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May is in the books! I hope it was a great reading month for all of you. As the days get nicer and nicer, I always feel like I should be reading more, but somehow that doesn’t always happen. There are so many distractions as the days grow warmer, but that’s okay. I know I thoroughly enjoy any time I get to spend outdoors reading a book. I struggled a little thinking about the quality of my reading this month, but in the end really liked eight of the ten books I read. May the good reads continue for all of us in June!
{My May, Books & Blog}
The Cream of the Crop
Books I enjoyed the most…
- Tin Man by Sarah Winman – I absolutely loved this beautifully written story of a complicated lifelong friendship. (my review)
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller – After loving Circe so much last month, I had to go back and read Miller’s debut and I loved it every bit as much. Sometimes I like to read a book just for me, without the need to review it and Achilles is one of those book.
A Cut Above
Great stories…
- The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya – This memoir from a young woman who survived the Rwandan genocide and came to live in the United States was a powerful story. (my reivew)
- Other People’s Houses by Abbi Waxman – This fun romp through a drama-filled neighborhood was a great book to listen to. (my review)
- Only Child by Rhiannon Navin – It’s not often that a six-year old narrator can carry a book, but school shooting survivor Zach did just that in Only Child. (my review)
- How to Walk Away by Katherine Center – This may may turn out to be the best feel-good book of the summer. I highly recommend the audiobook because Therese Plummer’s narration is fantastic! (my review)
- The Ensemble by Aja Gabel – A deep study of the complex relationships between the four members of a string quartet. The more I read, the more I liked it. (review coming soon)
- In the Distance With You by Carla Guelfenbein – I’ve really been back and forth on my final May book. At times I wanted to DNF it, but couldn’t quite let it go. In the end, I actually liked this book very much, but definitely don’t think it will be for everyone. (review coming in June)
Subpar
Books I could have skipped…
- Alternative Remedies for Loss by Joanna Cantor – This debut was just a little too frantic and unbelievable for me. (my review)
- Little Disasters by Randall Klein – May wasn’t my month for debuts. Ditto my comment on the previous book! (my review)
DNF’s
- Florida by Lauren Groff – I read the first three stories in Groff’s new collection and none of them did anything for me.
- Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman – This book, marketed as a thriller, just wasn’t thrilling me.
- You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld – Short stories simply aren’t for me. Again, I tried the first three….nothing!
Top Blog Posts
- I’m very happy to report that the most visited page this month was my Summer Preview 2018. Don’t we all like to get book suggestions from other readers?
- Just like last month, lots of people are taking a look at my review of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. It was a book I liked a lot until I got to the last 20%.
- On the other hand, I loved almost everything about Tin Man by Sarah Winman, so was happy to see that so many are checking out my review.
{From the Book Blogging World}
Favorite Reviews & Recommendations
Links take you to these wonderful reviews…
- Tin Man was my very favorite book this month, so I was thrilled to see Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books giving it some love, too.
- I had some issues with The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner, so I really appreciated the different take that Tara from Running and Reading had on this book.
- Because of Katie from Doing Dewey’s great review I’ve added Because We Are Bad to my list of books to read for Nonfiction November.
- So many people seem to be loving The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll, but Abby at Read This, Not That had a little different take on it.
- Susan at The Cue Card did a double review of Manhattan Beach and I‘ll Be Gone in the Dark. One I liked, and one I didn’t.
- And finally, one more fun, feel-good book. Amy at Novel Gossip shared a wonderful review of When Life Gives You Luluemons by Lauren Weisberger.
Fun & Useful Blog Posts
- In May Literary Quicksand had two posts that I really enjoyed. The first combined two genres I like in 5 Dystopian Novels That Read Like Literary Fiction and the second tackled a heavy topic with Banned Books in the United States.
- I can be pretty picky about thrillers, so appreciated Why I Generally Don’t Like Thrillers from Sarah at Sarah’s Bookshelves.
- The last several years I’ve been terrible about using the library, but it’s something that I’m really working to get better at this year. I found some useful tips from Allison at My Novel Life in her post, How I Take Advantage of My Local Library and How You Can Too! I only wish my local library had a coffee shop in it!
- And finally, May brought summer book lists! These fall into two categories: books already out and recommended for summer reading and preview lists of new summer releases. From the first category Sarah’s Bookshelves and Born and Read in Chicago each shared a wonderful group of book. And from the second category I gathered a lot of recon from Literary Quicksand, Read a Latte, and (again!) Sarah’s Bookshelves.
- If all that isn’t enough for you, take a look at The Ultimate Summer Guide to Books from Literary Hub. They complied book recommendations from 28 different summer preview lists and then gave us EVERY book that was mentioned at least twice (ordered from most mentioned to least). Hmmmm….I’ve already DNF’d the most mentioned summer book!
That’s a wrap! How was your May?
Disclaimer: There are Amazon Associate links contained in this post.
It’s funny, when the weather gets nicer, I somehow think about reading less, because it’s finally nice enough to be doing other things outside! (Un)fortunately, it’s going to be a rainy weekend here, so hopefully I’ll get lots of reading in! Happy June!
Thanks for stopping by Angela. I never get as much reading done in the summer as I think i will. You’re right that there are plenty of other distractions.
My May reading was great! Just stopping by to say that I love your blog. Thanks for all of the effort you put into it.
thank you so much, Katie. I really appreciate hearing that.
I love May’s weather-mostly!! I am still enjoying the thawing out from winter!! I want to read Other People’s Houses, I have seen alot of good things about that! I want to sit out and read, but have to do it a little bit at a time-mainly because of bugs right now-LOL. I had a pretty good month reading wise, I hope you will stop by and visit-Have a great June!!
I don’t always love the weather in Washington, but we have very few bugs and I like that!
This is an amazing post, Susie! I appreciate all of the hard work and time that you put into it, and I really enjoyed this May Wrapup and all of the books mentioned. Thank you for linking to my review, Susie! I am honored that you mentioned it. I love your blog – it’s beautiful.
Thanks, so much Abby. I’ve really been enjoying getting to know your blog, too.
I bet the most mentioned book on summer preview lists you already DNF’d was Florida! Good to know I shouldn’t waste my time on that one. I still haven’t read Circe. I’ve heard a few mixed reviews about it and it keeps getting pushed down my TBR. Good to know you liked it so much it inspired you to read the author’s other works. Hopefully I’ll get to it this summer! Thanks for the links!
Bingo! I think I’m just never going to be a short story fan. I don’t even care for novellas much.
Tin Man is next up for me and I’m looking forward to it. May was feast or famine. You Think It, I’ll Say It was part of the famine. Those were really BAD short stories. Wasn’t in love with Sloane Crosley’s essays either.
Jane Harper’s debut of a year of so ago — The Dry — was the centerpiece of the feast. As was Christopher Moore’s Noir (but you have to like Moore!). An interesting non-fiction that I just finished today (so technically isn’t May) was The Feather Thief. But makes the “feast” list.
I’ll be slowing down in June and July with a couple of new museum shows to research. It’s still reading though 🙂
I never read The Dry, but have looked at it many times. Do you ever have books that you just keep turning away from like that?
Good luck with all the museum reading.
I finished Tin Man yesterday. Oh dear, what a wonderful heartbreaking work! How much was said and felt in so few pages.
I highly recommend The Dry. Crackles with tension. Well told story, with great characters. Her second, A Force of Nature, was just OK.
I’m so glad you liked Tin Man and I’ll keep The Dry ion mind next time I’m looking for a backlist read.
I am anxiously awaiting Tin Man from the library. Looking forward to it for sure! I’ve been reading like CRAZY this month….can’t stop, won’t stop 😉
I hope you enjoy Tin Man as much as I did.
Hey thanks for the shutout. I like your wrap-ups. 10 books is impressive, 6 so far has been my most for a month. I’m definitely going to have to read Tin Man this summer. I still probably will try out Curtis Sittenfeld’s collection … though I admit I like novels better. I seem to read more in warm weather …. though I’m busy doing more stuff too — so go figure how it fits in. Enjoy your June.
Thanks, Susan. I don’t really plan on increasing my reading over the summer. true, I have more free time, but like you, have lots of other things i want to do, too.
I’m waiting for my hold on The Ensemble to come in, so I’m glad to read that you enjoyed it.
Hope your June is just as good as your May!
Thanks, Lindsey and thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy The Ensemble.
What a lovely month. I enjoyed Tin Man and Song of Achilles too. The girl who smiled beads was such a wonderful read as well. Hope June is a lovely month for you with more amazing books
Your post comparing Circe and Song of Achilles is actually what inspired me to read Song, so thank you very much!
Oooops, Something in the water was apparently super good… but now I’ve seen many so-so reviews!!
It just wasn’t going anywhere for me, or at least not fast enough.