While there were some nice weather days in April when we got out and about I also spent a lot of time reading - either for one of my on going projects, for the Read the World Book Group or just trying to keep up with my library reservations! I also got a new camera and so I've been trying to get to grips that!
April's book group featured books from North Africa and between us all we read right across the continent, and again we all found something different to read, although two us did pick the same author.
This was the theme in May too with our look at South American literature - while 5 of us read the same authors we all picked different titles and so could trace the development of a writer's career. None of us were huge fans of magical realism with the genre being likened to a pastrami and custard sandwich - both elements are nice on their own but they just shouldn't be mixed!
In my own on going project to read the world I read books from: Egypt, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Algeria, Angola, Antigua, Hungary, Iran, Denmark, Brazil, South Korea, and Japan. Those in italics were countries new to me.
I think my favourite books for the month (that I can talk about - there were lots of secret advance copies in April) were the novel The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai (tr. Lara Vergnaud) and the children's/teen historical novel The Blitz Sisters by Judith Eagle.
The only non fiction I read were autobiographies and while they were enjoyable nothing stuck out as unmissable. So far in 2026 I've read far fewer non fiction books than normal - possibly because I am trying to read books by authors from various countries and less travel writing about these countries than in past years?
