2021 May Reading Challenge

[Elizabeth]

Hello all!

May is Mental Health Month. Read something this month that will be good for your mental health. What this means is up to you. If you want to read a non-fiction book about meditation like Meditation with Intention: Quick & Easy Ways to Create Lasting Peace, or something more generally about mental health like Missing Each Other: How to Cultivate Meaningful Connections, or re-read a favorite book because it's comforting and makes you happy. That's great too. It's all up to you.

I encourage you to head to our May calendar and search for Mental to find Take and Make events you can pick up to do at home.

Also, feel free to follow The County Library on Spotify. We have a Meditation playlist you may enjoy.

[Debbie]

You must have heard my mental plea. 'For May, make it possible to read an old favorite.' I will be reading All the Dark Places by J. Allan Bosworth, a book for teenagers about Peter Tobin, 16, who loves going caving with his older brother's gang of spelunkers. There is one place they will not take him because they reason he lacks the skills needed to conquer most difficult part of the cave, although they have all done the easier part together. So Peter, being of teenager mind, decides to prove them wrong by tackling the full Preacher's End -- and do it alone.

[Brittany]

I am reading At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women for this month's challenge. Reading one or two of these positive messages each morning will be a great start to my day!

[Elizabeth]

Debbie wrote: "You must have heard my mental plea. 'For May, make it possible to read an old favorite.' ..."

Sometimes self-care is getting lost in a good book, where you already know what happens (so now worry for your favorite characters) and it's like visiting an old friend.

[Elizabeth]

Brittany wrote: "I am reading At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women for this month's challenge. Reading one or two of these positive messages each morning will be a great ..."

Great! Sounds fun. I used to have a daily calendar where it had a good, positive thought on it. I enjoyed it, but never remembered to pull the pages off. So, I'd have to rip off (and read) like two months at a time. lol

[Deborah]

I just finished The Blue Day Book: A Lesson in Cheering Yourself Up by Bradley Trevor Grieve for this challenge. At first, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for this challenge. Reading itself is usually a mental escape for me. Then I remembered I had this book on my shelf. I really love this book. If you are looking for a fun quick read about cheering yourself up, this is a good choice (I wish I would have thought of it last month. It made me laugh more than anything I read in April.)

[Becky]

I read Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual. It was very empowering. I loved the audio which the author read herself.

[Debbie]

I have finished All the Dark Places by J. Allan Bosworth, my 7th time to read this book. And I finally bought myself a copy.

[Elizabeth]

How is it already May 13, you guys? HOW?!?! Anywho, please let me know what book you've read for Mental Health Awareness month by May 31.

[Carolyn]

I chose the "makes you happy" route for this one. My recent reads include a lot of kids books that I read for my own enjoyment, to give my brain a break, and to be able to talk about them with some young members of my family. I'm definitely not the "target audience" but they are still good books. Some recent reads are:

My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World
The Trouble With Chickens
The Legend of Diamond Lil
Get to Work!
Russell and the Lost Treasure

[Deborah]

I just read The Phoenix Dance by Dia Calhoun. It is a fairy tale retelling, but it told from the point of view of a young girl who is struggling with a version of bi-polar disorder. I thought the book did a really good job of dealing with mental illness.

[Greg]

I read Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.

5/5 for 2021

[Jess]

I’m going to read a pressing engagement. Is is the only ebook in my favorite series I am currently rereading. It’s a bonus book with the wedding in it i am so excited to read it it for the second time

[Tanya]

Last month I started the Wayward Children series, and I thought the first book, while being sort of strange and fantastic, was also just really warm and welcoming. So for this challenge I read the second book, Down Among the Sticks and Bones, and I loved it.

It's a weird pick for this month. It's about a girl apprenticed to a mad scientist while her twin sister throws in her lot with a horrible, monstrous vampire, and that doesn't seem like a cozy, fuzzy-feeling read, but it is!

[Teresa]

I read The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. It was light reading and made me laugh.

[Elizabeth]

Tanya wrote: "Last month I started the Wayward Children series, and I thought the first book, while being sort of strange and fantastic, was also just really warm and welcoming. So for this challenge I read the ..."

I love Seanan McGuire. I'm a couple behind on the series. The newest one, Come Tumbling Down, just got nominated for a Hugo.

[Darin]

I re-read (listened to) Prince Caspian from the Chronicles of Narnia. I read the series as a kid, and now, as an adult, I love the adventures in these books. It’s a nice break, as someone else said, from the popular adult fiction I usually read, so I really enjoyed it.

[Debbie]

Teresa wrote: "I read The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. It was light reading and made me laugh."

I have the movie in my Prime queue.

[Jess]

Ok changing my book to “A Study in death” still A lady Derby mystery just not the one I was planning on reading. I clicked on the wrong thing when it became available in Libby and apparently I said I didn’t want it right now so I’m still waiting.

[Em]

I re-read a book about the mental health issue of spiraling thoughts, Turtles All the Way Down. One of my favorite lines in the book is "Your now is not your forever", a good thing to remember when you are struggling with any mental health issue.

[Elizabeth]

You guys are doing great on this challenge. Don't forget to let me know that you've finished your title by May 31.

[Jess]

I finished ✔️

[Elizabeth]

Go Jess!

[Debbie]

Any clues yet what the Summer Challenge will be? It's always so interesting!

[Britt, Book Habitue]

I've been binging cozies, because they are my fluff, lol.
(Binging fluff is totally self care, right?)
Last Pen Standing
Scones and Scoundrels
The Book of Candlelight
Shooting Gallery
Deja Moo
Death at First Sight
Murder Can Confuse Your Chihuahua
Rosemary and Crime
Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece
Murder at the Mena House
A Wee Homicide in the Hotel

[Debbie]

You have so many at first I thought I had goofed and opened "bestsellers ordered" list! Bingeing fluff IS totally self-care! And it looks like your fluff compares closely to my own.

[Elizabeth]

Debbie,

Today is your lucky day. I'll be posting the summer challenge in a few minutes!

[Elizabeth]

Britt,

The one that grabbed my attention from your list was Deja Moo. Looks funny. :)

[Britt, Book Habitue]

lol Debbie
Elizabeth, Deja Moo is book 3 of the Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum Mystery series

[Linda]

I read 3 books.
Thinking Good Thoughts About Me,
I Am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness
and

[Audrey]

I read Edgedancer because it makes me happy.

[JoAnn]

I'm workingon completing a book on my bucket list, Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady. It's reputedly one million words long, My hard copy, purchased 25+ years ago, was published in small print (6 pt maybe) in order to prints all nine volumes in one 1530 page book.
Thank heavens for Project Gutenberg, Librivox and portable electronic devices! I've managed to complete six volumes and am nearing the end of the seventh. I read volumes 5-7 in May. I hope to finish 8-9 in June.

P.S. Parts of Volume 7 had me in tears. I'm sure more will fall.

[JoAnn]

I also read Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, something else I promised myself to read, despite several failed attempts because I didn't enjoy it.
This time, I listened to the entire book. I can see why it isa masterpiece, but still don't like it,

[Debbie]

Sometimes audiobooks help you get through otherwise unreadable books. That worked for me with Don Quixote and (dare I say it) Pride and Prejudice (which I ended up enjoying). It also helped me to follow and enjoy Beowulf!

Currently it is enabling me to get through the masterful and complex 4 volume biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson by Robert A. Caro.

But, alas, it was no match for Les Miserables. So that one remains unfinished by me.

[Elizabeth]

Congratulations to our May 2021 prize winner! Greg read Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ to complete the challenge!