Chelsey's May 2025 Reading Recap

Can someone (other than Tolkien) please write some good fiction?

May 31, 2025

This is my fifth month of sharing what I’m reading, and something happened this month that will probably be reflected in my reading recaps going forward.

I struggled with audiobooks as the month came to a close. Part of it was the craziness of the end of the school year. I struggled to focus. I started probably five or six different fiction books this month on audio and didn’t make it very far into any of them. In most of them, the characters were just terribly annoying. There were others that I knew I would like, in a different season. (I tagged these on Libby so I can try them again another time.)

I also began reading How to Read a Book, which I have owned for at least 10 years and, ironically, have never read. I’m reading it as part of the Summer Learning Plan I created for myself.1 I’m only a few chapters in, but it has encouraged me to slow down. It has also led to me reading more print books, and I have loved it. I suspect my reading pace may slow down over the next seven months.

This month I’m going to recap not just what I read but tell you what I abandoned, what I’m reading as we move into June, and some of the books on my TBR (not all of them, because I probably have more than 100 books tagged on Libby, and no one has time for that).

Books I Read in May

The highlight of this month was J.R.R. Tolkien. I finished the second and third books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and my husband was very patient as I talked about them constantly. He reckons he has read them every year for the past 20 years, while the last time I read them was 20 years ago. (He did not need me to tell him that the books are good.)

These are listed in order of my most favorite to my least favorite.

The Two Towers and The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

How to sum up my thoughts about these books? I can’t. Once I re-read The Hobbit and some of Tolkien’s other books, I’m going to read through the whole trilogy again. Suffice to say when I finished ROTK during the kids’ dentist appointment this week, I was weeping.

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves by Curt Thompson

This was a reread for me, and it will probably be a reread every year of my life until I die. I first read it last year, and until I did, I did not realize how big a part shame plays in my life. And not just in my life, but everywhere.

Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith2

I heard about this book on Substack and felt like I could use some inspiration for my writing, and it was honestly this book that led me to develop my Summer Learning Plan. She doesn’t mention anything like that, but reading this book made me want to become a better writer, so I made a plan to do that. I listened to this book on audio, but almost immediately asked Christian for a hard copy as a Mother’s Day gift, and now I’m slowly working my way through the print version. I highly recommend that if you are looking to improve your writing, as she has writing exercises and lists of poems and books for inspiration at the end of each chapter.

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton

I heard about this book on Substack, and I listened to it in one day as I worked on a puzzle. It is a beautiful and surprising story of a journalist who inadvertently found herself caring for an abandoned leveret (the term for a juvenile hare). I did not expect to find a personal connection to this book, but in the author’s attempt to figure out how to care for the hare, she discovers a poem by William Cowper, “Epitaph on a Hare.” Our youngest son’s middle name is Cowper, after the very same William Cowper, but I only knew of the hymns and spiritual poems he had written. This was a very interesting tidbit!

So Big by Edna Ferber

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925. I found it through my friend Lauren’s recommendation. She is a fellow fan of Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry and said it reminded her of that book, so I immediately put it on hold at the library. I received a beautiful hardcover edition that I devoured over several days. While it wasn’t quite at the level of Hannah Coulter for me, I did love this book. It is subtle and beautiful, and it’s also funny. I laughed out loud at one particular sentence. (Note: If I I were going to buy this book, I’d buy the paperback version with the beautiful cover pictured here.)

Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began by Leah Hazard

I love to read deep dives about specific topics in medicine and science, and having birthed four children myself, this one felt relevant. The author of this book is a midwife and comes at it from a personal perspective as well as a scientific one. I learned more about my own body from this book, and I also felt justified in how difficult certain times of the month are for me. That said, the book spends more time than I would have expected examining transgender issues related to child-bearing, and so if that’s not something you want to read about, be forewarned.

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

This book contained *so many* things I did not know about not just tuberculosis but also the world in general. I finished the book feeling like maybe everything really is tuberculosis. This is a quick read, but a compelling one.

Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine by Padraic X. Scanlan

Until I read this book, I knew very little about the Irish potato famine. Most of my knowledge was from what it caused, such as increased emigration from Ireland. I didn’t know anything about why it happened or why it was so bad. This book answered all of those questions as well as many more, and it was pretty depressing to understand how some of the worst of the famine could definitely have been avoided if the rich men in decision-making roles had not been completely devoid of compassion. (One notable recommendation for the Irish during the famine was that they could just kill and/or eat their children. I don’t know why they were too dumb to think of that!)

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett

If you’re keeping score, I read books about famine and tuberculosis this month, so a book about what happens to unclaimed bodies felt in line with these other topics. I truly had never considered the dilemma of unclaimed bodies, which, to be clear, are not just unidentifiable bodies, but rather, bodies that the state has to bury, because no family members have come forward to claim them. There are several people chronicled in this book, and several of them have families, but no one wants to claim their bodies when they die.

One Second After by William R. Fortschen

It’s hard to write about why I didn’t like this, because I don’t want it to come across the wrong way. First, the premise: America is hit with an EMP blast and anything electronic stops working. The main character is a widower with two daughters, one of who is a type 1 diabetic. He is a veteran and a professor at a small college in the Appalachian mountains (near Asheville). The beginning of the book was right in line with the post-apocalyptic books I usually enjoy. But as the book progressed, it grew more and more cheesy in the areas of romance and patriotism. There was enough action to keep me on board but I chose not to read any of the follow-up books.

The Trouble Up North by Travis Mulhauser

This was a two-star read for me. I persevered only because it was short and I was afraid if I didn’t finish it, I’d lose all my reading momentum. I wouldn’t say this is a bad book, but I didn’t like any of the characters and find the ending wildly unrealistic.

Books I DNF’d in May

I don’t usually DNF this many books—but I was riding the struggle bus this month.

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

This kind of book is right up my alley, but before the introduction was over I knew it was going to be too dark for my current mental capacity. I’ll revisit it in the fall when my kids are back at school.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

I could tell this is a book I will love. It just wasn’t the right time. I will come back to it! (Actually, when I went to look on Amazon, it was on sale for the Kindle for $1.99, so I went ahead and bought it.)

Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips

I found this one on a Pulitzer list, and I think I will try it another time. There were two many character perspectives to keep straight when my kids are home all day.

The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen

This was another Pulitzer winner, and it sounded interesting, but when I started litsening to it I could tell it was going to be way too cerebral for me to enjoy.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

I returned this one and plan to check it out again during spooky season.

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

I saw this one mentioned everywhere, and I got maybe 25% in before I was done. The main character was getting on my every last nerve. Maybe I’ll try it again when I’ve gone through menopause.

Acid for the Children by Flea

I didn’t really know who Flea was, but this book got hyped and I love a good celebrity memoir. However, it had barely started before I had to DNF it because the author was already getting into a lot of weird spiritual stuff and I just couldn’t handle it. This is very common in memoirs, but usually they don’t get weird until the end (see Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey for the best/worst example of this).

White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman

I started this one and quickly realized I didn’t want to feel any more angry about politics or the government right now.

Books I am Still Reading

If you’re wondering, it’s not abnormal at all for me to have 5-6 books going at the same time. It’s just how I roll.

The books below I am reading as part of my Summer Learning Plan.

Books I Hope to Read in June

Thanks for hanging in there with me through this lengthy recap. I never get tired of talking about books and sharing good ones and sometimes even bad ones. I’d love to know what your May reading looked like!

I am going to discuss this more in my next post about our plans for the summer, but I’m trying to gauge interest in me sharing my plan as a paid post, so please let me know if you are interested.

Maggie Smith

is on Substack!

After following a daily Bible reading plan since the beginning of 2025, I abandoned it and decided to do a closer study of Scripture. I am starting in Joshua and reading one chapter a day, along with the Scripture covered by that chapter.

I’m reading this one over the course of the summer with my friend, Anna. I discovered it when writing up my March 2025 New Christian Book Releases.

This is a daily devotional with 5 days of reading for each week. It will be on my reading list all year.

I will be leaving for a 10-day trip with my mom to the beach at the end of June, and the drive is very long, so I hope to read this in the car!

I’m volunteering with our youth group this summer, and we’re reading through several of the Narnia books together.