Words of May || The Tiring Month Trend Continues

I've written monthly wrap-ups for the past four 4 years and it looks like May is always a long, tiring, and packed month for me. It's always something different but the outcome is the same.

There's a LOT on my mind and I'm not sure if I'll be able to write this post quickly enough, but I'm going to write down everything. After all, these wrap-ups have become mini catalogues of my life and I know that I will love reading them years later.

reading

I read 9 books in May. 1 paperback and 7 ebooks. 2 rereads (both romance). It was a month of (mostly) great books.

I'm actually a bit surprised that I read 9 books in total, I expected the number to be lower. Especially because I did the Artist's Way week 4 in May and it mandated a reading deprivation week. I was quite outraged when I first read the chapter because why would Julia Cameron tell us to go off reading? In this age of low reading already? And how is it a bad thing? I read almost every day!

When I went on Reddit to get others' thoughts, I realized that it was written decades ago when reading was the only leisure media available. It translates to a media deprivation week in current day. I tried, I really tried. It was hard. I was going through something too and couldn't drown my negative emotions with comfort reads. I ended up going to bed early and staring at the ceiling because I couldn't read before bed like usual. I managed it for 6 days and totally broke it on the 7th day. Enough was enough. After that, I gobbled up books which pushed the number higher.

I tried reading an audiobook, The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick but I quit after a while. I'm tired of the same story about women's oppression told in different ways.

I started Butter by Asako Yuzuki in April but it took me a few weeks to read because of the writing style. Once I got used to the rhythm and the narration style halfway through the book, I flew through the rest. I won’t say that it’s amazing but it’s good. I liked how it explored feminism and the average woman’s life. Full review on this coming soon.

Continuing my Ann Liang backlist binge, I read I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang. It was amazing. I loved the themes it explored and how it did it. I loved the dark side of academia in different ways. I liked the main characters. I liked that the romance wasn’t the main thing, instead supplementing the main plot. It was great.

Finishing my Ann Liang binge (at least until her next book is out and available to me), I read If You Could See The Sun. It’s surreal that this was the author’s debut. It’s so good. Ann Liang somehow manages to write so many stories with similar themes that still keep me hooked. They explore different aspects of America and Chinese culture. I love the rawness of emotion on the page, the way it feels to be a teenager. I’ve liked EVERY book like Ann Liang so far and I’m super excited for her future works.

Water Moon by Samanth Sotto Yambao. This is so hyped that my friends and I chose it to buddy read together. It wasn’t so great, though. It was okay. A couple of my friends hated it. The main problem with the book is that things seem to happen for no reason, taking the main characters on an adventure that doesn’t feel character-driven, and there doesn’t seem to be a proper plot. It’s just vibes. The romance wasn’t good. Character development was barely there. All in all, a disappointment.

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang. It was not what I expected based on the reviews but it kept me hooked. I don’t think the main character is meant to be liked so that’s fine, but her story is definitely interesting. Although she works with magic, or “energy”, she’s basically a programmer which I found funny. I really liked the world building and the reveal behind the way it works. The ending was shocking. I highly enjoyed it.

Now that I’m done with Ann Liang’s works, I’m planning to read all of Adrienne Young’s books. I have a feeling that I’ll enjoy them. I started with The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young and absolutely loved it. I read it in one evening, in pretty much one sitting. I loved the creepy vibes and the time travel and the mystery. I was shook by the twist at the ending which I did not expect at all. I highly recommend this!

A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young was my last read of the month. I didn’t like it as much as June Farrow but it was pretty good. It had the same creepy vibe, a slight supernatural element to the story, and a mystery. I am looking forward to reading more books by the author.

blogging

When the month began, I was 5 blog posts ahead. That is the most ahead I’ve ever been. I was sorted for the rest of the month and more! I planned it that way because I had a hunch that I wouldn’t be able to blog for about a couple of weeks.

I was away for a friend’s wedding for almost a week and dealt with a really annoying skin allergy when I was back, it rendered me uncomfortable and not in the mood to do anything productive. During the media deprivation week, I blogged almost every day and wrote my longest post ever. I was so done with the post that I published it immediately. I actually wanted to send a newsletter out in the middle of the month, it didn’t happen.

When May ended, I was actually behind on things because I took a short break after writing that huge post and had to rush to write my newsletter that had to go out on 1st June. I’m writing this post in snatches of time between different errands, hoping to get it up as soon as possible. I’m absolutely struggling to blog on my iPad because the WordPress website doesn’t work well on it, but I don’t like writing on the Jetpack app. It’s a bit of a struggle. The rest of the month is sorted, though.

In short, my blogging was fine. I was either behind or ahead, but it was fine. I have so many blog posts to write because my head and notes app are brimming with ideas. The main problem is finding the time to write all of them. Slowly, slowly, I’ll work on them.

In case you missed it, check out my May posts:

• Words of April || wrap-up
• 10 Years of Reading || Looking Through My Reading Journey — I loved going through my reading history and noting patterns and phases.
• What’s in my Work Bag? — a totally different kind of post that I had fun writing.
• Margins of the Week || A Super Hectic Week — documenting the most chaotic week with travelling, wedding festivities, India-Pakistan tensions, and a stressful allergy.
• 10 Free WordPress Plugins I Recommend For Your Blog || I missed writing blogging tips posts and starting with this, I want to get back to them.

Throughout the month, while I was blogging furiously whenever I could, I was on the Blog & Chill Discord channel blogging with friends. It was so nice to have blogging partners and get stuff done together. I leaned on the Discord channel heavily to finish my massive post.

In June, I just want to keep writing and hopefully finish a couple of posts that have been on my mind for at least a month. One posts has been getting delayed for two months. I want to finish them so that my mind is free for new ideas.

In the meantime, check out a couple of my older posts that I’m proud of:

• My Blog Aesthetic || On Creating It, Maintenance, & More
• The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni || Book Review

content consumed

Between the travel, allergy issues, and media deprivation week, I had a scant few days to read or watch anything. But I used them to the fullest. I managed to clear out Feedly at one point!

Blogs:

• What makes a romance believable?
• Falling in love with planning and memory keeping // A journey through my past planners and how I landed on a Hobonichi Cousin
• In challenging times, I turn to cosy reads
• I am not Jessica Chen book review
• Remembering the average reader
• Is child illiteracy rising?
• If only all books in series had recaps
• Welp it’s been a decade since I started blogging - Ten things I wish I could tell my younger self

Substack:

• The mbti is ruining fiction
• We don’t need uber, we need villages
• The loneliness of self improving
• Do you have to click on all the motorcycle bits?
• You’re not your job. And soon you won’t have one,
• Body positivity is out — an interesting article about a concerning trend resurgence
• Last last coachella — I loved this ode to friendship and this is how I often feel with my college friend group

YouTube:

• The Luck Formula: The Secret to Being in the Right Place at the Right Time
• Why you need a mini creative project

TV shows:

• Watched The Rain in España after seeing many clips of it on YouTube. Pretty much binged it. Review coming soon.
• Watched a few episodes of My Dearest Nemesis Kdrama. Then convinced my friend to catch up and watch the rest with me. Unfortunately the drama became bleh after we started watching together so now we’re procrastinating.

Movies:

I’m not a fan of movies so I don’t usually watch them. Ended up watching a few this month, though.

• Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. An old favourite. Felt like watching it after my friends and I performed a dance on You Are My Soniya at a friend’s sangeet. I noticed so many new things while watching this time. The movie is still thoroughly enjoyable and sad.
• Legally Blonde. Finally watched this. Loved it. Didn’t watch 2 though, quit about 15 minutes in because it just didn’t have the same charm.
• Khubsoorat (starring Rekha). My mom was watching it and I got transfixed while walking by. Ended up sitting down to watch the rest. I watched only about half the movie but I loved it. Rekha’s expressions and outfits were so captivating.

life

The main thing in May was my friend's wedding. The wedding festivities were spread out over multiple days with different events requiring different outfits. My friends and I who were attending, danced at the Sangeet as well. It was quite chaotic and tiring but it was fun. I also had a very stressful allergy (which I'm still dealing with). I wrote about the trip in detail here.

I don't know where the month went. It feels like I was just running around because of something or the other. First it was the trip, then it was taking care of my skin due to the allergy (I actually worked from home multiple days to help it heal), and at the end of the month, I was rushing to finish stuff before travelling to Bangalore.

I'm actually in Bangalore as I write this! I'll share all about this quick visit home in the June wrap-up. I already have a lot to say. Mainly: I miss this city and I miss my friends.

My friends and I were doing weeks 3 and 4 of The Artist's Way in May. I don't think we're doing very well anymore. We're all behind and honestly the reading deprivation week was harsh. I didn't do any proper Artist Dates because I was mostly out of the city or holed up at home struggling with the allergy.

One of my goals in May was to print out a bunch of my photos and save them in physical albums. We've become so used to seeing digital photos and sharing them that I think we've forgotten the charm of a physical album. I remember poring over my photos alone or with family or friends, commenting about everything and trying to remember my childhood. Hence, I want to print and save my recent photos in a similar fashion.

Unfortunately, the allergy threw everything out of order and I had no mood or energy to go out. I was taking really strong allergy medications that were the drowsy kind. Even though I took it at night before sleeping, I would be sleepy all day the next day too. The photo printing goal did not work out in May but maybe in June? I'll try!

I'm super excited to see my photos printed. I've already spend a lot of time selecting a bunch and cropping them to the right sizes. I just want the actual photos to look good now, without costing me a lot. I'm thinking to write details behind every photo like who is in it, where it is taken, and the date. Let me know if you think I can document any other aspects of photos that will make them even more precious in the future!

chat with me

That's pretty much it. How was your May? What plans do you have for June? Tell me in the comments!