Month in Review: May 2026

 

I took this picture in New Zealand!

Welcome to June, everyone! I can't believe we're almost halfway through the year, but I feel like that's how most of us probably feel, haha. Things have been extra busy and all I really want to do is catch up on all my reading, so maybe (fingers crossed) this summer I'll have some extra time to read. I hope you're all able to find some time to read or do whatever fun things you like to do!

In personal news, May was really busy! My husband and I took a trip to New Zealand, which I have to say is probably one of the most beautiful places we've ever been and I already want to go back. We of course visited some Lord of the Rings filming locations (how could we not!? The perk there is that many of those locations are also some incredible spots on their own) as well as many other gorgeous locations. We got to go stargazing one night, which was one of the coolest experiences because I've never really gotten to see such clear night skies with low light pollution, and apparently since only 10% of the world's population lives in the Southern Hemisphere, even less ever have a chance to see some of those skies, so it felt very special. Outside of that, I've just been busy working and trying to keep up with all my classes (and I can finally see the end of the tunnel because they are all finishing up in the next couple weeks, hooray!). 

In reading news, I read much more than I expected to, and I read things I didn't really plan to or expect to, but that's the life of a mood reader sometimes, haha. It was honestly a bit of a weird reading month overall, but sometimes I think those just happen. I also read a lot more ebooks than usual, largely because of traveling and because it's easier to get those than run to my library when I'm busy. I also did not keep up the great reviewing streak I had from April and was disappointed to write very few reviews in May, but I have a lot to make up for that in June. Now that I'm back and getting back into the swing of things, I have quite the schedule lined up for ARCs and review requests, so I'm excited for all of June's reads!

How was your May and what books have you been reading? How's the new year been? Any reading-related goals?  Let me know how your month was below and what you've been reading!

   

# books read: 13

Abyss by Nicholas Binge

Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC
Thoughts: I had a really fun time with this workplace horror of sorts. I loved the mysterious atmosphere Binge built and it makes me want to read his other work even more now. 

Spread Me by Sarah Gailey

Source: Library | Format: Audiobook
Thoughts: This was weird. I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but it was certainly something.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: I swore I would never read another Cassandra Khaw book because of how much I've disliked two of her other books, and yet... I actually didn't dislike this one that much? I actually found it quite an interesting concept and it's probably (easily) the best of her books that I've read. I'm still not sure her writing is for me, but this was definitely a moderately pleasant surprise.

The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail by Eric Jay Dolin

Source: NetGalley | Format: eARC
Thoughts: I will also be up for a nonfiction shipwreck story, and this one was so fascinating. My review for it is already up if you want to check it out (linked below)!

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: This has been on my TBR for so long and I'm so glad I finally read it. Murata has a very subtly weird style that worked so well, and while I don't think this is for everyone, it was definitely a worthwhile read.

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: And after Convenience Store Woman, I decided to try more of Murata's work and this collection of stories was much, much weirder. Also a bit stomach-churning at time. But honestly, interesting concepts and I think it's worth a weird if you like this style of writing and some really, really odd stuff.

The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil, A Run, Vol. 2 by Nagabe

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about this series, but I am loving the art and the premise is intriguing, so I think I'm enjoying it overall! 

The Girl from the Other Side: Siuil, A Run, Vol. 3 by Nagabe

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: And onto the next one in this series and it's definitely a bit slow going, but I'm still intrigued so I will be continuing.

Love Shots by Travis M. Riddle

Source: Author | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: I'm always excited to read more from Travis M. Riddle and I had such a fun time with this satirical thriller! My review for this one is linked below if you want to check it out!

Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: I was so curious about this older release of Kingfisher's and while I think it was very clever and cute, I'm not sure it's going to be one of my favorites from Kingfisher. 

Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe

Source: Owned | Format: Hardcover
Thoughts: This isn't something that I would necessarily typically pick up, but I chose to read it as my bedtime read and it was honestly a perfect pick for that. It very much felt like a modern day fairy tale of sorts.

Mushishi, Vol. 1 by Yuki Urushibara

Source: Library | Format: Ebook
Thoughts: This was quite odd, but I think I enjoyed it--I thought the general concepts explored were pretty interesting and appreciated the creativity.

The Village Beyond the Mist by Sachiko Kashiwaba

Source: Library | Format: Audiobook
Thoughts: This was a really cute middle grade story. I found the first half much stronger than the latter half, but it's still a really sweet book overall.

To-Be-Finished:

None! (that I can recall...)

 

The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
Abyss by Nicholas Binge

Love Shots by Travis M. Riddle

 Posts:

Month in Review: April 2026

Blog Memes:

Can't-Wait Wednesday:

5/13: Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim, Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky, & The Wreck of the Mentor by Eric Jay Dolin

5/20: The Animal Room by Lauren Acampora, The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden, & It Came from Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo

5/27: Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh, What Came West by Josh Weil, & The Children by Melissa Albert

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Lord of the Wood by E.M. Anderson, Seven by Joanna Kavenna, & Band on the Run by Robert O'Connell

 

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!

The Lord of the Wood by E.M. Anderson

Publication: July 21st, 2026

Hanover Square Press

Hardcover. 448 pages.

Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:

"The cozy fantasy of TJ Klune meets the creeping horror of T. Kingfisher in this magical novel about a man who enters a deadly enchanted forest expecting it to endanger his life, but not his heart...

Clockmaker Arthur Throckmorton lives a quiet life with his sister and her children, only dreaming of adventure. So when a wealthy client offers him a job that involves traversing Shiftleaf—an enchanted forest that claimed his father decades ago—he reluctantly accepts. The forest is treacherous, but the money will change his family’s lives.

The journey quickly turns perilous. Fleeing monstrous birds, Arthur stumbles upon a hidden vale where he meets the Lord of the Wood—a figure from his father’s many stories. Instead of the fairy prince Arthur always imagined, Ira is a morose man, slowly transforming into a beast, his power over a dying forest waning.

Arthur enjoys the safety of the vale, and Ira’s company. But he yearns for his family. To safely return home and rescue Ira from a cursed and lonely existence, Arthur and Ira must reach the heart of the wood to heal the forest. Except the farther they venture from the vale, the more beastly Ira becomes. If they can’t complete their mission before he turns completely, Arthur could lose the man he’s falling for—and never see his family again."

I recently got an ARC on NetGalley of this one and I'm so curious about it, it sounds like it'll be right up my alley.

Seven by Joanna Kavenna

Publication: July 14th, 2026

Faber & Faber

Hardcover. 320 pages.

Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:

"Timely and timeless, a literary quest novel about trying to stay hopeful in hopeless times.

"To surrender yourself to the revelations of life and then to come back with the assertions of prose: that is the new heroism of the woman writer, and Kavenna is in the vanguard of it."—Rachel Cusk

Who decides the rules of the games we play?

In August 2007, or thereabouts, a young philosopher leaves Oslo, heading for Greece, on a mission to find the head of the Society of Lost Things, Theodoros Apostolakis. Fortunately Apostolakis isn’t lost but everything else is: ancient libraries, entire civilisations, priceless books and a beautiful ancient box, once used to play the world-famous game of Seven. The hunt for this small thing, among the countless lost things, becomes an absurdist quest through time and space: from the earliest human societies to the advent of AI.

Told, shared and mythologised by our narrator, along with a wild cast of dreamers, philosophers, poets, rebels and optimists, Seven is an extraordinary, uplifting journey through an ever darkening world."

I have no idea what to expect from this, but it sounds really interesting and I'm so curious!

Band on the Run: Xenophon and the First Great Mercenary Army's Epic Escape from Persia by Robert O'Connell

Publication: July 28th, 2026

Simon & Schuster

Hardcover. 256 pages.

Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:

"A riveting retelling of one of the great adventure stories of antiquity—when Greek philosopher-warrior Xenophon led a stranded band of the “Ten Thousand” mercenary soldiers on a treacherous escape from the Persians.

400 BC. The Persian prince Cyrus the Younger hires an army of Greek soldiers to oust his brother from the Persian throne. But when Cyrus dies in battle during the army’s trek through the middle east, the army is stranded deep in enemy territory.

Led by Xenophon, a young Athenian philosopher turned solider, the Ten Thousand fought their way home through deserts and mountains, snowstorms, starvation, and relentless attacks, evolving into one of the most fearsome forces of the ancient world. Their journey, chronicled in Xenophon’s Anabasis, is one of history’s greatest military stories.

In Band on the Run, Robert O’Connell not only gives us an exciting and witty retelling of this story, but he has done so with a wise contemporary spin. For in his estimation, this was the battle that established the use of powerful mercenary forces. The attempted conquest of the Ten Thousand begins a historical line through Western history of the use of mercenary armies that has lasted up to our present day. And, as O’Connell shows, much misery and tragedy in human history has been due to this trajectory. This is a brilliant revisionist history with important lessons for our time."

The Classicist in me is so excited about this one!

Review: The Wreck of the Mentor by Eric Jay Dolin

The Wreck of the Mentor by Eric Jay Dolin
Liveright

Publication Date: June 2nd, 2026
Hardcover. 272 pages.

About  The Wreck of the Mentor:

"An astonishing true story—one of the most gripping maritime sagas of the nineteenth century—told by our era’s “expert literary steersman” (Washington Post).

From the best–selling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters comes the story of the American whaleship Mentor, wrecked in 1832 on a remote reef in the western Pacific. With supplies dwindling, the eleven surviving crewmen face not only the miseries of shipwreck in unfamiliar territory but also the profound uncertainty of contact with the Indigenous people of the Micronesian archipelago of Palau, who within days approach the deserted men brandishing axes, clubs, and spears. In this gripping saga of cultural collision, tribal wars, and dashed hopes, award–winning historian Eric Jay Dolin vividly reconstructs the Mentor’s doomed voyage, the years of perilous captivity, and the delicate negotiations and fraught naval rescue mission that followed.

Illustrated by more than 100 images and maps, The Wreck of the Mentor is at once a powerful story of survival and a revealing window into the great Age of Sail?a time when maritime ambition collided with local sovereignty, and when the outcome of one voyage rippled across oceans and empires."

If you've followed my reviews for any length of time, you'll probably be aware that I have a bit of an obsession for any nonfiction about shipwrecks or survival stories, so naturally when I saw The Wreck of the Mentor was coming out and also available on NetGalley, I had to immediately request it. 

One thing that I think is helpful to know about this book is that it doesn't focus solely on the wreck of the Mentor itself. Rather, it uses the Mentor's wreck as a jumping-off point for a much broader history of the Western Pacific island regions, as well as the various interactions and relationships between the native indigenous peoples that inhabit those islands and the Englishmen, Americans, and other foreigners who arrived on their shores. In many ways, this book is less a shipwreck narrative and more a history of Palau and the surrounding region during a period of increasing contact with foreign nations, which was a positive for me, though I can see others maybe wanting more of the shipwreck. I especially enjoyed learning about the customs, social structures, and daily lives of the people who inhabited these islands. It felt incredibly informative without losing sight of the fact that these were real human people and stories at the heart of everything going on.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book was learning about the many different communities that inhabited the islands of the Western pacific and how varied their interactions with foreign visitors could be. Some were welcoming, some cautious, and some wanted absolutely nothing to do with the foreigners. What I liked was that Dolin really took the time to explain the reasoning for any of these reactions. For example, a previous ship may have cheated them, harmed them, or otherwise left a bad impression, so of course they weren't going to be thrilled to see another group arrive and welcome them with open, trusting arms. Conversely, some communities really benefited from trade or had very positive relationships that developed, so they were often much more open to visitors. One particularly interesting example involved natives who were initially a bit hostile towards the Mentor castaways because they thought they were English, whom they had a bad past experience with, but once they learned that the Mentor was in fact American, they were much more receptive and open to them. 

I also appreciated getting a glimpse into the various islands and their inhabitants. The book explored how they interacted, competed, formed alliances, and went to war with one another. For instance, after the Mentor wrecked, different groups sought to secure access to Captain Barnard of the Mentor and his supplies. The natives wanted to keep them there and promised to build them a boat to return home in exchange for supplies, while the Koror peoples from a different area sent messengers to attempt to persuade Barnard to join them instead and help them build their return ship in exchange for access to their resources. Barnard's loyalty was really just to returning home, so his loyalty was very much swayed by who he felt could successfully build that return ship, which led to an atmosphere that often felt a bit tense and suspicious from everyone involved. From this account and many others like it, it really became clear that diplomacy, trade relationships, and a huge amount of distrust and suspicion played incredibly important roles in shaping what occurred.

Something that also intrigued me was how many of the castaways chose to remain on the islands and live a different life away from their home country. As a result, these people often became translators or intermediaries of sorts for future foreign visitors and castaways, which was an interesting dynamic to explore. Likewise, some of the indigenous peoples would send some sons or daughters abroad with the castaways as they returned home to learn more about foreign cultures and customs. I found this cultural exchange really interesting and complex, and it was fascinating to hear about the different experiences. At the same time, there were also some less than ideal situations for some of the castaways, as for instance some of the Mentor survivors who were inadvertently left behind were effectively held hostage and treated quite poorly (which is a bit of an understatement) by the indigenous peoples. 

The research is easily the strongest aspect of this book. It's incredibly through and detailed, and you will come away from this having learned about a huge variety of other ships and wrecks that passed through this region and the different trials and experiences they underwent. I especially appreciated the extensive footnotes, which not only provided additional commentary or explanation on something mentioned in the text, but also provided a variety of additional resources for the information itself. I've also been a sucker for footnotes, so I appreciated how well these were done. 

I also loved the abundance of photos and images included throughout the book. While many nonfiction books do already often include some photographs, usually clustered in some center sections of the book, I am someone who loves a visual of what's being discussed, so I always welcome more. In The Wreck of the Mentor, there were drawings and images throughout the depicted anything from weapons and tools discussed to island landscape, depictions of figures discussed (often with a note on their accuracy of portrayal, which I appreciated), or even some depictions of the ships themselves. I found these really helped bring the history to life for me and helped me really visualize the people, places, and events described. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-researched and fascinating read, and I really came away feeling like I learned much more about Palau and the Western Pacific region than I anticipated, and I don't think that's a bad thing at all. It you're looking for a more straightforward shipwreck story, then I might point you in the direction of some other readers since the scope of this book actually feels quite a bit broader than that, but if you're at all interested in maritime history, cultural encounters, and history, then I think you'll have a great time with this one.

*I received a copy of The Wreck of the Mentor courtesy of the publisherr in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating or enjoyment.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Anticipated June 2026 Releases

   

Somehow it's June, and rather than spend time wondering (as always) how time goes by quickly, let's just take a look at some of the many new releases that will be gracing the shelves in June! 

Be sure to let me know which June releases you're most looking forward to (even if it's not listed below) and happy reading, everyone!

Six Savage Thrones by Holly Race || June 16th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Tinder Box by M.R. Carey || June 23rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Children by Melissa Albert || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

It Came from Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What Came West by Josh Weil || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Headlights by CJ Leede || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Hunger & Thirst by Claire Fuller || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Door in Penrose Forest by Sean David Robinson || June 23rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Heart of the Nhaga by Lee Young-do || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Wreck of the Mentor by Eric Jay Dolin || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Unmagical Life of Briar Jones by Lex Croucher || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay || June 30th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Muñeca by Cynthia Gómez || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Retro by Jessica M. Goldstein || June 23rd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Traveler by Joseph Eckert || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Daughters of the Sun and Moon by Lisa See || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Game of Oaths by S.C. Bandreddi || June 2nd -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Lightning Beneath the Sea: The Race to Wire the World and the Dawn of the Information Age by James M. Tabor || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Summer Fun Massacre by Craig DiLouie || June 16th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss by Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Endless Blue Beneath by Shannon English || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Nymph by Sofia Montrone || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus || June 24th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Summerwork by Carrie Mesrobian || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The American School of Spies by Stephan Talty || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

The Traveler: One Man's Quest for Humanity from the South Seas to Revolutionary Paris by Andrea Wulf || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Contrapposto by Dave Eggers || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future by Fergus M. Bordewich || June 9th -- Amazon | Bookshop.org

What are your anticipated June releases?