The first flowers, pushing their way out of the soil; the first drink, enjoyed outdoors; the air scented with freshly cut grass – spring has officially arrived (for us in the northern hemisphere) and, with it, comes the urge for a spot of dopamine-maxing. This season is about savouring the little things: the morning sun, your local park, or sitting outside with a great book.
Which brings us to this Reading List. These books channel the feeling of those first sunny days: tales of tender love and self-discovery, as well as breezy, energising depictions of nature, delivering springtime bliss with every turn of the page.
Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives by Nao-Cola Yamazaki, translated by Polly Barton
Translated from Japanese into English for the first time by Polly Barton, Don’t Laugh at Other People’s Sex Lives is the tender novella from Nao-Cola Yamazaki, capturing the intensity of late adolescence and the unexpected nature of tentative first love. The story follows art student Isogai who, after an intimate class dinner at a tiny izakaya, models for his tutor, Yuri, who is married and double his age. Their sparks of mutual interest coalesce into a heated affair. Through stolen moments in the art studio, intimate meals and strolls around Tokyo, the two lonely characters are brought together by a desire and love they are unable to resist. A modern age-gap love story that has the hopefulness of buds unfurling at the beginning of spring.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Take four dissatisfied women, one Italian villa and the whimsy and sense of relief of a girls’ trip to the Mediterranean. The result: Elizabeth von Arnim’s heartwarming short novel. It’s a story of four women rediscovering contentment and joy, growing into themselves away from the men and home lives that suffocate them. Women escaping the grey weather for a springtime Italian villa? It’s dopamine in book form – practically required reading for the month of April.
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
Fascinated by fungi? Author and mycologist Merlin Sheldrake walks us through how mushrooms – not quite plant, not quite animal – form the fundamental scaffolding of the world beneath our feet. Part science, part trip, the book follows Merlin down the rabbit hole of psychedelics, climate-saving cordyceps and body-snatching fungi. As nature springs up around us, this joyful trip into the mycelium world is a reminder that there’s far more going on below ground than meets the eye.
Belgrave Road by Manish Chauhan
In Manish Chauhan’s moving debut, new love stutters and flourishes in an unlikely setting. The novel connects Mira, newly arrived in the UK through an arranged marriage, and Tahliil, an asylum seeker from Somalia caught in the limbo of displacement and waiting. Manish captures the disorientation of the lived immigrant experience in provincial Britain, which is mediated through our protagonists’ deep connection and blooming love. Come for the luminous writing, stay for the slow-burn, will-they-won’t-they plot. Who can say no to a little romance come spring?
Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit
Californian native Rebecca Solnit proves exactly why she’s the go-to for thoughtful, meditative nature writing. In Wanderlust she muses on the wide-ranging cultural history and spiritual joy of putting one foot in front of the other. Tracing walking from its ancient roots in community, she follows everything from pilgrimages to protest marches, reflecting on how walking connects us with our world and each other. It’s the perfect book to slow down with and get inspired to take to your local park, rolling hills or canal, river or beach.
