May is over and it looks like the weather outside agrees with me – it’s slightly cloudy and drizzly after a couple weeks of sunshine and quite hot weather (for Scotland). I had a really successful reading month in terms of numbers, even if I did stray quite far from my TBR at times. I also listened to some great music and made some really fun posts, so stay tuned to the end!

(Did I forget that I hadn’t posted this and only realise at midnight and then quickly come here to publish it… maybe. I’ve been working on a novel idea that suddenly hit me and got a bit absorbed.)

1. Overview from the Storygraph
2. Books Read
3. Books Progressed or DNF’d
4. On the Blog
5. Around the Blogosphere
6. Song of the Month

Disclaimer: Clicking on any of the book covers will take you to their Bookshop.org UK page (if the book is available there). These are affiliate links and I earn a small commission if you buy through them – this doesn’t affect the price you pay. If you can’t purchase via Bookshop.org UK, I encourage you to use the US equivalent or purchase directly from an independent bookshop (or use your library!) Let’s keep our bookshops and libraries in business!

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Overview from the Storygraph

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Books Read

I ended up finishing 12 books this month – I think that might be a record for the year so far (at least in terms of pages read), and it was definitely helped by reading series and lots of fantasy, which are always relatively quick reads for me. I usually organise this section chronologically, but I decided to go thematically this time, so let me know what you think of this format!

I’m planning on doing series review for both of these series over the summer. I have heard that two more books are being added to the Emily Wilde series but that they start a new arc, so I will still be going ahead with my idea of doing a review for the initial trilogy when I finish it. So no reviews for these books just yet, but keep your eyes peeled!

• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Under the Oak Tree (The Novel) Vol. 1 by Suji Kim | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Under the Oak Tree (The Novel) Vol. 2 by Suji Kim | ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have got a review of The Tainted Cup, but not of the others (yet!). I’m still debating with these as to whether I will do a series review or not, but we’ll see. I’m definitely continuing with all of these series, however.

• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Review)
• 검을 든 꽃 1 [The Flower Holding a Sword] by 은소로 [Eun Soro] | ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint by singNsong | ⭐⭐⭐.5

Now we’re getting to the non-science fiction and fantasy reads of the month, which were definitely more of a mixed bag – both in terms of genre and ratings.

• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut | ⭐ (Review)
• Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Sabina Knight | ⭐⭐⭐
• 이상한 나라의 스물셋 [The Strange World of 23] by various authors | ⭐⭐⭐ .5
• Mirrored Minds: A Thousand Years of Korean Verse | ⭐⭐⭐ (Review)

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Books Progressed or DNF’d

As you can probably see, I made a lot of “progress” in books that I didn’t finish this month. A couple of these are ongoing reads for my personal life – The Island of Sea Women is my latest buddy read, and I’m slowly working my way through the Chinese manhua about tea Formosa Oolong Tea (異人茶跡).

Apart from that, though, I’ve been working hard on my dissertation, which means I’ve been dipping in and out of a lot of different books on women’s writing in sort of 1500s-1800s Korea and China. Some of these books I only read a couple of pages, some of them I read upwards of 100 so it’s a real mixed bag.

I also read some Korean web novels (I DNF’d one or two and I’m still deciding on another), but I decided not to include those in the end since I’m still deciding whether they’re worth my reading in full – I will include ones that I’m reading in lieu of being able to buy the physical version (in future), but ones that I’m just reading some chapters of and deciding on can stay buried in my phone haha.

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On the Blog

I was actually fairly consistent this month – certainly a lot better than in April, so I’m super proud of myself! That also means there were lots of really fun posts – check whether you missed any below!

The ones I’m most proud of (maybe because they took the longest) are definitely by Beginner’s Guide to the World of Ilona Andrews and my travelogue/book haul from (last May!’s) trip to Korea.

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Around the Blogosphere

I’m using this section of my wrap up to complete the final day of the Wyrd and Wonder prompts: my five favourite things from the month. Specifically, I’m going to pick five of my favourite posts from the challenge by other bloggers (since there’s no way I can pick a favourite book from all those 4-star reads)!

• Zeezee @Zeezee with Books‘ Wyrd & Wonder Challenge Days 1-8 post was the inspiration for how I approached the month’s challenge, so I really can’t not mention it.
• For a similar reason, I must shout out Imyril @There’s Always Room for One More, whose Half Moon in Aquarius post inspired me to do the Astrological Book Tag.
• There were a couple of reviews by The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, which I was very excited about since I’ve not been sure whether to pick up the book or not. Check out Annemieke @A Dance With Books‘ review and Calypte @LittleFrogScribbles‘ review.
• Sia @Every Book a Doorway‘s Again, the Coolest Magical Abilities in Fiction truly does recommend books with some of the coolest magical abilities in fiction (we like honest titles in this house).

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Song of the Month

To finish off the wrap up, here is what I’ve been listening to this month:

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What was your favourite book of the month?

If you did a wrap up post of your own, feel free to link it in the comments and I’ll check it out!

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Keira x