happy may = happy reads!!
welcome to new month with my nose further stuck in the books!! :D
all of may’s weekly reading book review videos are posted here with convenient learn-more & buy-online-while-supporting-your-local-indie-bookstore links to bookshop.org! :D
with many colourful reads to you,
💜xo,
*hallie :)
✨📖 weekly reading book review may 2025: episode one!! 📖✨
🌸 this week i read:
🐏 THREE BAGS FULL by leonie swan
🧵 THE MEMORY SPINNER by c.m. cornwell (coming august 12, 2025!!)
🎭 AUDITION by katie kitamura
📚 currently reading:
📘 A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid (i’m so confused; help me?! ☎️⏰⏳)
special edition still available on b&n here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-study-in-drowning-collectors-deluxe-limited-edition-ava-reid/1145539363?ean=9780063419414
regular edition (not shown) on bookshop.org here: https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780063211506
💜 FERRIS by kate dicamillo (read*aloud re*read with the hubs!)
📺 currently re*watching (in the background):
🤖 DOCTOR WHO: THE TENNANT YEARS
💙 miiiiight read next:
💜 DREAMSLINGER by graci kim (isn’t it beautiful?!???)
📖 LIBRARY GIRL by polly horvath
🩷 A PERFECT DAY TO BE ALONE by nanae aoyama
🩵 THE HEALING SEASON OF POTTERY by yeon somin
💙 IMMORTAL by sue lynn tan
✨📖 weekly reading book review may 2025: episode two!! 📖✨
📚 this week, i read:
🌊 A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid
regular edition: https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780063211506
🎭 HENRY IV PART I by wm shakespeare
🍜 STREGA NONA by tomie de paola (inspired re*read after a great scbwi podcast interview with kidlit illustrator barbara mcClintock who just illustrated tomie's posthumus manuscript for WHERE ARE YOU, BRONTË? (that book here: https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9781534418509 )
💙 FERRIS by kate dicamillo (re*read read*aloud!)
📚 watched:
🎬 HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES on disney+ (with my author theatre pal ruth! cannnnnottttt wait to continue the series with her! so much goodness left to come!! 😄💖🤗)
imdb link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8510382/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1
📺 REMEDIAL CHAOS THEORY (community season 3, ep 3 #thisisthedarkesttimeline )
imdb link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2060963/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1
📚 currently reading:
💜 MOMO ARASHIMA BREAKS THE MIRROR OF THE SUN by misa sugiura
💙 EGO IS THE ENEMY by ryan holiday (for the creative inspired happy book club with evelyn skye)
📚 miiiiiight read next:
🪐 ORBITAL by samantha harvey
🎭 HENRY IV PART II by wm shakespeare
🐉 THE GATE, THE GIRL, AND THE DRAGON by grace lin
regular edition: https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780316594684
📖 currently listening:
🎧 what went wrong podcast on GOLDENEYE (which i’ve never seen, but now i want to!)
with all my rainy day love,
💖xo,
*hallie 🤓
✨📖 weekly reading book review may 2025: episode three!! 📖✨
📚 here are the few books i read this week:
💜 MOMO ARASHIMA BREAKS THE MIRROR OF THE SUN by misa sugiura
🎨 THE GIRL, THE GATE, & THE DRAGON by grace lin
deluxe edition: https://bookshop.org/a/5254/9780316478328
🪐 ORBITAL by samantha harvey
📚 currently reading:
💖 THE NEW GIRL by cassanda calin
💙 EGO IS THE ENEMY by ryan holiday
(thanks to the book club rec from evelyn skye’s creative, inspired, happy community HERE on substack!!)
📚 miiiiight read next:
🐈 THE CAT WHO SAVED THE LIBRARY by sosuke natsukawa
my painting video recreating the cover of the first one, THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS, here in the crayon box!
🎭 HENRY IV PART 2 by wm shakespeare
🎧 & on the drive this week, i discovered the podcast WHO BROKE THE INTERNET? & i’m obsessed.
🚙 on the road again,
💜xo,
*hallie 🤓
✨📖 weekly reading book review may 2025: episode four!! 📖✨
🌧️ it’s a delightfully dreary rainy monday to share with you the books i did (& didn’t) read this week! 🥰
📖 the only two books i finished this week:
🩷 THE NEW GIRL by cassandra calin
💚 RETURN TO SENDER by vera brosgol (🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 obsessssedddddddd!!!!)
📚 currently reading:
💔 THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN by lisa see (for book club or i’d dnf-it. 😭😭😭 c’est tragique & lottttsa trigger warnings ☹️)
📺 currently watching:
🧵 PROJECT RUNWAY season 18 (it's on netflix! yay!! i'm totally a christian siriano & a project runway superfan!!)
imdb page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437741/
hope to read next:
💖 THE ROMANCE RIVALRY by susan lee (my signed & personalized indie bookstore pre*order of the month from the meet cute bookshop in san diego! goodies shown on my insta reel here!!)
🩵 A PALACE NEAR THE WIND by ai jiang
🤎 THE LAST MASTERPIECE by b.a. shapiro (out june 17!!!!! 😄🥳🎨🖌️)
with puddle*jumping in my immediate future,
💜xo,
*hallie 🤓
may's marker re*cap (my substack newsletter) comes out in a few days!
subscribe for FREE here: https://halthegalstoryart.substack.com/
reading tastes vary widely, but here were my {personally} most enjoyable reads of the books i read this month:
this was grown-up fiction (but not much “adult content”/woulda missed it if i wasn’t a grown-up.) sparse and gorgeous writing, with individual and diverse astronauts’ perspectives of our tiny (huge) planet and the beauty and life and humanity it holds in the (vast, unknowable) universe. stunning and moving and unique and personable and lovely.
someday i might shut up about how much i love this book: but today is Not that day! i read this middle grade jewel of a novel when it first came out, have loaned it to most of my family members, and this month, my husband read it out loud to me at bedtime! he laughed out loud and loved it, too. and now we get to say “i hearth you the firth time” in reply to “i love you.” there’s a whole lotta odd family members to love and a whole lotta quotes to quote and giggle at (esp. pinky, the younger sister whose life goal is to become an outlaw.) + a friendly ghost; a bbq restaurant; an unfortunate perm (followed by an unfortunate haircut); raccoons; an uncle in the basement painting the history of the world; and a doggie who i ProMISe doesn’t die.
please trust me and read it. it’s delightful.
this middle grade novel doesn’t come out until august, but i got to read an early copy and it was WONderFUL. beautifully written and magical and meaningful and all-around perfectly engaging fantasy and friend and family drama and struggles and good and evil (?) and the fuzzy line between good intentions and the best for everybody. relatable and accessible fantasy. looooved it. so go ahead & pre*order it. :)
i love vera’s middle grade graphic novels (plain jane & the mermaid; be prepared; etc.), and NOW, i am happy to report, that i’m also a superfan of her prose writing, too! this is her illustrated middle grade novel debut (still for kids, but hi: grown*ups should totally still be reading middle grade books, too), and i’m ObSEssED. it was funny and quirky, but also real-life struggles and just the right dose of magic in the form of a wish-granting mail slot in an inherited four-story walk-up nyc apartment.