Hello friends, happy Tuesday! I hope you’re all doing well. I can’t believe we’re wrapping May! Let’s get into how my month went!

Currently Reading:

Cujo by: Stephen King. I’ve now moved onto my next King read; Cujo. I’m not very far in yet, but I like what I’m reading so far. I like that we’re back in Castle Rock, the same place as the Dead Zone and the connections we’re getting; I like that we’ve already met Cujo and the suspense is already starting to build.

All My Puny Sorrows by: Miriam Toews. I just started this today so I don’t have too many thoughts yet. This is my second Toews novel and I can see she has a distinct writing style. I’m not 100% into it but I’m also enjoying it, so we’ll see how it goes.

What I’ve Read:

The Last Emperox by: John Scalzi. This was the final novel in this trilogy and I thoroughly enjoyed this as a whole, but also I liked the way this concluded.

Daughter of the Pirate King by: Tricia Levenseller. The premise of this sounded really good, but the execution wasn’t the best. I wanted more from it; will be reading the sequel to hopefully get more.

Ghost Squad by: Claribel A. Ortega. This was such a cute, ghosty, middle grade novel full of heart, family and all things spooky!

A Man Called Ove by: Fredrik Backman. I had so many thoughts while reading this. Ove drove me crazy; by the end he wasn’t so bad, but gosh I wanted to shake him!

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by: Crystal Maldonado. This was such a raw book with so much tension, but it was still really fast-paced and full of heart; a truly beautiful coming of age story.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by: Mark Sullivan. This book was longer than I expected; it was an interesting story, but didn’t feel like it was truly 100% believable as a real story.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It’s time for my annual re-read of this. I got myself a new cover of it and of course had to read that – this story never gets old for me!

Firestarter by: Stephen King. I finally wrapped up my current King read and this one was really enjoyable. There were moments in the middle that dragged, but for the most part, I really, really liked it.

The Upside of Unrequited by: Becky Albertalli. I didn’t love this one as much as Simon, but it was still a quick, enjoyable read with lots of ups and downs.

No One Can Pronounce My Name by: Rakesh Satyal. For the most part, I enjoyed this but it was a slow paced story that may not appeal to everyone.

The Spoon Stealer by: Leslie Crewe. This was a Canada Reads nominated book. At first I didn’t think I’d get much out of this, but this story pleasantly surprised me with how much I enjoyed reading Emmeline’s story.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

Marie @Drizzle & Hurricane Books posted about why she blogs in English which was such a beautiful and insightful read (especially as someone who only speaks English). I also enjoyed her post on the hard truths of book blogging which was inspiring, as I’ve felt kinda meh about my blog lately.

Stephenie @The Abundant Word posted on how to view your audible percentage read I thought this was insightful, even if I don’t use Audible, if anyone else out there does, this could be useful!

Krysta @Pages Unbound Reviews posted she’s accepted publishers aren’t interested in book bloggers I found myself nodding my head and agreeing with a lot of the things she mentions in this post!

The Orangutan Librarian talked about books set in libraries which is such a lovely place to be if you ask me!

I hope you all had a good month! 😊

Highlights of the month:

✨ I got to see my two best friends and we went out for sushi! I love sushi!

✨ Celebrated Mother’s Day with a nice day out and a nice takeaway dinner!

✨ We had such beautiful weather and I’m not complaining ☀️

✨ Back yard reading, drinking and overall relaxing! 🍹

✨ I bought a new pair of sandals – I can’t wait to wear them!

✨ Not exactly a highlight, but I did bake again this month… only for it to flop again. I need to find my baking groove!

✨ Spent the day at Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was a little cloudy, but still a very nice day. We walked by the water, got ice cream at a famous Canadian ice cream place, Cows.

✨ We out to dinner with my group of friends, it was such a yummy, fun night!

What I’ve watched:

Atypical; season 4. I finished this series and I’m sad that it’s over. Watching Sam and Zaheed move in together felt really realistic through all the ups and downs of it all. The main plot of this season was watching Sam find his purpose and making it happen… by traveling to Antartica and it was so fascinating to watch everyone in his life either try to help him or come to terms with it. I loved watching he and Casey because as much as they get on each other’s nerves, as siblings do, they really had each other’s backs and I loved it. Watching Casey freak out about track also felt really real of the pressures of turning something that used to be fun and good at, into a competition takes the fun out of it. I like the way this ended to everyone moving on and doing the things they want to do because life is short.

Jane the Virgin; season 4. I finished this up at the very beginning of the month and THAT ENDING!?!? This show has a way of either having really dramatic season finales or really mediocre ones. I’m not really sure how I feel about the reveal because they killed this one character off (rather rudely, I still can’t believe they did him like that) BUT THEN to have him mysteriously come back, I don’t know. What I did really like was JR and Petra; I need to know who JR shot for Petra, they are so cute! Otherwise, this was a pretty good season; I liked seeing all the different dynamics, especially seeing Jane and Raf together.

Star Trek: The Original Series season 1. I managed to get through the first season and I can’t lie, this show has really grown on me. I wasn’t sure I would be able to watch the whole series, now I’ll be sad once I finish it. It’s SUPER cheesy, but I’m really loving it; the plots are wild, but they make me laugh and for the most part keep me entertained.

The Good Doctor; season 5. I have to say, the way this ended, shocked me because they went in a thriller direction for the season finale… to maybe grab viewers attentions? It felt VERY out of place, so who knows where the next season is going to go… what I am happy to see and finally be over, is Shaun and Lea’s wedding. I’m so glad it over, they both got what they wanted and we can all move on since this feels like it’s been ongoing for almost 2 seasons (I could be exaggerating a bit).

Station 19; season 5. This didn’t really feel like a season finale, it just felt like a regular episode. I hate that it ended on Jack leaving, like bro where are you going?!? I hate the whole plot with his parents, like it’s so shitty what they did to him, so I am curious to see where this plot will go next season. I also want him to become an uncle figure to Corina and Maya’s kid they’re trying to have (I really want that to happen, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see). I was happy to see Andy not having to go to jail – that whole plot was so infuriating to watch, but I agree with what she says to the girl she’s trying to get come forward, men should be angry this is happening too.

This Is Us; season 6. And just like that, the final chapter has come to an end. I was reading tweets before the finale aired that people were saying they’ve never seen a show encapsulate the cycle of real life quite like this and it’s very true. This show really focused on the little things in life that bring us all together. Sure, there are big moments, but it’s the little moments that collect over time to create the big ones and this show, showed that off so well! Definitely loved the storytelling and the actors were amazing! I will miss watching this every week.

Grey’s Anatomy; season 18. Well, what a finale that was. This has been renewed for yet another season (I’m wondering if they’re trying for 20 seasons, they did hit 400 episodes this past week with the finale, which is crazy to me!). So the whole time we’re left thinking Grey is going to finally leave the hospital she’s been at for almost 20 years… only now it looks like everyone else is going to be leaving instead. So now I have so many questions, are all these actors actually leaving the show? Will there be a whole new cast? Will Grey actually leave? Will this still be the same show? I do like where the show has been going in the past couple years, really diving into global and social issues.

Superstore; season 2. This was much like season one, although we did get more on the characters and got to know them better. This had it’s fill of cringy moments and moments that were funny. The way this season ended on a tornado was kinda crazy and of course had me wanting to continue with season 3 because then I needed to know how everyone was after the fact.

What I’m watching:

Star Trek: The Original Series season 2. Continuing with my watch of this, I have to say when I first started watching this, the theme music changed and I hated it… but I’ve come to love it… just like everything with this series. The super strange and just full on cheesiness of the episodic way of this show I’ve come to enjoy. I love how most episodes end with Kirk and Spock making sarcastic comments to one another.

Jane the Virgin; season 5. I thought by the end of the month I’d have this series finished… but I’m still kicking away at it. Anyways, this season has been the same drama that I’ve come to expect from this show. The whole Michael/Rafael plot, gosh I’m SO mad they brought that back because I was so happy to have it finished! That aside, I really love how close Petra and Jane have become, I’m sad to see JR gone because she was SO good for Petra, but alas, what’s good never seems to stay. Looking forward to see how this all comes to an end.

Superstore; season 3. I can see what they’re trying to do with Amy and Jonah and I’m not really a fan; we all know that they’re into each other but of course we can’t have them get together right away. They’re doing what New Girl did with Nick and Jess, although New Girl did it so much better, in my opinion, but we’ll see where Superstore goes.

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

How was your May? Read, watch, do anything interesting? Let me know!