May Bookish Wrap Up
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Hello Readers,
I hope May was a kind month to you all and you managed to read some enjoyable books. I somehow managed to read 8 books this month, 3 via audiobook, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. So let me tell you all about them…
I joined the Book Tour for Felix Unbound during May, so I’m not going to go into detail in this wrap up about it. If you’d like to know more about this book, you can read my full review here.
Animal Crossing New Horizons Deserted Island Diary Vol 2 by Kokonasu Rumba
Although this is going to be my book clubs Buddy Read Book for December, I just couldn’t wait to pick it up and I’ll happily read it again in December.
For fans of the Animal Crossing video game, this manga is a must! Vol 2, just as Vol 1, is so much fun to read as it puts an amusing spin on certain trends that were and still are a part of the game play. After learning about crafting in the first volume, this time the residents are learning ways to make those all important bells. This brings in a few favourite NPC’s such as C.J and Daisy Mae.
While I found the jokes about buying turnips and fishing funny, for new players, the mini stories explaining these things could be quite handy, especially if they’re wanting to become “bellionaires.” So if you’re a longtime player the game or just starting out, I’d highly recommend this one as well as the first instalment.
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
This was my book clubs Buddy Read Book for May and it didn’t disappoint!
It’s a non-fiction book that focuses mainly on the fire that took place in the L.A Central Library in the 1980’s. But within the details of what happened; whether the fire was the work of an arsonist or not and if the person the authorities thought had done it, really did set fire tp the library and why, you also read about the history of the Library itself.
I am going to be writing a full, dedicated review to this book in the coming weeks because I don’t think I can condense how much I love this book and what it contains into a small wrap up review. So keep an eye out for that.
But what I will say for now is that if you are a lover of books and Libraries, then please give this book a read.
This is another book that I’ve decided to write a full, dedicated review for in the coming weeks.
My parents were sent an advanced copy of this book because the author, Celia Bannister, is my Great-Aunt, my Dad’s Aunt on my Grandad’s side of the family. Being the avid reader of the family, I was allowed to read it first and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The book is non-fiction in which my Aunt Celia relates the thirteen years that she and her husband, my Great-Uncle Stan, owned a Country Pub in the North West of England. But as I said, a full review for this book will be coming soon.
The Loneliest Girl In The Universe by Lauren James
After reading The Quiet At The End Of The World by Lauren James and really liking their writing style, I decided I’d pick up a couple of their other books.
The Loneliest Girl In The Universe follows Romy, the only surviving crew member of The Infinity, a spaceship heading for a new planet from Earth. The only communication between Romy and Earth are emails from NASA or voice messages from her therapist. But when she’s told that another spaceship has been launch, The Eternity, and will be docking with hers once it’s caught up to her, she is told that communications from Earth have to stop because of a war.
Romy and the mysterious J, the only person aboard The Eternity, begin to email and Romy finds herself falling in love with him. But things might not be quite as they seem, but Romy has been so alone for so long that is J worth the risk?
As well as being a Sci-Fi, there as a definite mystery / thriller element to this book and at times, I felt it was a bad idea that I was reading it at night ~ I wouldn’t say it’s particularly scary but I have a very active imagination and a nervous disposition. So I tend to scare easy and my nervous system feels like it’s always on the edge of flight, so yeah I felt a little on edge at times. This was mainly as Romy talks about her dreams and what happened to her parents and the rest of the crew on The Infinity; but Romy at times seemed to be an unreliable narrator as her own anxieties and imagination took over and affected her memories of the events.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one and Lauren James’ writing style is just as wonderful as in The Quiet At The End Of The World. I’m looking forward to picking up the other I have by them, Green Rising.
The irony of reviewing a book which contains reviews is not lost on me and that’s what The Anthropocene Reviewed is, it’s John Green reviewing many different aspects and events of the human experience ~ some of which are global and some of which are from John’s own life.
This book is just wonderful on every level. I learned so much while reading it, well actually while listening to it as I loaned the audiobook from my library and followed along in my copy of the book. John himself narrates his book and that just added to the experience of reading it…
And that’s the only way I can describe reading this book, an experience. The things of the Anthropocene that John chose to review were so interesting and the moments of his own life experience that John shared along with them, were amusing and at times heartbreaking. Those passages made this book feel very personal and listening to John himself share them via the audiobook only heighten that feeling. It also reaffirmed the fact that John Green is one of my favourite authors of all time and rightly deserves the shelf I have dedicated to all his previous books.
I feel I should just mention that as this book was written during the past couple of years, the pandemic is mentioned and the effect that has on John, which he is very honest about. So just be aware of that if you are thinking about picking this up.
I give John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars and I’d recommend it to everyone!
The Hunger Games / Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
I feel I’ve spoken about this series enough that I don’t really need to tell you what it’s about or my thoughts on it. It’s a series I re-read often as sometimes my brain needs something more familiar.
This time around, I’m actually reading it via audiobook and it’s more for research purposes than for anything else. You see, for the past few months I’ve been turning my Animal Crossing Island of Panem back into a Hunger Games themed island. I’m pretty much done but I wanted to go back through the books {I’ll be watching the films at some point as well} to check that what I’ve done to the island is as accurate as I could make it and if there as anything else within the books that I wanted to add before I update and release the Dream Address for the island.
I’ve only read this series physically but I really enjoyed the audiobooks. In my head, Katniss will always sound like Jennifer Lawrence but the narrator of the audiobooks does sound similar that it took me no time to fall into the story. Their performance was absolutely wonderful and once I get this month’s credit from Audible, I will be listening to Mockingjay.
So there we go, all the books I was able to read this month. I’m hoping this month will be just as good and while I’ve picked out a few books I’d like to may be read, the only one I’m definitely set on picking up, and actually have started, is Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus as it’s my book clubs Buddy Read.
I keep looking at the other ones I’ve picked but as I’m very much a mood reader, they’re just not really calling to me at the moment. I think I picked them because I felt they’ve been on my TBR for a little while and I should really read them ~ even though I’ve got other books that have been on my TBR for much longer.
The more I think about it, the more I think I want a good long Sci-Fi story to get into as I only read one Sci-Fi this month, so maybe I’ll read Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr as that’s a nice chonky Sci-Fi. But I’ll guess you’ll find out what I decided on in my June Wrap Up, unless you follow my Instagram of course.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
