May was a weird month. It started off really well, not just with reading goals, but on a whole host of other things I was trying to improve on. By the end of the month, however, things started to fall apart just a bit. I felt very tired and had difficulty focusing. Still, reading was one of the few things I was able to keep up with, so let’s see how that went.
May Reads
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
- Funny Story by Emily Henry
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
- Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
Six books is a pretty good pace for where I want to be within the year, so I’m still pretty happy with that.
Challenge Updates
GoodReads Challenge: My goal is to read 75 books this year. As of the end of May, I have read 31 books, which is still one book ahead of schedule according to GoodReads. I’ll take it!
GoodReads Awards Challenge: My goal was to read all fourteen of the winners of 2024’s GoodReads Choice Awards. This is the challenge that has been getting the least attention so far this year, so I decided to try and really focus on it, adding the winners for Best Fantasy (Somewhere Beyond the Sea), Best Romance (Funny Story), and Best Historical Fiction (The Women). A note: Funny Story also won for Best Audiobook, which was a separate category, so it’s a double winner. This brings my total up to five of fourteen books read for this challenge so far.
Complete the Series Challenge: My goal was to complete seven series that I have not finished (you can see my list here). Since I was focusing on the GoodReads Awards challenge this month, I have not added any further completed series this time around. So I’m still sitting at five of seven completed series. I will probably do some more work on the Awards books in June as well, just to knock a few more out.
Blog Updates
This is another area where I started off really strong, posting every day from the 2nd to the 16th. As my ability to focus started struggling, so did blog updates, although I managed a few more here and there. A recap:
- Month In Review: 1
- Teasers/Top Ten Combos: 1
- Teaser Tuesday: 1
- WWW Wednesday: 3
- Book Blogger Hop: 3
- Sunday Post: 2
- Reviews: 6
As you can see, things were a bit all over the place, but I still managed to post six reviews. That’s pretty good! And seventeen posts total. Given my mental state lately, that’s fabulous (and actually better than I thought it was before I went and tallied everything).
Overall, May was a struggle month, both mentally and physically. Really hoping to put myself back together to refocus for June
Categories: Month in Review
Life With No Plot 
Didn’t finish any books in May but still made progress on the two I am currently reading- James and Islands of the Blessed
Your Goodreads Awards challenge sounds so interesting – there are definitely some of those award categories where I would like to read some of the books that have won over the years, but there are also some categories that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot barge pole (horror, I’m looking at you!).
Yeah, there are definitely some genres that I usually steer clear from, but I’m still going to give them a try. They were popular for a reason, after all. So far, I’ve really liked all of them that I’ve read, even stuff I wouldn’t usually pick up. It’s been fun.