Books Read in May

Well, here it is June 29 already, but believe it or not, this is a big improvement in timeliness of my monthly summary for me compared with last month's! Finally starting to catch up on reviews.

Here's what I read in May - some excellent books:

• The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez (DE), fiction
• Some Kind of Courage by Dan Gemeinhart (WA), middle-grade audio
• A Tale for the Time Being  by Ruth Ozeki (Canada, Japan), fiction 

• My Name Is Not Friday by Jon Walter (MS), teen/YA audio
• Marriage on the Street Corners of Tehran by Nadia Shahram (Iran), fiction - reviewed for Publishers Weekly (my review at link)
• Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi (Austria, Iran), graphic memoir

 

• The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos (MA), teen/YA audio

 It was a mostly fiction month, with the exception of one memoir. Interestingly, everything I read was realistic fiction or real-life. I read 3 adult novels, 1 graphic memoir, 2 teen/YA audiobooks (fiction), and 1 middle-grade audio (also fiction). I enjoyed all of these books, and several of them were very powerful & moving. I think my favorite was A Tale for the Time Being because it was the one that affected me the most emotionally, and I loved its thoughtfulness (and almost filled my Quote Journal with quotes from it!).

Progress on 2016 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges! Oops - not a single TBR book in May for my Read Your Own Damn Books Challenge - I need to get moving on that one! For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, May was A Story of Survival month - oddly enough, every single one of these books could be called that! I chose My Name is Not Friday for the official challenge. I read another nonfiction book for my 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge, but STILL no classics for the 2016 Classics Challenge! For my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge, I read books set in Japan, Canada, Austria, and Iran - quite a global month.  I am also tracking the states my books are set in, even though there is no Where Are You Reading challenge this year - I added 3 new states this month!

Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break:

My Bingo Card for May:

I filled 11 spaces on my May Bingo card - here's how the books I read fit in:

The Book of Unknown Americans - Award-winning, Loyal Friend
Some Kind of Courage - A Book Which Was Free, Rural Setting
My Name Is Not Friday - Siblings, Nurse/Doctor, Published This Year
A Tale for the Time Being - Artist/Poet/Writer
Marriage on the Street Corners of Tehran - Lawyer
The Mystery of Hollow Places - Mother
And...the Free Space!

What was your favorite book read in May?