Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Here's the place to talk about what you're planning to read this month!

May was a bit of a reading slump for me - looking foward to getting back on track. I started Heart of the Sun Warrior this morning, so far so good!!

I have an ambitious summer plan, but with my baby in daycare and me out of school for June and July, I'm hoping I can tackle some books I've been putting on the back burner.

I'm 50% through Symphony of Secrets, surprisingly since I just started it a couple days ago and it's a bit long.

Emily, I recently read Symphony. I thought it started slow, but the 2nd half is great.

Summer Reading starts Monday (5th) here at the library and we stay busy the whole month with kids checking books in and out, reading as many pages as they can in hopes of winning the prizes up for grabs. And I usually don't count on getting as much reading done this month as I do others. Along with the 4 books I have planned for ATY52 I have 3 Buddy Reads scheduled: Rebecca The 5th Horseman The People vs. Alex Cross

I had to rejuggle my plans for summer reading:

Beloved (a banned book)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (A book over 400 pages - my copy is 566) and A Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy
The Bride Wore Size 12 (Northern Hemisphere book)
Poems of Pablo Neruda (and I found a copy that is 320 pages long) (PATERNITY initials)

School's out for me next week so it's time to start my annual Big Book of summer vacation. This year will be To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara.

Carried over from last month cuz I didn't read them:
Roses, In The Mouth of a Lion
No Land To Light On

My TBR - 10 for optimism, though I only managed to read 10 in January.
1. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (ebook)
2. Hell Bent (ebook)
3. Strange the Dreamer (print)
4. Before They Are Hanged (ebook)
5. The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (print)

6. Maybe in Another Life (print)
7. Elantris (print)
8. Broken Islands (print)
9. The Secret History (print)
10. Frenchman's Creek (print)

And there's Dracula through Dracula Daily which will end on November 7.

June will be a continuation of books I didn’t finish in May - Demon Copperhead (almost done!) and David Copperfield. I also plan to read Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese and Victory City by Salman Rushdie (a book I won in a book bundle raffle). Victory City looks really interesting! I also recently bought The Dead Zone by Stephen King. I’ve been looking for a used copy for years and finally gave up and bought a new one. It’s my favorite King movie but a book I haven’t read.

Happy reading everyone! 📚

My (hopeful) plans for this month consist of:

1. The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian (Reading currently, about 30%) through.
2. Expert by Alessandra Hazard
3. The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
4. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5. Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian
6. Dark Rise by CS Pacat
7. The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian
8. Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert
9. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian
10. The Duke I Tempted by Scarlett Peckham

And a +1, because I'll be on holiday and have a little more reading time: The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

I made myself a goal of reading one Stephen King book a month this year. This month I am planning on reading either Dreamcatcher or Hearts in Atlantis. I haven't decided yet. I am also reading Savage Conversations by LeAnne Howe for my Indigenous Women Authors book club. I am also planning on finishing up Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism by Aileen Moreton-Robinson. I have been reading this one for a while. There is a lot of good info in it, but it is the driest, dullest book I have read in a while, and that is saying something. It is very academic, but I am a nerd's nerd who reads dissertations for fun. I plan on reading Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko. It is the sequel to Raybearer. It is a fantasy duology based on west African lore. It's really good. I also need to finish up The Bone Shard Daughter. It is really good, but I have misplaced it three times, so I am not as far along on it as I should be!

Also, just an FYI for any Audible listeners. They have a big sale going on right now!

@Misty: Hearts in Atlantis is a really good book. It is not horror as many King novels are…not that I don’t like his horror novels but Hearts was so different and unexpected
And if you read it you can follow up by watching the ok movie version with Anthony Hopkins

She Who Became the Sun is an award-winning debut novel by Asian-Australian author Shelley Parker-Chan. It is a reimagining of the 14th century Red Turban rebellions that ended the Mongol Yuan dynasty and issued in the Ming dynasty. It is historical fiction with a touch of fantasy and features village girl Zhu who must become a man to save herself and seek her fate of greatness. Here is my review

Denise wrote: "@Misty: Hearts in Atlantis is a really good book. It is not horror as many King novels are…not that I don’t like his horror novels but Hearts was so different and unexpected
And if you read it you..."

Good to know! Thanks!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers is a cozy utopian sci-fi; a sweet quirky little book featuring gender neutral, tea-making monk Dex and the caring philosophical robot Mosscap. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ here is my review

Finished Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. Really liked it, really impressed with the writing.

Rachel wrote: "She Who Became the Sun is an award-winning debut novel by Asian-Australian author Shelley Parker-Chan. It is a reimagini..."

ooh, I needed a book for the different centuries prompt and this looks perfect!

I just finished reading Slammed by Colleen Hoover. It's a YA contemporary romance, and it's the author's debut book. It's just okay. The MC was annoying, but this was a very fast and addicting read. Although fantasy is my favorite genre, I get genre-fatigued if I read too much of it back to back. So I guess this is my palate cleanser.

I finished In the Lives of Puppets a couple days ago, and I think it broke me. When I tell you I SOBBED for the final 50 pages. It was so good.

Ah Amanda! I read that one last month and felt the same way about the ending. I didn't love this one as much as Klune's other adult novels (the hero's journey is not really my jam), but the ending was great.

Not sure where to post this, but finished my challenge today.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Congrats Jazzy! We have a completion thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It's been slow reading for me for the past couple months, but I feel like I'm finally back on track.

I managed three books last week!


Currently reading


And hoping to finish at least two more this week.

Nice Sheena! I finished five books last week, which is just wild to me lol

Emily wrote: "Nice Sheena! I finished five books last week, which is just wild to me lol"

That's readathon level reading!!! 🙌

I know! Or.. summer vacation haha! I'm hoping I can get ahead on my goals this month and next before school starts back up again.

June isn't off to a great start as far as books go for me - I've managed to knock out a decent number of comics so far (finally finished the Wicked + Divine series, which was fun) but I finished The Name of the Rose yesterday & working my way through more of Never Let Me Go today and neither has done anything for me. Looking forward to starting something new over the weekend that I'm excited about :)

I really loved Never Let Me Go, but it's definitely a slower paced book.

Finished When Christ and His Saints Slept for one of the multi century books. SO good. SO long.

Jennifer W wrote: "Finished When Christ and His Saints Slept for one of the multi century books. SO good. SO long."

Good to hear you liked it, Jennifer. I have been wanting to read that for years.

Just found my best book of June: I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. Growing up watching Nickelodeon, damn, this was an eye-opener.

Other books I finished this week:
The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath - rereading this for a book club. It's good but I really hate stream-of-consciousness writing
Maybe in Another Life - My third TJR book ever, and so far my least favorite, but it's still pretty good
Evidence of the Affair - a short story by TJR. It's really good

Finished Flamer. Best book of the year so far! I read it in a day, which just doesn't happen for me anymore.

The Girl in the Painting is a dual timeline historical fiction by Indian author Renita D'Silva set in England during WWI and India in the 1920s. It has romance, mystery, betrayal and heartache. It also covers issues such as the caste system and the custom of Sate (suttee) of Indian brides being burnt on the funeral pyres with their husband. A captivating read. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ here is my review