After months of longer reads, family sagas, and twisty mysteries, it feels like such a nice shift to get to spring reading. If you ask me, spring is the perfect time for nature-centric reads, stories of self-discovery, and a light-hearted romance or two. Here are a few of my favorite reads from the last few years that feel just right for the season. Along with a long list of new-to-me reads queued up for the spring, I’m really looking forward to revisiting several of these books on audio over the next few months. When it comes to favorite books, reading for a second time by listening is such a lovely way to rediscover a familiar story.

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell

One of my favorite books of last year, This Must Be the Place is part love story and part family drama. The family at the center of the novel have built an isolated life in the countryside of Ireland. Claudette, the wife and mother, fled a life of fame as a film star. While the timeline crosses years and continents, the book opens in Donegal in 2010, where Daniel is standing on the back step of his remote home. “The day is typically unstable, the garden lush and shining, the branches weighty with still-falling rain.” The book beautifully brings together the lush landscapes of Ireland with a compelling story of Daniel and Claudette over several decades of their lives.

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

Clover lives and works in New York City as a death doula, accompanying dying clients through the final days of their lives and supporting their families through all the bureaucracy of death. Moving from client to client and family to family, Clover has managed to keep a tight grip on her world and a perfect bubble of social isolation. Over the course of the book, we get to see Clover gradually venture out into the world of connection and finally face some of her own regrets. (And while it’s a side plot, there is a dash of romance in this spring-y read!)

Circe by Madeline Miller

Reworking ancient Greek myths, Madeline Miller has woven a beautiful tale of the witch Circe, living alone on an isolated island on the Mediterranean. Over the course of the epic tale, Circe falls in love, seeks revenge, and comes in contact with Icarus, Odysseus, the Minotaur, and other familiar figures from mythology. While this mythological fantasy was far outside my regular reading genre, I found myself totally swept away with the story and immediately recommending it to others.

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

One more fantasy and another story that weaves together the landscape of a lush isle with compelling storytelling! A River Enchanted is set on the Isle of Cadence where a bard, Jack Tamerlaine, is called home from the mainland in response to string of girls going missing. I found the book’s magic (elemental spirits in every bit of nature! enchanted plaids! music to call the gods!) delightful, the world of Cadence charming, and the enemies to lovers plot of Jack and Adaira captivating.

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sakegawa, translated by Alison Watts

Sweet Bean Paste is a quick, heart-warming read set in the midst of blossoming springtime. Right from the opening line, Sweet Bean Paste sets a a spring-y, wholesome vibe.

A sweet scented breeze blew along Cherry Blossom Street.

Sentaro stood over a hot griddle inside the Doraharu shop, as he did all day everyday, cooking pancakes for his dorayaki.

I wrote a full post about what a perfect seasonal read this is, digging into the themes of animism in the novel and a few other favorite Japanese books in translation last spring here.

Enchantment by Katherine May

This is my most anticipated re-read this spring! A non-fiction book in a similar vein to Wintering, Katherine May recounts her experience feeling disenchanted with the modern world and invites you to truly notice all the enchantment right outside your front door. I found this to be a lovely meditation on the natural world and the real life magic we all have access to.

All We Can Save edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson

This was such a needed book when it came out in 2021 and it is still such a needed book today. Compiled of essays, poetry, and art all created by women, All We Can Save is a hopeful, optimistic call to action. While countless species have been lost, islands flooded by rising sea waters, and further climate change is unavoidable, there is still so very much to save and it deeply matters that we do so. If you love and treasure seasons as much as I do, this book is essential for navigating the world that we have come to live in today.

Dispatches from spring in Minnesota

While the actual warm weather and blossoms are feeling very slow to arrive here (today’s forecast is snow all day - although it seems to be holding out with just very cold rain so far), I have seen a few of the very first signs of spring this week. Amongst all the very brown and crunchy grass, the first few shoots of green are just starting to shift the palette outside. More exciting, I spotted my very first buds this week! While on my usual walking route around a pair of ponds in my neighborhood, I noticed a slight shift in the color of the willow trees. On closer investigation, they were bursting with buds! I can’t wait to see a few more hints of the spring to come in the next few weeks. We are so very close to the time of year when suddenly everything outside starts to look completely different.

Are there any tiny signs of spring in nature where you live? For the season ahead, what are you looking forward to reading? I’d love to find a really spring-y romance, so do let me know if you have any recommendations. I’d also love to hear if you’ve read any of these books and what you thought. Thanks for reading seasonal things. and happy spring reading, friends!

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also enjoy:

• spring reading: sweet bean paste

• spring outside: reading in the sun

• spring reading: poems for june

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