What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in May Writers and readers have shared their recent reading experiences, highlighting a diverse range of books that left a significant impact. Recommendations include novels exploring themes of migration, artificial intelligence, historical settings, and emotional journeys of life and love. These selections represent a blend of genres and authors, each offering a unique and memorable reading experience.

• Dorothy Tse’s ‘City Like Water’ is an unclassifiable, sharp, and ingenious novel about a dissolving city.
• Karen Hao’s ‘Empire of AI’ is recommended for understanding the cost of new tools.
• Hsiao-Hung Pai’s ‘Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants’ has resonated with a reader for over a decade.
• Hannah Lillith Assadi’s ‘Paradiso 17’ is a moving novel about her father’s passing.
• Michael Ondaatje’s selected poems, ‘The Distance of a Shout,’ are described as a life’s work to hold close.
• Francis Spufford’s ‘Nonesuch’ juxtaposes wartime London with magical events and features a vivid character named Iris.
• Sufiyaan Salam enjoyed exploring London’s histories through ‘The Oxford Shakespeare’ and Monika Radojevic’s ‘Strangerland,’ and is obsessed with Alan Moore’s ‘From Hell’ which uses the Jack the Ripper murders to bind London’s past, present, and future.
• Lisa Ridzén’s ‘When the Cranes Fly South’ is a moving and beautifully written story about the end of life, memories, relationships, love, friendship, and the pain of parting with a beloved dog, which brought tears to the reader’s eyes.
• Madeleine Thien’s ‘The Book of Records’ is described as a dazzling fable of migration.