MAY HIGHLIGHTS & JUNE PLANNING

 MAY HIGHLIGHTS

I had a very important task this month. And it was finishing one of my absolutely favorite series.

Last year I came up with a book named Courting Darkness by an author named Robin Lafevers which I didn't know and I LOVED IT. It really set me in a very good reading rhythm  after I finished it. 

I loved it so much that I needed to know when the next book was going to come out. I discovered that it had a sequel named Igniting Darkness coming out a few months later…AND A WHOLE TRILOGY AS A PREQUEL. Courting Darkness was only a book in a spin off duology for the main story. Basically I read the spin off before reading the main trilogy.

So I read those three books and i loved them as much as I loved the spin off.

I'm telling this because it kind of explains why I felt the need this year to make a re read of the trilogy and Courting Darkness. Like doing it right this time, in the right order. I felt the need of having that experience.

So this year I re read the His Fair Assassin trilogy and May begun with the re read of Courting Darkness.

I'm glad I did it because I missed so very many details during the first time. Characters that were named that meant nothing to me last year but I almost cried this time only when they were mentioned. Events that I had no idea about. 

I think Courting Darkness is a little more adultstyle in terms of writing, or how it shows certain topics than the other books. And it has some major improvement for me which is a new character, Genevieve that I love.

So maybe that's why I like the duology a Little bit more.

And then I needed to just keep reading. So I continued with Igniting Darkness, the last book. I had it on my shelves for months and I didn't pick it up in this whole time. I always do that with last books. It's as if I have a hard time in letting the story go and reading the last book means exactly that, that it's over. But I enjoyed this book so much. Definitely I will re read this whole series again.

In the middle of the month I don't know why but I wanted to read poetry. This is a genre I literally have no experience other than what I studied in high school (n/a: to be fair, my school had an excellent level in literature studies but still). In fact, I decided to read one book I already had instead of spending money and I picked Valer La Pena by Juan Gelman. I read this as a high school assignment and even if I remembered what I was reading I don't think I enjoyed that time as I should. There's something about reading as an obligation that kind of blocks me. Specially when I was younger. Maybe it's different now. It was a good book, I don't think I understood 100% everything since it's a very complex poetry for an amateur poetry reader as me, but I still found myself highlighting things because they were so beautifully written. 

I also read Barrio Relampago by Tuti Curani, another poetry book. This was so much more relatable since it's contemporary poetry. The kind of poetry we can read a lot on Instagram these days. And I liked it. 

And for a Bookclub I participate on every month, I read two short stories by Alice Munro. “Grava” and “El autobús de Bardon”. I really wanted to start reading more short stories but there's so many of them and so many authors that I kept postponing it every time only because I didn't know where to start. So when the reading proposal of the Bookclub was reading this I was so excited. It's an author I'll definitely read again, maybe I will get a book this time and read more short stories by her.

JUNE PLANNING

As always, planning my reads is so difficult for me because as I say time and time again, I'M SUCH A MOOD READER. Maybe I'll start writing a whole list of all the books I want to read next in the month and I can bet my life on this, if I should read that list it will be nothing like what actually happens. 

It kind of is a nonsense task but I still enjoy making plans. Even if I don't give names away, or don't compromise, I still like to write down what I want to do. Or what are my possibilities. Even if I don't strictly follow this plans in the end.

Maybe this is one of the first times that I don't have unfinished series WITH THE NEXT BOOK ON MY SHELVES. Basically all the series I read, I read them in english. I only read in spanish those series that I'm 100% sure that I will have the whole series written in this language and will not be abandoned in the middle by editors. But in general, I also like reading them in the original language. This only applies to series, I don't know why. Some reading obsession.

Don't get me wrong, I have a LOT of series I need to finish, but due to the books not being sold here and due to it's getting very expensive and slow having to order them in Bookdepository I stopped doing that. Maybe I could buy one every now and then but...we'll see.

So no plans like those I usually have, "I have to finish this series". 

- I have two books by Erin Morgenstein, The Night Circus and The Starless Sea. These are standalones and she's an author i really really wanted to read. I've started The Night Circus last night and they were some very promising first pages, so I have the feeling I will go for it next.

- I also want to read the Bookclub book of the month. It's a nouvelle or short novel. 

- And I have a few books I bought in spanish too.

We'll see,