Literary Kitten

Last month, I didn’t read nearly as much as I wanted to. I went on a trip and ended up getting way busier than I imagined! I still read four out of eight books from last month’s TBR, but I really wish I could have read them all. April 2024’s TBR made me so completely excited and now it’s over. 

Now… It’s May. It’s a new month. And I’ve decided it’s time for some chaos. What will be my punishment for never finishing these TBRs? May Mayhem of course! 

May Mayhem will be me taking my Goodreads to-read list and picking a random number between 1-262 to determine what my May 2024 TBR will be (this will be fun). 262 is the amount of books on my Goodreads TBR currently so that’s why we are going with this number! 

I sorted from the date the books were added to the shelf, so the higher the number = the more recently I’ve added it. The lower the number = the longer it’s been on my to-read Goodreads list! I’m not afraid (sarcasm). 

Additionally, below each book I’ve chosen randomly, I’ll be listing the genre and my excitement level for that book. Excitement level will be shown by the number of hearts! The more hearts = The more excited I am. The less hearts… well I’m not as excited.

Let’s start randomly generating some numbers. 

My first spin is…. 56! 

Number 56 is… The Tell Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allan Poe! Okay! This is pretty easy. I’ll take it! I haven’t read Poe since high school… so this will be a very interesting experience for me.

• Genre(s): Classics, Gothic, Horror
• Excitement level: ❤❤❤
• This collection consists of these tales via the Goodreads description:
  • The Tell-Tale Heart
  • The Black Cat
  • The Cask of Amontillado
  • The Fall of the House of Usher
  • The Masque of the Red Death
  • The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
  • Ligeia
  • The Murders in the Rue Morgue
  • The Purloined Letter
  • A Descent into the Maelstrom
  • The Pit and the Pendulum
  • Ms. Found in a Bottle
  • The Premature Burial
  • William Wilson
  • Eleonara
  • Silence-A Fable
  • The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Second spin is… 260! 

Number 260 is… A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. Okay so as the number can show… I added this VERY recently and kind of on a whim. I’ve heard it’s cozy and I know it’s a YA fantasy, so I’m kind of stoked! 

• Genre(s): Fantasy, Young Adult/Middle Grade, Cozy Mystery
• Excitement level: ❤❤❤

Third spin is… 140! Closer to the middle!

Number 140 is… Berlin by Bea Setton. I heard this book is kind of weird so I added it to my list at one point. It’s about a girl who moves to Berlin and experiences all the typical trials of moving to a new place. However, I’m not sure what makes this book weird specifically, but I think maybe she ends up getting followed or stalked? I’ll let you know!

• Genre(s): Literary Fiction
• Excitement level: ❤❤

Fourth spin is… 183! 

Number 183 is… The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune! Aww! I’ve heard so many good things about this book. I’ve heard it’s lighthearted, has LGBTQ representation, and some cozy vibes. I think I’ll love this one!

• Genre(s): Fantasy, LGBTQ
• Excitement level: ❤❤❤❤

Fifth spin is… 12! 

Oh, god. 12? This is probably going to be a classic because when I first started my Goodreads, I was on a classics kick and trying to discover my reading tastes. I’m scared to look. Let’s see… 

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Oh dear, well, at least it’s a gothic classic and I’m pretty partial to those. However, the Goodreads average rating is a bit low at 3.18… and it’s only just over 100 pages long. I’m concerned. But… I’ll do it! 

• Genre(s): Classics, Gothic, Horror
• Excitement level: ❤

Sixth spin… 121! 

121 is… Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger! I put this on my list because I saw a few people mention they enjoyed it and for some reason it’s a lot of celebrities’ favorite book? (Emma Stone and Jodie Foster’s specifically) I got to learnabout the hype. 

• Genre(s): Classics, Literary Fiction
• Excitement level: ❤❤

Seventh Spin! It’s… 46. 

OH MY… It’s Babel by R.F. Kuang. Can my heart handle this right now? I’m so afraid and also excited? But I’m so nervous because this book has received so much hype AND it’s long. But okay, okay… this is… this is something: a dark historical fantasy!

• Genre(s): Fantasy, Historical Fiction
• Excitement level: ❤❤❤❤❤

Last spin! 

197. You guys… I want to reroll this so badly. Don’t get me wrong, I think this book has a lot of potential but the audiobook was making me fall asleep even though I thought the book was originally to be up my alley. I temporarily DNF’d (did not finish) it. A wife writes a biography about her deceased wife who was an iconic artist and may have had more secrets than she let on.

197 is Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. 

• Genre(s): Literary Fiction, LGBTQ
• Excitement level: ❤

Wow, what a TBR. We’ve got 3 classics, 3 fantasies, and 2 literary fiction. I’m definitely not crying because I didn’t get any mysteries or thrillers (I’m lying right now). Every month, I always strive to read at least half of my originally planned TBR. So no matter what… at least half of these are going to get read and maybe even more considering a lot of these are shorter. 

Wish me luck because I certainly wouldn’t have picked a lot of these for this month 🙂 And I wish you all luck this month with your TBR. May you read all the books you want or all the books you don’t want… it’s up to you, just have fun 🙂

Here’s the summary of the 2024 May Mayhem TBR: