What are you reading in May 2022?

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Tell us what you're reading this month (May 2022)! Liking it? Disappointed? Confused? Thrilled?

All genres welcome in this discussion topic thread!

[Shel, Moderator]

Fevered Star was excellent - just as good as Black Sun - so if you read and liked the first book with us last year, I highly recommend looking this one up!

Today I started Akata Woman by Nnedi Okorafor, the third book in her Nsibidi Scripts series, which was just recently published. I think it will be a quick read.

[Nyssa]

I am currently reading our Fantasy BotM selection, Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. It is intriguing.

[Mary]

Harbinger by Wen Spencer

[Lindsey]

Finally finishing up Rhythm of War, with the audiobook of We Have Always Been Here after that. Also waiting on my hold of the third Lady Jane Grey mystery, Silent on the Moor, to come into my local library.

[Leserling]

I just finished Daughter of the Forest (which I started in April), and will now listen to The Ghosts of K2.

[Christine]

I just finished In an Absent Dream and am now out of genre with Dust

[Jo]

Just finished Dark Class by Michelle Diener. Nice addition to Dark Minds series

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

So far this month I read:
Jade City by Fonda Lee, 6.5/10.
Let me start by saying I don’t particularly care for mafia-type stories—books, movies, TV shows, doesn’t matter. So that’s a problem, since the author herself says she wanted to model her story on the gangster sagas of many cultures. In the interview in the back of the book, she says, “I had a vision of what Jade City would be: a heady blend of gangster epic, family saga, and martial arts fantasy.” I didn’t find the characters engaging or even that interesting except perhaps Wen and Shae, but the author can write a good story and the plot moves right along. She is not afraid to have serious consequences for even her main characters. I am reading the Green Bone Saga for a group discussion in a different Goodreads group, so I will continue the series. I hope the story moves a bit beyond the confines of stereotypical gang/clan warfare, but given the title of the next book (Jade War), I think my hope will be unfulfilled.

Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell, 7/10. I definitely have a case of Scarpetta fatigue, but I will likely keep reading until (view spoiler)[Carrie Gretchen is dead (hide spoiler)].

Next I will be out of genre with An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl.

[MadProfessah]

I gave up on Scarpetta ages ago, once she [redacted] her main love interest and [redacted] her niece Lucy. To me the books just got bad after that.

I see the new Tchaikovsky debuted today but I have a crap load of grading to do before my semester can end so I can’t/shouldn’t/won’t buy it until then but I really can’t wait to see what happens with the Architects!

[Shel, Moderator]

Last night I finished Akata Woman - I didn't like it quite as much as the first two in the series (it felt a little less cohesive of a story), but it was still worth a read. I also finished The Serpent's Shadow with my fifth grader to close out the Kane Chronicles (verdict - not as good as his other series but the Egyptian mythology was fun).

I'm going to take a nonfiction break next with The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear, which another book club of mine is reading. I really loved Kate Moore's other book The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, so I am optimistic that this one will be just as good.

[Nyssa]

Nyssa wrote: "I am currently reading our Fantasy BotM selection, Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. It is intriguing."

I loved it!! (I'm not crying; you're crying!)

Next, I will be reading One Fell Sweep. I'm looking forward to it.

[Mary]

Cloak of Shards by Jonathan Moeller

[Mary]

Noble Roots by Drew Hayes

[Mary]

Aria: The Masterpiece by Kozue Amano

[Shel, Moderator]

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear was excellent - highly recommended to anyone who likes a good biography.

I've just started Paola Santiago and the River of Tears at the urging of my fifth grader who wants help with his book report (but it looks like a good read anyway!) and then will get to this month's books, both of which I've got out from the library.

[Mary]

Aria: The Masterpiece, Volume 6 by Kozue Amano

[Mary]

Aria: The Masterpiece, Volume 7 by Kozue Amano

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet van der Zijl was so-so for me. Allene, her husbands, her children—none of them really came to life for me, so although he life was interesting, I rated the book was 6/10.

Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory takes place in the same world as the Obsidian and Enduring Flame trilogies. This is the first book of a trilogy that is a far distant prequel to the other 2 series. Unfortunately, I discovered that the 3rd book in this trilogy has yet to be written, so I will read the second one and hope the 3rd is published sometime in the future. I’m not in a rush, though, as this book was not as enjoyable as the other series, 6.5/10. This was a long book with many characters who have mostly unpronounceable names (and no helpful list of characters) who live in kingdoms that also have unpronounceable names (but at least there is a map). There are old enemies and new, obscure prophecies, and more battles than I can remember. And of course, the whole book is merely a prelude to the “real” battle between the Endarkened and the Elves, which I assumed would happen in the next book until I found out about the as yet unpublished 3rd book.

On a positive note, the battles are realistic in many ways, emphasizing how chaotic they are and the importance of things like supply lines, food and forage for people and animals, and the large numbers of support personnel an army requires. Leaders make mistakes, luck and weather are fickle, and sometimes small things really do make a difference (you know, for want of a nail…). Many of the characters are well-drawn but other than Vieliessar (the main character), it’s difficult to feel like the reader really gets to know and care about them.

And now I’m 25% into Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield, one of our recent BotM choices that I didn’t read at the time. So far it’s intriguing!

[Shel, Moderator]

I finished Under the Whispering Door last night and will add my thoughts to the spoiler thread shortly. Next up is When the Sparrow Falls and then Brightness Reef.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield, 9/10. My comments are in the discussion thread from when it was Book of the Month. So glad I decided to read it!

Jade War by Fonda Lee, 7.5/10. This was better than I expected. While the clan/mafia/gang aspects are still major elements of the book, there is far more character development. Widening the story beyond the borders of Kekon helped widen its appeal, at least for readers like me who are not necessarily fans of the more typical mafia-type genre.

Out of genre now with an old Phyllis A. Whitney book, Thunder Heights.

[Random]

StartedWill Save the Galaxy for Food this morning. Been wanting to read it for ages and finally just started.

Which also reminds me, is anyone else seeing the new beta page for books? OMG it is so hideous. Took me a while just to figure out how to switch to the correct edition I wanted.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Random wrote: "Which also reminds me, is anyone else seeing the new beta page for books? OMG it is so hideous. Took me a while just to figure out how to switch to the correct edition I wanted.”

Nope, but based on the other changes that have been made over the past several months, I’m not excited.

[Random]

Yeah, its basically a "lets pretend everyone uses nothing but tablets" look.

[Shel, Moderator]

Really? Ugh, that's disappointing but not surprising.

After When the Sparrow Falls (which I liked but didn't love - not because it wasn't well-written, but because political thrillers are not really my thing), I picked up Greenglass House by Kate Milford at my fifth grader's urging. It was wonderful! I have to say, although I've always read YA so I can talk books with my students (8th graders), I ignored middle grade fiction. But having elementary age kids has made me realize that I've been missing out - I've been introduced to SO MANY great middle grade books that I've absolutely loved!

I started Brightness Reef the other day, and I've already got our two June books out from the library for when I finish.

[Nyssa]

I am currently reading Sweep of the Blade, book 4 of the Innkeeper Chronicles Series by Ilona Andrews. I am about a third in and am curious to see where it goes.

I was gifted a copy of The Kaiju Preservation Society, and I am looking forward to our group reading next month.
However, according to my library system, there is a six-week waiting period for Gallant, so I don't think I will be joining in for that one.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Nyssa wrote: "However, according to my library system, there is a six-week waiting period for Gallant, so I don't think I will be joining in for that one."

You can always add your comments later since we keep the discussions open.

[Shel, Moderator]

It's been a rough few days and I need some brain candy, so I'm taking a break from Brightness Reef and re-reading Changeless. I'll probably get back to it later in the weekend.

[Nyssa]

Kathi wrote: "You can always add your comments later since we keep the discussions open"

Thank you :)

Shel wrote: "It's been a rough few days and I need some brain candy, so I'm taking a break from Brightness Reef and re-reading Changeless. I'll probably get back to it later in the weekend."

Feel Better!

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I finished both Thunder Heights and Window on the Square by Phyllis A. Whitney, formulaic gothic mystery/romance but with enough twists to keep things interesting, 6/10 and 6.5/10.

Next was Blade of Empire by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, the middle book of the Dragon Prophecy trilogy, 7.5/10. Unfortunately, the final book in the trilogy has not yet been published, but if/when it is, I will definitely read it.

I know I’ve said in the past that I was done with Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta books, and now, having read Chaos, I am. 7/10, better than some in this series, but not as good as others. A good place for me to stop.

The next mystery series I plan to read is Tony Hillerman’s Navajo Tribal Police series. The first book, which I finished tonight, is The Blessing Way, 6/10.

And now I’m reading The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, starting with The Briar King by Greg Keyes. I’ve read some of his other books (The Elder Scrolls, The Age of Unreason) and thought they were pretty good, so I’ll see how this series is.

[Mary]

Isekai Skies by H.P. Holo