My May 2022 Reads

Will I ever get these monthly reading updates up in a timely manner? Unlikely, but if I need to give y’all an excuse, it was probably because I was reading, which I know you’ll understand.

May was an okay reading month for me. Most books I read were solidly okay. Two that stood out to me were The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson, the second book in the Mistborn series, and This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

You can check out everything I read below, and you can always follow me on Storygraph at @readinginclt and on Instagram (also @readinginclt) to get my thoughts throughout the month!

• A History of Wild Places - Shea Ernshaw

  A History of Wild Places revolves around a remote community called Pastoral founded in the 1970s by a group of people who wanted to remove themselves from society. The story switches between several narrators and surrounds a mystery of two missing folks who had previously arrived at Pastoral but then disappeared without a trace.

  This book was a slow burn. I contemplated not continuing with it for a while, but once I had listened to about 30% of it I was too hooked to put it down. It’s not the most believable storyline, but it was a pretty interesting read and I liked how the author ended everything.

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid

  Evelyn Hugo is one of the most well-known, salacious, interesting movie stars of her time, and people are desperate to learn more about her and her 7 marriages throughout her life. So when a small-time reporter is contacted with the opportunity to tell Hugo’s life story, she jumps at the opportunity… but there’s more that meets the eye.

  Daisy Jones and the Six is one of my all-time favorite books and in particular audio books, so I had high hopes for this one. I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it quite as much as Daisy Jones. I found the reporter character inauthentic and annoying, which may have been part of my issue with it. Overall it just didn’t excite me as much, but I still enjoyed listening to it!

• Hook, Line and Sinker - Tessa Bailey

  This is the second book in the Bellinger Sisters series, which began with It Happened One Summer. This story follows Hannah Bellinger, a production assistant for a movie company, as she helps film a movie at her birth place, a remote town on the west coast in Washington. She falls for a local king crab fisherman, though the pair struggle to define their relationship at first.

  I didn’t like this book like the first one. I found Hannah and Fox, the main characters, to be annoying and whiny about pretty trivial things. There was less steam in this story line as well, which I can get over if I’m really invested in the story or relationships, but I wasn’t. Overall I thought it was fine, but It Happened One Summer was way better for me.

• The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson

  This is the second book in the Mistborn Series, a fantasy series about a realm where metals allow certain individuals to possess supernatural powers. In the first book, some of those with those powers overthrew a tyrant who had been running the realm for over 1,000 years. This book follows the same band of rebels as they struggle to keep control of the realm and discover some of the mystical disruptions they’re experiencing.

  I am not a big fantasy reader, but I have absolutely fallen in love with this series. This book was a little slower in parts compared to the first book, but it was by no means a disappointment. I cannot wait for my hold on the third and final book in the trilogy to come through!

• This Is How It Always Is - Laurie Frankel

  In this book you meet a large family of boys - 5 boys, to be exact. Except the youngest, Claude, isn’t sure if he’s a boy. Or a girl. He loves wearing dresses, and says when he grows up he wants to be a girl named Poppy. Claude/Poppy’s parents support him/her as they explore their gender identity from a young age and all the hurt and beauty that comes with trying to be yourself in a world that wants to put you in a box.

  This was an incredibly powerful book for me as a parent in particular. I think the author, who has a nonbinary child, did a great job of exploring how a parent might tackle and react to the things that their beloved child is experiencing as that child attempts to figure out who and what they are. That being said, I cannot speak for how well the author represented Claude/Poppy’s struggles, and look forward to discussing this with my Queer friends and book club to learn more.

• White Oleander - Janet Fitch

  White Oleander is the story of Ingrid, a poet who commits murder and is shipped off to prison, and her daughter Astrid, who is bounced from foster home to foster home, from traumatic experience to traumatic experience, for the duration of her young life.

  This is one of those books where it seems like the author is torturing the main character. Astrid struggles to find happiness, to survive extreme abuse at the hands of her many foster parents, and to determine the best course of action for her troubled relationship with her narcissistic, emotionally abusive mother. The writing is poetic and beautiful, if not a little overdone at some points, and the story is heartbreaking. Overall I’d recommend, but definitely go into this book knowing there’s no true happy ending, much like life.

Need other recommendations? Ask me for some ideas!