May 2026 Reading Recap

Already have way through June, and I’m only just making the time to write my May reading recap. Doesn’t bode well, does it?

In May 2026, I read 26 books, which was pretty good and nearly my goal for the month, and I DNF’d one that I was really looking forward to, but simply coudn’t get into. I also started one more non-fiction book that I haven’t made much of a dent in yet. I’m also still in the middle of a time management audiobook.

Here’s the breakdown:

8 Scholastic Branches Books

These are little chapter books that my kids at school love, so I try to read at least a few from each series to have a sense of them. I read several Last Firehawk books this month, the new Dragon Masters, and a couple others, including Eerie Elementary #1, which I read aloud to my third grade classes.

2 Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels

We love new BSC month! I read the new Karen book (BSC LS) and Dawn on the Coast, and then promptly added them to my school library.

2 of the “Kids in Ms. Z’s Class” Books

These longer chapter books are great–I read Thunder Nelson Does the Impossumable and Theo Chang is Not a Cat this month.

The Last Skander Book

I love the Skander and the Unicorn Thief series, and finished Book 5: The Spirit War, in early May. Now all that’s left to do is go back and read the prequel about the original island founding that recently came out.

1 2026 Newbery Honor

My goal this year is to read all of the Newbery Medal and Honor books. I’ve already read the winner (All the Blues in the Sky) and had reviewed one of them for Booklist (Sea of Lemon Trees). This month, I read and mostly enjoyed The Teacher of Nomad Land, so now I just have two more left to read this year!

1 Book Club Book

May was a light book club month–my DAR book club was reading something I’ve already read, and so was the Princeton book club. All I had to read to catch up was Audition by Katie Kitamura for the East City Books book club, and I got the fun excitement of being one of the only people to have truly, really liked it in the discussion, out of like 25 people. That was probably the last time I’ll be able to go to that book club, so it was nice to end on!

1 DNF’d ARC

I was really excited to read the new Katharine McGee book, Ungodly Rich, but I just COULD NOT get into it, and I DNF’d at 12%.

And also…

2 Who Was? books on audio, the new Kwame Alexander novel in verse, a cemetery photo book, Lola for my kids reading club, Unsettling Salad for the second time during a class read aloud, and several other shorter books.

When I was doing it, and checking books off the list, it felt like a really great month of reading, but now I’m looking back at what I read and not as impressed. Let’s hope that June promises to help me read through some more of the books I’ve OWNED for awhile…