Hi guys, it's Olivia here from Olivia's Catastrophe and today I'm here to give
you my May TBR pick-and-mix
edition. So in the month of April I read
quite a lot of books so I decided to go
easy on myself in May. I'm going to be
prioritizing my writing instead of my
reading and I'm going to be joining in
with three readathons which are mentalathon, books for the brave and
believathon. I will be participating in
all of these casually. I'm not sure how
much I'm going to read but I do have a
TBR for each and every read-a-thon.
However, my TBR is going to be done in a
pick-and-mix style. I've got 25 books
here but I'm not going to read all 25.
I'm actually aiming to read 10. The mood
reader in me lately has been screaming
for some freedom so I decided to pick 25
books I'm currently in the mood for and
then those are locked in. And I will
choose based on my mood 10 of these
books at the time to read. So first of
all I've got the current read that I'm
reading that I don't have with me. And
that is Death Note volumes 1 & 2 in the
Black Edition. And this is something my
sister has lent me and it's over by my
bedside which is in a different room. I
totally forgot to bring it for this
video. I also wanted to carry some books
over from my April TBR that I didn't get
around to that I might be in the mood
for. First of all we have It by Stephen
King which I'm definitely going to
finish. I am about half way at 500 pages
in. I just wasn't able to finish it
during my 30 books in 30 days month and
I will definitely finish that this month.
So that's one that's definitely locked
in and definitely gonna happen.
Then we have Rebel by Marie Lu. I started
it and I got only a couple pages in but
I just wasn't quite in the mood. But I
might get in the mood later on. I'm not
really gonna tell you too much about
these books but just running through
them here and I give full synopses in
my wrap-up when I actually have read the
book. Rather than deceive you with lies
about the books. Then we have Sorcery of
Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. Again, I
started this one during last month and I
got 50 pages in. I wasn't quite in the mood. Maybe my mood will change, we'll see. It's
been off to a very intriguing start. And
then the last one I'm carrying through
is Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I
read Six of Crows last month. I really
enjoyed it. However, where it ended didn't
make me feel excited to pick up the next
one. I felt like I could just read Six of
Crows
and be very much okay. I know lots of
people beg to differ because it does end
with an open ending to segue into
Crooked Kingdom but I'm... I'm quite
content not to read this. Nut will see if
my mood changes and I get curious enough
to pick it up. The next books I want to
talk about are my believathon TBR
books and the first one is Just in Case by Meg Rosoff. This has been on my TBR for
ever so long that I don't actually
remember what it's about or how I got it.
So it'd be nice to get to one of the old
veterans on my TBR. Then we have Fortune
Cookie by Cathy Cassidy and I will
definitely, definitely be reading this
because The Chocolate Box Girls was one
of my favourite series that I read last
month. You can hear all about that in
wrap-up. And I thought it was fantastic
and I'm so excited to get to the last
book in the series. You know, I'm also
feeling a bit bittersweet because I
don't want this series to end. I just
want it to continue forever and ever. However, that can't happen, so looking
forward to getting to this conclusion. Then we have the last two books in The
Chronicles of Narnia. I would have read
these last month but then I found out
that believathon was happening and
then I wanted to do it and then I saw
that these two books would be perfectly
fitting for some proms so I saved them
until late. So I'll probably definitely
get to these. One of these is The Last
Battle which is the final book in the
series and then we have the Magician's
Nephew which is, in chronological order,
the first book in the series. But from
the way that I've chosen to read it it's
gonna be my last book in the series. So
it happens before The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and I'm just curious to
finish off the series and see what I'll
make of these ones because The
Magician's Nephew is typically a
favourite among readers. And then we have
a reread. I've been rereading old
favourites and really enjoying that. So I
thought I would reread Out of My Mind by
Shannon M Draper. This one has great
disability rep. It was an emotional one
for me. I absolutely loved it back when I
read it and I'm looking forward to
reading it again. Then we have my mental healthathon
TBR and the first one is My
Heart and Other Black Holes. Oh, by the
way, I'm not doing all the prompts for
mentalhealthathon because there was quite a
few and I want to be easy on my reading
this month. I've just chosen a few to
participate in. My Heart and Other Black
Holes is book that I recently mentioned
on my channel for having had on my TBR
for a very long time. And it's got one of
my favourite titles and I am just
intrigued. So I need to read it.
Then we have The Shock of the Fall by
Nathan Filer. And this is one, again, that
I can't remember when, where or why I
bought this. But it is Costa Book of the
year, so it's won an award. And I've
mentioned it on Instagram and some
people said it's one of their favourite
books of all time.
So that gives me high hopes for this one. Then we have Darius the Great is Not Ok
by a Adib Khorram. And this is one that
Sallya from Hustleszn loved
and really recommended. I won it in a
giveaway from It Starts at Midnight and
I can't wait to read it because it just
sounds like it's gonna be the type of
contemporary for me. And I've heard that
the diversity is good. It takes place in
Iran, I believe, and I've got a friend
from Iran. Then we have Turtles all the
Way Down by John Green and this is
Victoria's pick for the read-a-thon. So
I'll be reading her pick. I have read two
John Green books in the past. Both The
Fault in Our Stars and Looking for
Alaska. I didn't particularly enjoy
either one. I have a personal rule which
is three strikes and you're out for an
author. So this is essentially John
Green's last chance and if I don't
like this one I don't read any more John
Green books. Let's see and let's hope it
can be good. And last but not least for the
mentalhealthathon, Paula by Isabel Allende.
And I don't know if i'm gonna
really get to this one. Iit's the one I am
least pulled to from this TBR. But I chose it for mentalhealthathon because
it's dealing with grief and I do believe
that grief should be included in mental
healthathon because it does have a huge impact on
your mental health. Next I'm going to be
talking about some buddy reads. So I'm
buddy reading Artemis Fowl and Artemis
Fowl book 2 which is Artemis Fowl and
the Arctic incident with Gaia from
Gaia Athena. I know that Cara from Wilde Book Garden really loves these books and
also Stephanie from bookfever. So I am
looking forward to finally delving into
these ones I've been recommended time
and time again. I've already started
Artemis Fowl with Gaia and it's going
pretty good so far. So I think I'm gonna
enjoy the rest of them. And another buddy
read I have this month is Horrorstor by
Grady Hendriz. And I'm buddy reading this with Abi from Abi Mack Reads.
She's starting a blog and she does
have a booktube. I have read My Best
Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix which
is still one of my favourite horror
novels that I have read to this day. So
I am finally gonna get to a second book
by him and I hope I'm going to enjoy it
just as much. This one comes in a unique
format. It kind of reads like an IKEA
catalogue and when it came out
bloggers went crazy about this book. So now
it's my turn. It's my turn. Then when I
got here I perused my sister's shelves
and I found a lot of books that were on
my TBR that she has and she kindly lent
them to me. So the first of which is the
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. I'm
not sure if I'm gonna enjoy this one.
I've heard both good and bad things
about it but it's one that's really well
known so I just want to try it and see
what my own two cents will be. We have
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by Tom
Stoppard and this is a book that has
been on my wishlist TBR forever. It is a
play to do with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern who are both side
characters in Hamlet. And I've heard that
if you like Shakespeare, if you like
Hamlet, this is fantastic. So I am... I am
excitement. I'll definitely get to this
this month. She also lent me Confessions
of an Ugly Stepsister and this is on my
books for the brave TBR. This is by Gregory
Maguire and my sister is a huge Gregory
Maguire fan. I haven't read anything by
Gregory Maguire but because she's such a
big fan I was curious to try some myself.
A similar story for Malice by John Gwyne.
I don't know much about this other than
my younger sister absolutely adores what
she's read of this series so I better
jump on that train as well because we
tend to have quite a few of the same
favourites. Then we have The Final Empire
and The Well of Ascension by Brandon
Sanderson. So I know Rachel Marie and some others
are hosting a readalong for these. I just
don't know if I can commit to reading such
big books after I finish It. I know
that the live show for the Final Empire
is happening midway through May. I just
won't have it done by then but if I do
read the Final Empire I can still watch
back the live show. So I might end up
reading this one later in May and
watching back. We shall see. And we have
the complete works of Shakespeare. Why is
this not the beautiful edition of
Shakespeare hauled in recently? Because
that one is in the UK. That is the
problem of living across two countries. Sometimes you want to read books now but
they're not in the country with you. This is
my sister's edition of the complete works
of Shakespeare and she has let me borrow
it before so I will
I read some Shakespeare. Because now
that I'm done reading all of the
Sherlock Holmes novels I want to read
all Shakespeare's plays. I've already
read half of all of his plays so I would
just like to read one or two this month.
I usually typically read a Shakespeare
play in a single day so it wouldn't be a
problem to just fit in a few. Then we've got a magazine. A magazine in
a TBR? Who has heard of this before? But this is Blogsphere issue 23. I
have not sat down and read a magazine in
literally forever because I don't have
much interest in them. However, this one
is special because I am in it and my
blog is in it. So I definitely want to --
well, I already read the one where I'm
featured. However, I do want to sit down
and read through all of these because it
is about the influencer industry. And it
talks about Instagram, YouTube and also
blogs. And it talks about different
categories of each one but I feel like I
could learn a lot from reading about all
these other influencers and all the
interviews and such. Maybe it can help me
with growing my own channel. And then
last but not least we have Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire illustrated
edition. We all know what I think about
Harry Potter. Not the best. But I did say
that I was just going to flick through
the images here. I'm not actually gonna
read this book back to front because I
have no interest in reading The Goblet of Fire
again... but I will look at the
images and just flip through it. Will I
be able to actually count it to my
reading goal this year? Probably not. But
it's just here 'cause I'm gonna flip through it
when I'm not in the mood to read but I
want to pretend that I'm reading. And
there you have it, guys. Those are the
books for my pick-and-mix TBR. I quite
like the idea of being able to be
flexible with what I will read in the
month. Let me know if you like this kind
of video and maybe if I enjoy doing this
I'll do more pick-and-mix TBRs in
the future. Please let me know in the
comment section down below what is one
book that you really, really want to get
to this month. Give this video a thumbs
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video. And you know what they say: onwards
and upwards.
Excelsior!
