I set myself a modest target of reading 50 books this year and already the Goodreads challenge-0-meter tells me I’m 5 books behind schedule.  My reading slowed considerably in the first three months of the year but as I recover from illnesses, I’ve picked up the pace. Plus, the April Readathon has helped my stats. I had fun reading 631 pages over 21 hours and managed to finish 5 books. I’m enjoying books again! Here’s what I’ve read from January to April:

•  What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
• Cain by José Saramago (translated by Margaret Jull Costa)
• Such Small Hands by Andrès Barba (translated by Lisa Dillman)
• Collective Amnesia by Koleka Putuma
• The Secret of Purple Lake by Yaba Badoe
• Maid in SA by Zukiswa Wanner
• The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (tr. by Susan Bernofsky)
• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
• A Woman’s Body is a Country by Dami Ajayi
• Far from My Father by Véronique Tadjo (tr. by Amy Baram Reid)
• Aya by Marguetire Abouet and Clément Oubrerie

The list has novels (including translated fiction), a collection short stories, a graphic novel and two collections of poetry. One could call the list eclectic.  Only genre missing is non-fiction but I’ll remedy that in the coming months.

I paused publishing reviews after Cain and Such Small Hands because I wanted to focus my energies on #PoetryMonth. I’ll get back to reviews in May but I’ll begin with commentary on some books that I read in past years.

Plans for April

I’ll continue reading Nnedi Okorafor with Binti Home. I want to review Yewande Omotoso’s The Woman Next Door so I’ll reread that. And since I’m considering a reading project of the Dublin Prize shortlist, I’ll pair the Omotoso with Han Kang’s Human Acts. I’m also looking at:

• The Yearning by Mohale Mashigo
• Buddha’s Little Finger by Victor Pelevin
• Safe House (a non-fiction anthology) edited by Ellah Allfrey
• a book by Alain Mabanckou
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

That’s my relaxed plan for May’s reading. What’s on your list to read this month?