May Reads 2024
May Reads 2024: 6 Books I Read this Month
By: Brittany Shields
This month’s books covered a wide variety of genres!
I read two new releases this month, one from my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024.
I also fulfilled 2 prompts for this year’s Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge.
May was busy and the rest of summer is shaping up to be as well! We will see how much more reading I am able to accomplish in between softball games, trips, swim lessons, and park time.
Do you have any books you’re looking forward to reading this summer?
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1. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England (Secret Projects #2) by Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Fantasy/Science Fiction
“To date, my performance was an obvious one star. Could be worse, but only as a result of gross incompetence.”
This was a bit of an odd duck of a book.
It is my first Brandon Sanderson one so I am not sure, but I get the feeling this may be a bit divergent from his typical work in terms of tone.
This is a book about alternate dimensions that you can purchase for yourself that is a version of Medieval England. It’s meant to be an adventure where you can experience and live life as it used to be.
But the protagonist in this book finds himself in one such dimension with no recollection of who he is or why he is there.
The modern world meets the medieval world as he figures out what is at play in this interdimensional adventure and who he really is, which may not be the stand-up guy he had assumed.
The tone was more humorous than suspenseful.
Read my full review to get more plot details, find out my favorite part and my struggle, and see why the wizards are frugal.
2. Kill Her Twice by Stacy Lee
Genre: Historical Fiction/YA
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2024]
[Fulfilled ‘Book you would recommend to your grandma’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“‘You think keeping us safe means walking inside the lines. But I have news for you. The lines aren’t keeping us safe. They're keeping us locked up.’”
Kill Her Twice is a murder mystery set in Los Angeles circa 1930s. It’s not a book you pick up just for the mystery, but it has a unique offering of mystery, Chinese culture and their struggles in America, family dynamics, and an Old Time Hollywood setting.
These things converge in an enjoyable, albeit a little slow, read that gives a lot of avenues for discussion.
In the middle of Chinatown’s protest not to be razed for a new rail station, a rising Hollywood star, Lulu Wong, is found dead in the horse stables of Chinatown. Cause of death is unknown but many signs point to murder.
Sisters May and Gemma, afraid the police won’t do the work to find the truth because of social perception of Chinese Americans, decide to take the investigation into their own hands to find justice for their friend and clear Chinatown of this stain on their name.
Read my full review to get my thoughts on the family dynamics, see why it’s called ‘Kill Her Twice,’ hear some of my disappointments, and get my ultimate recommendation.
3. The Crown Conspiracy by Connie Mann
Genre: Suspense/Thriller/ Christian Fiction
“She wasn’t a thief. Thieves stole things for their own gain. She replaced previously stolen artwork with expertly forged copies and returned the originals to their rightful owners.”
This book reads like a movie! Non-stop action, art forgery, heists, treasure hunts, chase scenes, and corruption.
Mann did a great job writing this book and creating a unique band of characters that I can also picture portrayed in a blockbuster movie. This book is part of a series and I’m excited to see what comes next!
There are two plot lines. One followings a series of paintings that has long been missing but suddenly resurfaces at an art gallery in Munich and has clues to a possible treasure. The other follows one of the main character’s work with the homeless women in the city and how some of them have been going missing.
This is labeled a ‘Speranza’ novel hinting that it is the start of a series, and an exciting one at that. The series will surround a secret group— called the Speranza group— with people from lots of places with special skills that has existed for hundreds of years to help women and children or the vulnerable and marginalized.
If some of you have an aversion to Christian Fiction or have preconceived notions of what it would be like, there are many authors I would recommend like Steven James or Jessica Patch or Randy Singer, but I would also recommend trying this one. It’s not overtly Christian, but is a clean action-packed novel that I think any reader will enjoy!
Read my full review to get more plot details, my main critique, a Jimmy Fallon reference and where I think the series is headed.
4. The Dragon and the Stone (The Dreamkeeper Saga #1) by Kathryn Butler
Genre: Middle Grade/ Adventure
My seven-year-old daughter is reading chapter books so I wanted to get her into a series that I wouldn’t really have to worry about the content.
I ended up reading this one out loud to my 5-year-old daughter when my oldest finished. She loved it! It probably helped that it had a unicorn.
The main character is a 12-year-old girl named Lily who ends up in a fantastical world where she has special abilities. She goes on an adventurous quest to help save the realm from an army of evil attackers and try to find her dad who she had thought had died.
Read my full review to get more plot details, see what spiritual allegories are in it, and get a content advisory.
5. Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham
Genre: Memoir
[Fulfilled ‘A funny memoir’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“It seems to me that being a performer is the only job where you are both the car and the billboard advertising it.”
I am a big Lauren Graham fan. I loved Gilmore Girls and Parenthood.
I’ve also read her book, Talking As Fast As I Can, and enjoyed that as well.
That being said, I’m not sure if this book did a whole lot for me. I think if I had done the audio book that probably would have enhanced the experience a bit because a lot of Graham’s humor is in her delivery.
It was definitely a hodgepodge of stories. I’m not sure I could identify a unifying thread throughout the book except maybe lamenting the struggles of staying relevant and meeting the spoken and unspoken standards of Hollywood.
Read my full review to see more comments and what resonated with me.
6. Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology— Implications for the Church and Society by Neil Shenvi & Pat Sawyer
Genre: Non-Fiction/ Cultural
“We want to show Christians that the Bible offers better answers to questions about race, class, gender, sexuality, justice, oppression, and a host of other hot-button issues.”
“The attraction of critical theories for Christians lies in the fact that they grasp an aspect of the truth. The problem lies in the fact that they press this to the point where other truths are marginalized, subverted, or even rejected.”
Critical Dilemma is a fantastic book and resource for all people— not just Christians— to better understand what critical theory is and how it has subtly (and not so subtly) pervaded our culture and our own beliefs in ways we may not recognize.
It takes similar paths to the book Cynical Theories, but Shenvi and Sawyer approach from a biblical perspective and explain how entertaining critical-theory-based beliefs can hurt the church and ultimately put one at odds with the teachings of the Bible.
There are lots of things to talk about with this book. I’ve read a lot of books on these topics, some Christian, some secular, and this is one of the longer ones, but it is one of the best ones.
Read my full review to get more information on what the book talks about, get more quotes and a list of other books the author references that I’ve reviewed, and see if I can convince you to read this book!
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