We’ve got our Wrap Up for May 2024 ready! I’ll be going over the past month’s business wins, our May reading and what we’re planning to read in June.
Bookselling Lessons
In the first week of May I got a lot done. I was very motivated to check some items off of my to do list that had been lingering for months. Things like joining American Booksellers Association, applying for my business license, filing my fictitious business name. I did all of that so quickly, it made me wonder why I’d taken so long to do it!
Joining the American Booksellers Association will help me get further along in my journey. I’m looking at doing pop-ups, and while I have joined the requisite Facebook groups to learn from others. I’m still feeling uninformed. As soon as I joined the ABA I signed up for every webinar that I could. I went to a New Members 101 webinar and was reassured in seeing that I’m not as clueless as I thought. Especially with what I’ve learned so far from my Basic Bookselling Course. Nice to see my progress.
Speaking of my Basic Bookselling Course; I had my last class on May 20th. We broke into small groups and presented our final projects, which were to present a book display that ties in with our store’s mission. Since I plan to have an evergreen book display for banned books in my store. I decided to do a banned books display, called “I’m with the banned.” I wanted the display to be educational about the issues that banned books face, so I had a display that was exclusively showing the top 10 most banned books in 2023. The display included the books, sidelines (hats, tote bags, games and mugs) and flyers about each book and the statistics tied to books that are challenged the most. If you’d like to see my final project, here’s the public link.
Now that the class is over, I’m trying to come up with what to do on my Mondays. Going to need to adjust my work schedule. Think I’ll be filling my time with finding as many event and pop-up opportunities that I can join. Time to get out there and form a community in-person!
James by Percival Everrett
Alecia, Wallflower Bookshop Owner
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love reading alternate versions of classic literature. I’ve read
many Pride & Prejudice retellings. But this was different, it was so expansive and worked as a great collab between Mark Twain and Percival Everett. I could just tell how much knowledge and love(?) Mr. Everrett has for the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
May 2024 Reads
Here are my finished May 2024 Reads. There were some surprises, I’ve heard great things about Mexican Gothic, it’s been on my TBR for way too long. So glad I finally read it. I loved it, totally unexpected.
not in love by ali hazelwood (pub date: 6/11/24)
Fully got sucked into Rue and Eli’s orbit and read this book in a day. Undeniable chemistry, repeated run-ins and her rule that they can only have one night together. What are two people on opposite sides of a hostile takeover to do?
THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR BY AMAL EL-MOHTAR & MAX GLADSTONE
Mood readers will love this book. It’s all vibes, with the plot coming in secondary and mattering very little. Symbols upon symbols, time travel and experimentation with writing form. What an experience.
MEXICAN GOTHIC silvia moreno-garcia
This was gothic vibes, horror, murder mystery…I couldn’t look away. I was fascinated by where the story was going. It was a cozy read and yet I was on the edge of my seat making all kinds of wild guesses about what was going on. I loved it. Someone please read it immediately so we can discuss in the comments!
legendborn by tracy deonn
A young black girl saving the day, sign me up! Bree’s journey to find out more about her family history and find her place in the world kept me engaged throughout. Loved the Arthurian legend tie-in. Secret societies always bring so much drama.
say you’ll be mine by Naina kumar
This book reminded me of my favorite teenage comfort watch, “My Best Friend’s Wedding”. I was ready for the main character to wreak havoc. An arranged marriage and a fake engagement thrown in definitely brought the drama. So many lies, upon lies, I eagerly awaited the third act blow up.
the neighbor favor by Kristina forest
A friendlier “You’ve Got Mail” without the corporate takeover. This romance had all my favorites, book lovers fall in love, secret identity pen pals and introverts coming out of their shell. It was fun reading another Kristina Forest book.
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Alecia, Wallflower Bookshop Owner
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Enjoyed getting to see how each of the main characters were settled in their lives before they’re reunited. The slow reveal of what broke them up was a good decision. Second chance romance done right; and side characters that were just as compelling as the leads.
June 2024 TBR List
Had to move Children of Anarchy and Anguish and A Novel Love Story to my June 2024 TBR List. Some of the May books took longer than I allotted and pushed me behind. So to show a little kindness for myself I’m just going to push the two books to June, instead of cram them into May. I knew there was a good reason I should save the ARCs as the end of month reads. In May the ARC schedules were much better for me than the library return schedule, lol. So flipping the ratio, more ARCs than library books in June.
This is definitely my best reading year EVER!!
What are you reading this month? Let me know in the comments.