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 reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at 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.
Mad Mabel (Sally Hepworth): 5 stars for characters. 3 stars for plot. She played up the big twist so much that I figured it out 24% of the way through the book. But even as a twistless mystery, the story moves at a good clip, and I think this would make a great beach read.
Look What You Made Me Do (John Lanchester): This was bonkers in the best possible way. The twists were amazing – I only saw one coming – and there was so much to mentally chew over in this story. It would make the perfect book club book because you immediately want to talk about it afterwards. I am still thinking about this book weeks later.
Dissection of a Murder (Jo Murray): I liked the first 3/4ths very much. The last 1/4th less so. It got a little far-fetched, and it didn’t feel like a twist but more like a random change. With mysteries, you should be able to look back and see everything you missed. The book will be on AppleTV soon (the second season of Presumed Innocent), and I could see it being a better show than book.
London Falling (Patrick Radden Keefe): Keefe is an incredible storyteller, and this is a very sad and very intriguing story. It felt like jigsaw pieces snapping together, which was both upsetting because you know the picture the puzzle will reveal (the death happens in the first page or two), but also provided structure for understanding how a lie can grow larger than you can imagine when you utter the first words.
What did you read last month?
3 comments
“London Falling” is definitely on my “want to read” list for summer. I read “Say Anything” by the same author a few years back, and I still think about it all the time — it was one of those books that stays with you — amazing story, and so incredibly well crafted!
I only read two books in May (but have already finished three in June!). One was a re-read of “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley, for one of my online book clubs. It was probably my favourite book that I read last year, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. 🙂 The other was a “slow readalong” with Footnotes & Tangents on Substack: “Regeneration” by Pat Barker. It’s about “shell-shocked” WWI soldiers being treated at a hospital in Edinburgh, and features several real-life characters, including one of the doctors and a couple of poet/soldiers of the era (Siegried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves). We looked at some of their poetry and wow, it’s still powerful stuff. There are two sequels that I would love to get to some day.
Both of these books are reviewed on my blog, as well as on Goodreads & StoryGraph.
Ooh I just put Look What… on hold at my library! I finished The Bright Years which I feel has been hyped a lot. I liked it but it wasn’t life changing. It was sadder than I expected which makes me feel like it was the right book for a different reader. I also read Best Offer Wins which was totally banana pants crazy. It was a book where I didn’t really like any of the characters but I had to know how it turned out. Totally wild and the audio was excellent.
I read the blurb for Dissection of a Murder and…conflict of interest is a thing. I hate when people ignore that to create a plot line. I think i will not be reading that particular book.