March crawled, April sprinted, and May was just kind of there. Early in the month it was my birthday which you might have guessed was a quiet affair. I wanted to read more as I limited myself to what I consumed in other forms of entertainment, but my focus wasn’t always there. I read Summer is just around the corner and I have a ton of ARC that I feel really blessed to have but am also feeling a little stressed about getting through them all while also trying to balance picking up books I want to read. My library is still closed which is starting to feel really inconvenient, especially when I want to read so much and I now have gift cards burning in my pocket. I have a couple of book club reads this month that I am very excited for and am hoping to schedule a little hiatus sometime soon. It is way overdue, but it’s hard to justify a break when you have certain posts coming up, so we will see.
Special note: If you are able, please consider donating to bail funds. Here is a link to a Twitter thread listing many around the country that you can contribute to. I want to make it abundantly clear that if you are not supporting the protests happening right now in this country, if you are pearl-clutching over “riots” and aren’t angry over what’s happening in this country to Black Americans, or your support is contingent on only “acceptable” forms of protest, we are not friends. I do not want to be your friend. Do not come to my blog and talk to me like we are friends.
(Book covers below are linked to my reviews, unless otherwise specified.)
Favorite Book This Month:
I have been reading some incredible, chunky novels lately. Currently kicking myself for putting off Fonda Lee’s Jade City for so long. I am loving all the adult fantasy books I’ve been picking up this year and this one blew me away. I love the sibling dynamics and the fantasy elements. Will definitely be diving into the sequel soon. Review for this one coming soonish. Cover linked to Goodreads.
Least Favorite Book This Month:
No read received less than three stars.
Reviews Posted This Month:
Notable Blog Posts This Month + Looking Ahead:
Talk Chisme to Me: May Releases By Latinx Authors – Check out what books came out this month by Latinx authors!
Can’t-Wait Wednesday: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown– I am so so so so excited for this release and can’t wait to read it.
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want For My Birthday – We all can dream about getting all the books on our wishlists for our birthdays right?
Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons Why I Love Rereading Books – Yes, I love rereading books. Do you?
Book Club News:
Latinx Book Club’s June Pick – The Latinx Book Club will be reading Gabby Rivera’s Juliet Takes a Breath for Pride Month. We hope you can join us! Find us online: Twitter/Goodreads.
Accidentally In Love Book Club – Paola @ Guerrerawr on Twitter is starting a new book club this summer dedicated to reading romance books by authors of color. June’s pick will be Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai. Be sure to check out the book club’s Twitter account here and Paola’s YouTube channel here where she will be having live show at the end of the month.
What I Watched/Am Watching:
Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Goblin) – I limited my K-Drama watching to one series in May because I watched way too many in April. I liked this one but had a few hangups like the age gap between the leads. I liked the fantasy elements and really enjoyed the dynamics between the Goblin and Grim Reaper. If this had been a romance between these two, it would have been such a powerful hate to love to enemies to lovers story.
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Can you believe I have never watched this show? I am still on the first season, but am really enjoying this found family adventure.
What We Do in the Shadows: Season 2 – I love this show so much. Every episode has me in stitches. I am a couple of episodes behind season 2 but I am loving Guillermo’s arc. He is my absolute favorite.
June Releases I’m Excited For:
What have you been watching lately? Which June release are you most looking forward to? Let me hear from you in the comments and feel free to leave me a link to your own wrap-up post and I’ll be sure to visit!
A Kernel of Nonsense 
Thanks for including the list of links for bail funds. ❤
I adore What We Do in the Shadows (both movie and TV show); Guillermo is also one of my favorites!
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Glad you are a fan too!
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Yesss to those June releases. I feel like the summer 2020 line up is gonna be epic.
I also hadn’t watched Avatar: The Last Airbender when it first aired, only bits and pieces. And then I heard the film was terrible… I can’t wait to get started with the show.
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I think it’s universally accepted that the movie was pretty terrible.
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I am feeling stressed about ARCs as well, I have 2 that are due ASAP(I was just approved) and my library just opened up for curbside pickup so my reserve in March was available. My library closed down right after I reserved my book so I couldn’t get it until now. So suddenly I have 3 books that needs to be read immediately and none of them are short, ah! Good luck with all your reading!
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Lovely post as always and I feel you on the hiatus. It’s hard to talk about books right now with everything going on. I hope you have a great month in June 💛
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Thank you, Destiny. Wishing you the best for this month as well ❤
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I’m hoping my library opens up soon, or at least starts giving out more holds. It’s getting harder finding ebooks and audiobooks that don’t have a huge wait list.
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Yeah, it would be nice to check out some books right now.
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Happy Belated Birthday! I really need to give Jade City a try soon—I’ve yet to see a bad review of it. Ahh I hope you enjoy Avatar! It’s one of my favourite shows, it’s so good. 😁
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Thanks so much! Jade City was pretty incredible. I hope you enjoy it when you pick it up.
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Jade City has been on my kindle for so??? Long??? I’m just so anxious to get to it, the hype is SO HIGH.
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It is! And I was so wary because of the hype and really intimidated, but I flew through it and am so in love with all the characters.
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Avatar only gets better! I hope you continue to love it.
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Thanks so much!
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Thanks for sharing the bail links. It’s nice to have one spot to go. I saw another blog with links to the online petitions today and I found that to be helpful as well. There’s so much to learn at this time.
I hope you love I’ll Be the One. I loved that one.
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Yes, always room to learn and grow. I can’t wait to read that one!
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Thanks for the links! I went to a protest yesterday, but I know that this one small token is not enough.
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Glad you were able to attend.
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Hugs.
I’m so glad that you loved Jade City. You will love Jade War even more.
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I am really looking forward to it!
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Happy Belated Birthday!! I hope you have a fantastic June and can read some amazing books. Thanks for sharing the bail fund links. I’m trying to donate and help where I can. I gave some to the NAACP last night, but I want to spread the help.
-lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.net
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I linked to another site on my latest Talk Chisme to Me post where you can split your donation between organizations.
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My library opened up for curbside pickup June 1st. It’s not the same as getting lost in the stacks but hey, I’ll take it. I already picked up some holds today. I love chunky books but it does seem like they can slow reading productivity down. Thanks for the link for support. The world is quite a mess right now isn’t it?
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You’re so lucky! I would settle for curbside pick up. I usually only go into the library to pick up holds. Yes, the world is a mess and always has been a mess, most people are just realizing it.
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Mexican Gothic and On These Magic Shores are also on my June radar. I haven’t read anything by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Mexican Gothic sounds like the best book of hers for me to start with. I hope your library is able to open for some kind of pick up soon. I can definitely relate to frustration over the library being closed.
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I hope you end up loving Mexican Gothic and it’s only the beginning of a love affair with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, haha.
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Happy belated birthday! ❤
Thanks for sharing the links! This is so important.
Jade City sounds so good. Happy to see that you loved it.
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Thank you so much! Jade City was so awesome. I should not have waited so long to read it.
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We are also watching Avatar here so you are not alone. Our library is also closed, but is not accepting returns and then quarantining them for 72+ hours. I was happy to return all 34 books I checked out on the last days of the library being opened (most were picture books to study as mentor text). Right now, June 27 is the scheduled date of limited library in building use–patrons have 30 minutes to get in, find media, and check out. Usually I’m there for much longer.
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