I hoping this will be a better month but if I find my reading doesn't want to follow a list, then I will stop making them. I'm going to aim for 4 books.
1. Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
3. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
4. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
Well, this was by far my worst reading month. I read two books.
The first was a re-read of The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. This was magical, hopeful, and delightful. I gave it 5 stars yet again!
The last book was The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. This was a creepy supernatural mystery about a young woman who disappeared and her niece trying to piece together what happened 35 years later. I really enjoyed the mystery and felt compelled to keep reading. I ended up giving it 4 stars.
I've DNF'd many more books than I normally do. In the first half of 2021, these are the books I stopped reading:
Kent State by Derf Backderf. This is a graphic biography of the Kent State shooting of anti-war protesters in the 1970s. I read about 40 pages but felt I needed more background knowledge to read this. Additionally, the print was really tiny and the artwork did a poor job in making characters look distinctive so I knew who was in the scene. Also, it's a super depressing topic and I found myself not wanting to pick it back up.
The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams. This was just an example of a book not being for me. I found it boring, with little to no intrigue. I read about 95 pages before giving up.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I didn't read very far into it before giving up. I am not in the mood for dystopian with a dangerous and charismatic leader. I will try again at some point.
Kink: Stories edited by R.O. Kwan and Garth Greenwell. This is a collection of short stories focusing on the BDSM lifestyle. I'm very open-minded and thought I'd enjoy this. However, I read 4 stories which all included something not sexy that took me out of the story. For example, talking about dirty sex and then thinking about gutting a fish, religious ideations, and a woman having sex even when she didn't want to. After loathing picking up the book, I finally decided to quit. This was a difficult decision because this was an ARC and the only ARC I've ever refused to finish and review.
Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley. This is a graphic novel about a group of teens making a road trip. I stopped roughly 40% of the way through, mainly due to boredom. I felt the characters weren't well fleshed out, the plot was weak, and the art style was nothing special. It's a bummer because I've read his work before and enjoyed it.
The last one is Sick and Tired: An Intimate History of Fatigue by Emily K. Abel. This is a nonfiction book about the history of fatigue and how it long wasn't considered a medical problem, just a symptom of other illnesses. I read three chapters but it was very dry and I wasn't in the right place to read it. I will likely pick it back up at some point, but wrong timing caused me to DNF.
I seem to read about 4 books a month so I'm going to keep this short.
June is Pride Month so I'm hoping to squeeze in some queer reads!
1. The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
2. The Yield by Tara June Winch (I don't think it's queer but it's my book club book.)
3. All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks
4. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
5. (if time permits) a re-read of The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
So while I didn't read many books this month, I read two amazing ones. I also DNF'd one that will be added to my DNF list that I hope to publish in late June.
Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. I was excited for a Depression-era book that focused on the Dust Bowl and the fate of farmers in the Midwest. The story is about a young woman who is unloved and shunned by her family. When a guy gives her some attention, she sleeps with him and she becomes pregnant. She moves in with his family and works the farm until the Dust Bowl hits. The rest is her trying to survive and keep her family alive too. I liked it but felt the author purposely made an ending that was emotionally manipulative. This has happened in all three books of hers that I've read and it ruins it. I gave it 3 stars but won't read her again.
Love and Pajamas by Catana Chetwynd. I found this cute graphic novel on my library app and decided to read it. The art is simple and focuses on a woman and her boyfriend. It felt very relatable but also fragmented; more like a series of comic strips than a story. Because there wasn't a cohesive narrative, I gave it 3.5 stars.
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. Wow! I love magical school settings and this fantastic. I'm glad it will be a series because I need MORE! It focuses on a young girl whose brother disappeared 6 months prior. She gets a secret message from him and an initiation into a secret magical school. There she learns new skills, makes friends and enemies, and tries to find her brother. 5 stars.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I felt so lucky to get another 5 star book after the previous one. This is Weir's third novel and by far his best! A man named Ryland Grace wakes up with amnesia on a space ship and tries to work out why he's there and once he remembers that, he tries to find a solution to the problem that put him in space. The book made me laugh out loud multiple times, gave me a new favorite character "Rocky" and literally made me tear up at the end. The world-building is wonderful, the science and math are a lot, but easy enough to get the gist. This damn well may be a new favorite book...I'll have to sit with it to be sure but Wow!
I recognize this is a bit more ambitious than normal but I've really been enjoying reading again and I'm hoping to read a bit more this month.
1. The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea During the Great Irish Famine by Cian T. McMahon (This is a nonfiction ARC)
2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
4. All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks
5. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
6. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
7. Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey
8. How to be a Movie Star by T.J. Klune
This month I read 4 books and DNF'd 1. I'll include my DNF'd books in a separate post.
I read Broken (in the best way) by Jenny Lawson. This is her third book I've read and I found it just as funny and poignant on the topic of mental health as her previous two. There were moments where I related so hard to her struggles and other times where I literally laughed out loud at her absurd situations. Definitely recommend and I gave it 5 stars.
Next I picked up Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris. A middle-grade mystery to do with circus folk, magicians, and con men. I really enjoyed this story and loved the author-narrated audiobook. I gave it 4 stars and intend to read the rest of the quartet.
My hold from the library came in so I read the graphic memoir The Year of the Rabbit by Tian Veasna. The book details his rocky birth in war-torn Cambodia and his family's survival of the Khmer Rouge. This was illuminating and horrifying. I gave the book 4 stars.
The last book I finished was The Ground, and the Galaxy Within by Becky Chambers. I enjoyed this so much. The premise is that four aliens are stuck on a "truck stop" planet and learn more about each other's culture and history. While this was not my favorite in the companion series, it was heart warming, sweet, and engaging. I gave it 5 stars.
So, I'm reading less but my ratings have been very high. Quality over quantity.
