A pile of plans for May inspired by annoyingly inviting BookTube reading events 

You are a wonder! I’m always excited to check in with your channel to see what you’re reading this month.

So many exciting possibilities!

PS I loved portrait of a lady!

So many fabulous books on this TBR! Hope you love Braiding Sweetgrass!

This is an exciting lineup, Ros! Much to my surprise, as a person who reads mostly fiction, I also have a People April hangover. I still have several memoirs on my mind that I want to read soon. I have Wandering Stars on my cart; I hope to read it soon. James is the best novel I've read so far this year; hope you love it, too!

I love Tommy Orange! I can't wait to read Wandering Stars - I have it on hold at the library. Every time I see a booktuber holding it, I get excited again! 😅❤.

I am so looking forward to reading James with you-both the misery and especially the joy! Also Bowen, and Everett, and maybe Gregory if I can squeeze it in…

I second the view that the audiobook of braiding sweetgrass is beautiful. So many wonderful buddyreads and readathons. May sounds very promising ✨️

I am so excited for all these readathons. I'm trying to do some crossovers and I also have a lot library holds coming in, so let's see how all of that goes. 🙆🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️ But it is such a nice problem to have.

I loved brotherless night sooo much 😊 I’m reading seven moons in June so I am interested to hear what you think of it. Thank you so much for your kind words and doing our Readathon 😊💜

Braiding Sweetgrass is lovely in the audio version. It is also a beautiful hard copy book! I hope you enjoy it!

An ambitious TBR list indeed! Don’t forget to eat and sleep! 😉😉

Don't worry Ros...I also haven't read Percival Everett, but I am waiting for my hold of James to come in from the library. I read Braiding Sweetgrass a few months ago with one of my book clubs and loved it!

I like that People "April" isn't ending with all of these extra memoirs. And so many other reading events. I may try a Springathon read and maybe I will steal The Forbidden Notebook from you when you have finished. Looking forward to our buddy read as well.

Sadly, as you’ve spotted already, I am not a miserable May host - too much misery is too much for me! 😂 Amazing plans! Am with you on the slow approach to some longer or older books - it’s a delightful way to enjoy certain books!

I will be reading James in May. And also Forbidden Notebook.

Hello Roz, first of all thank you so much for participating in Mental Health May.. I will also try to check out the spoonie event because I have invisible, invisible illnesses. I read “of human bondage” and although I had Covid at the time, it really held my attention and wonderfully written. It sounds like you’re having a very full May. awesome video! Aloha friend

Just a few books there. 😂

Braiding Sweetgrass is absolutely wonderful so I am sure you will love it. There is one particular chapter about the language we use about nature that is so important and powerful. Robin Wall Kimmerer is at the Hay Festival this year so I decided I have to go! We have some other tbr books in common - Forbidden Notebook, Of cattle and men, James and Seven Moons are all books I hope to get to this year!

If I read two of those I would call it a good month. Don’t try to read so much that you accidentally break something! (I find that long slow reads can be a good preventive. 🤔)

I kinda struggled with Brotherless Night but I did finish it…I truly love Percival Everett, his book Trees was my 1st book…I’m saving James since I picked The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store for book club this month so want savor both for a bit!

You've got a number of winners planned. I recently read and enjoyed both Wandering Stars and Brotherless Night. I read Of Cattle and Men last year (?). I think it would be really interesting to read with Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterica (sp?). She is Argentinian and also wrote a short book involving a slaughterhouse.

My goodness, you will be super busy however, you just killed my TBR (hahaha) I just ordered 2 Elizabeth Bowen books I have not read her before. And Norman Women is sitting as my 'next up' beside my bed ! Oh and I ordered Henry James' Portrait of a Lady. You come up with some of the very best things !! Thank you, Roz !!

I’m with you Ros, fitting the books I want to read in with the readathons although I did specially pick Janet Frames’s Faces in the Water for Mental Health May- I have a suspicion it might work for Misery in May too. I’m also the last person to be reading At Night All Blood is Black which again works for Misery in May. You are not the last person to read Braiding Sweetgrass, I haven’t either and have also been told I’d love it. I do have problems with very praised books though in that my expectations are sky high and I fear the book can’t match up. I laughed when you said murder and destruction was your thing, I seem to read a lot of miserable stuff too but must admit I’ve avoided Of Cattle and Men because of the animal slaughter aspect, animal cruelty is one thing I find hard to read, you’ll have to let me know if the book manages it well because often it is the context that matters. With other books I’m already reading or planning to I think I am inadvertently taking part in all the May readathons as well 😉and my TBR is similarly as huge as yours so fingers crossed it’s a good reading month 🤞

I'll be very interested to hear your thoughts on The Forbidden Notebook. I read it a few months ago and really enjoyed it. Brotherless NIght is fantastic. I will be reading James in May.

I'm so happy you're planning on reading Forbidden Notebook - put it highest on your list! 😊 Though Brotherless Night and 7 Moons are also fantastic. 📚

I have yet to read Elizabeth Bowen. I have a second hand book of hers "Friends and Relations" I am yet to read.

Ooh.. i might just pick up OHBondage (on my shelf for yrs) so i can tune into your discussion in 'real time' & i hope you enjoy POALady, HJ is not the most popular classics author here on yt (i do see why) but gosh do i love him (TWOTDove Misery May tbr) & personally i love the way he writes female characters. Im 50 pgs into Jude The Obscure (MMay again) & i hold you entirely responsible Roz 😆💕 so far so good 😉😊 btw theres a great lecture here by prof Robert Pippin re POALady (if you do enjoy it) 👍

Thank you so much for the mention!!! 🥰

Love that you try to cover a bunch of readathons! And through you I discovered the Spoonies one, will check the hosts out, thank you! I believe that the second Misery May host is @gemofbooks, not the one listed. Great choses of books for this one; I also participate.