May 2021

I had a pretty good May! It certainly helped that spring (and hints of summer) were in full force, as I'm always more perky and positive when the weather is nice. The month kicked off with a belated birthday picnic for my sister Mel in Central Park on a lovely spring day, followed the week after by my monthly hangout with Rachel & Kristin, getting my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, a baby shower for one of my friends, and my first beach day of the year. Other things of note this month include lots and lots of quality time with my friends who are basically family (including my very cute nephew!) and finding myself falling very, very deeply into a stationery and journaling hole.

I managed to read 25 (!!!) books in May! It's so wild to me that I was able to get so much reading done, but I'm really happy about my current reading momentum and I'm hoping to ride that wave through the rest of the year. Of the books I picked up, my favorites were From Little Tokyo, With Love (a YA contemporary that felt like a modern day fairytale starring a girl searching for somewhere to belong), Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You (nonfiction about the history of racist ideas in America, adapted by Jason Reynolds for young adults from Ibram X. Kendi's definitive work), Life's Too Short (an adult contemporary romance featuring a YouTube star, a baby and a lawyer who end up forming a found family of their own), The Heart Principle (an adult contemporary romance about a girl fighting burnout and difficult family circumstances and relationships... and falling for someone along the way), and When Life Gives You Mangos (a middle grade contemporary about a girl with no memories left from the previous summer and how her life changes when a new girl comes to town).

Here are the blog posts that went up last month:

• Abbreviations #130: A Court of Silver Flames, Chain of Iron + Legendborn
• Abbreviations #131: I Wanna Be Where You Are, When You Were Everything + Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything
• Abbreviations #132: The Song of Achilles, Black Sun + How to Stop Time
• Friends with ARCs: People We Meet on Vacation
• Abbreviations #133: If I Had Your Face, A Room with a View + The Enchanted April
• Abbreviations #134: Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet, That Way Madness Lies + Bring Me Their Hearts
• Abbreviations #135: What's Not to Love, Dial A for Aunties + Luck of the Titanic

Here are the videos that were uploaded to the channel last month:

• May Possibility Pile
• What We Read S04E22
• What We Read S04E23
• April 2021 Book Haul
• What We Read S04E24
• What We Read S04E25
• What We Read S04E26
• What We Read S04E27

Here are the episodes of FandomBuzzz that went up last month:

• S02E05: The Grishaverse - Shadow and Bone
• S02E06: Bookish Breakdowns #4: Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities #8)
• S02E07: Bookish Breakdowns #5: Rule of Wolves (Part 1)
• S02E08: Bookish Breakdowns #6: Rule of Wolves (Part 2)