Fresh water for ruby red flowers: May at the Reader's Nook

Dear reader,

Books are a uniquely portable magic. A well-written book, plot lines that sink their hook into you, characters that make you care for them, they can all transport you into another world for a time. It’s a magic that you can carry around in your pocket — or handbag. It’s an escape portal from a doctor’s waiting room, a boring work meeting {I won’t tell}, a long commute.

And this month’s reading gave me a lot of magical portals — from escaping into fantastical worlds, to the homes of the ultra-rich, traveling back in time to 1800s New York, straddling a fairy tale world and reality, crashing through threatening forests, and even to outer space!

From fantasy to historical fiction, science fiction, mystery and thrillers, and satire, this month’s reading was wide and varied! Here’s my reading wrap-up for May. Have a read and tell me about the books you read last month?

Recommendation corner:

Have some of the bingo prompts got you scratching your head, wondering what to read or maybe even what it means? I got you covered! Every month, I will pick 2 bingo prompts and share a couple of recommendations with you. And just so you’re not here all day reading this, I’ll link you up to Goodreads so you can check out the book and add it to your Want-to-read shelf. Here we go!

Found in translation

Read any book, in any genre, that’s been translated. Here are a few recommendations to get you started:

My Friends by Fredrik Backman (literary fiction): Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. And so she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect, in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

Wolf Hour by Jo Nesbo (crime & thriller): Minneapolis, 2016. When a small-time criminal and gun dealer is shot down in the street, all signs point to Tomas Gomez, a quiet man with a mysterious past, who has seemingly vanished into thin air. Other murders soon follow, and it appears Gomez is only getting started. Meanwhile, Bob Oz, a down-and-out suspended police officer with a dubious past of his own, becomes obsessed with the notion of hunting down a serial killer who only he can understand. Minneapolis, 2022. An enigmatic Norwegian man with ties to Minneapolis—a self-described crime writer—has traveled to the US to research the Gomez case, in the hopes of writing a book about it. But as his investigation progresses, his seemingly neutral position becomes increasingly complicated.

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin (romance): Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Random visitors, regulars, and her colleagues—three gravediggers, three groundskeepers, and a priest—visit her as often as possible to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee that she offers them. Violette’s routine is disrupted by the arrival of Julien Sole, the local police chief, who insists on depositing the ashes of his recently departed mother on the gravesite of a complete stranger. It soon becomes clear that the grave Julien is looking for belongs to his mother’s one-time lover, and that his mother’s story of clandestine love is intertwined with Violette’s own secret past.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier (YA): 16-year-old Gwen lives with her extended, and rather eccentric, family in an exclusive London neighborhood. In spite of her ancestors' peculiar history, she's had a relatively normal life so far. The time-traveling gene that runs like a secret thread through the female half of the family is supposed to have skipped over Gwen, so she hasn't been introduced to "the mysteries," and can spend her time hanging out with her best friend, Lesley. So it comes as an unwelcome surprise when she starts taking sudden, uncontrolled leaps into the past. She's totally unprepared for time travel, not to mention all that comes with it: fancy clothes, archaic manners, a mysterious secret society, and Gideon, her time-traveling counterpart. He's obnoxious, a know-it-all, and possibly the best-looking guy she's seen in any century...

A book released in the month of your birth

For this prompt, read any book that was released in the month of your birth. You can find new book releases on Amazon, Goodreads, or on individual publishers’ websites! I believe Bookshop.org also puts out lists of new releases, but the site is blocked in my country, so don’t quote me on it!

For the love of poetry

I use random poem generators from time to time as a little oracle — more often than not, the poems that appear are just what I need in that particular moment. Or maybe that is simply the function a poetry. In either case, poem are balms for the world-weary soul. My hope is that these monthly poems will offer you wisdom, comfort, joy, wonder.

Bonsai
Edith Tiempo

All that I love
I fold over once
And once again
And keep in a box
Or a slit in a hollow post
Or in my shoe.

All that I love?
Why, yes, but for the moment -
And for all time, both.
Something that folds and keeps easy,
Son’s note or Dad’s one gaudy tie,
A roto picture of a queen,
A blue Indian shawl, even
A money bill.

It’s utter sublimation,
A feat, this heart’s control
Moment to moment
To scale all love down
To a cupped hand’s size

Till seashells are broken pieces
From God’s own bright teeth,
And life and love are real
Things you can run and
Breathless hand over
To the merest child.

Monthly round-up

Things that caught my attention this month

⫸ You have ideas but lack execution? Get a thinking book

⫸ Nick Cave on the two pillars of a meaningful life - It’s probably not what you think!

⫸ This movie; animated, no dialogues, absolutely brilliant!

⫸ Questions for knowing yourself: Collected from writers who did the work

Thank you for being here and for spending some time in my bookish world. Hit reply or restack on Substack Notes and tell me what you’ve been reading and enjoying this month!

Happy reading,
Shinjini