Monthly Wrap-Up — May 2026

Books Read – May 2026

Books

1. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (Lucy Foley, continuing Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series) – ARC (review scheduled) ★★★★⯪
2. Unknown Depths (Celia Lake) ★★★★⯪
3. Lost and Found (Jayne Ann Krentz) – reread (originally reviewed 6/20/2016)
4. Stay for a Spell (Amy Coombe) – ARC (review to come) ★★★★
5. The Reimagining of Thornwood House (Jayleigh Johnson) – ARC ★★★★★
6. Apt to Be Suspicious (Celia Lake) – reread ★★★★

Audiobooks

• Smoke in Mirrors (Jayne Ann Krentz) – Hoopla. Reread (first time listening to audiobook; book originally reviewed on 4/10/2017; reposted with audiobook review on 5/06/2026) ★★★★
• Beyond (Mercedes Lackey) – reread (first time listening to audiobook; book originally reviewed on 6/04/2017.) ★★★★
• Into the West (Mercedes Lackey) – reread (first time listening to audiobook) ★★★⯪
• Valdemar (Mercedes Lackey) – reread (first time listening to audiobook) ★★★⯪
• Once Upon a Tome (Oliver Darkshire) – (review scheduled) ★★★★
• A Nun in the Closet (Dorothy Gilman) – reread (first time listening to audiobook) ★★★★

Summary: Somehow I managed more reading time in May, coming in at 12 books/audiobooks—double my April total. The May total includes 5 first-time reads and 7 rereads. I posted 3 reviews, of which 2 were books I read this month; the third review was The Final Target (Nora Roberts), which I read earlier this year. I have one review scheduled for August (Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel.)

Of the books I reread in May, 3 were books I had already reviewed on the blog in previous years, and I updated one of those reviews (Smoke in Mirrors.)

Challenges

Here’s the breakdown of my reading challenges this year so far:

• Goodreads Challenge: 44/125. I am 7 books behind schedule.
• Audiobook challenge: Listened to 15/15; reviewed 2/15, with a third review scheduled.
• COYER Out to Lunch Again challenge: Read 34/20; reviewed 5/20, with two more reviews scheduled. (My personal challenge includes actually writing the review.)
• Library Love Challenge: Read 6/12; reviewed 1/12.
• NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge: Read 9/10; reviewed 3/10, with a fourth review scheduled.
• Robin’s Recs: Read 1/6; reviewed 0/6.

Click here to see a detailed (but not entirely up-to-date) list of my challenge reading.

Other Goals and Resolutions

Unpack and reorganize Prune and pack my book collection: At this point, most of the pruning is done, and I’m focusing on cataloging (see below.) Packing for storage/moving is next.

Catalog my books: This is going really well, but still slower than I would like. I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish them before I have to have everything packed up. Physical books catalogued so far (since I started in 2025): 1032, up from 932 at the end of April. The cataloging is going more slowly because A) I have hit the shelves that have older books without ISBNs; B) I’m taking time to put dust jackets in book cover protectors, and C) I have been packing things up for storage/moving, like the silver, china, and knickknacks, which are really time-consuming to wrap and pack so they won’t break.

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