Books I Read in May

Well, I'm in a reading slump. Don't get me wrong - I read this month. But I just didn't enjoy the experience of reading the way I usually do. I tried all the tricks I tell y'all when you tell me you're in a slump: only read for fun, DNF like a fiend, but it's not working. Audiobooks are my only solace.
So, having said all that, here are the books I read in May
- Scars and Stars: Poems by Jesse Thistle – this style of poetry is not for me
- Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers (audio, re-read, re-listen) – honestly I haven’t been enjoying many of my reads lately, and I needed to go back to this delightful grown-up love story
- Coconut by Nisha Patel – eh. Enjoyed the local element, but still not my style.
- All’s Fair in Love and Treachery by Celeste Connally – did not finish. I just wasn’t looking forward to it, never wanted to pick it up, wasn’t compelled to continue when I was reading. I’m working increasing my DNFs because I just don’t have time for bad books. What’s the last book you didn’t finish?
- The Whispers by Ashley Audrain – a compelling page-turner about desperate moms, which can be tough to read.
- 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin: Poems by Thomas King – this is exactly my style of poetry
- Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII – hmmmm. A lot of lefty folks I know were very excited about Pope Leo XIV following in this tradition, but it is extremely regressive on women and children. Only to be expected from its source and at that time! But surprising to see so many excited by it. If you’re one of those, what about “a new Rerum Novarum” excites you?
- Lakewood by Megan Giddings – the first new book I actually looked forward to reading in a long time. Essentially The Centre, but much better, though it kinda petered out at the end.
- Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett (audio) – the Death/Susan ones aren’t my favourite, and I was totally thrown by the way the narrator pronounced nougat
- Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear – these books are so hit and miss! I really did not care for the last one, but this one was quite good. Difficult to read in these times. I just kept wincing at the cruelty of the SS Maisie interacted with, and thinking about the cruelty of the ICE agents in the US with similar groups of people.
- The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett – a cover blurb described it as “a masterpiece in comic brevity” and I must say I agree
- An Excellent Thing in a Woman by Allison Montclair – a short treasure of a book, with love, loss, revenge, new tech, and more
- Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (audio) – I love Emily Henry, and I appreciate the ambition she shows in this book. The experience of listening to it was enjoyable (love Julia Whelan, don’t want audiobook narrators to get replaced with AI!), but I’m not quite sure she sticks the landing. There were a lot of big, complicated family emotions that got kind of brushed to the side or tidied up in the rush to get our two main characters to fall in love. It felt like she wanted to get away from the Emily Henry formula that her readers (including me) love, but she chickened out or maybe her editor made her but it was just slightly too overstuffed for me.
- A Death in Diamonds by S.J. Bennett – I liked this one. Reminded me of early seasons of The Crown. And Joan is a great character.
- The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (audio) – another short fairy tale retelling I found enjoyable but less so than, say Witches Abroad (which is next up)
- Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor – I don’t know that I ….. got it? There’s all these raves that she did something astonishing and new, with a big twist that changed the way books are structured and maybe I’m too dumb to see it but to me it was fine, not bad, but hardly groundbreaking. What am I missing?
- Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory – so hear me: I love Jasmine. She is consistently great. But I felt the middle of this one was just a teensy bit too overstuffed/took too long. The beginning grabbed me right away, and the last 100 pages were super awesome – the dramatic breakup/makeup was with a friend, not the romantic partner! – but there was a long middle in there I found hard to get through. Maybe it was me – I’m in a bit of a reading slump, I know that – but I felt like the beginning and ending were awesome and the middle needed to be tightened up a bit.
- I and Thou by Martin Buber – a challenging and difficult read that I kept putting off, despite its being as good and important as everyone says it is
- Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (audio, re-read) – very possibly my favourite Discworld, and my favourite narration
- How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde – written after her first high-profile bravery moment, back in 2020, selling like hotcakes after her second. I'm so grateful she is the bishop of Washington, DC in this moment.