Sunday, May 31, 2015

May wrap-up

Hello! Today is the last day of May and I'm officially creeped out by the fact that 2015 has flown by so incredibly quickly. It was a challenging month for me, May, and I was going through a very significant reading and blogging slump.  I'm hugely glad that I managed to read the total number of books that I did and also that I didn't feel that guilty for not blogging much in these past few weeks.


Books read in May:


1. Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson (4 stars)
2. Split Second by Anne Cassidy (4 stars)
3. Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen (4 stars)
4. Finding Jennifer Jones by Anne Cassidy (4 stars)
5. When Mr Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan (4 stars)
6. Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway (4 stars)
7. Moonlight on Nightingale Way by Samantha Young (4 stars)
8. Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry (1 star)
9. Sweet by Tammara Webber (4 stars)
10. Jesse's Girl by Miranda Kenneally (3 stars)
11. Fuel the Fire by Becca and Krista Ritchie (4 stars)
12. The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke (4 stars)
13. Every Day by David Levithan (3 stars)


Total read in May: 13

Total in 2015: 70

You can tell when I'm in a reading slump because all I can read are romances, ha! Kind of a slow month for me but I at least read some really good books.


May Book of the month:


Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen

I adore Sarah Dessen.




British Books Challenge and UKYA in 2015:


Author Spotlight

Lydia Syson

Aha, once again just the one author spotlight this month. Maybe someday (!) I'll post more than one as it has been my plan this whole time. Still, I'm glad that May's spotlight was on Lydia Syson who is a definite favourite author of mine.




Love Libraries

Michelle from Tales of Yesterday

Sue Ransom

This month I had two very wonderful guest posts for my Love Libraries feature. Thank you so much to both Michelle and Sue for writing such lovely things about libraries.




Celebrating British Bloggers

Amy from The Willow Web

Charli from To Another World

A huge thank you to both Amy and Charli for being the wonderful bloggers who have taken part in this feature this month! Love both these bloggers and their blogs. Thank you again!

Awesome Women


A bit of a blast from the past with this but Natasha Farrant kicks off the return of my Awesome Women feature here on Fluttering Butterflies! Enjoy! 


Books reviewed in May:

Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson
This Is Not A Love Story by Keren David
Cleo by Lucy Coats
Notebooks From A Middle School Princess by Meg Cabot
Panther by David Owen

Ah, the month started out so well. And then my reading and blogging slumps hit and I took a step back from writing and posting reviews. More to come soon, I'm sure.


Other posts in May:


Interview with Lydia Syson, author of Liberty's Fire
Interview with David Owen, author of Panther
Author Responses: Hopeful endings

I really enjoyed all three of these posts this month. I quite enjoy interviewing authors and I'm particularly pleased with how these two interviews came across. And! my first author responses collaborative post was a huge hit. I loved the range of responses as well as the discussion that this topic provoked. Look out for more author responses soon :)


Booktube videos in May:

British Books Challenge | April
Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown | Review
Reader Problems Tag
The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
Mental Heath in YA Round-Up
Lauren Oliver Book Tag

Michelle talks Barrington Stoke
UKYA A-Z Author Tag

Lots of booktube video from me this month! On my own booktube channel, I've decided to adopt a Tuesday and Friday upload schedule. I'm mostly going to be focusing on books by British authors and books including diversity on my schedule. You can see that with this month's videos: Perfect Escape deals with a character with OCD, The Book of Broken Hearts and To All the Boys I've Loved Before have POC characters and obviously there is my mental health in YA round-up video.

And then there's still Bookish Brits! I'll continue to upload there every other Monday. Do subscribe to both channels if you haven't already. (Especially as these monthly wrap-up posts are the only times I generally mention the videos on this blog!)


Progress in my reading challenges in May



LGBT Challenge in 2015:

Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson
Fuel the Fire by Becca and Krista Ritchie
The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke
Every Day by David Levithan


Total for May: 4
Total for 2015: 14

The number of books that I've read for this challenge was boosted this month by taking part in Faye's #LGBTReadathon in which I really tried to get back into the swing of reading again. 




British Books Challenge 2015:

Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson
Split Second by Sophie McKenzie
Finding Jennifer Jones by Anne Cassidy
When Mr Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan
Moonlight on Nightingale Way by Samantha Young
The Lost and the Found by Cat Clarke

Total for May: 6

Today for 2015: 32

Not bad this month in terms of reading books by British authors. I really enjoyed all 6 of these books! Many more books by British authors on my shelves, I have so much to look forward to!



What was your favourite book(s) read in May?

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're coming out of your slump now, I am amazed at how much work goes into running a book blog, time off is definitely deserved :) You've had a good month regardless :D x

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