I’m combing my shelves and Book buys from the past year for my current TBRs.

But I’ve also been checking out more e-books from my library. I’ve resisted e-books for a very long time. Mostly to save my eyes.

Looking at blue screen eight hours a day is enough. At home, I need the soothing dullness of ink on paper. Preferably cream paper. With just a little bit of “tooth.” And deckled edges are always a plus.

But anyway, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and when the books I crave are only available electronically or with a bit of a wait, I’ll try the electronic versions.

Photographing e-books is also not as fun as photographing physical books. But I’m working on that, too. Just not this month. This month I only have the physical ones to photograph.

TBR Novels for May

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass

Julia Glass is another author I’ll read anything by. She could write a to-do list and I would read it. She has rich complex characters in real-life situations. She can write men and Women equally well.

I See You Everywhere follows two sisters over twenty-five years. I’m interested in this book not just because of who wrote it but also because it is about a sibling relationship. You know, ’cause I read books about birth order and all.

Julia Glass has written six books in all (so far), so I’ve got some catching up to do.

So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim, A Twisted Tale

I recently discovered this 10-part series put out by Disney. They are YA and fun, especially if you’ve seen the movies they are, uh, inspired by? Based on?

So This is Love is the story of Cinderella as if after the ball where she danced with Prince Charming, she never got to try on the shoe. And was kicked out by her stepmother.

They are pretty inventive and include little Easter eggs from the movie they complement. Last month I read Conceal Don’t Feel, an alternate tale of the Frozen sisters, Elsa and Anna, and it was good enough I wanted to read another. Plus, they are fast reads.

Nonfiction TBR for May

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

As I mentioned in my earlier post this week about things that made me smile, Rutger Bregman’s new book is at the top of my TBR list. And I only just found out about it.

It actually isn’t available until June 2, 2020, so I’ll have to wait a few weeks. But now is an excellent time for this book, when we see both sides of human nature during this unprecedented time of loss and grief amidst courage and sacrifice. In Humankind, writer Bregman questions the belief that seemingly everyone has that humans are “by nature selfish and governed primarily by self-interest.”

But what if humans are really hardwired for kindness and generosity? The idea of self-fulfilling prophecy comes to mind. It makes sense to me. I’d at least like to read a book making this case.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Curry

I’m actually about halfway through this book, which is a collection of the daily habits of 161 artists, writers, scientists, poets, painters, playwrights, philosophers, and mathematicians.

You can skip around and find the ones you know or like. Or you can read straight through. It’s a fascinating peek into the working habits of a wide range of creative and successful people.

Curry also published Daily Rituals: Women At Work which is on my TBR list for another month. (I happened to already have this one at hand.) There are women in the first book but most of the profiles are of men.

Curry admits on his website the second book is “a corrective.” Perhaps in response to comments such as those made by Brigid Schulte in The Guardian who pointed out that what she found so amazing about the men in Daily Rituals was the role of the women in their lives who protected their time, cooked, cleaned, and took care of their children. And much more, besides.

In this second book, Curry includes profiles of 143 women writers, artists, and performers.

Don’t Think Twice: Adventures and Healing at 100 Miles per Hour by Barbara Schoichet

This book jumped out at me some time ago because the author turned fifty just after her mother passed from cancer, she lost her job, and went through a major breakup. I could relate. Schoichet copes by taking a three-day motorcycle course and then decides to buy a Harley in New York and drive it home to Los Angeles.

Touted as “an irreverent account of grief, growing up, and the healing power of adventure,” I can understand the desire to go on adventure in the face of seismic life shifts. I had my own call to what I labeled an eat-pray-love moment in recent memory. (I stayed home, though.)

I’m curious what happens to Schoichet on her cross-country motorcycle tour. And also, wonder how it compares to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I read decades ago and now, might add to my TBR list for a re-read.

What are you reading this month? Or what do you hope to read?