Hi and welcome to the reading world!
April was a very weird reading month for me, and I didn’t get to share my usual wrap up format for the month. So, today I’ll be sharing a wrap up of my reading and blogging for both April and May! If you’re curious to see the wrap up I did do for April, you can see my Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Reads and April 2021 Wrap Up.
What’s on the Shelves:
My Favorite Reads of April and May:
The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty
This is the finale of the Daevabad trilogy, and honestly was my favorite of the series. I’ve got a spoiler-free review of the Daevabad trilogy if you want more of my thoughts on these books.
Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow by E.K. Johnston
So, unpopular opinion time: Padmé is my favorite character of the Star Wars series and has been ever since I first saw the films. I think her combination of independent thinking, diplomacy and idealism, and being able to hold her own when she needs to is an incredible set of character traits. Needless to say I loved getting to read a book focused on Padmé as an individual, and I’m looking forward to reading Queen’s Peril and later this year, Queen’s Hope (and maybe more in the future?)
What’s on the Blog:
My Reviews of April and May:
The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper, and The Empire of Gold (Mini Reviews)
You and Hidden Bodies (Mini Reviews and TV Show Comparison)
My Favorite Non-Review Posts of April and May:
Recommendations: Underrated Books: I loved getting to check out my Goodreads shelf to see what books are relatively hidden gems and spotlighting them on the blog!
Recommendations: My 5 Star Reads of 2021, Part 1: Getting to share some of the many amazing books I picked up in the first few months of 2021!
Challenge and Read-a-thon Check Ins:
Library Savings Challenge: This is hosted by @bylaurencapellan on Bookstagram and is a challenge to see the cost of the books you saved by going to the library! As I’m trying to read my already owned TBR or utilize my library before buying other books, this is one I’m so excited to be participating in!
April and May Savings: 63.98
Total Savings: 721.27
The Free Black Women’s Library Reading Challenge:
Hosted by The Free Black Women’s Library, this challenge is to read 25 books by Black women or non-binary authors with the featured prompts throughout the year of 2021.
Number of prompts read in April and May: 3
Total number of prompts read: 18 out of 25
Shimmering Worlds Reading Challenge:
This is a challenge hosted by @afantasysky on Bookstagram that features prompts to complete by reading sci fi and fantasy books by BIPOC authors! I love the creativity of the prompts and getting to expand my sci fi and fantasy reading while also reading some incredible BIPOC authors.
Number of prompts read in April and May: 1
Total prompts read: 9 out of 13
Challenge Update: I’m not currently participating in 2 challenges I previously started just due to some non-bookish life demands in the past few months but still wanted to mention them for those interested because they’re exciting challenges and ones I definitely want to make time for later in the year- The Toni Morrison Read-a-Thon, hosted by @ibingebooks on bookstagram. This is a year long reading of Toni Morrison’s novels and discussion among a group. Reading Toni Morrison’s work for the first time and having a virtual community to reflect on it with has been an incredible experience so far. The second challenge I wanted to mention is The Uncorked Reading Challenge, which is a reading challenge hosted by The Uncorked Librarian and has some unique prompts.
So, there’s a catch up post for my reading the past few months! Since there are some posts I’m super excited to share in the next few months, the wrap ups may continue to be every other month. Let me know in the comments if you prefer wrap ups every month or every other month!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Rae