June 1, 2022 – Life and Other Disasters

a header image in blue and green tones with blurry book covers and the writing "May Wrap-Up"

It kind of feels surreal to me that May has already come and gone. I don’t know why, but mentally, I’m probably still stuck in April? Anyway, it was a pretty decent month for me? Nothing too out of the ordinary, but let’s start with the usual – the books I’ve read!

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (2 stars)
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney(4 stars)
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston (5 stars)
My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth (4 stars)

As per usual, click on the covers to get re-directed to Goodreads, where you are always welcome to add me as a reading buddy! OR find me on Storygraph, where I have become more active this year. My own reviews you’re able to find by clicking on the titles in the list above, if there are posts for them.

As far as my reading goals go, I have to say that I’m very pleased with myself. I’m still ahead in terms of books and pages, similarly to last month. I enjoy not really feeling pressured by a looming backlog or anything like that. It has been such a solid year for me so far.

An image showing a reading goal for 2022 of 45 books with a current track record of 53%/24 books completed. Also, a pages goal for 2022 of 15,000 pages, with 45%/6,752 pages already read.

A blurry background of book spines with the writing "In Other News" over it.

I’d love to tell you something exciting about the past month, but there wasn’t that much happening. I did, however, end up meeting up with one of my closest friends from my time in Canada (who is coincidentally from Germany, a neighboring country of mine). It has been FIVE whole years, but I couldn’t be happier for having seen her again after all this time! It still felt the same, as if we had just talked the day before. I really do be missing people and social contacts …

Some of you may also remember that I moved into an apartment by myself by the end of last year. Well, now, like half a year later, I finally have some plates and cutlery with more than two matching pieces. I could, technically, host up to six people. I doubt I’m gonna do it, but I feel like I’m nailing this adulting stuff by just having the option now.

MY FAVORITES OF THE MONTH

WHERE DO I EVEN START!? Most of you probably already noticed that I went down a bit of a rabbit hole in terms of new Star Trek content and I absolutely fell in love with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! Is my crush on Anson Mount as the very charismatic but also kind of funny Captain Pike involved in this development? Well … yeah, very likely. But I’ve really come to love this whole universe.

I love them all so much 🥺
Feels like a crime that there's only 10 episodes in the first season of #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds pic.twitter.com/kwsWj1uN9z

— Kat(ja) 🔮🌙✨ (@Kat_Impossible) May 24, 2022

Secondly, we got to see Vol. 1 of Season 4 of Stranger Things and I binged it all after work on release day. I literally didn’t think there were enough hours in the day to finish it, but somehow I couldn’t be stopped and earned myself a massive headache – totally worth it though! A season that is much more horror than before, but that had me completely spellbound. Now, if my favorite characters (new additions included) could all survive, I’d be very grateful!

I finally, finally, finally finished my Harry Styles reading experiment. It’s always so satisfying when you get done with one of these and this one in particular took ages. I don’t know why I decided to read almost double the books I usually do, but I did … it was a wild ride.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention The Dead Romantics! That book was on my most anticipated books of 2022 list for the longest time and I’m so happy to report that it didn’t disappoint. There’s nothing better than a book being exactly what you need at a certain moment and The Dead Romantics certainly filled that role.