Monthly Musings – May 2015

This is a where I look back at what I read (or tried to read) during the past month. I also plan on highlighting my experiences in any book club reads I from the month as well. I will always start with any books I would label as a surprise find/under-read books so if anyone missed my reviews for them, and don’t make it to the end of this post, they’ll be easy to find.

May was another good month! I didn’t have a single review under 4 stars 🙂 That makes me happy!

Highlighted Books from May

Ink and Bone was a bit of a surprise for me. I’ve not read any of Rachel Caine’s other books and wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. But it was incredibly fun and exciting, I can’t wait for the next one in the series!

Day Four by Sarah Lotz – I have been looking forward to this book for sooo long. I was a bit worried it couldn’t live up to my expectations, but it probably surpassed them. Creepy fun and addictive, I could not put this down.

Review Summary [May]

• [5 May] Clash of Iron by ★★★★
• [12 May] Uprooted by Naomi Novik ★★★★
• [17 May] We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory ★★★★
• [19 May] Corsair by James Cambias ★★★★
• [25 May] Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen ★★★★
• [29 May] The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks ★★★★

 May Backlist Burndown

I was really happy with this choice. I was in the mood for science fiction when I picked out my book for the month, and wanted something that is often recommended. So, since I had read another book by Banks in the past and enjoyed it, and I often hear his Culture novels recommended, figured it would be a great pick.

Here’s what other people read and burned off their backlist this month! It makes me happy to see other people joining in with this, so thanks to all of you! 🙂 Anyone else that posted a backlist review this month, feel free to link up! Hope to see another great set of books for June.

Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

WWEnd – 2015 Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge

Read 12 books by 12 new-to-you women authors in 12 months. One of your author choices should be totally random.

WWEnd – 2015 I Just HAVE to Read More of That Author Challenge

The challenge is to pick 12 new books by authors you’ve already read at least once. Write 6 reviews. The goal is to delve deeper into the body of work of some of your favorite authors, and of course, to have fun.

WWEnd – New Books of 2015

OK, this should be an easy one for me, but you never know. The challenge is to read 18. I haven’t updated my graph for this one yet, as I am waiting to see how many I can do without using duplicates. Right now I probably have it done if I double up with my other two WWEnd challenges 🙂

r/Fantasy Reading Reading Bingo 2015 

The schedule for this challenge is different it runs April 2015 to April 2016, so I’m only two months in on this one. Some of the will be really easy, but some I don’t know if I’ll manage. The ones that I think I’m least likely to complete are Self Published, Pre-Tolkien Fantasy and the Five Short Stories. BUT, I have plenty of anthologies, so that one should be easy. And it would give be BINGO. And I should read more short stories anyway.

Looking Forward to June 2015

Here are just some of the books that I am hoping to read in June. Last Call is going to serve as both my Backlist Burndown selection and my Fantasy Faction book club read. :