Firstly, thank you to everyone who liked, commented or shared my recent post as I attempt to find my blogging mojo again. I really appreciate the welcome back and it’s spurred me on to want to keep going.
In May I read thirteen books and really enjoyed everything that I picked up so I’m happy with that.
I started re-reading Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series in May. I’ve read about half of this series once before many, many years ago but never completed it. I don’t remember why I never got to the end first time around as I love Kinsey Millhone and was still enjoying the novels. Anyway, I own all of the books so I’ve started again from the beginning and in May I read A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, C is for Corpse, D is for Deadbeat and E is for Evidence. I don’t normally read series books in such quick succession but I’m enjoying this re-read so much that I’m keeping going and am currently reading F is for Fugitive!
I also finished reading The End of Innocence: Britain in the time of AIDS by Simon Garfield. I found this a really interesting look at the AIDS crisis from the time it was happening as other books that I’ve read on the subject have tended to be about looking back.
I then read Our Georgia by Lynnette Williams, which was an incredibly moving book written by a mother about her murdered daughter. I vaguely remembered this case but it was heartbreaking to read the detail of how this monster came to entrap Georgia. This is well-written but devastating book.
Other books I read and enjoyed were Preloved by Lauren Bravo, Exiles by Jane Harper and Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews. All were quick and engrossing reads that kept me hooked throughout.
I also read Savage Appetites by Rachel Monroe, which is a look at women and obsession with true crime. I don’t think this book was exactly what I was expecting but it was still a fascinating and engrossing read that definitely made me think.
There were two other non-fiction books that I read in May: How to Live When You Could Be Dead by Deborah James, which was a moving and empowering book about living life; and Mansfield and Me by Sarah Laing – a graphic memoir of the author contrasting her life with Katherine Mansfield. I loved the artwork in this book and the way Sarah’s life was told in colour and Elizabeth’s in black and white.
What did you read in May? I’d love to know 🙂
RatherTooFondofBooks 
I love the Grafton series too. I think the fact that she got out her feelings towards her ex-husband in the first book totally hooked me.
It’s such a good series – I just love Kinsey Millhone, I think she’s one of my all-time favourite characters. I’m hoping to finish the series this time around as I’m really enjoying it.
Oh the Simon Garfield book looks great: presumably another one drawn from Mass Observation archives, diaries and the like. I will have to look out for that. I read a whole series of cosy novels when I had “a cold” / probably Covid in Feb/March, just hoovered them up, one after the other! Nova Reid’s The Good Ally was a May read you’d probably like, too.
It was a really interesting read. I think it was first published in the early 1990s and my edition had updates plus a new foreword from Russell T. Davies. I’ve read other books about the AIDS epidemic but this one really had more of a sense of how it was at the time as it was happening. I’d recommend it.
It feels like a real treat to read a whole series of books one after the other – I don’t think I’ve done it since I was a child but it just feels really comforting and relaxing.
Looks like a fab bookish month Hayley! xx
This look like a great reading month. I haven’t read any of them, but now I’m curious about Maud Dixon.
It was a good reading month, I enjoyed everything that I read. Maud Dixon was a fun read – you need to suspend disbelief quite a bit but it’s such a fun twisty read that I didn’t mind that. It’d make a great summer read.
Good to know!
I love the Sue Grafton series! I’ve read all of them but recently I reread A and I’m hoping to pick them up here or there. I hope you continue to enjoy the series 🙂
It’s such a good series, I’m really enjoying reading them again. I can’t remember where I got up to when I first read them so I’m excited to get to the ones that will be new to me. I hope you enjoy re-reading them as you pick them up.