A new month, a new TBR! Whereas I have ben fairly successful in both March and April, there are still books I have to carry with me into the new month. I again lined up five books I hope to read this month, along with three further possibilities. I found myself reading from that pile more in the previous months, so let’s wait and see what May will bring! Again, I use my “up next” queue on The Storygraph for this
In the queue
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronté is a book I have been carrying with me since my March TBR. This one got hyped up a bit as there was a new movie being released, but this hype fizzled out already. I wonder whether this will be a good book for the warmer weather we are having right now, or that it is a little too heavy. I don’t expect this to be an easy read and I’m uncertain if I’m ready for it right now considering my reading preferences and my overall energy. We will see!
Another book I have been carrying with me from another monthly TBR is Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi. This one has been put on my April TBR and I was hoping to pick it up as my final book of the month. I picked a Dutch romance instead, but this one is going to be picked up up really soon!
I’ve been doing a decent job in decluttering my TBR by reading old additions, so All the Things We Never knew by Liara Tamani is next. I have to check the blurb to remember what this book is about as it has been on my TBR since 2020. Whoops. It’s a young adult contemporary, so I really have to be in the mood for it.
And yes, there are books that are on my TBR for much longer than the previous one. I believe The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne has been on there since 2009 or 2010, but I never got around to it. May is remembrance month here as in May 1945, WWII has ended here in the Netherlands. So this month I always want to read a novel set during this period of time in history. This one is, and it’s another good excuse to declutter my TBR.
A fairly new addition to my TBR is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It is on my Spring 2026 TBR, so I should be picking it up this season anyway. I’ve seen it being mentioned a lot recently, so all the reason to prioritize it!
The possibility pile
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone is a book I want to read for a while now and is also on my TBR for the spring. As I hope to focus on romance more with warmer weather being on its way, this book would be perfect to finish this month.
Another one I hope to knock off is Babel by R.F. Kuang. I have read this book already in fall 2022, but I didn’t understand most of it. This book is heavy on the science behind language and this is a bit too complicated for my knowledge of the English language. Now the Dutch translation is out, so I can give it another try. This book is pretty controversial though, you either love it or hate it.
Although I find myself getting tired of romantasy a bit, I still have plenty of those books on my TBR. The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson is a 2025 release I thought I would have read by now, but truth is, I haven’t. So let’s try to get this knocked off of my TBR as well!
Do you have any books lined up for May? Is spring of any influence to your reading preferences at all, and therefore on your TBR?