May reading list

This month I have so many ideas for projects and real life plans that I’m going to read as refuge rather than the non-fiction learning craze of the past months. The way I decide how many books to include in these lists is by looking at how many I read the month before, in this case eight books read in April. Honestly, it’s the first month that the number seems completely unattainable, but that’s the game I made up for myself at the beginning of the year so I’ll see what I manage.

Here are the eight books I hope to read this month:

The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

Last month I read and loved a book Martha Adams had recommended: Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to read another of her recommendations this month. Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s novel seems to be meta-literary, experimental and the main character is a writer. Definitely checking all the boxes for what I’m reading lately. Also, at 496 pages, it gets me back to the reading long novels goal for the year.

I love this photo of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr after being awarded the Prix Goncourt in Paris (from this article).

A Heart So White by Javier Marías

Reading Marías as a buddy read with Daniel Puzzo and I’m going in blind. I’m into it because I have been making an effort to read more Spanish literature, which I had completely disregarded until I started reading Carmen Martín Gaite a few years ago. There are so many amazing works I put off reading, caught in a kind of rejection of what was closer to home- or maybe trying to understand a part of my identity that I don’t actually live out daily? By reading English books rather than Spanish, although I mostly live in Spanish.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading this (and going to an actual bookshop to buy it rather than having to buy online).

Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is a goddess who unwittingly helped me get through my teenage years. I had this quote written on my wardrobe and read it daily, I still know it by heart:

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.”

– Arundhati Roy, The Cost of Living.

Again, mother-daughter relationships and an artist’s autobiography? On theme.

Autumn by Ali Smith

Olivia Laing recommends these books in a way that is irresistible so, although I have tried to read How to Be Both a million times and failed, I am going to try Autumn. Interested in any writers looking at the state of the world and thinking deeply about it.

I’m going to cheat a bit and include some books I’m reading slowly, although I doubt I’ll finish them this month:

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light by Peter Schjeldahl

It’s ridiculous how much I enjoy reading this book, even though a lot of the time I don’t even know what artworks he is referencing.

Interaction of Color by Josef Albers

I know, I know, I’ve written about this book a lot so I’ll just say doesn’t it look great in this photo?

On Weaving by Anni Albers

Almost finished. I read that Anni Albers stopped weaving after writing this book, dedicating the rest of her life to other creative pursuits like printmaking. It’s funny, it feels like this book was the way she closed the cycle in her life.