All the Books I Read in May and What I Thought of Them

This month I read 12 books and started a book blog, clearly. I mean, it isn't clear that I read 12 books, but I clearly started a blog. What else has occurred this month? Irrelevant. This paragraph is too short and not aesthetically pleasing. And my wifi isn't working. Why isn't my wifi working? This is nonsense. 

Anyway, this is a list of every book I read in May and what I thought of each of them.

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I stole this book from Chaney. By stole I mean borrowed. It was very cute! And very wholesome! The drawings were nice. That's all I have to say.

The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My wifi is working again. That's lovely. I ran a troubleshooter and it just,,, fixed it. God, I love modern technology. You know what else I have a very positive opinion of? The song The Very First Night by Taylor Swift, which I am currently attempting to listen to on loop, but spotify doesn't want to loop it. It just moves to the next song. Oh, never mind, it's working now. Crazy! Anyway, the other thing I have a very positive opinion of is The Sand Child. This book was crazy. It was like reading a weird dream. There was some very interesting stuff about gender and identity and it was super well-written. It was short and it got me out of my month-and-a-half-long reading slump, so I have no complaints.

Squire by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is maybe one of the top 5 graphic novels I have ever read. I also stole it from Chaney. Thanks, Chaney. The illustrations were very pretty as was the setting. I enjoyed the character dynamics (especially between Aiza and that old guy) and the plot structure. It's hard to fit a lot of plot into a graphic novel, but the authors did a good job.

I can't emphasize enough how much I liked the drawings.

Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Queen Bees and Wannabes is a parenting book about how girls are mean in high school. This is news to me, because high school girls are pretty okay in my experience. I might be dense or socially inept, but I don't think so. You know, just because Isabel Myers or whoever thinks ENTPs are socially inept, that doesn't mean they are. The MBTI is wrong in at least three important ways. I'm not going to elaborate. I've elaborated enough.

This book reads like a soap opera or reality TV. I love it. I read it several times as a nine-or-ten-year old. Again, it is a parenting book whose advice I don't think is accurate. 

Indelible Ink: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America's Free Press by John Peter Zenger

rating: ⭐

THIS BOOK IS REALLY BAD. IT'S LONG AND BORING. DON'T READ IT. I SWEAR, I CAN'T READ AN INTERESTING BOOK IN WESTERN CIV. WHY CAN'T I LIVE. THIS IS WHY I'M NEVER GOING TO BE HAPPY.

I would have said in my book report about this book, but didn't because it was too mean, that if Richard Kluger were telling a campfire story within earshot of me, I would throw myself into the campfire sooner than I would listen to him. 

The Way Back by Gavriel Savit

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I am now listening to Speak Now on repeat. The song, not the album. I'm trying to think of a pun that would connect Speak Now and The Way Back, but I can't think of anything. 

ooh I was captivated by this book like a firework show! 

I think that works. This book was fun! It also sort of felt dreamlike, but that could also mean my reading comprehension skills are bad. It's not clear. WHY WON'T SPOTIFY PLAY SONGS ON REPEAT. IT JUST GOES TO THE NEXT ONE. There was a lot of stuff from Jewish mysticism. The Angel of Death was a character, which is super cool. The protagonists visited a sentient library that was neat. There was some profound stuff about how a life lived in fear of death is no kind of life at all. And I liked the protagonists' friendship. 

I'm still not sure how to pronounce Yehuda Leib (one of the protagonists). I think the ei must be like it is in matzo brei, but I can never remember how to say matzo brei either. 

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Okay so The Immortalists was super cool because it was about these four siblings who get told when they will die by a fortune teller and then we follow them throughout their lives as their actions and their knowledge of the prophecy make it come true. As a big proponent of Free Will Isn't Real, I liked that a lot. Only I don't think the author wrote the ending very well. I felt like she was building up to some kind of epiphany. I was expecting something big, and it never came. Like how I'm always expecting Amy Coney Barrett to not be a radical conservative, but she never gets better. It's just disappointment after disappointment. 

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Very cute and fun! I liked almost every character and their interactions, but I hate the miscommunication trope!

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

rating: ⭐⭐✨

It's sort of late and I've already reviewed these, so that's why they're short. The more I think about Pet, the more I become a fan of Pet the character. But I still didn't love the book. It was very middle grade, and I was just expecting more.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love East of Eden maybe more than anyone has ever loved anything. The part where Lee gives Abra that button? Impeccable. Top ten literary friendships. An all-around great book about all-around great people. It's deep enough that it feels ~meaningful~ but not so deep I can't understand it.

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bella made me read this book. Irina (the protagonist) is crazy. I loved reading about her. She just wants men to take her seriously, you know? Every major plot point in this book felt like a gut punch, which is appropriate given Irina's personality. 

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

I think with Murakami books (my sample size is two) the last 50 pages really justify the first however many. This one was super slow, but I was still interested. You've heard all this before (if you read my review of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle). 

This concludes every book I read in May and what I thought of them. I don't have a June TBR because I would never stick to it.