Best Books of May
As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.
So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.
These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from May.
Though I am going to break my own rule for one of these…
The Shadow House (Anna Downes): This is one of those books that was enjoyable while I was reading it but forgettable about two minutes after I returned the book. A case in point, looking back over my May books, I needed to look up the synopsis to remember what this was about. But once I remembered, I was like, “Oh yeah, I liked this one.” So why can’t I remember it a few minutes later? Anyway, it was a solid, creepy second book from an author that I liked last year. Everything falls into place in the end and wraps up neatly. Maybe I would have loved some loose threads, but solid is good, too.
Portrait of a Thief (Grace D. Li): This is where I’m breaking my rule. I did not like this book. At all. It is the first book I’ve skimmed in years. BUT I didn’t stop reading it. On one hand, I’ve only stopped reading one book in the last five or so years, so this would have been number two. But while I felt okay stopping reading the other book, I felt compelled to keep reading this one. I wanted to like it, so badly. And I felt like it was my fault that I didn’t. I felt relieved when it was done, and I could remove it from my reading list and delete the library book. But I also felt terrible that I disliked it so much when I wanted to love it with all of my heart.
The Agathas (Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson): I love a book where the heroine rescues herself, and here you get two girls rescuing themselves in tandem. If you liked The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, you’ll like these smart girls solving crimes. It was a very fun read.
The Younger Wife (Sally Hepworth): This was not what I was expecting, and I was pleasantly surprised. I couldn’t put this book down. I always like Hepworth’s writing, even when I don’t like her plots, but this is one of her best. Good pacing, good writing, good plot. Can’t wait for her next book.
Sleeping Dogs Lie (Samantha Downing): I love everything she writes, including this bananapants short novella. You can read the whole thing in one sitting. Everything she writes is clever and well-written, and I was so happy to get this story.
What did you read last month?
4 comments
I feel compelled to put anything you describe as bananapants on my to-read list…
I read 3 books in May, which is not as many as previous months nor as many as I’d hoped… but, best made plans, etc… and I’m still on track to reach my Goodreads Challenge goal for the year. 🙂 They were all pretty good — all reviewed on my blog and on Goodreads:
* “The Great Silence” by Juliet Nicolson, about life in Britain in the first few years after the end of the First World War, and its lingering impact on the people. Fascinating.
* “Singled Out” by Virginia Nicholson. (Interesting factoid: the author is the great-niece of Virginia Woolf — the granddaughter of her sister, Vanessa Bell.) This book looks at the 2 million young women in Britain who came of age in the years just before/during/after the First World War — only to realize that too many of their male counterparts — the men they had expected to marry and have families with — were dead. There simply weren’t enough men to go around. These “surplus women” faced very different futures than the ones their families and educations had prepared them for — and many of them rose to the challenge, laying the groundwork for the more equal rights and independence that women today enjoy. Jody Day of Gateway Women has recommended this book.
* “The Golden Road” by L.M. Montgomery — a sequel to “The Story Girl,” which my LMM Readathon FB group recently finished reading & discussing. The group is on hiatus right now, but I decided to read this one on my own anyway. This one picks up where “The Story Girl” left off, continuing the adventures of the King cousins on PEI and their friends. I loved “The Story Girl” and I think I love this one even more… kleenex was required near the end. 🙂
Three books read in May, but only one worth reviewing. (The other two were Bridgerton books – very shallow, one-note books, without the complexity of issues/stories etc of the TV scripts).
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles was not at all what I expected (I’m not sure what I expected), but it was fabulous! It’s about a period in history that I’ve read little about, and the mix of historical and deeply personal was lovely. A gem of a book that will lift your heart.
You once again have highlighted all books that I haven’t read! Only one of the authors (Hepworth) is even familiar to me.
It’s so funny to me that this seems to happen every month because I would’ve pegged our tastes in books as pretty similar. Hmph.