Books to Check Out: What I Read in May 2022

This month was mainly filled with short story goodness for me. It’s nice to read shorter works in between all those big novels, and I felt due for something shorter. I’m always excited to recommend short stories; they’re always less appreciated than novels. So, take a look below and explore all your short story desires.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

Short stories are amazing! I love short stories! Karen Russell is amazing in her ability to create the most interesting characters and scenarios. For example, the titular story is literally about vampires who live in a lemon grove. There’s a story about why krill are awesome and that you should support them (“Dougbert Shackleton’s Rules for Antarctic Tailgating”), a gorgeous tale about a massage therapist and a peculiar tattoo (“New Veterans”), a magical realism story about a scarecrow and a kid from New Jersey (“Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis”), etc. The ones I’ve mentioned are my absolute favorites out of the collection, but all of the stories were super engaging.

Another recommendation I have for this book is to listen to it in audio format. There are different narrators for each story, and each narrator captures such a great voice for the various characters. I personally tackled this one as an audiobook because I saw Robbie Daymond was the narrator for the scarecrow story, and I absolutely loved it. Another standout for me was the krill story as well, I loved the quiet intensity for such a seemingly silly topic. It made me look up krill on the internet and tell the Google images that they were very special and talented.

And before I move on, I’ll stress one more time that Karen Russell is an incredibly talented writer, and her wordsmithing alone is reason enough to read. Also check out her novel Swamplandia! while you’re at it.

Sing to It by Amy Hempel

More short stories! The fun of this book is that the stories are so short, it’s honestly like a compilation of micro-fiction. Some of them are only a single page long. Still, that just means each and every word has purpose and adds to the story as a whole. The stories all explore ways to deal with bad or sad events,, the title coming from the Arab proverb: “When danger approaches, sing to it.” It’s a lovely title and a lovely, diverse collection of stories that will tug at your heart.

My personal favorites are “A Full-Service Shelter”, “Moonbow”, and “Cloudland”. All of these stories deal with loss in some way or another, but told in such a beautiful way that you have to stop and really soak in the writing. It’s a quick read, but one you’ll fall in love with and remember long after you put it down.

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (Slight spoilers in paragraph two, but nothing major)

I’ll end by switching gears for a sweet little graphic novel series, one that has me completely obsessed. Heartstopper is the graphic novel series following Nick and Charlie and how they navigate their high school romance. Charlie is an openly gay student while Nick is the popular rugby boy coming to terms with his own sexuality.

This is such a cute relationship. As a bisexual myself, following Nick’s journey in particular felt real and understandable in his confusion. I loved reading that experience and sort of getting to see my own high school self in some ways through him. I also love how this graphic novel doesn’t totally dramatize things too much. When there’s a problem or a communication error with the couple, they deal with it and talk it out to a resolution almost immediately. Trust me, you don’t need to add extra drama when it comes to being gay in high school.

The art is also adorable. Charlie and Nick are so freaking cute. I love how they look like total opposites but they work so well together. The facial expressions are so sweet and emotional, and I cried more than once. It’s also worth mentioning that I found this through the new Netflix show adaptation, which I LOVED! Huge shoutout to my roommate for sitting me down to watch it, because I can’t imagine my life without having seen and read this series.

We’re halfway through the year, so it’s time to buckle down and catch up on those reading goals. Happy reading! Check out April’s reads here.