Pretty much every Easter I get 3 or 4 days entirely to myself – no work, no Tim or other family, no commitments. Just me and whatever I want to do. Well, okay, for the past couple of years I’ve had the dog for company too. So I go for walks, cook myself nice food, buy and eat Easter eggs. But most of all – I read.

I don’t set myself any targets or rules. I try to choose from my existing TBR because let’s face it, there are over 100 books sat in my bedroom waiting for my attention. But if a dog walk should happen to take us to a bookshop, then who am I to ignore the call of fate?

This year I have shortlisted five books from my TBR. Tim thinks I’m not being ambitious enough for a 4-day weekend. We’ll see. Here’s my list:

Thérèse and Isabelle by Violette Leduc (translated from French by Sophie Lewis): I don’t know much about this aside from that it’s a lesbian classic written in 1966 by a protegé of Simone de Beauvoir. Banned in France, it wasn’t translated into English until 2012. (I think I did know a little more when I added it to my wishlist but I imagine that was around 2012…)

House of Odysseus by Claire North: this is the second part of North’s Songs of Penelope trilogy, in which she retells the story of Penelope waiting for her husband Odysseus to come home to Ithaca, but from the perspective of the women of the tale. I absolutely adored the first book, Ithaca, which concentrates on Penelope’s efforts’s to rule the island of Ithaca in her husband’s name while fending off hundreds of suitors pressing her to accept that Odysseus is likely dead and choose a new husband/king. This second part opens with Elektra and her brother Orestes arriving from neighbouring Mycenae, fleeing from the consequences of murdering their mother.

Fair Play by Tove Janssen (translated from Swedish by Thomas Teal): continuing my dive into Janssen’s “grown up” writing, after I only really discovered the Moomins as an adult. I love all of her work, it always has such gentle humanity. This is a novel about two women who are lifelong partners and friends, described in the blurb as “philosophically calm and discreetly radical”. Awesome.

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers: another sequel, this is book 3 in Chambers’ Wayfarers series. But what I like about these books is that each sequel focuses on just one or two characters from a previous instalment, in a new situation. This one concentrates on the Exodus Fleet – spaceships that carried the last humans from Earth centuries ago. Those who have chosen to continue living in the fleet have kept themselves separate from other humans – and even more so other intelligent species. Chambers’ books are all super diverse in terms of race, species, sexuality, gender, physical ability; filled with complex characters with unique circumstances and motivations. And they have adventures in space!

Venice by Jan Morris: the only non-fiction on my list. We’re considering a holiday in or near Venice so I thought it was time to read this classic of travel literature. Plus in light of the past couple of days of awful news I want to read a trans author and ridiculously Morris is the only one already on my TBR shelves. There is a non-zero possibility of the dog and I visiting a local bookshop or two this weekend and rectifying this matter.

Well, it’s time to get stuck in. Happy Easter folks!