My big goal for May was to participate in the online Asian Readathon. I read five books and three of them were for this readathon. Here's my list:
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave: This was a suspense/mystery book we read for the in person book club in May. Our girl in this story is fairly newly married to this dude, when he up and disappears. His last message to her was "protect her"... meaning his 16 year old daughter. So now they together, our girl and the daughter, try to remember any tiny little thing that can point to what's going on. They end up going off to learn more and investigate, and find out the truth behind their dad/husband. I enjoyed the reading experience, but didn't totally LOVE the story. It was.. .you know... okay. But not quite as heart pounding as I'd hoped it would be. I gave it three stars on Goodreads.
Shining a Light: Celebrating 40 Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Changed the World by Veeda Bybee: This the book launch I went to a month or two ago at the local library. So I decided it was a perfect lead into to AAPI month and the Asian Readathon. It's a middle grade non fiction about 40 famous AAPI people, each one with a page about their life, and a real cool illustration. It starts with someone back in the 1800s and goes up until present today. So many awesome people! I really loved it and gave it five stars on Goodreads.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh: This is a fun YA fantasy based on the Korean fairy/folk tale "The Bride of the Water God". In this world, they sacrifice a girl to the water god every year, and this year our girl jumps in to save the girl that her brother loves, who is meant to be the sacrifice. And in so doing, she ends up in the realm of the water god and finds out his under a curse that she now needs to break. It's a beautiful magical story that I totally enjoyed. I gave it four stars on Goodreads.
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu: What a crazy hard core science fiction story this one is! We have a girl who lives a crazy hard violent life until she finally ends up at some mysterious research facility where... who knows what's really going on there! And later, a dude who starts playing a VR game called "Three Body" where when he goes in he sees the end of several eras of civilizations because they have a problem, which is three suns whose orbits they can't predict. It really is quite the problem. In the meantime he makes friends with the first girl (now a very old lady of 60!) and learns the truth behind what she was doing in the research place. And it's all a bit mind boggling, but fascinating at the same time. There's more... there're sequels! AHHH!!!! I gave this one four stars on Goodreads.
Still Mine by Elizabeth Vernon Taylor: My friend published this short book about her experience having a still born daughter in 2012. It's simply and beautifully told and as expected, is so very heart wrenching and quite the tear jerker. I loved learning more about Elizabeth and what she's been through, and what so many moms and families have been through.
So all in all, it's been a pretty good reading month, with books that ranged quite all over the place! I had hoped to read more Asian type books, but I guess I'll save those for another day. For the video version of this monthly recap click here!
Plans for June:
- Read fun and easy fluff books! aka beach reads?
- Read Lessons in Chemistry for book club
- Read some books I've been buying lately.
- Hopefully read a book for Pride Month.
- Keep working on Oathbringer (I did get a couple of chapters read in that one in May!)
