WHAT I READ IN MAY 2024

I had a great month of reading! I feel like after months and months of being super sick and tired while pregnant (too tired to read and very low ability to concentrate…) and surviving the “fourth trimester” and getting Rory into a good bedtime routine, I finally have the time to read more substantial chunks of books every night. I still tired… just less tired 🤣. It also doesn’t hurt that my TBR pile has been filled with books I’m excited about.

FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry

4/5 Stars

A classic Emily Henry! It’s got everything I love in an Emily Henry novel. Great friendships, modern references, “real” feeling romances. I think that’s what I love most about how she writes, it doesn’t feel super farfetched. The characters feel like people you might have gone to college with or coworkers you keep in touch with. In Funny Story, the main character Daphne’s fiance leaves her just before their wedding when he realizes he’s in love with Petra, his best friend from childhood. Daphne needs a place to stay and ends up becoming Petra’s ex-boyfriend’s roommate. I really enjoyed reading the book and it would be the perfect palate cleanser between heavier reads, or something to get you out of a reading rut. Bonus: I loved the descriptions of Michigan!

NIGHTWATCHING by Tracy Sierra

4.5/5 Stars

I saw a lot of chatter about Nightwatching in the Bad on Paper Facebook group. Let me just say, I normally do not like thrillers and find them to be super predictable and unrealistic. Nightwatching had me freaked out because it felt incredibly realistic in the creepiest, most disturbing way. I was terrified at multiple points and was, like, afraid to read in the dark. A mom fears an intruder is in the house and brings her kids into a special hideaway in their house and tries to get help… It is a RIDE. It was frustrating at times because you start to doubt everyone and everything, but the doubt is so on the nose. I couldn’t put it down.

NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell

4.75/5 Stars

Another happy surprise for me! Again, I don’t love psychological thrillers typically and ended up loving this because the writing and set up was phenomenal. It features unreliable narrators and realistically flawed characters. I could not put it down as I second guessed everything that was happening. Two women meet serendipitously on their 45th birthdays– they’re “birthday twins.” Their lives crossover again and become intertwined as secrets from the past are slowly unveiled.

PIGLET by Lottie Hazell

4/5 Stars

This is a slow burn character-driven kind of book that hooked me from the very beginning. It’s a really well-written book and I enjoyed the writing style, especially all the beautiful descriptions of food and enjoyment of eating. (I don’t know how else to describe it!) Piglet is a nickname the main character got as a child and she carries it into adulthood. She’s about to marry Kit when she finds out two weeks before their wedding that he cheated. I personally loved how the writing became a little more chaotic and stressful as we got closer and closer to the wedding date. Pressure mounts and you can feel Piglet cracking under the pressure. (It did make me a little anxious, but that only added to the reading experience in my opinion!) Maybe a random comparison but if you loved watching Clare Saffitz’s videos where she would try, and struggle, to recreate various foods? It kind of gave me that vibe.

THIS SUMMER WILL BE DIFFERENT by Carley Fortune

2/5 Stars

I think the star rating speaks for itself. I heard completely mixed reviews on This Summer Will be Different and I just want to say, if you’ve loved Carley Fortune books before, you’ll like this one too! It just didn’t do it for me, personally! It’s a book about a girl falling for her best friend’s brother if you’re into that specific trope for romcoms. The best part of the book though was that it mostly takes place on Prince Edward Island! I want to go now!!

REAL AMERICANS by Rachel Khong

4.5/5 Stars

If you’re looking for a great literary fiction book to sink your teeth into, put Real Americans to the top of your list. I kind of feel like you should just read it without knowing too much. (I had zero idea what it was about when I picked it up!) Told from three perspectives (Lily, Lily’s son Nick, and Lily’s mother Mei) it captures the different generations’ perspectives. It tackles a LOT. Destiny, genetics, generational trauma, cultural differences, family, science, and fate. This would be a phenomenal book club choice as you could spend hours and hours discussing. I found certain sections more compelling than others– at first I was confused on where it would end up going (you know when you’re 20% in thinking… hmm what’s going to happen we have a lot of book left…) and then there was a shift in the book and from then on I couldn’t put it down.