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Posting this early this time!

Let us know how your reading went this month, if you had trouble completing this month's task, if you enjoyed the book you read and whether you'd recommend it!

I knocked out one book so far: The Devil in Silver :)

I finished one so far: Optimists Die First. I'm hoping to sneak in another under the wire in the next few days.

Just finished Dark Matter and it was insane, so good!! It is so different from anything I would usually read so I am very glad I ventured out. It was a roller-coaster and just kept getting crazier till the end. Highly recommend!!

I finally finished Titus Groan after what felt like 84 years, but was only actually twelve days. The beginning dragged a bit, but meh. I'd much rather read Peake than Tolkien. I'll get around to reading the rest of the trilogy at some point.

Dessi wrote: "Just finished Dark Matter and it was insane, so good!! It is so different from anything I would usually read so I am very glad I ventured out. It was a roller-coaster and just kept ..."

I also read Dark Matter and really enjoyed it! i loved how it played out and the ending was great.

I read Death at Dovecote Hatch: A 1930s Country House Murder Mystery and it was alright. It felt a bit like it was from the golden age of mystery, but a couple of sly winks at Agatha Christie took me out of it rather than make me feel like I was part of the joke. For being a shorter book, it certainly felt sluggish at times.

This month was hard for me, since I was feeling unmotivated and most books I want to read do not start with o, n, t, or d. Haha

I read The Dressmaker (which was turned into a movie starring Kate Winslet). The book was very similar to the movie, and I enjoyed both, so I'm glad I read it. Not sure if I would have understood everything if I'd read the book first, though, since the writing was very sparse and I definitely had trouble keeping track of all the townspeople.

Now I need to think of something for the "No, fam, it was I" challenge...

I read Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty and it was decent. Not as good as Big Little Lies by a long shot, but not bad either. I think my biggest problem with it is that I didn't really connect with any of the characters, they all fell kind of flat for me. Also the big buildup to the ~thing that happens was more interesting than the actual reveal of that thing. That being said, I would recommend it if you want an easy summer beach read or something like that.

So, I never started Oblomov and it's gonna be on my to-read pile forever, but my copy of The Dry came in from the library and luckily it counts! It was okay, a pretty standard mystery/thriller. The murder made me think of Dark Places and I'm probably going to think of rural Australia as the Plains/Prairies from now on, but that's where the similarities end. idk, I felt let down by the hype, but it's not bad for a quick read.

I just finished Newt's Emerald and while I liked it, I was surprised it wasn't better written. I've never read anything by Garth Nix before, but I always hear such praise for his Abhorsen series. Maybe my expectations were too high? It definitely felt rushed and that ending was too abrupt.

Marlene, I read the beginning to Newt's Emerald a while ago and thought the same thing, it really wasn't all that in terms of writing. But I just happened to pick up Sabriel yesterday and it's totally different. The writing IS good, I totally get where the praise comes from. I guess Newt's just isn't the best place to start with Garth Nix

Definitely going to have to roll this into June if I want to read all the letters. I read The Ordinary which was a really cool, really gay experimental genre book where a sci-fi world and a fantasy world meet and go to war. But really experimental.
Now I've started Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones and hope to squeeze it in before the month ends lol

and I echo the Sabriel love, soooo good

I shockingly ended up doing three books for May. Two of which I really enjoyed... This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare and Night Film. One of which I didn't really like at all which was This Is Where It Ends which had an interesting concept but it was pretty obvious the author had never been to an American school and also felt like the she was patting herself on the back by going, "Look how diverse I made this" without actually like really fleshing out any characters or their backgrounds. I don't know it's hard to put into words but I really didn't like it at all.

Kelly wrote: "One of which I didn't really like at all which was This Is Where It Ends which had an interesting concept but..."

oh wow, the reviews for this book sound like a complete mess. The fact that the author is an advocate for diversity in books and then totally failed on that front is just - augh. what a shame

Susan wrote: "Kelly wrote: "One of which I didn't really like at all which was This Is Where It Ends which had an interesting concept but..."

oh wow, the reviews for this book sound like a complete mess. The fa..."

I wish I had read the reviews before I picked it up. It was on the librarian recommendation shelf at my library. Some of the characters definitely felt more like stereotypes than anything else to me and even before I read about the author it seemed very self-congratulatory about including them in the first place. Not good at all which probably means it will get an adaptation.

I read 2 books that fit the challenge this month! These Old Shades, by Georgette Heyer, which is a romance set in the 18th century, very fun; and The Devotion of Suspect X, by Keigo Higashino, a jaw-dropping mystery/thriller! Loved them both!

Orphan Train - Easy light read about an era/event of American history I had no idea of. While I'm relieved the story kept it light and "happy", I can't help but think about the horrible situations those kids were dropped into.

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes - I went into this expecting more world history and got Islamic history instead. Not complaining at all since I know Islam about as much as the average American... which is not much at all. Fascinating look at why and how the Islamic world, which was more advanced than Europe at one point, ended up lagging behind instead.

Troubling Love - This was my toe in the water for the author since I've heard so much about the Neapolitan series but nope, nope, nope. This was one of the most off-putting books I've ever read. Thank god it was only about 100 pages.

I managed to get all the letters for this month! I linked my spoiler-hidden reviews for the books I wrote them for, so you can click on the star rating for more details. I always write way too much, so sorry for the length of both the reviews and this post :P

Orphan Number 8 - My Review, 5 Stars. My favorite of the ones I read. I was actually sold on reading this when I looked at the 1 star reviews, almost all of which complained about not being warned in the description that there were ZOMG LESBIANS. I've been really wanting books that were not romance or YA, that had an LGBT main character (and that had relationships!), and that had a central plot that did not revolve around the main character's sexuality as romance and YA tend to do with LGBT characters. This hit the spot. It's a beautiful historical fiction novel that made me laugh and cry, and I definitely recommend it!

Number the Stars - 5 Stars. This was a reread, since I read this back in late elementary or early middle school, but I remembered almost nothing about it! I had planned to read Nineteen Eighty-Four (the copy I have stylizes it that way so it counts!!) but last night I was feeling incredibly anxious and knew I wouldn't get much reading done, so I decided to read something shorter to complete my challenge. It's a great story that I'm sure most everyone read at some point, but I recommend revisiting it! I cried at the end (really, I cried at all of these books, because that's just what I do).

Thirteen Reasons Why - My Review, 3.5 Stars. I'm sure most everyone here has read at least one post on ONTD about the Netflix series. I watched the series and generally enjoyed it, despite its problematic elements. It was definitely addicting! I decided to read the book while the show was still fresh in my mind to see how they compared, and the book was just as addicting: I plowed through both the series and the book in two days each.

Doll House - My Review, 4.5 Stars. Gruesome but compelling book. Really enjoyed this one, though I definitely shouldn't have read it while I was alone at my parents' house dog/house sitting! It was like an episode of Criminal Minds, but more focus on the victim and how she copes with her kidnapping, rather than on the detectives. There's cat-and-mouse action throughout the book that put me on edge the whole time. It was definitely a page-turner! TW for rape, mutilation, etc., but I did not feel that those particular scenes were gratuitous, frequent, or detailed enough to be considered "torture porn" or to put me off from reading it. It's a pretty satisfying book by the end, so if you can get past a bit of gruesomeness, I recommend it!

Congratulations on getting all the letters, Eve!!

I read two books that fit the challenge; Dangerous Girls, which I loved. It's a quick read and a fun thriller, I got really into the characters. I also read The Nightingale and enjoyed it.

I read This One Summer as it was my final month at uni and I needed something I could get through in a short amount of time. I liked it well enough, it's beautiful to look at, the single colour makes for some stunning pages, but the story was very simple, and didn't really delve too much into anything, focusing more on the stories of the side characters than of the two main girls. After finishing it, I just hoped that the main girl had learnt something, but who knows.

I planned to read "once I was happy" but I could not for the life of me get into it. I don't think I will try any longer. I'm going to move on to the June challenge and see if I can pick another May book.

I read 4 books this month but i didn't hit every letter:

The Tao of Martha: My Year of LIVING; Or, Why I'm Never Getting All That Glitter Off of the Dog - 2 stars - i have been reading Lancaster's books since her debut and they have slowly gone downhill. this one i had hoped would help her get back to her snarky roots, but it was actually a pretty big downer. i probably won't be jumping to grab anything else she releases.

Dark Matter - 4 stars - was awesome and a quick fun read and physics! what!!

Doing It - 2 stars - nope. nope.

Ten Thousand Saints - 3 stars - i thought i would like this because the Straight Edge lifestyle has always intrigued me, but while this book was alright, i never really felt connected to anything happening or any of the characters. i am interested in checking out the movie though.

After May ended I went and read:

Not Your Sidekick - i gave it 3 stars. I probably would have liked it more if i wasn't an adult because the plot unfolded in a completely predictable way. the characters were cute though and I liked the writing style.

Devils in Daylight - my 2nd "D" letter, oh well lol. SUPER GOOD, 4 stars.

Ten - AWFUL! I think I gave it 1 star?

I never got my "O" book done, I'm going to do it tho. Lol.

I got my O book done! I read Old Flames by Jack Ketchum. I only gave it 2 stars.

I finished my May book today. I read To Kill a Mockingbird and absolutely loved it!!! I think it has easily become one of favorite books. I already know I will rely a lot on the wisdom of Atticus Finch for the rest of my life.