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Books Read in May 2026

 Mostly finished book club reads but one just for myself; Katabasis was a really fun and immersive read. Thought I'd also add some books I'm currently reading, since we're getting well into June!

Books Read in May 2026

  1. The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery (Book club read)--This is the second of Montgomery's books that we've read in this book club. Highly, highly recommend--Hogwood's life, the silly, sweet, social, and genuine life of a pig that lived out his natural years--is healing and inspiring and a fun joyous read.
  2. Dear Debbie by Frieda McFadden (Other book club read)--The character is literally a psychopath and plot twists very contrived. It's a feminist revenge fantasy which some people may like but I did not.
  3. Katabasis by R. F. Kuang--Two graduate students at an alternate magical version of Oxford descend to the underworld to retrieve their dead advisor. Nerdery, academia, and chthonic adventures ensue. Highly enjoyable for any academics or former academics!
  4. In Five Years by Rebecca Serle (Yet another book club read)--This book let me down a lot. The premise makes it seem like a romance with elements of speculative fiction, but it's extremely misleading. I'm trying not to get too spoiler-y here (stop reading if you want to be surprised), but the book is actually about a very upsetting topic (illness of a loved one) that totally blindsided me, and it was neither a pleasant surprise nor one that ended up being sufficiently insightful or meaningful, at least for me. While I could get over it not being a romance, which the marketing doesn't promise, the synopsis and title are centered on the speculative element, so I was disappointed that was limited, with a "payoff" that I found unsatisfying. Apparently this book is well-beloved by some, but it was not my cup of tea.

Finished in June/Currently Reading

So far in June I've finished another book club read, The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I've stayed away from historical fiction in my personal reading, especially since book clubs tend toward it a lot, but I enjoyed learning more about the life of Mary McLeod Bethune, even if I didn't totally agree with how the book portrays Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt (I think they're both overly valorized but I digress--and tbf, there were definitely some interesting attempts to make them more human and nuanced). I'm also reading The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad, a collection of surreal short stories that riff on popular history (Anne Boleyn, Napoleon, the Romanovs, and more); A Suit or a Suitcase by Maggie Smith, one of my favorite poets; and I'm beta-reading What the Rabbi Knew by Mina Lieber, the second in her Jewish romance series.

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