Sunday Post #202 – May ’20 in Review

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things you have received. Share news about what is coming up on your blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

Amanda’s Monthly Update

It feels so good to be back to blogging and reading regularly. I still don’t get to do it as much as I should like, but I commit as much time as I can between all the stuff I’m doing. I’ve loved getting my first ARC and posting its review online. I’ve loved my coblogging posts and the fun memes this month. But to be honest, my heart isn’t in my books right now. It’s on city streets – it’s with a hurting community, shaking its fist at systemic racism, wanting to honor the experiences of my fellow man and not really knowing how.

I find, tonight, that as I want to recap my readings and writings for our blog, that my little bit of nothing feels like truly nothing. People are brokenhearted, angry, bereft, sick, dying, wrongly apathetic – our world is turned upside down right now. It makes me question what importance there is to reading fiction or talking about it at all. But…fiction is like a mirror.

[F]iction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.

― Khaled Hosseini 

We read so that we might be taken away from this place. We read so that we might find a place to exist in for a while that doesn’t hurt so much. We read so that we might be changed for the better.

Let us be changed by these wonderful worlds we’ve visited, by good overcoming evil, by shaking the earth and rattling the stars. And let us remember that with LOVE all things are possible and all the bad things can be undone.

There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted or lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration. When he reads a novel, he wants either his sense tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or a mock innocence.

― Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Lillian’s Monthly Update

Happy Sunday y’all! I can’t believe another month is gone. It feels like we’ve been in 2020 forever. Like Amanda, my heart hasn’t really been in reading this week. Y’all might remember me talking two years ago about my husband having a seizure, or well it was convulsive syncope which y’all looks just like a seizure (this coming from an RN). On Tuesday this week, he had another sitting in the chair, mid conversation with me. Y’all I’m pretty sure I aged about ten years in the minute he was convulsing. It’s something I had hoped and prayed to never see again. He’s fine….didn’t have to stay the night in the hospital, but did buy an ER visit with me sitting in the parking lot ALL. DAY. Neuro follow up was normal, they said the same thing they did two years ago. It’s a heart, not a brain issue. So we will be following up with cardiology soon.

In the midst of all this I was detached from social media and news. I didn’t hear about what happened to George Floyd until the riots started. I haven’t seen the video, I don’t need to, and I really wish the media would stop circulating it and the pictures for his family’s sake. My heart breaks everytime I see them circulated on social media, and I say a prayer that his family doesn’t see them. What happened is horrific and should never happen to anyone. Amanda is more eloquent than I am so I will leave it there. 

Reading wise, it was a decent month. I read 10 books (I’m hoping to squeeze in one more today) and listened to one audiobook. It helps having friends to read with 😉 

Favorite May ’20 Read 📖

Reviews in May ’20

• Fae's Defiance by M. Lynn, Melissa A. Craven ★★★★★
• Smoke Gate by Kay L. Moody ★★★★
• One of the Girls by Robin Daniels ★★★★★
• Fae Captive by Sarah K.L. Wilson ★★★★★
• Fae's Destruction by M. Lynn, Melissa A. Craven ★★★★★
• Vine Gate by Kay L. Moody ★★★★★
• Influence by David R. Bernstein ★★★
• The Problem with Cupid by Robin Daniels ★★★★★
• Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim ★★★
• Summer on Honeysuckle Ridge by Debbie Mason ★★★★★
• House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas ★★★★★
• Legacy by Jesikah Sundin ★★★★
• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★

Other May ’20 Fun

• Can You Read a Series in a Month – May 2020 Challenge Accepted
• Sunday Post #199 – April ’20 in Review
• TTT #192 – Things Every Bookish Party Needs
• WoW #185 – Where Dreams Descend
• TTT #193 – Recently Abandoned Books
• WoW #186 – Forest of Souls
• Sunday Post #200 – We’re Back
• TTT #194 – Our Top Ten Webtoons
• WoW #187 – Seasons of the Storm
• Sunday Post #201 – Birthday Baby
• Sunday Post #202 – May ’20 in Review

Coming Up This Week

• The Fiery Crown by Jeffe Kennedy – review
• TTT | “Books that Give Off Summer Vibes” hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
• WoW | What new release are you waiting on this week?
• Dragon Rebellion by M. Lynn – review
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – audio review
• Down the TBR Hole #1

This Week’s Book Fix 📚

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Sunshine on Silver Lake by Annie Rains (eARC) | Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (KU) | Ember Gate by Kay L. Moody (eARC)

Your Turn! What was your favorite read in May? Looking forward to anything in June? Share below

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