May 2019 Wrap-Up

This was a slowwwwww reading month for me! 8 books in one month is usually seen as an average or even a lot, but I normally read upwards of 15 books in a month. I had a crazy time going on trips and then moving back to the US, so I had to DNF a lot of books that I will definitely come back to when the time is right. That being said, for the books I did read this month... My average rating was a 3.5, and my most read genre was Fantasy. I read a total of 2,933 pages (so close to 3K!), and that makes an average of 367 pages per book. I prefer to stay around 350 or higher, so I am pleased with at least this area of my stats. Here are the books I read in the month of May:

#1: And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman

Rating: ★★★★☆
I want to read it again.

#2: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rating:★★★☆☆
As far as classics go (not a favorite genre), I liked this one a lot more than many others. It’s dark and twisty but I still found Mrs. de Winter to be a compelling character/narrator. The book is slow to start, and in general a lot longer than it probably needs to be. But the last half of the book really had me intrigued.

#3: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
I'm probably a bad judge for this book because I tire of books that lack plot. You know the kind. When there's no direction, just a bunch of people going through life. It's an omniscient POV, and we get to see 3-4 different generations, so that makes it more tolerable. But one of the things I despise most about this book is its implausibility. The characters were just so... over-the-top. And not in a way that was fun like in Big Little Lies (Liane Moriarty) or The Casual Vacancy (JK Rowling) or The Secret History (Donna Tartt). Half the things that happened, by the characters or to the characters, I just didn't believe. I felt like I was wasting my time reading this. I honestly don't think I gained anything here.

#4: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Rating: ★★★★★
A timeless classic.
This is the first time I've reread this since seeing all the movies, and it's refreshing to remember how simple and innocent the original novel is. After, the book was written by Tolkien for his children, and I love the simplicity and intrigue of the story.

#5: Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
I was not a fan of the insta-love here. Also just disappointed because I would think a book literally entitled “Black Widow” would be about Black Widow and not some random teenagers?? They even have a different alias, “Red Widow”, for this teenage girl. Natasha was a side character. If you want a book about teens that are angsty and don’t have much personality that "fall in love” after two days of knowing each other, this is for you. If you want a book with substance, where Black Widow is the main character, skip it.

6. Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Rating: ★★★☆☆
I read this as a buddy read over the course of five days. My review is done as journal entries, ergo it is VERY long. Check out the details HERE.

7. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rating: ★★★★★

Fantastic. Amazing. Incredible. I may never recover. Check out my full review HERE.

8. I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong

Rating: ★★★★☆
This was the first nonfiction I've read in a while. I thought it was very accessible to different levels of scientific understanding and had some interesting facts/stories about animal microbiome.