Release Date: May 2013.

Little Cat (Coach House Books) by Tamara Faith Berger — Berger’s scandalous first two novellas, Lie With Me and The Way of the Whore, are revised and reprinted to return as Little Cat. Dubbed “the moral pornographer” by Taddle Creek Magazine, Berger fearlessly explores and exposes the obsessive relation and divide between love and sex. Release Date: May 15, 2013.

How to Host a Dinner Party (House of Anansi) by Corey Mintz — We’ve all been the bemused guests or horrified hosts at a terribly long and awkward dinner party. Toronto Star columnist Corey Mintz reveals his secrets to creating successful dinner events, just in time for the long summer season full of patio dinners and wedding rehearsals. But don’t mistake How to Host a Dinner Party for a stiff etiquette book. Its mission in perfecting the dinner party is to help us “to have fun with our friends.” Release Date: May 25, 2013.

The Pope’s Bookbinder (Biblioasis) by David Mason — A giant in the Canadian book trade chronicles his discovery of literature at eleven, being expelled from school at fifteen, and returning home to Canada at thirty to apprentice in the trade that would consume him for the rest of his life. The pope in question is John XXIII, for whom Mason personally gilded a volume in white morocco. Release Date: June 6, 2013 (for details on the launch party, see here).