 I told you, this is not necessary. So good, I'm so into this, I wanna keep reading this. The years start coming and they don't stop coming. I don't think I've ever met anybody that agrees with me that I'm from the past. I don't know. May wrap up. Holy wakamoli, it's already June. I don't understand where this year's going. But I say that every year, so I guess that's true what they say. The years start coming and they don't stop coming. Any hoesies, I have many books that I read. One, two, 11 books, one of which was the DNF. I'll talk about it anyway. So 10 towards my reading goal for the year and 11 to talk about. All right, let's do it. I started the month out getting out of the way my Book of the Month Club books. So the only survivors was the thriller that I chose for my Book of the Month. I was not terribly excited about my Book of the Month. I only got a Book of the Month because I wanted to get an add-on, which was The House is on Fire. And I finished this book. Oh, wait, I have two DNFs, just kidding. Okay, so yeah, nine books, anyway. The only survivors was like, page tourney. I got through it pretty quickly because it's a thriller and I was like, oh, I wanna know what's gonna happen. I wanna know what the answer is, but I don't think it was even that atmospheric or that creepy or that thrilling. And the answer was pretty dumb. And I felt like the different timelines because it kind of, it takes place in the present day with this group of friends in this house. And then you like have through flashbacks find out like what their relationship is to each other and what the thriller situation is. Initially, I found the time jumps to be quite disorienting and I don't think they were handled very well. And then yeah, the story just wasn't that good. And then like the reveal answer, blah, blah, blah, didn't make a whole lot of sense. And then these weren't very likable characters, but not in an interesting way. They just weren't very likable. So I would not recommend this, but then I actually DNFed The House is on Fire. So I actually liked only, what is it called? I keep forgetting, only survivors better. So this is historical fiction about a fire, a real fire that took place in a theater. And like the people that were there in my aftermath of that, whatever. And I DNFed this pretty quickly because the fire is like the opening of the book. And then the perspectives on it are so like anachronistically preachy, which is what I hate so much in so many books. Why do you keep doing this? I don't understand why this is necessary. All the perspectives were like, let me tell you about the injustice of society in this era from the perspective of somebody in that era, as if I was like had the benefit of hindsight to be like, this wasn't right. Like the way they treated women and people of color and poor people like wasn't right. And it's like, wow, I had no idea. It wasn't interesting. The characters, again, it was kind of like only survivors where like the characters weren't very likable. They weren't very interesting. And the, it was really anachronistic and preachy. And this was like a historical event. And like the historical event itself, the fire already takes place. And so then the rest of the story is kind of the aftermath and like how these people kind of deal with it and who the blame falls on, et cetera. And I was like, if I want to know what happened, I'll just Google like the actual history because the way that this author is telling this is like really driving me nuts. And I was like, there's just no point to continuing this book. It's going to keep up like this and it's only going to get worse. So I was like, nah, I don't need to read this. I don't need this in my life. I'm not going to do a review for it. So I was like, nah, I'm done. I don't need this. So I de-enoughed it. The next book that I read and did finish was actually a book club book. I mentioned in my TBR video that I've joined a book club in my local area and the book that we read in, in May, in April, April slash May end of April into middle of May was Ascension by Nicholas Binge. And this is very much like Blake Crouch sci-fi. I've only read Dark Matter when I did not like Dark Matter. I feel like most people say Dark Matter is the best one. So it's possible that I could like as others better and just be like completely the opposite of opinion of everyone, but I really doubt it. So this is like, it's compulsively readable. It's very page-turning. The beginning of the book has an amazing hook. Like when I first started reading this, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so good. I'm so into this. I want to keep reading this. When you begin to like kind of like unpack what's happening, what it's going to be about and the science of what is supposedly happening. It's like, there's so many red flags early on in the book. And I was like, um, okay. And then so, I mean, I realized that I shouldn't expect too much from the science pretty quickly. But then the story itself, there's so many like narrative decisions, like how he structured it. And I was like, this still wouldn't be a good book, but there are things he could have done in how he structured it and like little tweaks he could have done that would have made it slightly more compelling and I don't know, make it feel a little bit like it had more of a point to it. It's kind of hard to talk about. It's like, yeah. I feel like if you are interested in this book, if you've heard of it, as I feel like it got a little bit of buzz, it's very page-turning. Like it'll hook you and you're gonna want to read it. So if you just want to pick up a book that's not necessarily good, you know, an airplane book that's gonna keep your attention even if it's not good, then I can recommend this because I think it's written in that way of like, you know, every chapter ends in a cliffhanger and it's like this like weird science sci-fi thing going on that you're like, what does it mean? You want to keep reading it, but like it's not good and like the answer to everything is not good. It's in fact pretty stupid. I can't in good conscience actually recommend it, but like if you've already got it or you just want to read something that's not good but will keep you reading, maybe to get you out of a reading something I don't know, but yeah, it was not good. Next up, I finally finished Smokin' Mirrors by Neil Gaiman. I did this as a vlog where I filmed a clip for every single short story in this collection as I read it. And that's why it took me so long to get through this because it's not long, the stories aren't long but because like that's how I was doing it then I had to like be able to film a clip. So I would never pick it up unless I was like, because you'd finish a story like pretty quickly. So I was like, if I pick this up right now to read a story, that means like in the next 20 minutes I need to be filming a clip. So there was just like so many times and it's like, it's like really late at night or like my apartment is like, I don't really mind if it's a little bit of a mess in a vlog, but like so atrociously a mess that I'm like absolutely not. So just like, you know, I just wouldn't be in or like couldn't just like binge a bunch of stories while like washing dishes. Cause usually I listen to audiobooks while washing dishes. So if I was listening to the audiobook of this I would have to keep stopping to go film a clip which is really irritating. So anyway, that said, I probably will do that again for the next short story collection for my year of Gaiman which will be Fragile Things I think which I've never read before. So it took me a really long time to finish this vlog because I was vlogging it. If I hadn't been vlogging it, if I'd just been reading it, I would have finished this in the month that I was supposed to, which was March. So anyway, if you're interested that vlog I'll leave a link down below. It took me forever to do, but I'm glad it was a good way to do it. Like when I went back to edit it, I was like, yeah, I really like having a, my brief thoughts about each story individually and helps it stick out in my mind more and helped me like engage with each story more as opposed to like whatever next story, whatever next story like actually I had to like stop and think about it. So I am glad I did it but it took me a million years to do it. Anyways, I'm finally finished, Smoke and Mirrors. Now, next up is my other DNF, which kind of hurts. And that is Essex Dogs by Dan Jones. This stunning special edition that I ordered from Broken Binding, which is truly gorgeous. Aw, Kaz bit the corner of it. You Kaz. Ah, yay, yay, yay. So anyway, yeah. So normally I don't like splurge on a special edition that's not part of a subscription if I don't know the book or I don't know the author. I saw this author had, I thought it was a debut and I was in my instinct on that was right. But like I looked him up and I was like, oh, he's actually written a ton of books. So I was like, okay, well, he's probably pretty established. This is stunning. I'll take a chance on it. And then I realized after I got it and started reading it that this author's backlog of like previously published books are nonfiction, not fiction. This is his fiction debut and I think it shows. It's not well written. It feels like anachronistically modern, which like doesn't bother me if it's like a stylistic choice. So like I compared it a little bit to like Guy Ritchie or like to the way Lavi Tadar writes. But in both cases in Guy Ritchie films and in Lavi Tadar's books, it's like a very conscious stylistic choice. It's like not going for realism whatsoever. This book seemed to be going for realism. It's written by an author of like historical nonfiction. So it seemed to be going for more so realism of the Hundred Years War, but like the vibe of the characters, their banter, their conversations, it wasn't actually very witty or clever or amusing and then it felt weirdly anachronistic. And then the characters themselves aren't very compelling and you know how the Hundred Years War goes. So it's not like I'm like, well, they're not that great of characters, whatever, but I'm interested to see where this goes. I'm not interested to see where this goes because I know where it goes. The only thing that's like a question is like, do these specific characters live or die in the Hundred Years War? And I don't care about these characters. So I don't care if they live or die. So I was just really irritated and unimpressed and kind of like with houses on fire. I was like, this isn't not going to get better. I don't need this in my life. I'm sad that I have this amazing special edition. That's not good because this is so, so, so, so stunning. But yeah, no, not for me, but I'm really mad that Cas bit the corner of it because that decreases its resale value. C'est la vie. Next is the actual year of game book that I was supposed to read in May and that's Coraline. I love Coraline. I also watched the movie and I will be doing a video, kind of talking about both. Coraline in general, also Coraline versus the movie. That is the plan, but I still owe you an American Gods video. That is coming very, very soon. But yeah, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's very short. It's very creepy. I always recommend that Chris Riddell illustrated editions of all game and books, that's which is what this is. The American version is also illustrated, but not by Chris Riddell or Riddle. I actually don't know. I always say it differently. I don't know how he says it. I feel like his style of art is just so suited to game and style of writing. It's just like, it's kind of like Stephen Pacy and Joe Abercrombie together is like the perfect combination. Chris Riddell and Neil Gaiman are like the perfect combination. Yeah. This is like my third or fourth time reading it. It was blurbed by Terry Pratchett and Phillip Fullman. Terry Pratchett was still alive when this was written. Any hoosies, yeah. It's a good one. Maybe read it before letting your kids read it. It is pretty scary. But yeah, far line. Then the Red Rising Read-A-Long. We read Iron Gold. The live chat for this was on Alex's channel. So if you've missed it, I'll leave a link down below. We had a giveaway. If you want to enter that giveaway, you'll have to watch the live show to enter that giveaway. The items are a Sophocles mug and Sophocles pin. And yeah, I really like the new next gen books. I'm really excited to reread Dark Age next month. I had a really good time talking with Alex and Angela about Iron Gold. I think we ultimately feel pretty similarly about Iron Gold, although some specifics, like obviously like we differ. My favorite is Ephraim and everyone else's least favorite is Ephraim. I don't think I've ever met anybody that agrees with me that Ephraim's the best. But yeah, I love the next gen books. I really enjoyed rereading it. And yeah, if you missed our chat, I'll leave a link down below. Next up is the book that my patrons chose both for me to vlog for them, which I did, as well as to be our buddy read. And we have not had our chat for it yet as of the filming of this video. So I kind of know what my patrons think because we talked about it on my Discord, but we haven't had our full conversation yet. Hopefully my vlog convinced anybody who was like iffy on the book that it's actually brilliant and they read it wrong. But anyway, Daughter of Smokin' Bone. I realized I hadn't actually said what the book is yet. The Daughter of Smokin' Bone is my second time reading it. I fully endorse Patrick Rathas' opinion of it. He's a big, big, big fan of it. The blurb on the back is wow, wish I had written this book. His Goodreads review is even more, you know, thorough and complimentary. He read it all on one day. He thinks it's amazing. I'm like, yes it is. I was worried I wouldn't like it as much as the second time because part of the magic of it the first time was like, what? What does this mean? Where is this going? What is happening? I'm going to know what it all means and where it's all going the second time through. Will it have the same magic? I'm happy to report that it did still feel magical although the mariachi music that was playing outside of my apartment while I was reading it was really not the vibe. It made a lot of the beginning of the book, which originally didn't hit that, was like not that great for me the first time, made it a lot better because now I was like keyed into details that I didn't know what that meant before. Where I was like, oh, they're like casually mentioning this thing, but I know what that means now or I know what that leads to. So I found it in some sense better the second time, slightly less, you know, like mystery and grossing. What does it mean? But it was like a different kind of maybe slightly better enjoyment the second time. I just love Laney Taylor's writing so much. It's stunning. It's beautiful. It's poetic. And there's such like a gorgeous tragedy in what she writes. I just ate it up. So I'm looking forward to chatting about with my patrons and convincing the ones that did not love it wholeheartedly that they're wrong and it is actually brilliant. I'm looking forward to reading Days of Blood and Starlight next month. Next up, the Witcher read-along. We read Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski. The live podcast to chat, I'll chat with you podcast was earlier this week. So if you missed it, I'll leave a link down below. It was a good time. And yeah, I'm enjoying rereading the Witcher books. There was something that I hadn't really thought about before that I realized while reading Time of Contempt that now will inform how I read all of the rest of the books. So it was like fun discussing that with Bethany and kind of being like, no. But yeah, I really like the Witcher books. Again, I was a little bit worried that like rereading them, I might dislike them or like not like them as much, but I think they're quite brilliant and they have a lot of meat to them and it's like fun to unpack and discuss. So having a good time. Again, if you missed the chat, I'll leave a link down below. Next up, we finished the Earth. No, we finished the Book of the New Sun read-along. We haven't had our chat yet for it, the final book, Earth of the New Sun. Well, the final one we're reading. There are like, I think they are novellas or short stories that are also in this world. The Book of the Long Sun or something. I think there's like two more stories at two places in this world. They are not part of our read-along world, though I am just reading them. So Earth of the New Sun is kind of regarded as like a coda. So the Book of the New Sun is the shadow of the torch for the claw of the conciliator, the sword of the lictor and the citadel of the autark. That's like the Book of the New Sun. And then after that, you also get Earth of the New Sun, which is kind of like a, okay, I'll explain some of what I meant by what happened there and also bring in new questions. So I was a little bit anxious picking this up because I knew it wasn't sort of like originally part of the plan, but that's not wholly true. Like a lot of this is like what he had in mind when writing Book of the New Sun as like what this does mean. And I think I haven't totally decided yet if I think it was like wise to have this or not, but I did enjoy it. And I'm really looking forward to our chat about it that will be as of the filming of this video this coming weekend. I think we will have already had our chat by the time this video goes up. I kind of didn't know what to expect going into this one because of the kind of like polarizing reputation that it has, but I'm glad I read it. And I, yeah, I'm going to do a should you read Book of the New Sun video kind of like end up discussing my experience with it, what your experience might be with it, et cetera. So that's coming, but I haven't yet decided what my position on Earth is. Is like, you should definitely read it when you finish it or you should definitely not read it when you finish it. Like I don't know yet how exactly I feel about it. I need to kind of like, I only just finished this. So like, I kind of need to marinate a little bit, but I did enjoy it personally. So I guess I'm leaning towards you should read it. But anyway, I'm looking forward to chatting about it. These books are just so dense and meaty. There's so much to unpack with them. That's why all of our chats for each individual book has been like three plus hours. But yeah, I'm so glad we did this and I'm going to feel a little bit unmoored without a Gene Wolf book each month. But Gene Wolf wrote other things. So it might be time to tackle those. And last but never least is the blade itself because Mara is finally reading the first law and we read the blade itself. I think she might have already started before they were hanged, I'm not sure. But officially slated for May was before they were hanged, blade itself. And it's so good. I love it more every time I read it. It's just so cozy to me to come back to the world of the first law in this first book where everybody's introduced and everything's all set up and like it's probably the weakest one narratively but I love it so much. It's just so iconic. There's so many iconic moments in it and I never get sick of it. This is what my sixth time through, fifth or sixth, I never get sick of it. It's so good. I'm looking forward to reading it a seventh time in the probably pretty near future. And those are all the books that I read in May. Let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about those books. Did you read them? Did you not read them? Do you want to read them? Do you never want to read them? What everyone let me know. I post videos on Saturdays, other end of the month on Saturdays so like and subscribe to my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.