May is over! Praise the Lord! Happy Summer to everyone! Educators, take a break, take a nap, lie down, you deserve it! May 31st was my very last day of school and my heart was so full. A year ago in June, I signed my first teacher contract, answering a call I spent years avoiding. I was on the precipice of so much unknown and I had no idea what the school year had in store for me. I was making a career shift and planning a wedding. My days were long, but my list of fears seemed just as long. However!! Here we are on the other side and I am sooo grateful! Now, let’s get into the books I read in May.
I read eight books in May. Woohoo! This accomplishment can mostly be attributed to two things–Libby and a Memorial Day road-trip. With the help of the free digital library on Libby and it’s 14-day return deadline, I was incredibly motivated to finish audiobooks and ebooks as quickly as humanly possible. My husband and I also took a 5-hour road trip on Memorial Day after running a 5k and I absolutely love road-trips because they are the perfect environment for me to read without distractions.
May felt like a slow reading month at the beginning but at the very end, as the school year came to a close, I felt inspired, excited and energized. This excitement for the summer led me to finishing three books in the first half of the month and five in the second half. In May I read five 5-star books, one 4.5-star book one 3.5-star book and one 3-star book.
At the beginning of the month, I finished my 21-days of prayer challenge that I begin in April. I finished the book Excuseless by Pastor Debleaire Snell which was my first 5-star book of the month. “Excuseless” is a phenomenal biblically based book about revolutionizing our own personal lives by no longer making excuses that inhibit your growth and success. The month began off on a great start because I began the month with a three 5-star reads. After I finished “Excuseless”, I read “Just for the Summer” by Abby Jimenez. I LOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOOVED “Just for the Summer”. It was so beautifully written. The book was the epitome of everything I need in a romance. The love story was realistic, the characters were relatable, and the author touched on incredibly intimate and personal topics in a well-informed and emotionally intelligent way.
After I finished “Just for the Summer” I realized how much I absolutely love Abby Jiminez as a writer and there’s nothing I love more than finding a new favorite author. Before reading “Just for the Summer”, I had never consumed any of her books, so the first half of the month was an audible-induced Abby Jimenez binge. I listened to “Part of Your World” and then “Yours Truly”. Please don’t judge me for consuming these books out of order. In my defense, though they’re in the same world, I had no idea the three aforementioned books are technically in a series. I knew the girlies were eating up “Just for the Summer” so I ran straight to it. The three aforementioned book are part of an interconnected stand-alone series where the characters exist in the same world and interact with each other, however, each book follows a different set of people on their individual love stories.
“Just for the Summer” and “Part of Your World” were 5-star reads for me. “Part of your World” was absolutely heart-wrenching and heart-warming. The 3rd Abby Jiminez book of the month was “Yours Truly” and it ended up being a 3.5-star read for me. Our protagonist was heavily guarded after experiencing a divorce. My issue was that she didn’t feel the need to address the obvious trauma’s that shaped the way she viewed herself and others. Her previous relationship caused deep scars that I didn’t see our female lead character, Briana, working to heal and that irked me. She allowed her past hurt to make her jaded in a way that caused her to show up inconsistently for those who cared for her. I could empathize with her pain, but I couldn’t resonate with her actions. She read as a very selfish character for the majority of the book, and this caused me to rate the book 3.5-stars.
After my Abby Jimenez obsession, I transitioned to my Libby obsession. The transition was quite logical for me because I spent $30 on audible purchasing “Part of your World” and “Yours Truly” so honestly, I couldn’t afford to spend another dollar on books in May. Libby is an online reservoir of ebooks and audibooks that exists in collaboration with your local library. I used my library card to create a Libby account that allows me to access a beautiful plethora of books. I currently have 5 books on loan within the app and I’ve already read one ebook, and listened to two audiobooks.
The first book I read on Libby was “I’m Glad my Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy. I absolutely loved this raw and aggressively honest autobiography. It was a 5-star read for me. It was so moving! So beautiful! So captivating! McCurdy’s story is truly a terrible yet remarkable one.
The second book I used Libby to access was the audiobook version of “Masters of Death” by Olivie Blake. This complex and very involved work has incredibly elaborate characters with overlapping backstories. Blake weaves such a complicated spider-web of stories that unfold in this layered multi-perspective story- telling. I found the story very deep, profound and beautiful so I rated it 4.5-stars.
On YouTube I really enjoy watching ‘And They Were Readers’ a channel created by Jon and Sierra who are life-long friends who love books and making book content. I can’t recall which video I was watchingsince I quite enjoy binge-watching their content but in one of their videos Sierra mentioned how fast she listens to audiobooks, and she inspired me to listen to audiobooks at 2.5 speed and this changed my whole entire life!
After I finished “Masters of Death” I wanted a very deep and moving book, so I listened to “A Woman is no Man” by Etaf Rum. It was a very moving literary fiction about the role of Palestinian women and the very nuanced experience of immigrants in America who still cling desperately to the culture they’re deeply connected to. Rum writes about the duality of creating a new life in a foreign place while always wanting to remain connected to your roots. It was such a beautiful book. It was moving and it was heart-wrenching, and it was written in such an approachable way that gave me ALL THE FEELS. This was my final 5-star read for the month of May.
The last book I finished in May was “The Locked Door” by Freida McFaddon. I listened to it on Libby and honestly, this was my first book by McFaddon and I was expecting terror, deep fear and I honestly didn’t get that. I actually bought my husband “The Locked Door” and he loved it, so I had really high expectations for the book. I would say it left me wanting. I would even say that I sort of found the female main character borderline insufferable. In the writer’s defense, the narrator’s whiny tone may have contributed greatly to this feeling. I didn’t feel connected to the character so for most of her story I found myself bored an uninterested. I rated the book 3-stars.
Welp, that’s it for me this month! In June, I am going to absolutely obliterate my TBR list, just you wait! Happy Summer to all educators and students! Take the well needed break you have deserve. I’ll see ya soon! Happy Summer!
The Introvert's Escape Maneuver 