I have, thankfully, been reading quite a lot and quite quickly recently. Because although only a few physical books have come into the house, the e-book pile has grown quite horribly. And while they don’t seem to really EXIST somehow, do they, not forcing their way into your peripheral vision as you get ready for bed by a bulging TBR, they are there and they do need to get read.

Shall I do the paper books first?

These two beauties have arrived from the lovely folks who produce the British Library Women Writers series. They’re their two new ones – “Mamma” by Diana Tutton, which looks at the relationship between a woman who was widowed when her daughter was a baby and her new son-in-law, nearer to her than her daughter in age, and “Tension” by E.M. Delafield, which puts into opposition a woman of the old guard, titled and secure and a new professional woman, looking at women’s roles in public life and gossip and reputation. I’m on the blog tour for “Tension” so will be reviewing it later on in May – there’ll be a blog tour for “Mamma” too and I’m sure you’ll see lots of familiar names on both.

Then two I’ve bought for myself recently. When I was reading Adharanand Finn’s “The Rise of the Ultra Runners“, Damian Hall popped up a few times, a man who’d gone from unfit to fit and was running ultras and setting Fastest Known Times (the time it takes to run a big known route which isn’t a race, basically your own timed run). Then I saw Damian’s book, “In it for the Long Run”, was coming out on the indie publisher Vertebrate Publishing (they always have good discounts, by the way) so I pre-ordered a signed copy. And “Pandemic Solidarity“, edited by Marina Sitrin and Collectiva Sembrar, came about because I had a Waterstone’s voucher calling to me, I spent that on another book entirely, which isn’t coming out until August, on world feminisms, but bought this one to get the free postage (I know, I know). It’s a collection of positive stories of community action on the pandemic from around the world.

Now here are the NetGalley wins just from April. Fortunately, they will be published across the upcoming months!

Bernice McFadden’s “Sugar”, published 05 August, is a novel set in 1950s Deep South America, where a growing friendship between an incomer treated with suspicion and a resident changes their lives and the small town’s they live in. “Fit for Purpose”, Richard Pile looks at the physical, mental and spiritual well-being we need to build to cope with modern life (I’m more interested in the physical and mental side and hope they’re the emphasis, as I’m not a spiritual person though I do have strong principles I live by. That’s out on 25 May. That one comes out on 24 June. “My Mess is a bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety” by Georgia Pritchett is a memoir about living with anxiety by a TV writer and producer which has had praise from Miranda Hart and Sara Pascoe among others. It’s published on 01 July.

In the novel “The Mismatch”, Sara Jafari writes about two very different people falling in love, with the setting the lives of Iranian people in the UK. That one comes out on 24 June. “Ms. Adventure” by Jess Phoenix is the memoir of a vulcanologist (that’s one of those ones you have to read in the Shelf app which is slightly annoying) and came out on 02 March. “Conversations on Love”, out on 15 July and edited by Natasha Lunn, caught me with its mentions of Candice Carty-Williams and Philippa Perry and is a collection of musings and essays on love of all kinds. Dany Asaf’s “Say Please and Thank You and Stand in Line” is the story of four generations of Canadian Muslims and looks at both history and hope for the future as multiculturalism is strained and is published on 10 May.

And my Amazon book (one) ebook purchases. I try not to buy books on Amazon these days: I use Bookshop.org and divert the profit to one of three independent bookshops I use in real life, but the first one in the image is published by the US Editorial Freelancers Association and I couldn’t get it any other way. I don’t really like ebooks at full price but will pay a couple of pounds for them – I love a book! But sometimes there’s a special offer and then I click away!

“Respectful Querying with NUANCE” by Ebonye Gussine Wilkins is a book for work which helps editors working with people from different cultures to their own to keep the author’s voice and experience centred while working on their text and understand when and how to raise a query on matters of content or explanation. I was alerted to this book by a fellow editor and it looks like a useful resource. I will review this on my work blog when it’s arrived and I’ve read it.

A.I. Shoukry mentioned his memoir about running in Egypt, “It’s not Just About Running”, in the Runners’ Bookshelf group I’m in and a few of us bought it: it sets running in the country against the backdrop of its political and social change. Elizabeth Acevedo’s “Clap When You Land” is the two countries / two families novel-in-verse that’s been talked about a lot and was on my wishlist then popped up for 99p. A.M. Blair (a fellow book-blogger) has written several novels taking Jane Austen as her inspiration – “A Case of First Impressions” “Pride and Prejudice” and “Nothing but Patience” “Sense and Sensibility”. The latter at least is set against a backdrop of the author’s own background, the Sri Lankan community in America, and while apparently some have criticised this (WHY?), I am looking forward to this twist on the classics. And Ritu Bhathal‘s (who hails from my city of Birmingham) “Marriage Unarranged” is a novel about a woman turning down her arranged marriage and going on the pre-wedding shopping trip to India anyway.

So, volcanoes, at least seven different ethnicities, novels, non-fiction, running, editing, physical and mental health – I’m missing nature but apart from that I’d say … these conform to my collection development policy, amiright?

What have you acquired this month? Have you read any of these?