I really found my reading groove again in May. Some of that I probably from making reading into a daily habit, but I’m also pretty sure that a lot of it is also due to the nicer weather. There is nothing I love more than taking my cappuccino onto the deck and losing myself in a book for a few hours. I didn’t actually realize how many books I’d read until I started putting together this post!

Here’s what I read during May.

I was really looking forward to reading the Hunger Games prequel – I love the original trilogy so much. And I definitely enjoyed the prequel, but I think I forgot how hard they are to read. Not like they’re difficult, reading-level wise, but hard to stomach the awful things that happen during the course of the story. The story focuses around Snow, as a young adult, and I did like seeing how the Games became the Games we know of from the trilogy.

I reminded myself to read this after I watched the Normal People miniseries on Hulu. Sally Rooney has such a distinctive way of writing, and I could definitely see parallels between Conversations with Friends and Normal People. I think I enjoyed Normal People a bit more, but I think that Rooney writes complicated characters in a really truthful way.

Another blogger (and a friends from CMU) shared this on her Instagram stories the other day, and it reminded me that I watched this movie on Netflix a long time ago. The story is told entirely through letters, and while it took me a bit to really get hooked on on this way of writing it, I was sold by the end. It’s a cute, sweet story.

This was my favorite of the bunch, by far. I love a story about female friendship, and loved how diverse it was without that being a trite plot point. Sarah Watson is the creator of the TV show “The Bold Type,” which I also love, and also is focused around female friendship, so I wasn’t surprised that this book was so well done. I think it’s technically a “Young Adult” book, but don’t let that stop you – I really loved this book and found it so heartwarming!

I read a lot of dark books this month without realizing it. This is kind of Lolita-esque, if told from Lolita’s point of view, and the story keeps going back and forth between the present time (and the #MeToo movement) and the past. I think it gives you a lot to think about once you’re finished reading, but again, reading it wasn’t always easy.

I finished this book in a day or two – it’s a short novel, or long short story. It doesn’t follow a chronological format – it really jumps around a lot, kind of looking at an event from the points of views of all of the different people involved. It left me wanting more, but in the best possible way.

I’ve had this book on my iPad for a long time now, and this seemed like the perfect time to dive in. It is long – it’s a collection of diary entries from Tina Brown, during her time as Editor of Vanity Fair. I felt like I was living vicariously through her, going to parties and restaurants in New York City from the comfort of my deck! In my “other life,” I have always dreamed about working for a magazine, so I loved the insider’s look at what it could be like! It also made me want to start keeping a diary, but that hasn’t happened yet…

Don’t let the title of the book fool you – it’s actually a biography of George Washington! This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had while reading a biography about a historical figure. It was easy to read, and was interesting to learn about some of the exaggerations, or the things that tend to get glossed over when written by a male author rather than a female. And it was educational without being dry and boring!