May reading recap

Wow. Time flies. It's hard to believe it's the end of May already.

What may be even harder to believe is that even though this month was incredibly crazy in terms of things going on, I still found time to read. A surprising amount actually. I finished five books in May for a total of 1,556 pages. That brings the yearly total to 17 books and 5,605 pages. At this point last year? I was still slogging my way through Les Miserables.

But I'm making progress on the 40 book goal this year and I think I'm pretty much on track. Might actually be a little bit ahead of where I need to be at this point, unlike last year when I was playing catch up for most of the year.

So enough about numbers and progress. What'd I read in May?

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
In a Single Bound: Losing My Leg, Finding Myself and Training for Life by Sarah Reinersten
In the Water They Can't See You Cry by Amanda Beard

The Lover's Dictionary was good. A quick read that told the story through a series of dictionary entries. So yes, the story wasn't laid out in a chronological order, but it was a neat way to present a story and you were always thinking back to previous entries you read because as you got more information, previous entries made more sense.

Yes, I jumped on the Fifty Shades of Grey bandwagon this month. I had heard so much talk about it. And honestly? It wasn't the best thing I've ever read. But it wasn't the worst. And I feel weird saying this, but I wasn't that shocked at the graphic nature. Yes, there was a lot of sex, but the descriptions? Not that over the top, in my opinion. I've read that type of description in other books, maybe the difference is that there were just that many in this book. Seriously. It seemed like every 20 pages there was a huge explicit sex scene.

The last two were the motivational type memoirs. Neither of them were the jaw-dropping amazing type books, but I liked the Amanda Beard book better. I picked up the Sarah Reinersten book because she had spoken at the kickoff event for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon back in January. It was a pretty inspiring story she told that night - her struggles being an amputee and the work she did to became the first female to finish the Kona Ironman with one amputated leg - but the book was essentially the same story she told that night. Maybe the book's message would resonate better to those who hadn't already heard her speak.

Up next, the second installment of Fifty Shades of Grey - yes, there are multiple books in the series - and probably some light, fluffy reading.