May Reflection

Published on by Isabelle @ Nine Tale Vixen

Make hay in May for you may never know what June is coming with and you may never know what July will present! When you see May, make hay!

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

As I’d anticipated, May was a roller coaster of a month: the slowdown of final class sessions and reviewing for exams, then the high stress of cramming for then actually taking final exams, then a long recovery period of taking it easy — which, to be quite honest, still hasn’t ended.

Because I’m now on summer vacation, it’s been hard to muster up motivation to really get anything done. So contrary to the quote I picked, it really hasn’t been the most productive month. (Though it’s been pretty smooth sailing once the semester officially ended.)

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May highlights

  • Final exams came and went … some better than others.
  • I managed to complete all 25 Asian Lit Bingo prompts!
  • My mother got me back into Pokemon Go. We’ve been battling raids in our local parks, and she’s promised to trade me a Detective Pikachu (it has the little detective hat and everything, it’s adorable) after our in-game friendship levels up. 
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My Best May Posts

More Awesome Posts From May

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As I’ve mentioned, this month was Asian Lit Bingo and YARC catchup. So I prioritized TBR titles by Asian authors, with Asian main characters — and there were lots of good ones! Though on the other hand, I did notice that I was less likely to DNF since I wanted to get through as many bingo prompts as possible, so I finished several books that I otherwise wouldn’t have. (In fact, I only had one DNF this month, and it was an ARC that I really wasn’t enjoying.)

Clicking on the titles below will take you to the book’s Goodreads page; clicking on the flames (which indicate my rating out of 5) will take you to my review. Books marked as [ARC] were received as Advance Review Copies; [RC] indicates a post-release review copy.

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29 total, 3.59 average rating

Top reads of the month: It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura & Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert

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Honestly I’m as surprised as anybody that I only have three June-release ARCs, though a quick glance at my blogging spreadsheet shows that I only have 2-4 ARCs due each month until November, and none for December (yet). But that’s totally okay, since there are plenty more upcoming releases that I want to read!

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ARCs I Have

TBR After Release

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Reading Next

For at least the beginning of next month, I’m switching back to ARCs to hopefully get ahead and reduce my reading-related deadline pressure for the next few months. Later on I might dive into some nonfiction / personal development; summer always feels like a good time to settle in for some light research and independent learning.

I also plan on keeping an eye out for LGBTQ+ reads since June is pride month, though I think I’ll take a break from readathons and shorter challenges. And overall I’m making good progress toward all my yearlong reading challenges, so I don’t feel like I need to focus on any of them in particular.

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Personal Plans

I always like to take advantage of summer break to focus on the non-academic parts of my life: lifestyle habits (including fixing my sleep schedule, learning to meal plan, and trying out different types of physical activity), creative hobbies (piano, writing, photography, and anything else I’m interested in trying out), et cetera. Oh, and one of my favorite YouTubers has been doing a different 30-day challenge each month with interesting results, so I’ve been wanting to try one of my own.

While I’m home, hopefully I’ll also get a chance to hang out with my best friends since I haven’t seen them in a while. (They’re both going to college in-state, while I’m out-of-state.) There isn’t really a ton to do in our hometown, but we always manage to figure something out. And of course I’ll be spending more time with my family, especially since over future breaks I may very well stay near campus to get major-related work and research experience.

Adulting still terrifies me, even knowing that as a college student I’m not yet fully responsible for the minutiae and paperwork of my life. But as I pick up more and more experience I do feel (somewhat) more and more confident in my own abilities, so I’m actually kind of excited to see what the future brings.

What’s the best book you read in May? Did you read any of this month’s releases, or ARCs of summer releases? Have you set any goals for June?

23 thoughts on “May Reflection”

      1. I have heard a LOT of great things about the Reckoners books! I think I’m probably going to read every Brandon Sanderson title that I can get my hands on after reading the first book in the Mistborn series. It was just SO up my alley!

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  2. I read I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman which was amazing. But it was also the only book I read.. maybe? This month is going to be big for me since I have multiple reviews planned of books I haven’t read yet :’) But that might be just the thing I need to get back into reading regularly. I love that you read so many books for Asian Lit Bingo and YARC! I’m definitely reading all your reviews and picking out some that I might find interesting (most definitely all your 5 stars). I’m really proud that you kept your ARCs down and didn’t go on a request spree like someone (not naming names but definitely me). And yay! So many books to read that we have in common. I though June was going to be a boring month, because at first I couldn’t find any books, but after a thorough search I did find some awesome ones (and seems like I missed Not Your Backup even though I preordered it).

    How long until summer vacation ends? I don’t know if you’re planning to make posts about the activities you’ll be doing while being back home, but I’d love to read more about them! (also your Pokémon Go adventures)

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    1. oh I’ve heard lots of great things about Alice Oseman’s books, definitely want to finally get on those this year! (….. I say about, like, 50 different authors.)

      I personally find myself super motivated by deadlines, so I hope it helps more than stresses you out! also yesssss Not Your Backup is gonna be so awesome I’m so excited.

      officially I’m on summer vacation until the beginning of September, though I’m heading back to school late June / early July to hopefully get some experience in retail pharmacy and/or a lab – not sure if I’ll have done a ton of exciting things to share before then (I always make a three-page summer bucket list and end up checking off maybe two items) but that could definitely be a fun post to write 😊

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  3. Wow! That’s a huge Wrap-up! I am really looking forward to reading The Astonishing color of after in the coming months and I read The exact opposite of Okay, this month, it’s incredible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

    Have a great summer!
    Happy reading!!

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  4. Congrats on completing the entire Asian Lit Bingo!
    Hope you have fun this month! Your plans sound really great and I hope you enjoy sitting back and relaxing.
    A 30-day challenge sounds interesting and I hope you have doing it!

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  5. You definately deserved to rest a little since Finals stressed you so much aswell as make you work alot !
    Goodjob for completing all prompts, hurray !!

    Hopefully you’ll be able to do as much as you want this summer, and have an awesome June ! xx

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  6. Congrats on surviving the semester! I have a lot of reading to catch up on since I took a very much unplanned hiatus, so I can’t say I’ve achieved any reading goals.

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  7. You’re totally shredding up YARC and the Asian Lit Bing, like hell yessssss, go Isabelle!! Thank you for including my post ❤ you’re awesome. And you had some really great posts this month! …I saw you read The Night Tiger, and I want to read that so bad I can feel it in my bones bahah, but have you read her other book The Ghost Bride???!! I’m dedicating August/September for my YARC, I have to switch back to ARCs for now, but it sounds like you have some freakin great books ahead of you to read! I can’t wait to finally read Not Your Sidekick, it will happen this year, I swear.

    I also really really hope you have such an amazing summer and get to hang out with your friends, it’ll be so nice to just be around them again I’m sure. [Yay for no more tests for a hot minute!] Great month for you overall I think, and such out of the park reading! Woo!

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    1. thanks haley!! your post is awesome, so of course I had to include it 😉 I’ve seen The Ghost Bride floating around but haven’t read it yet, and after how awesome The Night Tiger was I definitely want to now!

      good luck with ARCs, and I hope you have an awesome summer too 💕

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  8. WOW YOU READ SO MUCH!! Congrats on finishing the Asian lit bingo! I could never lmao, and I caught up with YARC a bit too this month but I anticipate that the brunt of the Asian books I read this year will be read in June, which is sad because I want to focus on queer books for pride month but oh well.. I’m really really excited to read This Time Will be Different too & I actually downloaded an arc of Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune from Edelweiss because it was available to everyone, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get to it before its release. I’m still excited to read it though! I hope you have a fun and productive summer too💓

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    1. thank you! 💕 maybe if you can find queer Asian books (two birds, one stone)? I know CW made a list, and there’s probably some others – though they’re definitely not the easiest to find. Natalie Tan is pretty great, I hope you enjoy it (whenever you get around to it) and everything else you read in June!

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  9. I don’t… compute. Did you do final exams AND manage to somehow read 29 books? Because I am so impressed. So so impressed. Yay for reading so much as well – that’s almost a book a day. I hope those exams went well. I’m also taking a break from readathons and challenges this month just to enjoy whatever I feel in the mood for at the time (although hoping to squeeze in one or two pride books in there somewhere). Also, I really like the sound of taking the summer to work more on YOU. Hope you can achieve that x

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    1. thanks Olivia! honestly I’m not sure how I did it either, though for what it’s worth my last exam was done at 3pm on the 13th and I’ve been doing more reading than anything else pretty much since 😅 it sounds like you’ve set yourself up for a pretty good month, I hope you enjoy the books that you pick up!

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  10. I love that you and your mom have been playing Pokemon Go and I am still thinking about re-downloading the app because you make it sound like a good time hahaha.

    I am SO IMPRESSED that you read 29 books in May, that is AMAZING! And congrats on finishing all the bingo prompts! I sear I always join those things with the best of intentions and uh, wind up stopping after like 3 days. Sometimes I just have no follow through.

    Thanks so much for linking two of my posts, and I hope you have a wonderful, restful, and personally satisfying June!

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    1. whispers do itttttttt (but for real, it gets me out of the house more than I normally would which is fun, and now it’ll sync with the step counter on your phone so you can walk around and hatch eggs even without the app open and draining battery which is AWESOME)

      honestly I think I just needed a goal to point my energy at with Lit Bingo, I’m definitely not usually this successful with especially short-term challenges 😅

      you’re very welcome for the links, they’re awesome posts that deserve to be shared a million times! I hope your June is also as amazing as you are, Kal 💕

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