May was heavy on historical fiction, light on DNFs (finally!), and the first month in a long while that I read across all three formats: audiobooks, ebooks, and physical books. What wasn’t new was that every single one came from the library.
Seven books finished. One DNF. 2,623 pages. 53 hours of reading and listening. Historical fiction dominated with four out of seven books, which wasn’t intentional but also wasn’t surprising once I realized that one little piece in The Latecomer had sent me down a Mormon history rabbit hole that led directly to The Nineteenth Wife. That’s the thing about reading: one book opens a door and suddenly you’re three books deep in a topic you didn’t know you cared about.
Here’s everything I read this month, ranked.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
🎧 Audiobook (narrated by Julia Whelan)
Picked this up strictly because Julia Whelan narrated it and it was available when I needed a new audiobook. Didn’t do any research beforehand becuases rarely does a Julia Whelan narration let me down, which turned out to be the right call. The first half builds this portrait of a family held together by grief and obligation, three triplets conceived through IVF after their parents lost their first child, and you think you know what kind of book this is. Then the second half takes a turn you don’t see coming and the whole thing opens up into something much bigger and stranger and more interesting than a family drama.
I Googled Stendhal syndrome (the phenomenon where tourists faint or get dizzy in front of great art because it moves them so deeply) and went down a rabbit hole on Mormon temple sealings and the belief that families are bound together for eternity. That rabbit hole led me to add several Mormon historical fiction books to my TBR, which is how The Nineteenth Wife ended up on this list. The Latecomer also sparked two personal essays I’m working on: one about the fear that your kids will drift apart as adults, and one about memories and whether we remember our childhoods the way they actually happened.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
🎧 Audiobook (narrated by Julia Whelan)
Listened to this on vacation and could not stop. On the plane, in the hotel, getting ready for dinner, getting ready for bed. Three siblings separated by adoption finding each other for the first time, each dealing with their own version of what it means to have been given away. The writing is emotionally precise without being heavy-handed, and Julia Whelan gives each sibling a distinct voice that makes you care about all three equally.
The moment that stuck with me: a foster kid named Joaquin talks about getting a bike as a little boy and how even after he learned to ride, he never wanted the training wheels taken off. Because training wheels always catch you, no matter what. And he’d never had anyone in his life who always caught him. That metaphor inspired a custom essay I just released earlier this week called “Training Wheels” about what catches us at different stages of life and what happens when you have to ride without that safety net. One of those books that finishes and then just sits with you.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
📕 Physical (Library)
A memoir about a marriage that quietly unravels. Belle Burden doesn’t dramatize or blame. She just tells the truth, and the truth is that sometimes the person you married becomes a stranger so slowly you don’t notice until it’s already happened. I had to get the physical copy because the audiobook wait was months long and this book has been everywhere on social media lately.
The writing is gorgeous and it reads fast despite the weight of it. One passage on page 222 stopped me: she Googles “swarm of dragonflies” expecting to find something wrong with her house, and instead discovers that dragonflies are symbolic of self-actualization. That moment connected directly to what I do with my “Things I Googled” series. Seeing an author go through the same instinct of Googling something to make sense of her life felt like looking in a mirror. Highly recommend for women in long marriages. Not sure how it would land for men, and I’m not going to pretend to know.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
📕 Physical (Library)
A historical epic told from Cleopatra’s perspective, written as though someone who truly knew her was finally telling the real story. El-Arifi has a master’s thesis on Cleopatra’s myth, and that academic depth shows up in a feature I’ve never seen in historical fiction before: footnotes that flag historically exaggerated events while Cleopatra corrects the record inside the narrative. It’s clever and it works.
Sent me down five Google rabbit holes including the Egyptian harvest season Shemu, the Arabic storytelling tradition of the Hakawati, and some breathtaking classical paintings that may have lied about how Cleopatra actually died. Also a love story, but one that never overshadows the politics. Didn’t quite reach five stars because it released me when I put it down rather than pulling me to think about it for weeks after, but I’d recommend it to anyone who loved Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati, Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes or even Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn.
⭐⭐⭐
We Must Not Think of Ourselves by Lauren Grodstein
📱 eBook (Library)
WWII historical fiction set in the Warsaw Ghetto. A quiet, devastating book about a man who joins a secret group of archivists documenting life inside the ghetto while trying to hold onto something worth living for. Picked it up because it was available on Libby and I know I enjoy this genre. If Goodreads had half stars, this would have been a 3.5.
The things I Googled were almost as interesting as the book: the Warner Brothers were originally the Wonskolaser family and changed their name when they immigrated to the United States. A Wordsworth poem called “Surprised by Joy” that, despite the title, is actually about the strange experience of feeling unexpected joy in the middle of grief. And the connection between the death of Tsar Alexander and the blame placed on Jewish communities. The book also introduced me to the Portuguese word saudade, which describes a sorrowful happiness or a wish for something that was and can never be again. That quote wrecked me. Things I Googled series coming soon.
⭐⭐⭐
📱 eBook (Library)
A Reese’s Book Club pick that didn’t quite land for me. The formal period prose kept me at arm’s length, and I found myself losing focus more often than I was locked in. I finished it because so many readers I trust loved it. It did not end how I expected at all and I found myself wanting a little closure or future insight. But I think literary period fiction just isn’t my sweet spot as a reader, and that’s a useful thing to know about yourself. If you love that style of writing, you’ll probably love this book. It just wasn’t the right fit for me.
⭐⭐⭐
The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff
🎧 Audiobook (Library)
This one landed on my TBR because of The Latecomer. The minimal Mormon comments in that book sent me searching for historical fiction about the early Mormon church, and The Nineteenth Wife was the first result. The research is impressive and I learned a ton about Brigham Young, Ann Eliza Young, and the customs and violence of early Mormon communities.
But the book braids three separate timelines (a modern murder mystery, a 19th-century memoir, and academic interludes) and the constant jumping made it hard to follow, especially on audio. The male narrator’s delivery of Brigham Young’s sermons felt like being yelled at, which may have been intentional but wasn’t enjoyable to listen to. I came away with ten separate Things I Googled, including whether Mormons all shared the prophet’s birthday, whether women really got nosebleeds from the weight of their uncut hair, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre so stay tuned for that rabbit hole article coming soon. I’d recommend this one in print for anyone curious about Mormon history, but know that it asks a lot of your attention.
The DNF: The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (audiobook). Picked it up because after reading Girl at War by Sara Novic I wanted to add more non WWII historical fiction to my TBR, but I just couldn’t get into it. Sometimes the writing style just doesn’t click with how your brain works, and I’ve gotten better at putting a book down instead of forcing my way through.
Still reading: Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (physical, library). Also ended up on my TBR becuase of how much I loved April’s reading of Girl at War. About 20% in and still deciding how I feel about it.
Still reading: The Betrayal of Anne Frank by Rosemary Sullivan (audiobook, library). Was 90% done by the end of May and finished it on June 3. Full review coming with June’s reading recap.
May gave me 2,623 pages, 29.5 hours of audiobook listening at 1.5x speed, and 2.2 full days of my life spent with a book. Historical fiction dominated, the library funded everything, and two books sparked essays I’m still writing. Not a bad month.
What did you read in May? Tell me in the comments.
Can’t wait for the follow ups and things you googled. The Cleopatra book caught my eye and I’m gonna look for it on my Libby since I’m apparently in my Cleopatra phase (I tried and failed to get into the Netflix series). Enormous Wings was the best book I read in May. Although, I also really enjoyed The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Rusell. Currently listening to Meryl Streep (and an entire cast) read Charlotte’s Web every night while falling asleep, which has been such a lovely thing.