May!

Hello Interwebs!

We're already about ten days into May but better late than never so here's my May goals and TBR and plans, plus a list of new releases that I NEED (okay so I don't need them but I really, really want them).

First up, let's talk May Goals. As if today I'm done with my CNA exam, for good or ill, it's over now. Pass or fail, let's move on with out lives. Also, if anyone wants a million CNA related flash cards I have them. So here's the goals moving on with May.

• Continue chugging along with audio books, they're better to listen to than the radio and I really need to listen to the ones I already have on my defunct Audible account. 
• Read more actual books, not just audio books. Especially since I'm pretty sure I have 100 books squirreled away in hard copy at my apartment plus the however many books I have on my Kindle. 
• Buy less books than April, this is already not looking likely but it's a good goal to have.
• Weekly blog post at least, plus a blog post for each book finished in May. And I'm already a book behind in that but it'll happen eventually. 

So those are the goals for May, who knows how it's going to go. Hopefully, we'll figure it out. 

Second, my TBR list for May. Since it's the 10th of May, I've already finished one of these but I'm still putting it on here. 

• Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore, this was also on my April TBR and although I almost finished it I didn't quite make it. This is already finished as of May 2nd. Longer review to follow. 
  
• The Book of Gutsy Women by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton: this is my current audio book as of May 1st. This is a collection of stories of "gutsy" women throughout history that were personally inspirational to either Hillary Rodham Clinton or her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, or both. It's so good as an audio book to listen to in chunks since its essentially a collection of short stories. 
  
• Thunderhead  by Neal Shusterman. This is the second book in the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, a young adult sci fi/fantasy series in a future world where death has been eradicated and so scythes are appointed to glean a percentage of the population to keep things under control. I loved the first book and my hold on the eBook finally came in so this is top priority. 
  
• Year One by Nora Roberts. This is the first book in Nora Roberts' Chronicles of the One series. This is an adult dystopian series by Nora Roberts. I've read some of her romance novels and quite a few of her futuristic detective novels. I don't know much about this book in particular but I liked her others so I thought I'd give it a try. This also has come in as a hold from the library on eBook so I'll have to get to it as soon as I'm done with Thunderhead. 
  
• All Adults Here by Emma Straub. This is May's Read with Jenna selection. It's about a woman who witnesses a bus accident and remembers things from her own younger days as a parent. It's a family based contemporary novel that looks pretty good. I don't know much about it but I like keeping up with the Read With Jenna books so I've already got this on my Kindle ready to go.
  

• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is last years release from one of my favorite YA authors. It's about a girl named Emoni who is a teen mom trying to take care of both her daughter and her grandmother to take care of during her senior year of high school while wanting to break into the culinary scene and go on the class trip to Spain. I LOVED The Poet X by this author and I kept meaning to get to this too. I had some credits on Amazon I redeemed for this and hope to read it as well as her new book that releases this month. 
  
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is her newest release on May 5th and I've already purchased the eBook copy. This is about 2 girls: one from the Dominican Republic and one from New York City who shared the same father, unknowingly, and find out about each other and their father's secrets after he dies in a plane crash. I have been looking forward to this since I heard about it because of my love for Elizabeth Acevedo and the fact that this is written in verse like her first book, The Poet X. 
  
• A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum. This is a book about conservative Arab women living in America. It's told in 2 timelines, the story of a mother and her daughter and their lack of choices in getting married. This was a previous Read with Jenna pick and I received this book in one of my mystery boxes from Third Street Books so I'd love to get to this one this month. 
  

For the record I do realize that this is 8 books, counting the one I've already finished and the audio book I'm currently listening to but I have high hopes for myself after my test is over. We'll see what happens. In addition to all of this I have a number of audio books on audible I hope to get to after I finish up the one I'm listening to.

• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. This is the biography that inspired Lin Manuel Miranda to write the musical Hamilton. This book is insanely long, 36 hours on audio, so this might be a multi-month endeavor. 
• My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is the autobiography by the Supreme Court Justice, RBG. 
• Becoming  by Michelle Obama. This is former First Lady Michelle Obama's memoir that has been sitting in my TBR forever and she narrates it herself so this is high on the list. 
• Circe by Madeline Miller. This is a historical fiction/fantasy novel about the goddess Circe from Homer's Odyssey. I read The Song of Achilles a couple years ago and loved it so I'm looking forward to this. 
• When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney. This is about six queens of Egypt and their lives. I love ancient Egypt and everything about it so this is another audio one I'm looking forward to. 

Finally, May new releases. It's a thing in the bookish community that says that most new releases come out in the late spring/summer and I've got a list of books I want that are released in May. So here's a list of books I want to get in May. 

• All Adults Here by Emma Straub, May 4th. This is the May Read with Jenna pick and I talked about it on my TBR above. 
  
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, May 5th. Also in my TBR above.
  
• The Paris Hours by Alex George, May 5th. I got this early as one of my Book of the Month picks in April. A 1920s Parisian themed historical fiction novel taking place over a one year period of time. 
  
• The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly by Jamie Pacton, May 5th. This is a YA rom-com about a girl named Kit who works as a wench at Medieval Times restaurant/show but wants to be a knight and gets involved with one of the actors playing a knight in the show. It sounds super cute and I love Medieval Times restaurant/show.
  
• By the Book by Amanda Sellet, May 12th. This is another YA rom-com about a girl who is obsessed with classic literature and when watching girls interact with boys at her high school she writes a guide to scoundrels for the other girls. It's a bookish rom-com and tics every box for things I love. 
  
• Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks, May 12th. Max Brooks is the author of World War Z, which is a fictionalized account of the zombie apocalypse. This is a fictionalized account of a massacre by Sasquatch around Mt. Rainier  in Washington. 
  
• The Library of Legends by Janie Chang, May 12th. This is a Chinese based historical fiction/fantasy based around Nanking during WWII. High School students are entrusted with smuggling the Library of Legends out of Nanking during the Japanese attack during WWII and meet mythological figures from the stories they're protecting. I got this early via Book of the Month in April as well and it sounds lovely. 
  
• Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson, May 19th. This is an adult romance centered around a family trying to save their family yarn/knitting shop. This combines my favorite things: knitting and reading so that's all I need to know. 
  
• Beach Read by Emily Henry, May 19th. This is also a book I already have due to Book of the Month's April picks. This is an adult romance about 2 authors: a woman who writes romance books and a man who writes literary fiction who are both experiencing writing slumps while in beach houses right next to each other. The two authors decide to switch genres to overcome their writing slumps and get together. 
  
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, May 19th. This is the new book in the Hunger Games series. It's a prequel novel about President Snow before he was the president. I don't care, I'm trash for anything Hunger Games. 
  
• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, May 26th. This is a historical fiction novel about a society formed during WWII to protect Jane Austen's legacy. This book is being blurbed all over Booktube right now so I'll read it too, especially since Jane Austen is the best. 
  

So that's all I have planned for May. I've already got a handful of this month's releases and some others are pre-ordered. Most of the ones that haven't been pre-ordered and I don't own I'll probably buy online from Third Street Books, which I consider to be my local bookstore despite living 4 hours away now. 

Happy Reading!