 have fewer obligations in May. Oh, are we downloading now? Yeah. Is that true? I don't know, it feels true because I'm literally doing nothing but watching the trial. May is upon us. Actually, May has like already been upon us and I'm very late with my JBR video. But here we are. We're doing it. Here's the list of things I'm going to read in May. Still remains the list of things that I'm going to read in May because I haven't read anything in May yet because I've been knee-deep in watching the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial. Luckily, I kind of arranged things in my life for May to be like not really on purpose but like I ended up with a slightly chiller May. Thank goodness because I think that even is too much for me in May because I'm literally doing nothing but watching the trial. But anyway, I do have some obligations as I mentioned the beginning of the year. My TBRs this year are in theory only books that I have an obligation to read. And then I may read other things in that month but I'm not like filling other slots in my TBR. It's only things that I have an obligation to read. So I have fewer obligations in May. First up, I'm going to do the book that I don't have a physical copy of so I don't forget it and that is Legends and Latte. It's by oh I don't even know who it's by. I think I got my Kindle copy already. Just look on here. Refresh motherfucker. No new items bullshit. Oh are we downloading now? Yeah. Uh-huh. Anyway it's by Travis Baldry. It's by Travis. I don't know why I assumed it was about a fee it was by a female. That's uh that's my fault for assuming that. I'm showing my ass. Anyway Legends and Latte's by I already forgot by Travis Baldry is the book that my patrons have decided they want me to read and review and block for them. I do not know why they want me to read this book but they do and so I must. Luckily I think it's pretty short. But I don't know we'll see how this goes. Next up is a book that is the first in a series that I and my patrons are going to be reading through month by month for the next four well next four months including May. That is The Grace of Kings and the Dandelion dynasty. Dandelion dynasty. I've heard really really really good things about Grace of Kings. Well that is to say I have heard some mixed things but from people who I often agree with or we often have similar tastes or at least in terms of what they got out of this book sounds like it's similar to the type of reading experience that I enjoy. I've heard very encouraging things which is why I took the bold step of putting the entire series as an option before anybody read on my discord um because it is committing to four months of reading. If it is I guess if it's truly truly terrible we all hate it. I guess we can like veto that. But right now the plan is to read this in May and then book two in June, book three in July. That comes after June book four in August. So I am excited these are Changi books. This is perhaps my biggest commitment this month. Is that true? I don't know it feels true. Um so yeah I am excited but it's just a little bit nervous but I am mostly excited to read this. Next up is a book that I had never heard of before um never what can I say yeah never heard of pretty much incompetent as everything that gets to do with the book. But anyway I'll be buddy reading this um with Elle from Elliot Brooks and Jesse from Jesse May and that is 12 Kings in Cherokee. So I got myself this very floppy paperback and I'll be reading it with the ladies. And I'm dismayed by how small that print is. It's a really long book. It's like almost 600 pages and the print is pretty small. So I'm just kidding this is my biggest commitment this month. I'm excited to buddy read it with them. Even though I've never heard of it until they wanted to buddy read it so hopefully it's good. Next up is a book that I am incredibly excited about. It's one of my most anticipated releases for the year and I was lucky enough to get an e-arc and a physical arc. And I'll be buddy reading this with Alan from the Library of Alan's Andrew because ever since I made him read Blackwing he has also become a fan of Ed McDonald's. And that book is The Daughter of Red Winter by Ed McDonald's. I am so so excited to have this arc. Yeah I'm just I'm very very excited and I'm excited to read it with Alan because Alan and I there's one thing we agree on um it is that Ed McDonald's books are great and that we like that we're excited to read this. So um yeah I'm just extremely excited for this. This is not my biggest commitment this month this is the thing I'm probably the most excited for in May. Oh and if you do not have an arc copy the book the publication date for the book is in June of 2022 so not too much longer to wait and I've pre-ordered every edition that there is basically. Next up is um a mini read-along conclusion to that mini read-along I mentioned and have talked about how I reread Angela's ashes with some folks in my discord, reread Tays with some folks in my discord, and then I've never actually read Teacher Man which is the sort of like end of this trilogy if you will but these are just memoirs from Frank McCourt's life so this is um a later part of his life. Angela's ashes one of my favorite books of all time is about his childhood. Tiz um like less favorite still excellent is about when he's a young man in America and then Teacher Man from the title as you could guess is about uh the years that he was a teacher. This is I think shorter than the other two um but I've never read this. I've read Angela's ashes in Tiz twice now but I've never read Teacher Man so I'm really excited to read this and um yeah and if you've never read anything by Frank McCourt you're missing out. I'm really missing out. The next two I'll do together uh because as you should know by now my rule for myself is that my book of the month club books will be read in subsequent month to keep me from falling behind. April's books of the month um that I am requiring myself to read in May are Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmu, Garmist, I don't know and Kaikei uh by Vaishnavi Patel, Vaishnavi Patel hopefully. Anyway yeah these are both extremely different and I don't remember which one I've picked as my book of the month. I think I picked this as my book of the month. This is my add-on not that it makes any difference. So this is like mythological retelling fantasy which honestly it's kind of like how I say that I like Dark Academia but in actual fact I only like the Secret History. I think that I like mythological retellings but in actual fact I really only like Madeleine Miller's books because every time I picked up a mythology retelling I've hated it if Madeleine Miller didn't write it. So hopefully this breaks that cycle and I can go back to saying that I like mythology retellings so this is this is quite long which I was I don't know I feel like mythology retellings have tended to be pretty short because like the myths are pretty short so there's only so much you can do to flush that out but this is pretty long um which surprised me when I got it because you like I guess you could probably look up how long it is before you order it but I didn't. Anyway that's that one and then Lessons in Chemistry is um contemporary-ish or full-on contemporary? No that's what I thought. It's in the 60s um but it's kind of like I believe it's like just sort of a feminist litfiki like dramedy type story um and I think that the main female character is a chemist or a chemistry teacher or maybe I'm wrong about that. Okay so like she's a she gets a cooking show and she's teaching women how to cook which is that is chemistry. I don't really know. It looked interesting. It looked like something I could have a good time with and if not oh well. Next up is the next installment of the sort of truth read along which myself and Bethany have been hosting all year and will continue to host us of the year so we're back to Bethany's channel for this month and we'll be reading Soul of the Fire the fifth book in the sort of truth series which is um unfortunately I feel like is one of the more forgettable installments like I remember thinking it was fine but I don't really remember much about it whereas like the one we read last month I distinctly remembered because it was bonkers and then like Stone of Tears and Faith of the Fall and I distinctly remember because I really really enjoyed those but Blood of the Fold and Soul of the Fire are two that I'm like I know I read them. I don't really remember much about it though so I guess that's kind of I'm kind of excited to read it because like I frankly the only thing I really really remember about Soul of the Fire is where it ends because that that ending point is significant to where Faith of the Fallen picks up and Faith of the Fallen is a favorite of mine and since like Faith of the Fallen has to deal with the ramifications of how this one ends I remember how this ends but like that's about like how we get to that point do not remember so excited to um be reacquainted with the story that I have completely forgotten and then last but certainly not least me and Bethany are also doing a first law read-along but on the podcast so in May we took a month off we did the trilogy January, February, March, took April off and now we're doing the standalone for May, June, July so we are on Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie and this at some point in time was my favorite first law book it is no longer my favorite first law book um but it is among my favorites and it is among my favorite stand-alones I think it probably still is my favorite standalone but the heroes has risen in my estimation and is giving it a run for its money so not sure maybe on this third read I'll decide definitively if this is my favorite standalone or not you'll just have to tune into the podcast to find out now there are some books that um I'm still finishing up from April that I didn't finish so like I do want to finish those in May there's not on my TBR because like my TBR is the only thing they're required to read and um yeah so like for example I did not finish J War in April I it wasn't even on my TBR but I started and did not finish of you from the Cheap Seats anyway these are the books I aim to read but there may be others so I guess I'll have to tune in at the end of May to find out what I did read if I actually read any of this or if I literally just watched the trial let me know in the comments down below your thoughts and feelings about what I'm about to read whatever you want let me know I post videos on Saturdays are they random times of all of Dusty Saturdays so like and subscribe join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you