The May Recap | ft. finally reading six of crows (!!), podcasts and yoga

Guys!! Being back to blogging means getting to write a recap and I am so!! happy about that because these are always my favourite posts to write because I can just ramble??
I’m even pre-writing this post a week or so in advance which just shows how (strangely organised and) excited I am.

What books did I read in May?

Firstly: the books I read (and mostly loved!) I read 6 books in May which I’m actually pretty proud of?! I’ve only recently got my reading mojo back and I am so thankful for that because I’ve really missed getting stuck into a good book. & there were also 2.5 five star reads which is amazing??

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (reread before Crooked Kingdom!!) ★★★★★
Easiest 5 stars ever given. You all shouted at me to read Six Of Crows in this blog post and it was the push I needed to FINALLY get to it. And I’m so glad I did because this duology holds my favourite books ever.

Cooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★★
Oh my!! I don’t know if I loved this even more than book 1 & I am so obsessed with this crew?! The plot was also all over the place (in a good way) with so many twists that I didn’t see coming. I just adore this duology so so much. If you haven’t read it, don’t be like me – read it.
Even if the blurb doesn’t hugely appeal to you (which is why I put it off I won’t lie)
JUST READ IT _(please).

Click here to see my SPOILER thoughts

I have so many thoughts about these characters. Firstly MATTHIAS. NO NO NO. Was genuinely in shock because I totally believed that they would all survive? I was not ready. I cried. I’m not surprised. Next. Kaz and Inej, Kaz and Inej ❤ My heart is bursting. HE BOUGHT HER A WHOLE SHIP. And they're my no.1 ship too ;). And Wylan and Jesper. The freaking cutest. I saw that Leigh Bardugo said her final plans for the series included a third book. But as much as I want to read more about Ketterdam and the crew… I don't because the ending (apart from Matthias oh my) was happy??

Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by David Miller ★★★★☆
This was a read for school recommended by my teacher, and even though I didn’t expect to like it, I actually did? I take Philosophy as one of my A-levels and also find politics so interesting (and incredibly infuriating I won’t lie) so this was actually a really interesting combination. There was also loads of analogies which made it so easy to understand which I was very grateful for.

Last Chance by Sarah Dessen ★★☆☆☆ (2.5, maybe 3 if I’m being generous)
I honestly don’t think I liked this one. It wasn’t awful but I just didn’t love it. It felt like nothing really happened (even with character progression etc) and I just didn’t care about the main character at all (can’t even remember her name oops).
I also really struggled with the ages of characters?? I have no idea how old she is or how old her friends are, and the love-interest I thought was like a 30 year-old man (he’s not – he’s 18) for a lot of the book so I was a bit confused and found it a bit weird :)).
I flew through it quickly (thankfully) though?

Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Abertalli and Aisha Saeed ★★★★☆ (4.5, considering making it 5)
This just screamed single at me really. Jamie and Maya were the cutest. So there’s that. As someone who loves politics, I also really enjoyed the shade to Donald Trump and think the messages in it of not sitting back and using your voice as a teen were really good and important. Can definitely see this becoming a comfort read (along with every other Abertalli book _{apart from Leah because I still can’t decide if I want to read it 🙂}).

Theatrical by Maggie Harcourt ★★★★☆
I actually really loved this one! I absolutely love musical theatre (and did performing arts for about 8 years) so the theatre setting just made me so nostalgic and happy. Can see this one becoming a comfort read? I did hit a patch about 60% in though where it felt a bit too long? Which also happened with Maggie’s other book Unconventional. Just felt it could maybe be like 30-40 pages shorter than it is – I like my contemporaries about 350 pages (but that’s probably just a reflection on me not the book haha).

My Lifestyle Faves

• I’ve been doing Yoga With Adriene‘s free videos on YouTube for over two years or so now (pretty much daily) and I so!! recommend!! I also signed up to the Find What Feels Good membership after thinking about it for a while which I’m quite excited about.
• Taylor Swift!! I’ve always loved Taylor Swift but then stopped listening to her music (purely because musicals were all I listened to). But this month I’ve been listening to my Taylor playlist non-stop and am loving it!
• Podcasts I never used to listen to podcasts either but now I love them! They’re so great for motivation and feeling productive which is great to put on whilst I’m doing work. I’ll probably do a post on my faves soon so let me know if you want to see that!

* laptop/Taylor (Pinterest), Yoga With Adriene (FWFG app screenshot), Spotify (my playlist screenshot)

On the blog:

May featured the revival of A Literary Latte!!
I redesigned the blog (although the colour scheme is still the same because I love this pastel teal colour) and started using Pinterest images for the aesthetic so it’s been really fun!
I’ve written quite a few blog posts that are scheduled and ready to go up, so I’m so glad my blogging mojo has returned!
In the mean time, feel free to catch up on my latest blog posts!

I also set up a book twitter and am going to start using it so do follow me over there! I’m @aliterarylatte.

My goals for June

• Work on my mental health I have a really specific goal that I want to work on here. I feel like my mindset with this aspect of my anxiety has kind of shifted in the last few days and so I really want to continue improving with it.

• Grow my Instagram I hate having to be so vague here sorry!! But I want to continue growing my Instagram for an online business (I do graphic design/illustration!) and maybe reach 1700 followers?
  Also I’ve had this business/Instagram since December last year so it’s not a recent thing, I’ve just never mentioned it!

• Go for more regular walks We’re allowed ‘unlimited exercise’ in the UK now but am I making use of that? Ha, nope. I haven’t been outside for over a week oops. Might as well be a vampire these days. But I need that Vitamin D so my aim is to go for more walks next week! I have been exercising though because I’ve been doing the Bailey Brown 5 minute workouts (combining a number of them for one quick and effective workout so I recommend!).
  

• Revise for my Year 12 (online) mock exams I have exams (which will be used for my university applications/ predicted grades, which is kind of scary) at the end of June so I need to get revising for them! I was meant to this half-term but my teacher set a crazy amount of homework (which I haven’t done & is all overdue on Teams::)) so I’ve really not had time. I’ve also had little to no motivation this week which is completely different to how I was feeling when I wrote this post (just for transparency!)

And that’s all that really happened this month! Hope you enjoyed reading this post and sorry it’s kind of short? But lockdown means nothing exciting is really happening these days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What was your fave book that you read in May? Have you read any of the books I’ve mentioned (please tell me you’ve read Six of Crows!!) & What are your fave podcasts?

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