Monthly Wrap-Up: May ’18

~ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

MonthlyWrap-UPI think I’m simply destined to read less books this year compared to last. No matter what I did in May, I just never had enough time to sit down and read. I finished a whopping three books, reread a graphic novel and picked up another. I’m taking this opportunity to officially announce that I am lowering my Goodreads goal from 65 books to 55. I’ve been playing with the idea for a couple of months now and I think it will take tremendous pressure off my shoulders. May was the start of the Summer 2018 Comment Challenge signups. If you missed signing up for June, I have good news for you. Tomorrow we will be posting our July signup post. We had such a good turn out for this first month, I’m really looking forward to this challenge this summer. Shout out to my partner for June: Elnade @ Confessions of a Serial Reader, can’t wait to visit your blog all month long!

(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.) 

Favorite Book This Month:

My favorite read this month was Monstress, Vol. 2: The Blood by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda. This is my favorite graphic novel and I just love how this world is dominated by women. Cover is linked to Goodreads.

Least Favorite Book This Month:

I’m so disappointed with Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez. Can’t decide if I disliked the insta-love or the one-sided friendship between the lead and her cousin more.

Reviews Posted This Month:

Read, Review Coming Soon:

(covers linked to Goodreads)

Notable Blog Posts This Month:

Kernels of Nonsense: Five Books I Want to Check Out From My Library – I am on an unofficial library ban, but am so very much dying to check out these five books.

Summer 2018 Comment Challenge: June Sign-up & June Partners – This seasonal challenge is back. We pair bloggers together each month and challenge them to comment on each other’s blogs all month long.

Can’t-Wait Wednesday: Monday’s Not Coming – This is one of the few books I’ve preordered this year and can’t wait to get to it.

Can’t Wait Wednesday: From Twinkle, with Love – Loved Sandhya Menon’s first novel and am so excited for this one.

Top Ten Tuesday: The Lion Doesn’t Stand a Chance…Against My Friendship – There are so many great upcoming releases and these are ones I’m most looking forward to.

Reading Challenges:

Aside from the Goodreads challenge, I’m only participating in one reading challenge this year.

1. The 2018 Debut Author Challenge is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This month I read one debut novel, Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez.

  • Challenge Goal: 12 books; Current Count: 5 books

June Releases I’m Excited For:

Month in Review

How was your May? Are you participating in any summer challenges? Let me know in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit.

Published by Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense

Tackling one book at a time in an effort to conquer my TBR pile. It isn't going well. Visit my book blog A Kernel of Nonsense for book reviews and more ~

35 thoughts on “Monthly Wrap-Up: May ’18”

  2. I hope you’ll find more time to read this month, Alicia! And it’s honestly much better to adjust your goal, than to feel super stressed out & unable to enjoy what you read when you do find the time.

    And I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but I’ll definitely check out Monstress, since it’s your favorite read this month. 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much! I’ve always found setting the bar high when it comes to my reading habits subtracts from my enjoyment of reading, so making this adjustment already feels like the best decision possible. I haven’t read too many graphic novels, but Monstress is my favorite. Do check it out if you can.

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  3. I have four books that I want to read each month, which I share in my monthly posts on the 1st. Today, I’ll finish my last one for May, which is better timing than I’ve been doing because school was so busy. I expect to stay on track this summer because I’m not teaching. I might read more books by men this summer (I own many!), but I don’t review those. I forget that during the summer most people get MORE busy, not less, do if I post more reviews, I’m just overloading readers anyway. I also want to revisit a lit theory book I read in grad school.

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        1. I don’t know. I feel like the Comment Challenge gets more involvement because it’s the summer, but we only ever tried to do it over the winter and winter is always busy because of holidays and the start of a new year.

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  4. Don’t worry about lowering your Goodreads goal. I don’t really like to think of it as a challenge – it’s more of a fun way to keep track of what you DO read. And you’d rather read good books than stress over the number, right? 🙂

    I hope you have a great summer and read some awesome June books!

    -Lauren
    http://www.shootingstarsmag.net

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  7. I sometimes have to remind myself that reading a book is not a race. You don’t need to read it as fast as you can or read as many as you can. It’s supposed to be fun! So if you need to read less books because of whatever circumstances, it’s fine. You’re still reading. 🙂 I am so super excited for My Plain Jane! I am second on the wait list at my library.

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  12. Sometimes it is good to lower your goal if it causes you too much stress. When we put these goals we never really know how the year is going and sometimes we have to make them more managable. I’m curious what you think of Bruja Born. 🙂

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  13. I think lowering your goal is a good idea, such a thing is only a guideline and there to help us and not hinder. My reading took a backward step too this month and that’s okay. I love books and thats what I want to keep alive. All the best for the commenting challenge – I’ll look into doing the July one as things are quietening down for me – hopefully.

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  14. Ha, yeah, I’m also trying to resign myself to the fact that I can’t read as much as last year. I hope you’ve been busy with fun things, though. 😊

    I really want to read Volume 2 of Monstress, but I can only get it from my physical library back home. 😕

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  16. I think lowering your Goodreads goal is a good idea. It’ll take some of the pressure off since you’re not reading as much as you hoped you would be. I am dying to read Monstress. I’m trying to get more into graphic novels. I finally got To Kill A Kingdom from my library, so I am hoping to have some time to read it this month.

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