My May 2020 TBR

And it’s a doozy. To be honest, I’ve struggled a lot with TBRs throughout my entire reading career. Mood always trumps everything I want to read, but I’ve also come to appreciate the TBR for getting me through books I wouldn’t normally pick up.

I really love exploring new books and picking up things I wouldn’t necessarily pick up. I always find amazing reads this way and I love that there isn’t a lot of influence from the community to read popular books when I do read from a TBR. I mean, I’m influenced, but when sticking to the stack you’re not needlessly pushing stuff off. You can just read the popular book next month or after you finish your TBR.

But May is a pretty busy month with too many goals set for myself. I actually might have overdone it. Here’s what I’ll be reading:

Hugo Award Nominated Books

I wanted to challenge myself with the time I spend in quarantine, so I decided I would read some of the books nominated for a Hugo Award this year. I’ve already started this goal last month and I’m loving the books being offered up for the award. All of them are so intriguing and suspenseful with stories that are seriously complex and make you think.

I decided once I’m done reading from this list, I’ll host my own little award ceremony and choose my favorite from two different categories: novels and novellas. I would try and read everything nominated for a Hugo Award this year, but I have other books to read too. Here’s what I’ll be reading from the novel category:

• The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (I’ll also be reading Harrow the Ninth right after, but that’s just for me)
• The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
• Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

For the novella category, I’ll be reading:

• Exhalations by Ted Chiang (there’s one specific story from this book that’s being nominated, but I’ll read the whole thing)
• The Deep by Rivers Solomon
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P Djeli Clark
• This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

Just to note, I’ve already read To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers and I will be skipping In An Absent Dream by Seanan Mcguire because it’s part of a series. I’d like to read that series entirely.

Netgalley Reads

Another big goal for myself is to read my Netgalley books. I’ve been meaning to improve my Netgalley score for months and I decided in the month with the biggest challenge, I’m going to try and improve it. Many books I’m receiving from publishers right now are through Netgalley, so my score is only going to get worse. Here’s what I’m looking to read and review:

• Given by Nandi Taylor
• Things in Jars by Jess Kidd
• Nowhere on Earth by Nick Lake
• The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer
• Unnatural Magic by CM Waggoner
• Havenfall by Sara Holland
• Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar
• Running by Natalia Sylvester

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Reads

May is also Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Some of the authors above do fall into that category, but I think the main goal for me to read is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. This will be an epic re-read for me because it’s been 20 years since I read it the first time.

I think if I add any more books to this list, I’m going to intimidate myself into reading nothing. LOL. What will you be reading this month?