May TBR
Hello again!
We’re a few days into May now and I’ve kicked off this month pretty strong with my reading. It’s giving my confidence in my ability to actually follow a tbr this month. (TBR= To Be Read) I don’t know about you but I am a HUGE mood reader. Every month I pile together a tbr and I’ll be luck if I read even one of the books I chose. But I did pretty good in the month of APril, thank you O.W.L.S. magical readathon. So I decided I would put togetehr a tbr for the month of May. But to make it a bit more exciting I used a random number generator to pick my tbr.
I have 8 booksheleves and roughly 450 books (I did not sit there and count them all). With that large number in mind I pulled up a random number generator on the good ol’ Google and I got to picking out books. I chose to pick our 6 books, by way of random number generator, because I read between 12-15 books a month. This gives me ample books to mood read while also holding myself accountable to a few predetermined books.
So here we go. Book 1 – number 95
My first book that was randomly chosen also happens to be one of my favourite books OF ALL TIME! It’s Illuminae by: Amie Kaufman Jay Kristoff. And as luck would have it I just finished rereading Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff and I’m waiting for my copy of Aurora Burning to come in the mail. So this book was a perfect chose and I reread once a year anyway (this will be my fourth time!) so I’m actually really excited about this pick.
In case you didn’t know, Illuminae is a YA Sci-fi based on two different spaceships in the far future. Our main characters Katie and Ezra just escaped a planetary invasion and are being chased down by the corporation that destroyed their home planet. That’s all I’ll say because it’s really best to go into it not knowing too much. It’s also told in a bunch of different formats such as case files, interviews, and surveillance recordings. It’s seriously such an amazing experience!
Book 2 – number 250
Book 2 is Beast of the Frozen Sun by Jill Criswell.
I think the little blurb on the front on the book best sums up this book: “Warriors. Tyrants. Gods. She will stand against them all.” From what I’ve gathered, and I’ll be honest I don’t know much about his book but I do want to go into it without knowing much, it has Nordic influences and that’s enough to make me want to pick it up right now.
I got this book at YALLFest 2019 and it was actually pretty exciting. We got in line at just the right time to receive a finished copy of this book and I got it signed by the author herself. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I read the author blurb at the back of the book and learned that Jill Criswell is an alum of the University of Central Florida where she studied Creative Writing and I studied Creative Writing at UCF! I’m lowkey obsessed now and I can’t wait to read this book!
Book 3 – number 175
Bok 3 is A Beautiful Mess by: Elise Larson & Emma Chapman.
I have to say, this is the book I am least excited about. I remember reading this book a long time ago, I was fresh out of High School and this book was published in 2013. Based on the cover alone, this are some every 2012-2013 styled photos. And I know this because my Instagram account looked like that cover around the same time. Basically, I don’t think this book aged well but I still want to challenege myself to go into with an opened mind and maybe there are some ideas in there that I can implement today. (I think I’ll be posting a review of this book later this month.)
Book 4 – number 370
Book 4 is The Magical Unicorn Society Official Handbook by: Selwyn E. Phipps & Helen Dardik.
This book is everything it promises on the cover and more! I love this book so much, I read it back in October and I was so excited to read it again this month (And I’ve already finished it. It was the first book I read this month.) This is one of the most magical and whimsical books I’ve read and the art style is beautiful. Honestly, 10/10 would recommend to everyone. I guess it would be considered Middle Grade but please don’t let that deter you. It’s a really good time, reading this book.
Book 5 – number 233
Book 5 is Dorothy Must Die by: Danielle Paige.
This is also another personal favourite of mine. (I got really lucky with these random picks!) This will be my third time reading Dorothy Must Die and I was planning on rereading it sometime this year anyway so it works out. I’ve only read my way through the whole series once and I had the urge to do it again.
Dorothy Must Die follows Amy Gumm, a young girl living in modern day Kansas, as she gets sucked into OZ (via tornado) and has to defeat Dorothy who is now evil. This book holds a special place in my heart. The first time I read it I started reading it while flying to Chicago and I know you don’t know me very well but flying is a horrific experience for me. I am, quite simply, terrified of flying. I spend the whole flight coiled tight just trying to distract myself from the sheer terror I feel being trapped in a tin can a million miles in the sky and this book geniuenly took me out of the terrifying situation I was in and it brought me into the world of OZ with Amy. I have since read the second and third books while flying to various countries.
I got meet Danielle Paige at YALLFest this past November as well, and she’s amazing. She signed every single one of my books (I had quite a few with me) . And the best part of that whole experience was getting to tell her how helpful her books are for me. This series has traveled to Poland with me. I was reading the ending of The Wicked Will Rise while l had heat rash, laying on my pull out bed in that Hotel Santi in Kraków. (I could go on and on about my love for this series but I’m going to stop now. Thanks for bearing with me.)
Book 6 – number 106
The final book that was randomly chosen is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman.
Good Omens follows an angel and a demon who have an unlikely friendship, as they search for the anti-Christ which just so happens to have been misplaced and the end is neigh.
I tried reading this book sometime late last year but it was during the most stressful time in retail so I ended up putting it down and never picking it back up. (I literally found my book mark a few chapters in.) But it feels like a good time to pick it up again as I just finished reading The Library of the Unwritten last month and I’m in the mood for more sassy angelic literature. Plus, I had started watching the show on Amazon Prime but I don;t want to go any further until I read the book!
So, a final recap: Out of the six books that were randomly chosen with my random number generator I have previously read four of these books. I am excited to read five out of six of them and I will most definitely be doing this again next month!
Have fun reading this month!
xoxo Juju
