May Wrap-up – A very late Wrap-up:

Hello,

I’m playing catch up on some old posts that I have wanted to do, so this is an extremely late May wrap-up but I still wanted to get it out.

 

May:

May was a very busy month with finishing up the spring semester and then starting work on a normal schedule again rather than working only weekends. I also participated in four readathons which was a lot even though they were relatively easy. I did manage to read 11 books in May which is low for me when I am on summer break though I also started a summer class that I needed to take which was really easy but took up most of my free time in between work.

 

Since I didn’t post information about the readathons that I participated in, I’ll just mention them and post links to the booktubers who hosted them.

In May I participated in two monthly readathons and two weekly readathons. The two monthly readathons were called medievalathon and Bookemonathon. Medievalathon is hosted by Holly from Holly Hearts Books . All you had to do for this readathon was read books to get you from prisoner all the way to Empress/Emperor. There were also several other prompts for different clothing, weapons, and even companion animals.

The other monthly readathon I participated in was Bookemon. I couldn’t find the original announcement for some reason so I am linking Team Mystic (Articuno) which are hosted by Sarah from Sarah-ndipity and Stef from Noveltea Corner.  This focuses around Pokemon, which was one of my favorite shows to watch when I was younger. I stopped watching it when it got to the newer stuff and they made ash younger again, but I still play the video games on Nintendo. I also got inspired to buy some of the older ones that I didn’t have anymore and found them really cheap on Ebay whereas everywhere else they were insanely expensive. With this readathon there was a list of Pokemon types such as dragon, water, fire, and grass that had coordinating prompts with them. I chose Dratini which was a dragon type. This meant that continuing a series would earn 200 cp points. There are also three teams based on the teams that are in Pokemon Go called Team Mystic, Team Valor, and Team Instinct. These are focused around the three legendary Pokemon from the original series Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos. There were also prompts along with each team that could count as extra points as well.

I didn’t do too bad with this readathon with reading 9 books that counted toward different prompts, but I do wish I had been able to read a little bit more.

I also did two weekly readathons this month which is Bout of Books and my favorite, though I don’t always get to participate because it always seems to start during my finals or the start of a new semester. This readathon was originally created by Amanda from from Amanda Shofner and now Kelly from Kelly Rubidoux Apple. I participated in it once or twice last year I believe and I hope to do it again toward the end of year if possible. This is a really low-key readathon that occurred during May 11-17. This link gives direct access to what the whole challenge is about and the things that you can do during this readathon. There are some daily challenges that go along with this but I don’t usually do these that often since I’m usually busy with work or school, but I do try to get some reading done here and there.

I ended up only reading about 2 books for this challenge which normally I read a few more than that, but I had also started Tome Topple around the same time which is hosted by Samantha from Thoughts on Tomes. This is a readathon that starts on May 9- May 22. This is where you basically read books that are 500+ pages and while I gave myself a unrealistic list of books that I thought I might get to I only read two books for this one as well.

So onward to the actual list of books that I read for the Month of May. The beginning of the month started out strong, but then kind of when downhill from there rating wise. Probably because I read all of my five stars at the beginning of the month and picked up the ones that I was less interested in later on.

1. Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott – I have very mixed feelings about this one as while the main character was grieving and angry, I think some of her actions were a bit much. This completed my first OWLs which was for Ancient Runes. (3 stars).
2. Shadow of the fox (#1) by Julie Kagawa – I don’t why, but I was very surprised by how much I really enjoyed this one. It was humorous and I really enjoyed all of the characters, though I think the character that I enjoyed the most was Okame, the wandering ronin. This also worked for my OWL in Transfiguration which was to read a book that had Shapeshifting in it. (5 stars).
3. The well of ascension (#2) by Brandon Sanderson – I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Sanderson’s works. I think if I had picked up his series when i was younger, he might have been one of my favorite fantasy authors. I have to admit though, that I never heard of him when I was in high school. I think I first heard of the Reckoners trilogy when I first started College. I’m not a big fan of the way that the book is layed out with the action starting at the beginning, then it kind of drags a bit in the middle, and then the action really picks up in the last 5-10 chapters or so. I definitely plan to read the rest of the series and other works by this author, but it will take me a while. This was read for Tome Topple. (4 stars)
4. Echoes between us by Katie McGarry – This one was an interesting read. It focuses on ghosts, but there are also other messages throughout the story. I liked the characters all right, but I love a good ghost story especially about haunted houses. (5 stars)
5. Renegades (#1) by Marissa Meyer – This was also another surprising read and while it was cheesy in some places, I still really enjoyed it. I also read this one for Tome Topple. (5 stars).
6. Evil Librarian (#1) by Michaela Knudson – It kind of goes downhill from here, but I am glad to have this one on my shelf. I’m not sure that I enjoy the school setting as much as I used to back when I was younger. This seemed to be a bit exaggerated as there was more drama that seemed a bit unnecessary, but it was all right. It helped with challenges on Goodreads which is really the only reason that I picked it up. As much as I like to complete series, I will not be continuing this one. (3 stars).
7. Murder on Edisto (#1) by Clark C. Hope – I thought I would love this since it is set in Edisto, SC which I have been to a couple of times, but unfortunately I had a hard time connecting with it. It’s also short which normally would make it easier, but I couldn’t stand the main character. This was another one of those where even though I feel like I understand what the character was going through, but some of the things she did seemed a bit overboard. I also didn’t really like the romance interest and the mystery itself didn’t really feel like much. It was just one of those books that I had a really hard time connecting with. (2 stars)
8. You slay me (#1) by Katie MacAlister – I’ve had this on my shelf right around the first time that I joined Goodreads, and it really wasn’t for me. This was another situation where I didn’t really care for the character or the romance interest again so I was glad to have it off my shelf. (2 stars)
9. Extraordinary people (#1) by Peter May – This one sounded interesting as it is set in Paris, but for some reason I don’t know if it was the main character or the other side plots, I didn’t really care for the mystery itself. This is another series that I won’t be continuing. (2.5 stars)
10. Four weeks, Five people by Jennifer Yu – This sounded like something that I would really enjoy, but it kind of fell flat to me. I couldn’t connect with the characters and while it is about mental health I felt that it didn’t really add anything new to the genre. (3 stars)
11. Close to famous by Joan Bauer – I read this one for the medievalathon readathon since I was attempting to do all of the prompts that were there, but this was another one that I didn’t like. The main character is supposed to be young, but the way that her tone was portrayed made her sound like an adult and it kind of put me off from the story a bit. While she had great goals, I feel like it was a little rushed as it seemed that she was handed opportunities in only a matter of months. I could be wrong since it has been a while since I read it, but I don’t know if I will read more from this author.
12. The starless sea by Erin Morgenstern – This one was a major disappointment and a DNF. Normally, I really don’t like to DNF books and I try to give myself at least a third of the way in before I quit. For this one, I only got about 50 pages in before the flowery language finally got to me. I don’t normally have a problem with flowery language as I have a few books that have done it well, but because there were so many metaphors it kind of jarred me from the story and I couldn’t get back into it. I may pick this up again when I am in the mood for it, but it might be a long time before I do.

 

So, this was what I read for May. This summer was an interesting one as I had more free time even though this was probably the lowest reading season that I’ve had so far. I did rediscover my love of video games, at least with the original Pokemon games, though so that probably played a part in it.

Marybeth