May proved to be a charming and busy month for reading, and continued the strange trend of my reading more novels than nonfiction, possibly because grad school and a major work project. I did make some progress on the Science Survey, though, and oddly enough one of the remaining sections is usually the low-hanging fruit of biology. I have the summer off of school, though, so my reading might start trending more toward the usual stuff.
The Month’s Favorite: The Unlikely Voyage of Harold Fry. May will be remembered for discovering Rachel Joyce in general.
Classics Club:
I picked up Resurrection several times and even glanced at The Shahnameh.
The Science Survey
The Big Backyard, Ron Miller
The Milky Way: An Autobiography, Moiya McTier
OMFG Bees! Matt Kracht. Unreviewed because it was a short title: casual, vulgar, but informative. The author reviews different families of bees, informs the reader about their ecological importance, and argues for rewilding yard to better support bee populations. There’s also an amusing section in which he presents several pieces of art that could be improved by bees.
Readin’ Dixie:
Nothing this month, but I’m ahead for the year so not concerned.
Science Fiction Book Bingo, Current Standing:
Small Beginnings: Start a series. The Eighth Continent, Bruno & Castle. May use this one for Better Together, actually.
Beep Boop: A book with a robot or AI: Shelli, David Brode.
Good Things Come in Small Packages. The Downloaded, Robert Sawyer. 183 pages.
All Tied Up: a tie-in novel. Plan 9 from Outer Space.
You are Here: A book with a location in the title. Lunar Missile Crisis.
Bits and Pieces: a collection or anthology. Solar Flare.
Under the Radar: a book you head of in 2024. Growing Seeds from Stones.
I can technically stick Burning Dreams under several of these, but I’ve already uploaded the graphic so it can just wait a month to show up.
What’s coming up in June:
I’m going to make a push at the science survey with an eye towards ending it in July, and really need to attend to the Classics Club.
Reading Freely 
Resurrection is a bit of a tome… OTOH I’m looking at your list now and I don’t see anything super light either 😆 Maybe one of the du Mauriers? Some folks on the Classics Reading Lounge on Discord just read My Cousin Rachel, and many of them enjoyed it. Actually it was a bit controversial, but that seems like a good sign (!).
I’m dropping Plutarch because someone stole — sorry, “borrowed anonymously and indefinitely” — the two volumes I was going to use, and in my search for replacements I’ve realized it’s a bit like the One Thousand and One — there are loads of different editions. Going to replace him with the Confessions and something else, maybe The Republic.
I’m on that discord but almost never remember to boot it up. I’ve been trying to get a multiplayer Stardew Valley game going on, though, so I’ve been a little more active of late…
The Unlikely Voyage of Harold Fry was neat.
I need to look at Shelli, thanks!
https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/05/30/2024-may-wrap-up/