Another month has passed and I can’t wrap my head around the fact that it is already JUNE. A couple great things happened this month: spring finally came to my neck of the woods in the Northeastern U.S., and I think I’m nearing the end of my job search (fingers crossed/knock on wood/hopefully I didn’t just jinx anything). It was also a pretty good month of reading! Interestingly, I didn’t give any of the six books I read the same rating, but I enjoyed most of them – especially My Dark Vanessa, which was my first 5-star read in months!
Books read:
- Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens – 3 stars out of 5 [review]
- Beach Read by Emily Henry – 3.5 stars out of 5 [review]
- The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon – 2 stars out of 5 [review]
- How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee – 4 stars out of 5 [review]
- My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – 5 stars out of 5 [review]
- The Bridge of Little Jeremy by Indrajit Garai – DNF [review]
Books in progress/June TBR:
- Hamnet: I’m just wrapping this one up, and will have a review up soon. The novel wasn’t quite what I expected, but once I got over that I really enjoyed it.
- Bright Sided: Barbara Enhrenreich has been on my TBR forever, and a couple people have specifically recommended Bright Sided to me, so I’m really looking forward to it.
- Had I Known: my plan *was* to follow up Bright Sided with this more recent essay collection from Ehrenreich, but in light of recent events in the United States, I might switch this out for Another Day in the Death of America or How To Be An Antiracist.
- Bunny: I’ve seen so many positive reviews of this novel, and it sounds very much like my type of book, so I’m super excited for this.
- So We Can Glow: a collection of short-stories focused around the topic of obsession, with a glowing 5-star review from Roxane Gay – seems promising!
- Freshwater: am I a million years behind on this? Yes. Does that take away from my excitement to read this novel? No.
- The Vanishing Half: this has been on my TBR for a while, so I was very happy to see it as a BOTM offering!
- Wolf Hall: yup, I’m finally starting this trilogy! Wish me luck!
Some blog posts that stuck with me:
- Emily’s awesome “spotlight on” series, where she discusses various literary genres. At the beginning of the month she posted a spotlight on literary fiction, and near the end of the month she posted about fantasy!
- Ashley’s post about how the “Should Monster” mindset is pretty unhelpful, and can actually make it harder to get things done.
- Neriman’s anticipated reads of May-September 2020, which gave me some really exciting titles to add to my TBR!
- Gil’s side-by-side reviews of two “enemies-to-lovers” romances.
- Diana’s post about Victory Day and the WWII hero Zinaida Portnova.
May photos:
Thanks for the mention! I really liked Bright-Sided, but haven’t read any of her other books yet.
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Np!! I’m really looking forward to Bright Sided, and I want to start it ASAP because I think some of its messages are especially relevant right now. Your recommendation is further encouragement!
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😃
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Thanks for linking to my post! 💖 I find it so amusing that none of the books you reviewed have the same ratings! It’s also fantastic that you finally have a 5-star read (which we didn’t get with any of the WP reads…cough). Also, good luck with Wolf Hall! I still won’t be touching that but I am amenable to being convinced, heh.
Ehrenreich’s Bright Sided reminds me of a podcast episode I listened to recently—“Don’t Accentuate the Positive” by The Happiness Lab. She might have even been interviewed for it though I’m not sure. Her books sound like something I’d want to read, though.
Good luck with your job hunt, and huhu I still love your cat pics!!!
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Of course!! Haha I was amused by that too…I tend to rate most books 3, 3.5, or 4 lolol. That is such a good point that we didn’t get that with any of the WP reads…I only read like half the list last year and had three 5-star reads. Hopefully next year is better!! I’ll let you know how Wolf Hall goes! I thought I wasn’t going to touch it either, but I keep seeing all these glowing reviews and finally gave in to peer pressure 😅😅😅
The happiness lab sounds like an awesome podcast!! I’m going to check out that episode this week 😀
And THANK YOU!!! Truly, the cats are the only thing keeping me sane during this quarantine haha
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I heard the list last year was so much better! What were your 5star reads? I also plan on revisiting the good ones from last year’s list 😄 HAHA I hope it’s worth it—it looks like a very long commitment. If you like it maybe I’ll also finally cave to peer pressure!
I hope you like it! I just discovered it and I love their topics.
I know—Cat gives me so much joy too. I don’t know what I’d do without him around, lol.
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My favorites last year were Milkman, The Pisces, Normal People, and Lost Children Archive! I saw on here that some people didn’t like LCA so much, but the other three were pretty universally well-received!!! The others that I read were all 3 and 4 star reads too! I hope you find some 5-star reads in last year’s WP longlist 😀 😀
And haha yay for kitty companions keeping us sane during trying times! 😻
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ive never heard of So I Can Glow but a Roxane Gay blurb has definitely sold me on it haha ☺
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Right?!?! I try not to hype up books too much because I always set too high expectations…and yet I’m still so excited for this one!
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Yay for finally finding a five star read! I hope you find some more in June 📚
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Thank you!! I have cautiously high hopes for a few of these reads 😀
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I have Bunny and The Vanishing Half on my TBR for this month too! Fingers crossed they live up to expectations. & thank goodness for My Dark Vanessa for being your one 5* read!
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Oh awesome! I’ll be excited to see your reviews! And yes I hope they live up to expectations too – I usually try not to hype up books too much in advance, but this month I’ve hyped up sooo many of the books on my TBR 😅
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Good luck with Wolf Hall! I had a tough time getting on with it at first, so I read it while watching the TV show. That helped me a lot, and in the end, it was a four-star read for me!
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Thank you!! I didn’t realize there was also a TV show, but that sounds like a great idea!
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Your cats are so lovely!! I’m glad you liked My Dark Vanessa, it’s such a hard-hitting book. I hope to pick up Hamnet soon, and look forward to your review!
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Thank you!! ^__^ Hard-hitting is a great way of describing it – it was so uncomfortable to read at times, yet impossible to put down! And thanks for looking forward! I have mixed feelings but overall positive about Hamnet – I hope you’ll like it too!!
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You have a catio! I bet they love it! My cat wants to go out on the balcony with us. We used to let her, but then one day my husband let her out there unsupervised and forgot her. She ate a hole through the screen to get back in, which just taught Kitty (after we got a new screen) that one needs simply chew the screen to “open” the door. We had to spend a whole summer untraining her from this bad habit, and now she is strictly indoor Kitty.
I’m likely one of the folks who recommended Bright-Sided. That book confirmed things that I felt intrinsically in my being. I remember telling a therapist several years ago how much I hated the “hang in there”-type posters around the office.
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Hahah yes it’s a catio that my husband made from netting and zip-ties 😀 Eating a hole through the screen sounds like a classic cat move haha.
You were one of the people who recommended Bright Sided!! From the description, I think it will resonate with me a lot too.
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Thanks for the mention! 🙂 Good luck and godspeed with the Mantel trilogy! I really need to get back into that before I lose all momentum, I have high hopes for the second book. And I hope you’ll like Freshwater and Bunny! Both were great reads for me.
Also, I love your pictures from the month, especially the cats! 🙂
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Np! And thank you!! I’m excited to get to all of these hyped books ^__^
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