How I did with the Spring Reading Challenge
I read 10 books for the Spring challenge, and I completed a bingo! This is the first time since I’ve started the challenge that I did successfully have a bingo, and this is the most I’ve read off my physical TBR shelf during a challenge, so this is definitely a win!
What I Read
Flowers on the cover:
Landing Like Rain by Audrey Wilson is a collection of love poems and short stories. This collection deals with heartbreak and coming back into love. I really enjoyed the collection, and I read it on a rainy day, so it was very atmospheric.
Read Audrey’s author interview
An animal character:
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett is a cozy fantasy where Agnes is afraid of magicians but finds herself sharing space with the most infamous magician to house her cats after a disaster ruined her old shelter. This is a cute book, but it’s definitely more cozy fantasy than the Emily Wilde series, so I did find it a bit boring and low-stakes in some places.
A romance:
I’ve Got My Mind Set on Brew by Stehpanie Jayne is a slow-burn romance where Kat is a server at a local brewery in Chicago, and a billionaire buys it out and hands it to his son, Ryan, to manage. Kat and Ryan butt heads frequently but slowly and surprisingly fall in love.
Read Stephanie’s author interview
A hopeful story:
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green is a nonfiction book about the history and impact of humanity’s deadliest disease. On the surface, it doesn’t seem that hopeful, but he includes personal stories of people dealing with the disease, and it ends on a positive note on how humanity could eradicate this disease.
Featuring a hunt:
I’m not sure this should count, but I’m counting it anyway. My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney is a thriller mystery where you piece together who is posing as Eden Fox and why. Every chapter had me thinking what is going on? and I could not stop reading it.
Nature-themed:
Pieces of Water by Sarah Rhinelander is a poetry collection on how to live in tune with your intuition and create your best life. It has a bit of religion and philosophy tied in, but it’s mostly reflections on living.
Birds on the cover:
This one only has one bird on the cover, but I’m counting it. Before I Forget by Tory Henwood Hoen is about a young woman who quits her job to take care of her estranged father who has dementia. She makes amends with him and ends up being his caretaker for the last year of his life. She reflects on what she wants out of life and comes to terms with a tragic accident that happened 10 years prior. It also has a bit of magical realism. As her dad loses his grip on reality, he has bursts of premonitions that turn out to be true.
Nonfiction:
From Dream to Reality: How to Make a Living as a Freelance Writer by Jessie L. Kwak is a short nonfiction reference guide on the many avenues available to make money as a freelance writer. It was published in 2023, so I did find most of the advice to be applicable today. I’ll definitely be keeping this and referencing it in the future.
Magical realism:
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio is a book about a single woman coming home to find she now has a husband. She discovers that every time one husband goes into the attic, another comes out and resets her life to what it would be like if she were with this husband. I actually really enjoyed this book. I think the premise was unique, and some of the events in the book were surprising in a good way.
A Fairytale retelling:
The East Wind by Alexandria Warwick is the last book in her Four Winds series. This book wraps up everything that had been left open in the third book, and the ending has all the characters coming together, which was satisfying to see.
Current Physical TBR
My current physical TBR is at 152, so doing pretty well. I have slowed down on buying books, and I’ve done pretty well about reading the new books I do buy in a more timely manner, so hopefully that can keep going for the summer challenge.
Summer TBR Bingo
I’ll be doing this challenge from mid-June until mid-September. Now that I’ve gotten a bingo once, I’d like to get it again, but I don’t want that to be my focus. I want to try reading as many books off my physical TBR shelf as I can, so if I can read at least 6 books up to 10 like I did for this challenge, then I’ll be happy with that even if I don’t get a bingo.
I’m definitely planning on reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer, but beyond those two, I’m leaving my options open.
Join the Challenge
Download your copy for free and join in on the fun! Drop your picks in the comments or tag me on socials @notesfromtheshelf.
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