How was your reading month? For me, May was heavy on speculative fiction novellas and the novels I read included cozy adventure fantasies, mystery, contemporary and historical fiction.
What I Read in May
I discuss the books I read every week in Bookmarked. To close out the month, I finished 2 novellas, Murder by Memory, Olivia Waite, and What Stalks the Deep, T. Kingfisher and the 2026 Edgar Award Winner for Best Novel, The Big Empty (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #20), Robert Crais. That brought May’s total to 13 books: 8 novellas from the 15 Award Award Nominated Novellas in 2026 and 5 novels.
My May Ratings at a Glance
Novels …
- Brigands & Breadknives, Travis Baldree ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- The Astral Library, Kate Quinn ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Plum, Andy Anderegg ⭐⭐⭐
- The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- The Big Empty, Robert Crais ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Novellas …
- Automatic Noodle, Annalee Newitz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Cinder House, Freya Marske ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Murder by Memory, Olivia Waite ⭐⭐⭐
- What Stalks the Deep, T. Kingfisher ⭐⭐⭐
- The Summer War, Naomi Novik ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Making History, K.J. Parker ⭐⭐⭐
- Psychopomp & Circumstance, Eden Royce ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Book of May
I rated 3 books 5 stars – Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes #2), Travis Baldree; The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn; and The Big Empty (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #20), Robert Crais. Of the 3, my favorite is The Diamond Eye. All 3 books are so different, so it was hard to choose – Brigands & Breadknives is a cozy fantasy that had an epic quest; The Big Empty is a mystery that was emotional to follow; but The Diamond Eye is based on a true story, rich in history, action, war-time romance and cross-continent drama.
The Diamond Eye tells the story of Mila Pavlichenko, a real-life female Russian sniper during World War II, and Quinn captures every imaginable detail of Mila’s life before and during the war. We see her marriage, family life, and the ordinary world she inhabited before everything changed.
Reading Challenges Update
- 2026 Key Word Reading Challenge (May key words: Bright, Creek, Letter, Empire, Forever, Emerald, Wreck, Eye)
⮕ - 2026 Motif Reading Challenge (theme: Debut Novels)
⮕ - Reading 5 4 3 2 … 1 in 2026
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I’m tracking everything on our FREE 2026 Reading Challenge Tracker Spreadsheet – grab yours if you haven’t tried it yet.
May on Chapter Adventure
Outside of our weekly Bookmarked post, where I share what I’m reading and links from other interesting articles I came across, May also brought:-
- The 15 Novellas Nominated for 2026 Locus, Nebula and Hugo Awards – I’m reading through them all and hope to finish in the next few weeks
- Off the Books: 8 Product Empties and Re-Buys: The Spring Edition – products I recently ran out of, and whether it earned a re-buy, or got the boot.
- Spring Essentials Book Tag Vol. 2 – a fun meme where I pair books eith classic Spring activities.
On to June
June is the unofficial start to summer and every year, I think I will have all the time in the World for reading, but every year, life has other plans. Nevertheless – that does not and will not stop me from wanting to read all.the.books! Here’s what I’m plugging into for June:
- #ReadCaribbean – June is Read Caribbean Month, and I’ve got my list ready!
- #AudiobookAppreciation Month – Audiobooks are already a big part of my reading life, so I’ll just continue on listening, and probably trying to get a few converts this month.
- 20 Books of Summer #20BOS26 … Pick your goal. Read 20, 15, or 10 books – you decide.
- Big Book Summer Challenge – Read books with more than 400 pages – starting June 1st. It’s time to get immersed in some chunksters.
- Summer of Horror 2026 – Also starting June 1st. I haven’t read nearly enough horror books this year, so I’m using this event as my push.
—- That’s it from me. Which book are you most looking forward to reading this summer? Are you participating in any of these events?
Cheers to the week ahead!
Thanks for stopping by the blog and linking up Summer of Horror! I’m so happy you’re joining in. I’m going to have to check out The Diamond Eye😁