Of course, I'm posting this when June is coming to an end. After I finished my foundation more than a month ago, I didn't really feel like blogging. I wrote some things but they are not the things that I think I want to post. I was on Twitter a lot, watched a lot of Youtube videos, finished a k-drama (Her Private Life), a TV show (The Society), rewatched a bunch of movies and read some books. I tracked my reading on Goodreads but I never counted how many books I read until June 1st. I was really shocked when I saw that I read 18 books in May.
1. REREAD: Saints and Misfits - S.K. Ali ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Since this book was a reread, I didn't really have a new opinion on it. This book still amazes me the way it did the first time I read it. Janna was an easily likeable character and I could relate a lot to her. The side characters were all loveable and said a lot of wise things. Quoting some reviews I read on it, the book portrays Islam in a really good way and the author tried to tell stories about Islam without shoving it to the readers' faces. I loved this book and forever will.
2. Eliza and Her Monsters - Francesca Zappia ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
THIS BOOK MADE ME CRY BIG TEARS. I put off reading this for too long and honestly, I read this at the perfect time. I don't even know what to say about this book apart from I love it. The talk about fandoms, Eliza's conflict with her family, her conflict with you-know-who, the reason she wrote, her friends, the way she dealt with her problems; these things affected me on a whole another level I never knew a book could ever do.
3. The Witch Doesn't Burn In This One - Amanda Lovelace ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I don't really know how to have an opinion on poetry books so here's my favourite poem from this book:
if
you can't
root for
yourself
you don't
just
cut down
your tree
in order
to spite
the ground.
no-
you breathe,
step back,
& give yourself
the
necessary
room
to flourish.
4. The Shadow & Bone trilogy + The Tailor - Leigh Bardugo ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (overall rating)
I had been wanting to read this trilogy for so long, ever since Six of Crows came out and was hyped up everywhere. I have a lot of opinions on this so I will make another post of my opinion on the trilogy.
5. The first four books of The Mortal Instruments series - Cassandra Clare ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (overall rating)
I will make another separate post on my experience reading Cassandra Clare books but what I can say about this series particularly is it does get better. The series gets better. Her writing style, the characters, everything gets better and by the end of the series, I loved all of the characters I never thought I would.
6. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I felt like I was watching a documentary when I read this (maybe because it is). By the end of this book, all I wanted was for the band to be real just so I could join the fandom. I'm a huge fan of character-driven books so it's no surprise that the thing that I love the most about this book was the character development of all the characters especially the main characters. I cried a lot reading this book (apparently I cried a lot in May) seeing the characters grew to be the best versions of themselves. I cried reading the love stories, cried again when the main character was struggling and cried when it ended.
7. My Plain Jane - Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I liked this book but not as much as I loved My Lady Jane... I was kind of disappointed because I was really looking forward to reading this book even before it was published. Maybe I had too much expectation for this book or maybe it was because I didn't really like Jane Eyre, to begin with. The authors communicated with the readers lesser than they did in the first book and the communication was one of the things I really loved in the first book. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading Jane Eyre's adventure here and I loved that it was not just another plain love story.
8. The Secret History of Us - Jessi Kirby ⭐⭐⭐
I read this because I was intrigued by the synopsis of the book: A story about a girl who lost her memory because of a car accident and she only had the memory up until four years before the accident. Everything changed and it was hard for her to believe that this new girl was her. It was about rediscovering herself. I always thought about what would happen if I ever lose my memory and that was why I was intrigued by this book in the first place. The story was going really well but it was too fast-paced and ended so abruptly. I enjoyed the book but it would be nice if it was longer.
9. Signature Jalanan by Teme Abdullah ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book reminded me a lot of my high school years. The everyday routine was so similar to my high school daily routine, the characters reminded me of people I had met at high school and when I read this, I couldn't help but imagine that the story sets in my high school. The story Teme wrote this time was a light one and even the messages that were relayed weren't really heavy. Most of the messages that he tried to send were familiar and this book served as a good reminder to me.
10. Save The Date - Morgan Matson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I enjoyed movies like Cheaper by the Dozen and Father of the Bride so much and since this book reminded me a lot of these movies, I really enjoyed this book too. It was a chaotic story and a very good distraction for me from the chaos that was happening in my own life. It's weird that the chaos in this book amused me a lot because chaos shouldn't amuse anyone but strangely, this book did that to me.
11. And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I paused reading this for a few months to focus on my study so by the time I picked it up again, I forgot 30% of what I read. I forgot about how much I enjoyed it but I did remember vividly that I cried reading this book a few months ago. I totally need to reread this again. However, even when I forgot some things that happened in this book, it didn't affect my enjoyment of reading it. Just like Khaled Hosseini's other books, this book was a bittersweet read that gets me to think about the ending at random times.
12. Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book was my first Cassandra Clare's 5-star book. When I started reading this, I didn't believe Cassandra Clare could write a book like this. I loved it so much. This was the book that made me love the Shadow World so much that I can't help but want to read all The Shadowhunter Chronicles books. The love triangle in this book was so perfect, it's the only love triangle I didn't hate. My further opinion on this book will also be included in my experience of reading Cassandra Clare's books post.
Phew, that was a long post. I posted a lot of my book rants on social media so if you want to know my opinions on book unfiltered, you can follow me on Instagram (@nerdbilla) and Twitter (@nvrdbilla). This is the end of my May Reads post, what was your favourite book of May?
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