Murder by Death

I'm calling my 3-month experiment with a pre-selected TBR stack a fail.  I started off strong in March, but have slipped progressively further behind each month.  Out of the 11 May books, I only read 7, out of a total of 17 books read this month.  That means 10 times I looked at that TBR stack (sitting on my coffee table so I can't miss it), and then promptly walked into my library and chose another book instead.  I'm just too much of a mood reader to be that self-disciplined.

Less reading overall this month, as MT and I labor away at stripping a set of french doors in our library that are original to the house - there should be a limit to how many coats of paint you're allowed to slap on something.  We're down to just the trim around the doors now, but it takes forever getting all that paint out of all the grooves and detailing.  I suspect June will be likely swallowed up by this project too, but come July, I hope to have lots of reading time (god knows it'll be too cold to do anything else).

Additionally, I've re-catalogued my home library, laying hands on every single book in the house (final count after culling: 1701), taking a quick second to assess my feelings for each one; anything that elicited a "meh" was removed. The result is several boxes of books waiting to be donated or distributed.  I feel a book contest coming on...

So total books read for May was 17.  6 of those were 4.5 stars or better:

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder & the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

The Folio Book of Comic Short Stories

Phantoms on the Bookshelves

The Canterville Ghost

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

My only 2 star (the lowest rating this month):

Books: A Memoir