I can’t believe that’s another month gone! I’ve read some brilliant books (reviews to come), and somehow May turned out to be a bit of a female empowerment themed month, despite me not necessarily meaning for that to be the case.

The books I read in May all followed female struggle and power in one way or another, so maybe my subconscious was telling me something when I picked those books! Let’s see what June has in store for me…

Scoop – Evelyn Waugh

I originally bought this book when it was suggested reading ahead of my MA course in multimedia journalism – but, as always, never got round to reading it.

Dubbed ‘the funniest novel ever written about journalism’ by The Observer, I’m excited to see how this comedy of errors stacks up in the modern day, and how much journalism has, or hasn’t, changed by comparing it to my own experiences in a newsroom.

1984 – George Orwell

I first encountered Orwell in a year nine English class at school, when I studied Animal Farm. I absolutely loved it, and my dad gave me his collection of Orwell’s novels so I could get my teeth into more of his work.

Twelve years later, here I am!

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing – Eimear McBride

Continuing the list of acclaimed books I’m ashamed not to have read is the debut novel by Eimear McBride, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2014.

A stream of consciousness novel exploring the central character’s struggles with her own sexuality, as well as her relationship with her disabled brother and religious mother, I’m interested to delve into this novel, having not read something similar in quite some time.

The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton

It’s no secret that I went through a phase of buying books which had inspired the names of Gossip Girl episodes. Rather than simply inspiring the name of the episode The Age of Dissonance however, this book is central to the episode, with the characters attempting to put on a play of it.

This is one of the few books I haven’t read before watching the film of, but I look forward to reading it all the same.

Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami

This will actually be the second time I have tried to read this book. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it the first time, but I began to read it over the summer between my BA and MA, and then got distracted preparing for my MA, and unfortunately haven’t come back to it until now, almost three years later. Oops.

I’m going to restart it rather than trying to pick up where I left off, because I’m not sure how much I can remember, other than the classic line “if you read what everyone else is reading, you’ll think what everyone else is thinking”.

Possible Extras

Over the course of May I’ve actually impressed even myself by adding a few extras onto my reading list for the month – mainly the final four A Series of Unfortunate Events books, which I never finished when I was a kid. So here are some optional extras I will try to fit in if I have the time…

• Apple and Rain – Sarah Crossan
• You – Joanna Briscoe
• The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

What are you all reading in June? Let me know in the comments!