May in Review

May has been a pretty full month for me, books-wise, even if I don't have very much to show for it on the blog. I've not written a proper review for a long time, but I do have a couple of posts planned, and the possibility of some min-reviews as well. I read sixteen complete books (even if two or three were very quick reads) as well as beginning two and finally finishing off The Lord of the Rings when I took part in Bex's Rereadathon. It was great to take a week to return to some of my favourite books of recent years, and I'd love to do another one soon. I have so many books on my shelf that I loved when I read them, but have neglected rereads in favour of tackling my unread book pile.

To Re-Read Pile

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver

When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman

The Universe Versus Alex Woods - Gavin Extence

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien

An Astronaut's Guide to Life On Earth - Chris Hadfield

The Martian - Andy Weir

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Post-Re-Readathon TBR Pile

The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths

The Silver Dream - Michael Reaves and Mallory Reaves (Story by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves)

Interworld - Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin

Carol - Patricia Highsmith

The Beginner's Goodbye - Anne Tyler

The Year I Met You - Cecelia Ahern

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage - Haruki Murakami

Lock In - John Scalzi

What Else I read

Farmer Giles of Ham - J. R. R. Tolkien

White is for Witching - Helen Oyeyemi

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories - HitRecord

Through the Woods - Emily Carroll

The Vintage Girl - Hester Browne

Robin Ince's Bad Book Club - Robin Ince

Resistance is Futile - Jenny T. Colgan

Books in progress

The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths (which I discovered I had read out of order. Oh well.)

Tigerman - Nick Harkaway.

This month I went on holiday to York, and where there is a new city to visit, there are new bookshops. While I was up north I also met up with Ellie and Hanna, and we went on an epic bookshopping spree, so I came home with a very heavy suitcase indeed, containing as many new books as I had bought in the previous four months put together!

I also raced through watching all of the main series of the Battlestar Galactica remake in about a month, which was a thrilling if sometimes exasperating experience. I won't say much about it here as I plan to review it fully soon - or as fully as I can without giving away too many spoilers, as it is a very twisty story.

June's to-read pile (provisional)

Tigerman - Nick Harkaway

Weirdo - Cathi Unsworth

Mr Mercedes - Stephen King

The Coincidence Authority - John Ironmonger

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick

A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths

Dying Fall - Elly Griffiths

Lock In - John Scalzi

The Year I Met You - Cecelia Ahern

I particularly want to get Lock In and The Year I Met You read this month, as both of them have been on several months' to-read piles. I keep delaying reading Lock In in particular, despite how much I adored Redshirts, and my friend assuring me of its brilliance. I think in some ways I have to have the right moment, the right setting, to get stuck into something really special. I also want to finish the Ruth Galloway books by Elly Griffiths, which were lent to me by a colleague. I don't think they're particularly well-written (and they are in the present tense which irritates me for some reason) but they are enjoyable page-turners with likeable characters, in a Norfolk with a rather eerie, gothic feel to it. Currently I'm halfway through Tigerman. I wanted to love it, because a Twitter acquaintance with excellent taste recommended it, but I'm struggling with it. The main character is pretty introspective, with not much interaction with others, which makes the book very slow-going. I don't want to give up on it - I'm over halfway through now - but I keep picking up lighter reads instead.