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Problems learning math

Hi

First of all, i'm not an native english speaker, so it may happen that this post have some English errors.

So, recently i joined an University here in Brazil, in the Chemistry class, and i'm having a ton of issues studying mathmatic, mainly because most part of the exercises/guides is all ''put x formula if the equation has the x, y or z conditions'', and i can understand this, the problem came when i try to keep those conditions in mind for a long period of time. The main reason that i have this problem, probably is the same that i had on school, the fact that they don't teach you the reason behind each formula, just tell you how to solve so you can get a good score on the exams, and in school was fine, because wasn't that much subjects to memorize, but now in university, theres a ton to memorize, and i'm being unable to memorize them all.

But recently, i tried to read a few books about math, and in some of them, they actually explained the reason behind some of the subjects that was passed to me, like ellipses, hyperbola and parabola, and how this was used by Newton and Galileu Galilei to calculate how planets work in gravity, and i actually was able to memorize that subject, because now i have more ways to reach the solution, not only ''x goes in y'', now i have a whole history behind, which allows me to follow the logic that the original mathmatician used to reach the conclusion.

So, afterall, here is my problem: how can i find more of this kind of books, telling the history behind mathmatic? And how can i do that in a somehow fast way, so i don't get behind on the university?

Oh, and sorry if i posted this on the wrong category, i just used the automatic selection the website gave me.

Thank you so much for any help... And sorry again for the poor English.