to read: May TBR

Last day of the month - which in my life always means logging on to Book of the Month to see if they released the new picks early, and now also means planning my next month's reading as well. I often read more than 5 books a month, but it's been fun to give myself a bit of direction with this lately for the first 5 picks.

I've been aiming at getting at least one backlist (i.e., older) title, which this month will be finally getting around to Prep, and also read at least one book that has been languishing on my physical shelf, which this month will be There Are No Grownups: A Mid-Life Coming-of-Age Story, by the author of Bringing Up Bebe. Also like to try to get in one YA or middle grade, which is going to be The Wild Robot Escapes since I didn't get to it in April as intended (but for good reason - we lent it to some friends in a book swap that was an all-around good thing for our book-devouring children!).

Then in addition for May I've got The Jetsetters lined up, since that's what Dana and I decided to do for our next blogger book club post, on June 7, and I'm also craving rom-com reads lately, so I figured I should finally pick up Well Met after hearing over and over how fun it is. A meet-cute at a Renaissance fair? Count me in.

As for how I did with my April selections, I'd say I did quite well even if I didn't love-love all of my picks. Anna K was the best of my 5 selections for the month - a retelling of Anna Karenina as a YA novel was just plain fun. The Lola Quartet was my backlist one, which was well done but not my favorite genre (literary noir), and The Lager Queen of Minnesota was a nice Midwestern ode, even if I wished it had more of a connected, linear plot. Unfortunately 99 Percent Mine was abandoned 15% in - just didn't like the main character's tone at all, when I thought I was supposed to be getting a fun romance. Oh well, now I know. And I should note that The Wild Robot Escapes would have happened if I'd had access to it, so I'm not counting that against myself - though I do expect this one to be a high rating for me, since I gave the first in the series 5 stars!

What are your reading plans for May? If you need any other recommendations, I have a whole archive!