And just like that, we wrapped up the fifth month of 2025. How time flies! May has been, essentially, an extension of April. It was quite “heated” here in the Philippines. The summer heat has been very oppressive although the rainy season has recently been making its presence felt. Nevertheless, I hope everyone is somewhere comfortable. As the year enters its sixth month, how is the year so far? I hope it has been treating everyone with kindness. If not, I hope that the coming months will be brimming with positive changes, growth, development, life-changing lessons, and blessings. I hope 2025 will go everyone’s way. I hope everyone’s wishes and prayers will be answered.

But before I could wave goodbye to May, let me share the book titles I acquired during the month. A stark contrast to April when I acquired just three books, May was literally about binge-buying books. I acquired way more than I can read; this is against my New Year’s resolution of reading more and buying less. Because of the number of books I acquired during the month, I have divided it into three parts. The first part featured recently published books while the second part featured works of Asian writers. The third part features all other books that are not in either of the two. Without ado, here is the last batch of books I acquired during the month. Happy reading!

Title: Still Life
Author: A.S. Byatt
Publisher: Collier Books
Publishing Date: 1985
No. of Pages: 384

Synopsis: 

From the author of The New York Times best seller Possession , comes a highly acclaimed novel which captures in brilliant detail the life of one extended English family-and illuminates the choices they must make between domesticity and ambition, life and art.

Stephanie Potter gives up a promising academic career to marry Daniel Orton, while her sister, Frederica, enters Cambridge, and her brother, Marcus, begins recovering from a nervous breakdown. (Source: Goodreads)

Title: What if… You Broke All the Rules
Authors: Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara James
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publishing Date: 2007
No. of Pages: 291

Synopsis: 

Haley’s dad is absorbed in finishing his documentary, and Haley’s mom is spending waaaay too much time with a former coworker. With Perry and Joan preoccupied, Haley finds herself in a world without rules. Will she turn into a Girl Gone Wild? Or will she do the responsible thing and grow up a little?

Meanwhile, spring break is coming up – time for Haley to decide who her real friends are. Will she choose Paris with Sasha; Seville with Sebastian and Annie; or the Hamptons with Coco, Whitnes, and crew?

Haley’s options have never looked better – but don’t get too comfortable, because her choices have never mattered more. Complete social ruin is just one misstep away, and it’s up to you to make sure this is Haley’s best year yet! Choose wisely!

Title: Sardines
Author: Nuruddin Farah
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Publishing Date: 1992 (1981)
No. of Pages: 285

Synopsis: 

Winner of the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Nuruddin Farah is often praised as Africa’s greatest contemporary novelist. The trilogy Variations on the Theme on an African Dictatorship, in particular, has earned him enormous critical acclaim and is considered “the centerpiece of Farah’s achievement” by the Guardian.

In Sardines, the second novel of the trilogy, a woman loses her job as editor of the national newspaper and finds her efforts to instill her daughter with a sense of dignity and independence threatened by an oppressive government and the traditions of conservative Islam. This book brilliantly combines a social commentary on life under a dictatorship with a compassionate exploration of African feminist issues.

Title: Life & Times of Michael K
Author: J.M. Coetzee
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publishing Date: 1985 (1983)
No. of Pages: 184

Synopsis: 

In a South Africa torn by civil war, Michael K sets out to take his ailing mother back to her rural home. On the way there she dies, leaving him alone in an anarchic world of brutal roving armies. Imprisoned, Michael is unable to bear confinement and escapes, determined to live with dignity. This life-affirming novel goes to the center of human experience – the need for an interior, spiritual life; for some connections to the world in which we live; and for purity of vision.

Title: While We Were Dreaming
Author: Clemens Meyer
Translator (from German): Katy Derbyshire
Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
Publishing Date: 2023 (2007)
No. of Pages: 597

Synopsis: 

Rico, Mark, Paul and Daniel were 13 when the Berlin Wall fell in autumn 1989. Growing up in Leipzig at the time of reunification, they dream of a better life somewhere beyond the brewery quarter. Every night they roam the streets, partying, rioting, running away from their fears, their parents and the future, fighting to exist, killing time. They drink, steal cars, feel wrecked, play it cool, longing for real love and true freedom. Startlingly raw and deeply moving, While We Were Dreaming is the extraordinary debut novel by one of Germany’s most ambitious writers, full of passion, hope and despair.

Title: The Fish Can Sing
Author: Halldór Laxness
Translator (from Icelandic): Magnus Magnusson
Publisher: Vintage International
Publishing Date: 2008 (1957)
No. of Pages: 246

Synopsis: 

The Fish Can Sing is one of Halldór Laxness’s most beloved novels, a poignant coming-of-age tale marked with his peculiar blend of light irony and dark humor.

The orphan Alfgrimur has spent an idyllic childhood sheltered in the simple turf cottage of a generous and eccentric elderly couple. Alfgrimur dreams only of becoming a fisherman like his adoptive grandfather, until he meets Iceland’s biggest celebrity. The opera singer Gardar Holm’s international fame is a source of tremendous pride to tiny, insecure Iceland, though no one there has ever heard him sing. A mysterious man who mostly avoids his homeland, Gardar takes a particular interest in Alfgrimur’s budding musical talent and urges him to seek out the world beyond the one he knows and loves. But as Alfgrimur discovers that Gardar is not what he seems, he begins to confront the challenge of finding his own path without turning his back on where he came from.