May Wrap Up + TBR Experiment Thoughts!

What a month that was! It was a shocking reading month for a few reasons. If you weren’t aware, I did an experiment this month with my TBR. I am a HUGE mood reader. Always have been. With cover lockdowns over the last year, I can’t for the life of me figure out my moods! They change on what seems to be an hourly basis, making it really hard to pick up books that fit my mood. I would think about starting a book and then a few hours later I wouldn’t want to read it anymore. In comes the EXPERIMENT – May TBR – What have I done?? where I choose 6 books that I was GOING to read and even put them in the order that I was going to read them. I was terrified!

What I found was – IT WORKED!!! Being a mood reader my whole life, setting out the books I was going to read no matter what sounded like hell lol. I wondered if I could force myself to read something even if I wasn’t in the mood to read them. I ended up reading 5 of the 6 books I set out to read… the 6th got set aside for an ARC that needed to take priority. Here’s what I found:

THE POSITIVES:

• I didn’t have to think about what I was going to pick up next – which is normally a HUGE time waster! When I was done a book I immediately grabbed the next book on my list.
• I realized that YES, I can in fact read a book even if I don’t think i’m in the mood for it. Sometimes it took me a while to get into it, but I was able to push through and enjoy it anyways!
• This may actually be the thing I need to decide to DNF books. Hear me out – I read one book in particular that I wasn’t enjoying AT ALL and I would have DNF’d it if I didn’t get my hands on the audiobook instead. I’m such a wishy washy person when it comes to DNF’ing books and I feel like this made the decision a little bit easier.

THE NEGATIVES:

• Sometimes I found my mind wandering to other books while I was reading. This is normal, but it was so much worse. I felt myself pushing to read faster to get to a book that I actually wanted to read. So I think that having a set order that I’m going to read the books in isn’t going to work. I might allow myself some wiggle room in deciding WHEN I read them.
• I know I just mentioned that DNF’ing might be easier, but there’s another side to that coin. Deciding to DNF might be a little harder because I’ll wonder how much of my enjoyment of the book had to do with my mood. I think that it’s going to take me a little longer to narrow this one down.

THE HYPOTHESIS:

I think the experiment was a HUGE success! I ended up reading 7 books in total which is a big improvement over the last 3 months. I think i’m going to keep this experiment going but with some minor changes. I’ll be making a new TBR post in a few days so check back to see how it’s going to go! I would have read a lot more than I did but the last week or so was taken up with opening up our pool and doing a lot of yard work and clean up. Regardless, my reading took a huge upswing and I’m sooooooo happy about it!

Now – onto the books I read in May! I don’t have reviews for most of these as I got side tracked by opening the pool and doing yard work. Don’t worry – I’ll be slamming you with a lot of reviews very soon!!!

The Midnight Library <—- click for full review – 4.5 stars

This is probably one of the most subjective books i’ve ever read! I loved it personally but there are others that don’t feel the same – and that’s ok!! Everyone’s fight with depression and anxiety is vastly different, which is why this book is so subjective. It’s all going to boil down to your own personal experiences. I will warn here yet again – this is a very triggering read! So please go into this one with extreme caution. I felt like this book was very raw and real. Nothing was perfect and sugar coated. It pointed out that nothing in life goes the way you want it to necessarily, no matter the choices you make. But it was also filled with hope.

Little Fires Everywhere <—– click for full review – 2 stars

Nope. No, no, no, and NOPE! I highly recommend checking out my review for this one because I fully explain why this book didn’t work for me. I’m sad about it because I think that the author is a fantastic writer actually! But, the reason why I can’t stand her books all comes down to the fact that her characters (which are really well explored and developed actually) are just assholes who make assholey and selfish decisions that hurt others. I just can’t. Her characters decisions made me so freaking angry I’m still thinking about it. I’m all in for a morally grey and somewhat suspect character. But these people……. they hurt others and didn’t give a damn, claiming that love more than made up for their decisions and somehow made it ok. No! And then they go on to contradict and judge others for making decisions that mirror their own. I’m SO DONE with this authors books and, like I said, I’m sad about it because she’s actually a great writer! If she chooses to write characters that aren’t total dicks, then maybe I’ll read it lol.

Children of time – review coming soon – 3 stars

So basically, I haven’t written a review for this one yet because my thoughts are so conflicting! It’s one of my bookish twin Justine’s favourite books – and I totally understand why that is, but then…. ugh! I just don’t know! Part of me loved it – it was honestly one of the most unique and in depth sci-fi books i’ve ever read! But then another part of me was creeped out and bored lol. I’ve almost finished the review so check back soon!

Project Hail Mary – review coming soon – 5 stars

OMG this book was so good! And so unexpected! I went into this knowing nothing about it at all. Andy Weir is an auto buy author for me and I wanted to go into this knowing as little as possible so that everything surprised me. Having the format that this does, that worked out perfectly! As always, this was pretty science heavy but, the way that he writes it, I felt so smart and understood all of it! It had The Martian vibes and felt like it was a full circle for him, bringing back the science and being isolated and alone in space. But he wasn’t alone for long! We ended up getting a very unexpected character that I absolutely fell in love with and he wormed his way straight to my heart! If you loved The Martian, I have no doubt you’ll like this one too!

The Marrow Thieves – review coming soon – 5 stars!

I’ve had this book on my shelf for so long and kept putting it off until it was “the right time”. Now i’m mad I didn’t read it sooner! This book was absolutely incredible and I can’t wait to talk about it! But I feel like it’s going to require some research for those who aren’t Canadian and don’t know about the atrocities of Residential Schools. I’ve been putting off this review for a little while because I want it to be right. And it’s going to be tough to do that seeing as how i’m white and this is about Indigenous people. But the message in this book is so important!

The Turn of the Screw – 2.5 stars

I won’t be doing a review for this one. Honestly I didn’t care for it enough to write one. This is the book that I almost DNF’d. And I would have had I not gotten my hands on the audiobook. This cemented the fact that classics are NOT for me. The language was such a huge barrier. I feel like the way that it was written took so much away from the whole atmosphere of the book for me. I bet that this was groundbreaking when it was written though! But it was annoying for me. The Governess was more worried about the fact that the man she saw wasn’t wearing a hat (GASP!) so he wasn’t a proper gentleman when she should have been more worried about the fact that the man she was seeing was actually dead! She asked to speak boldly so I half expected her to say “what the fuck” but she said “i’m scared” instead. Classics are a nope for me. Watch the show lol.

Sheets – review to come – 4 stars

I’ve had my eye on this graphic novel for so long but, every time I tried to order it, it was sold out! I finally got my hands on a copy and it was soooooo good! The story was adorable and made me mad a few times. The illustrations were GORGEOUS and the colour palette was stunning! I loved that the colours changed depending on the character perspective too. But the full page illustrations were so beautiful I sat there looking at them for the longest time! I fully expected this to be a cutesy little story but it wasn’t. Ok, it was at times, but it was so much deeper than that. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second one! I’ll be posting the review very soon – i’ve got a lot to talk about with this one!

I’m still in shock that I managed to read 7 books this month! I’m sooooo happy with that! It’s not double digits but it’s better than the 4 books a month i’ve been reading on average since February. All in all, my TBR experiment worked and I can’t wait to see what happens with the changes in June (TBR post coming soon!)

What was your favourite read for May? It’s a toss up between Project Hail Mary and The Marrow Thieves for me 🙂

As you can see, I’ve got A LOT of reviews coming your way so stay tuned! Hope you have an amazing reading month in June!

Until next time, happy reading!