May 2024 - Monthly Reading, Writing, and Randomness Monthly

April showers bring May flowers and Colorado’s April sure as hell brought the rain (and a couple last snowfalls). But the flowers and the crabapple trees are blooming and the grass is green again, so I’ll let it slide. Besides, what’s better weather for reading than cold, gloomy, blanket weather?

Reading

After a couple of ARCs, I took a break to work through some Libby holds I kept putting off. And getting mobile again after a surgery gave me move driving time to get back to audiobooks.

Star rating on a scale of 0 - 5. Titles in BOLD link to full reviews. ✨ indicates a 5 star read

• The Last Love Song by Kalie Holford | Rating: ⭐4.25 (ARC)

• Grayson Vol. 3: Nemesis | (not rated)

• Grayson Vol. 4: A Ghost in the Tomb | (not rated)

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett | Rating: ⭐4.75

• Because of Her by Devon May | Rating: ⭐3.25 (ARC)

• ✨ Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman | Rating: ⭐5

• Neon Gods by Katee Robert | Rating: ⭐4.5

• Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno | Rating: ⭐4.75

• Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons | Rating: ⭐4.5

• Funny Story by Emily Henry | Rating: ⭐4.75

• Medea by Eilish Quin | Rating: ⭐4.0

Writing

In addition to cracking away on edits on my novel, I’m working on a long-form piece (preview: it’s a review of my hysterectomy), so I’m going to cheat a bit this month and link to a piece I already posted. In honor of Indie Bookstore Day last month, I rounded up a list of my favorite bookstores in the Denver/Boulder/I-25 corridor area of Colorado.

… and Randomness

Lauren Groff has joined the club of authors who own bookstores with the grand opening of The Lynx Books in Gainesville, FL (which just happens to be my hometown). It’s perfectly timed as Third House Books has just closed their physical location. They’ll be back this fall in pop-up form and you can still support the shop by buying from their Bookshop.org storefront.

I am OBSESSED with Challengers, the recently released Luca Guadagnino film starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. It’s an absolutely stunning film and is SO MUCH MORE than “omg Zendaya’s gonna have a threesome with two hot white boys” (which I feel like the advance buzz was totally focused on from the first trailers). The cinematography, particularly of the tennis matches, is beautiful and unique. But what really stands out to me (especially as a writer) is the story structure. It’s meticulously thought out, and every call back is an earned one. Kudos to screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes. If you can, see this one in theatres (Las Culturistas agrees) and maybe at a boozy brunch showing because the best way to see this is with an audience reacting to it live. May it have a long burn in cinemas this summer and all the awards for Josh O’Connor in particular. The soundtrack is also a BANGER.

After an ARC break, I’ll be giving back in on some May and June releases as well as working through all those books I bought while filling out the Indie Bookstore Passport. While I’ll have less time for reading, let’s cross our fingers for a nice long reading list in next month’s edition.

Until then, thanks for subscribing and I’ll see you around the internet!