Happy May Day! I don't know how April went for you, but for me it was a busy month and it rushed by in a bit of a blur. My third child graduates from high school in a few weeks, which will make May busy as well. Also hot. We haven't hit 100 degrees yet, thank goodness; we've come close, though. Ugh. It's already way too warm to read by the pool. Ours doesn't have much shade so I'll be enjoying my books inside my air conditioned house, under a whirling fan, until further notice (probably around December). 

I did manage to read one bookish book in April. Book Lovers by Emily Henry has been getting all kinds of buzz ever since it came out. Contemporary romance really isn't my genre, but I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Book Lovers is a fun, enemies-to-lovers story with lots of playful banter, humorous scenes, and an entertaining plot (although it did seem overly long at times). I listened to the book on audio, with Julia Whelan narrating. She did a great job bringing the characters to life. Overall, it was an enjoyable listen. I just wish it would have been more of a closed-door, PG-13 kind of romance. 

I've yet to read the majority of the books I've listed in these monthly posts as potential reads for The Bookish Books Reading Challenge. Still, here are a few that have caught my eye recently that I could, potentially, get to this month. We'll see how it goes.

I mentioned these two in my recent book haul posts:

Shaun Bythell is the owner of the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland and his books are supposed to be insightful and hilarious. I can't wait to dig in.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson is my book club's pick for May. I've already read it, but it's been a few years, so I'm going to re-read it and then move on to The Book Woman's Daughter. I've heard the sequel is just as good as the first book, which is always reassuring.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can score an e-ARC of Last Word to the Wise by Ann Claire. It's the second installment in a fun cozy mystery series set in a mystery-themed bookstore that is accessible only by (or, at least, most conveniently by) gondola. I enjoyed the first book in the series and am excited to see what happens in the second. Hopefully, the Edelweiss gods will grant my pending request...

I felt a little bad about going on my last book shopping spree at a chain store instead of my local indie, so I decided to even out the score. Plus, it's Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 29th. Not that I ever need an excuse to visit a bookstore...Changing Hands really is a fabulous place to buy books. The Tempe location has a fun, quirky vibe. It's packed with new and used tomes as well as bookish extras and specialty items like fancy soaps, kitchen accessories, notebooks/journals, jewelry, etc. Other perks include a trade desk, where you can trade in books you no longer need for store credit. They also have a frequent buyer program that gives you one stamp for every $10 you spend; when you reach 10 stamps, you get a $10 off credit. During your birthday month, you also get $10 off your purchases. All of these things make it an enjoyable place to spend my book money! It's actually a good thing that's it a 20-minute drive away. If it were closer, I'd definitely be there more often.

Today, I traded in a stack of books and earned about $56 in credit. I also had a full punch card, which gave me $10. Five of the eight books in the stack above are new and three are hardcovers, so the actual retail price of all eight (at least at Changing Hands) was $133.10. I paid $76.60 (including tax). Not too shabby. My husband actually spent more and he only bought three used books and one (very expensive) chocolate candy bar. Both of our purchases earned me more stamps, so now I have another full card to use next time I'm in the store. Yay!

Here's what I got:

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell—I've never heard of Bythell, but apparently, he's the owner of the second largest secondhand bookstore in Scotland. He's written several books about his experiences as a bookseller and they're supposed to be hilarious. I believe this one is his first book, which was published in 2017.

The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura—This non-fiction book has been on my TBR list since it came out a few years ago. It's about Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, two American women who received M.D.s in the 1800s. Elizabeth was the first ever to do so. Sounds fascinating!

The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson—I'm not even a little bit alone in my love for The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. This is the sequel, which stars the daughter of the titular book woman.

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom—Grissom was kind enough to send me a review copy of her new novel, Crow Mary, and I can't wait to read it. In the meantime, I want to re-read The Kitchen House, which I loved, and then read its sequel, Glory Over Everything. The Kitchen House is about a young white girl who is orphaned while sailing from Ireland to America. She becomes an indentured servant at a Southern plantation, where she becomes part of the servants' family, despite their differing skin colors. When she upsets the order of things, however, life as she knows it changes forever.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen—This memoir was on clearance and I've been wanting to read it, so I grabbed it. It's the story of Rhoda's journey back home to the insular Mennonite family and culture she left behind. The book's supposed to be both hilarious and touching. I'm in!

Lone Women by Victor LaVelle—I probably don't need to tell you what this one's about since it's been getting all kinds of buzz in the book blogosphere. It sounds unique and compelling. The novel concerns a Black woman who leaves California to homestead in Montana in 1915. Not only does she have to eke out a life on the brutal prairie, but she also has a dark secret. One that makes the people around her disappear. How will she fare in her attempt at a new life?

The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris—When my husband saw this book, he added it to my to-buy stack, saying, "This sounds like your kind of book!" Ha ha. He knows me so well.

Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer—Ashton Hall is my favorite kind of novel, one in which a modern-day woman enters a mysterious old house and becomes obsessed with unearthing all its secrets. I'm always up for this kind of story.

What do you think of my haul? Have you read any of these? Which should I read first?