LIFE'S A PEARL

I got my reading mojo back in May! Thank goodness! I could not focus for most of March and all of April with everything going on in the world. I know a lot of people were in that same boat when it came to their reading lives.

Surprisingly it was a rather dark thriller that got me back. On the last evening in April I sat down to start The Butterfly Girl, Rene Denfeld’s sequel to The Child Finder, an old book club pick that I loved. Next thing I know I’m up half the night until I get to the end. It was another great story with just enough creepy factor to give me goosebumps. The beautiful imagery and magical realism balance it out. As do the badass women!

That gave me the momentum for my best reading month yet. I read 15 books this month! While it is awesome to read so many books (and give my reading goal for the year a good cushion), what I’m truly grateful for is the comfort I felt being able to lose myself in another world again.

The library has been saving me! Ebooks are still available online (I use the Libby app) and I believe they received a grant to extend their online offerings. Another thing that may be saving me soon is Kindle Unlimited. I recently signed up to try it free for two months. So far I’m enjoying it. There’s a wide variety of options for learning more about any nonfiction topic I’ve thought of. There are also several comic books and graphic novels available in the collection.

Five of the books I read in May were comics or graphic novels. These are especially nice to enjoy in an afternoon or to read before bed when my brain is too tired to imagine the scenes on its own. I started reading Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Grace Ellis this year when my library had the first two issue available. They were delightful! I started my month reading Volume 4: Out of Time which I thought was the best one yet. I skipped Volume 3 but just got it on Kindle Unlimited so stayed tuned for next month!

Ms. Marvel by Willow Wilson was the first comic I ever read. This month I enjoyed Vol. 4: Last Days and Vol. 5: Super Famous. That’s all that I have available to me at the moment. Does anyone know how people afford a comic book habit?

I loved Strong Female Protagonist Books One and Two by Brennan Lee Mulligan and illustrated by Molly Ostertag. I think these are considered more to be graphic novels than comics. Wow! The first book was especially powerful for me. There were so many amazing quotes. The messages of both were a lot deeper than I was expecting. I’m excited to check out the two issues that are available online while they work on wrapping up the series.

“Because I know what it’s like to feel alone. I know what it’s like to live in a paper world, to be good at hurting people, to think everybody should just shut up and do what you say. And then I remember that deep down, people are good, everybody’s trying, and nobody deserves respect just for being powerful. So if I’ve got the voice in my head that tells me to crush people, then I think you probably have the voice that says the other thing too. If people keep calling us heroes and villains, they’ll never know how close we came to listening to the other voice all those times.”

“At the end of the day, the problem is education. Without an educated population, it doesn’t matter what other problems you try to tackle. It’s not gonna work. Think of how much less powerful campaign contributions would be if people had the critical thinking skills to see through advertising? Think of how many of our problems are based just on pure ignorance, whether it’s antiscience people or bigots or whatever.”

This month I finished a few books I’d put down in the past due to cases of bad timing. Great story, wrong time. Those are pretty all over the place in terms of genre.

I read another Joanne Fluke mystery, Sugar Cookie Murder, from her Hannah Swenson series. My mom and I both love the Hallmark movie series, Murder She Baked, and I checked out the mysteries behind the movies last year. This book was more like a novella. I didn’t realize the last third of it was all recipes. That made is short and sweet.

Months ago, I tried listening to the first Land of Stories book, The Wishing Spell, by Chris Colfer. This time physically reading it was the way to go. Its a middle grade book and it was fun to disappear into the world of fairy tale retellings he’s created. I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.

I completed Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy with reading The Book of Life. This one has a really high rating but several of the reviews mentioned how many unanswered questions remained at the end. I tend to agree, I’m not sure it’s so much a trilogy. I really enjoyed the reading experience though. The characters had been on my mind for some time while I waited for my hold to come through. A fourth book came out set it that world. I plan to read it soon. So many of my reading choices this month have just led to more books to add to my TBR.

I read Chosen by Kiersten White, the sequel to her Slayer book. They are set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of my all time favorite TV shows. I enjoyed the book, but it was probably one of the stories I had the hardest time getting into. To be fair, I started it at the beginning of April so likely it had to do with my mindset (started in April, but finished in May so that still counts right?).

I also began Marissa Meyer’s Renegades series. I’m currently reading the second book, Archenemies. I heard great things but wasn’t sure this series was for me. I worried I’d had my fill of superheros in the comic books and graphic novels. Her Lunar Chronicles are one of my favorite series though (I’ve been wanting to reread them). Obviously the first book in this series hooked me.

And finally my nonfiction books! I read Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes. It was amazing! The way she collects information and sheds light on how much science we’re only now beginning to explore regarding pregnancy and women’s bodies appealed to me. I love her emphasis on all methods of childbirth being natural and how she encourages women to do whatever works for them, without any judgement or mommy shaming.

“ ‘People look at me weird, or they say something, and I just can’t deal.’ How many pregnant women have hidden out in their homes, fearing judgment from others who can’t handle them making decisions about their own bodies?”

“There is no right or wrong way to be pregnant, to become a mother, to make a family. There is only one way—your way, which will inevitably be filled with tears, mistakes, doubt, but also joy, relief, triumph, and love.”

I read Meaghan O’Connell’s And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready earlier this year and loved it as well. I feel they share a similar tone. As someone who is trying to figure out if motherhood is a path I want to take or not, I appreciate these honest portals of how hard, overwhelming, and beautiful their journeys were.

I listened to Busy Philipps’ memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little. I was so engrossed I finished it in a day. It was both hilarious in her story telling ability and also heartbreaking in the rawness with which she shares her teenage years.

For research purposes into my various projects/experiments, I read Adina Grigore’s Just the Essentials: How Essential Oils Can Heal Your Skin, Improve Your Health, and Detox Your Life to gather more information about essential oils and for some DIY inspiration. I also read Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community by Joy Deangdeelert Cho and Start Your Dream Business by Sarah Wade. Mostly these just gave me a confidence boost and some additional motivation. Sarah Wade lives in the UK and I didn’t realize that the book was from the perspective of mostly British or Australian entrepreneurs which was very interesting.

Bonus Mention: I started reading The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron around the middle of the month. I’ve seen it recommended in so many circles and there was a great daily kindle deal on it so I now own it. Its been an inspiring reading experience so far. I’m doing morning pages every morning and last week I tried taking myself on a photo walk of sorts for my artist date (that one is a little trickier to figure out in the age of Covid-19). I’m not sure this is the right time for the rest of the book though. It inspired me to start up all this again so I want to properly commit myself to taking the journey she outlines.

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Have you read any of these books? What was your reading month like? Let me know in the comments below.