2018 Reading Updates: May Update

Just so you know? May was a really weird month. Here’s how reading works for me: the less time I have for it, the more I want to do it and the more time I spend on it. May? It was a collection of free days, nothing to do – and reader’s fatigue. None the less, here’s my 2018 reading updates May update!

What I read

1. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
2. Business Benchmark – Advanced, Guys Brooks-Hart (2x)
3. Business Benchmark – Upper Intermediate, Guys Brooks-Hart
4. Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop of Dreams, Jenny Colgan
5. Le Petit Prince Le Grand Livre Pop-Up, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
6. The Cake Shop in the Garden, Carole Matthews
7. the Little Shop of Happy Ever After, Jenny Colgan
8. Am I normal yet?, Holly Bourne
9. Leah on the Offbeat, Becky Albertalli
10. How Hard can Love Be, Holly Bourne

This feels like such a #firstworldproblem thing to say, but, like… I’m kind of disappointed at that number? Logically, I know that 11 books is quite alright thank you very much. But at the same time, that’s the smallest amount of books I’ve read in a month all year. To my defence though: The Little Shop of Happy Ever After? It was so good it put me in a reading slump. So, you know… There’s that 🙂

What I thought

Obviously, I quite liked Jenny Colgan’s work. Fun fact: I’ve actually owned that book for over a year. You know those books that are just sitting there on your book shelf and you know you’re going to like them yet you can’t actually bring yourself to read them? That’s what this was. The same goes for Carole Matthews, actually – I bought a couple of her books at the same time as I bought some of Jenny Colgan’s. And they’ve been happily sitting on my shelves ever since 🙂

I’m actually starting to get back into YA as a genre, as well, if I can believe this month. When I had just started using Goodreads actively, somewhere in 2014, I read just about exclusively YA-novels. And then, I don’t know… It just sort of fizzled out. I started reading more French books (because: school), chicklit (because: newest discovery), … YA sort of fell to the wayside.  Becky Albertalli’s Creekwood-series as well as Holly Bourne’s The Spinsters’ Club-series have seriously kicked that love back into gear though. And you know what, I’m really glad it did. I’d honestly forgotten how much I loved those books!

So here’s the real question now: with June coming on, that means I’ll be correcting exams for the foreseeable future. So, of course, I need some nice and relaxing literature to help me through that difficult time. Do you have any recommendations? Books that you absolutely loved, books that seem similar to the ones I’ve listed here? Be sure to let me know below!

-Saar