May Reading Stats!

It's been a busy couple weekends, so I haven't had a chance to do many posts of late, but here are my stats for my May reading. It was a light reading month, as I decided to start rewatching Marvel movies, and so that's taken most of my relaxing at home time. I only managed 13 books this month. Not a horrible number, just nothing like last year's numbers, and the lowest so far this year.

Because I had so few books this month, it was harder to determine my top books, especially since several were rereads, which I do not include in my top books for the month, so it took me a while to figure these out. 

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is far and away the best new book I finished in May. I wish I'd started these sooner when I was being told both by my ex and my mom about them. If you love books, this is a world you will adore. It's our world, but not. Literature has taken the place of god. And crime is very interesting. Many crimes are about fake literature. And people go around proselytizing about the person they believe was Shakespeare. In addition, for people like me who are Welsh? Wales is a republic, and people from England are generally not welcome. If any of that sounds good to you, I highly recommend this book, the first of a currently seven-book series, though an eighth is due next year.

The runners up for the month:

The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan, the third book in the Trials of Apollo series. I'm very much enjoying this one, aside from the main character, who needs to get slapped regularly. But then, he's a god, what does he know?

The Lost World by Michael Crichton, the sequel to Jurassic Park, and just as good as the first. If you've read the first, I highly recommend this one, too.

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell, about a world where mechanics and magic exist in companionship, and where the land of elves is beginning to rise up against the old world. Wonderful weaving of our history with steampunk and fairy tale (in this instance, Cinderella).

The oldest book I read this month was a reread: The Cry from Beyond by Wendy and Richard Pini, the 7th book in the Elfquest series, which was published September 1, 1993 as a gathered volume. I've been slowly rereading these, and have discovered several that I don't have, so I will have to get my hands on them, if I can, though it seems at least one of them isn't really available at this time (the price I saw was almost $200), so I may have to read that one online.

The newest book was Jay's Gay Agenda by Jason June, which was published June 1, 2021. Cute book, though it felt like the writer hadn't done a great job of researching the area, because she called the school he attended in Seattle "Capitol Hill High School." Just...rang very false. 

Stats for the month:

Out of the 13 books I read this month, 7 were audio, three were E-Books, and three were physical. I finished three series, and DNFd one book that I just wasn't enjoying. My top three genres this month were Romance, Fantasy, and Sci Fi. Eight books were written by male authors, and eight were written by females. The main characters, eleven were male and seven were female main characters. Seven books had LGBT content, and four had non-white main characters. The audience split were four YA, and nine adult.

Since we're in Pride month, I think I will attempt to read only LGBT books this month. We'll see if I can manage it. I do have some already in progress, so I will finish them if I can, but at most of them are already LGBT, so I think I'll be okay.

My current and future reading:

Currently I am reading:

• City of Beasts (Eagle & Jaguar #1) by Isabel Allende (haven't actually started yet)
• The Tyrant's Tomb (The Trials of Apollo #4) by Rick Riordan (haven't started yet)
• Jungle Heat by Bonnie Dee (10%)
• A Destiny of Dragons (Tales from Verania #2) by TJ Klune (11%)
• Saga (Saga #7) by Brian K Vaughan (no page numbers, but about 2/5th of the way through)

Only City of the Beasts doesn't have LGBT content, I believe. It's the second time I've gotten it from the library, so I really should try to finish it this time. Wish me luck!

After looking over my current list on Libby, I decided to dump them all in favor of Pride month, so I don't have anything there at the moment except for City of Beasts, and we'll see if I listen to that one. 

And my current holds:

• What Once Was Mine (Twisted Tales #12) by Liz Braswell
• Misrule (Malice #2) by Heather Walter

I suspended What Once Was Mine, because it's Disney, and we all know that means it's no good for Pride month. Misrule's three weeks out according to my app, so we'll see if I get that before the month ends.

Beyond that, we'll see what I get up to this month. Should be fun!