May Favorites: Books

Hey everyone! I tried (and failed) to make my May favorites for this month into a video, so while I get my technical issues worked out, I'm going to write a blog post on them instead.

First, let's go through my favorite books for the month of May:

I read the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman for the first time this month, and all I can say is that I can't believe I haven't read them sooner! Wow! The story follows Lyra, a young girl raised by the scholars of Jordan College, Oxford, and her daemon Pan (kind of a talking-animal projection of Lyra's personality) as they attempt to figure out why children are going missing all over England. This series has science, magic, and adventure, and it's so well written. Definitely two thumbs up. I think readers 12+ are a good match for this book.

Next, I read the first volume of the Preacher graphic novels series by Garth Ennis. This was at the recommendation of my boyfriend Sean, who's read them all before. I've been trying for the past couple of years to read more graphic novels, as that is a genre I have little experience with, and these did not disappoint. Preacher is the story of Jesse Custer, a small-town Texas preacher, who gets the literal word of God put into him. Yep, in this story, God, angels, and everything are real, and they're a bunch of sick bastards who want to make everyone miserable. This series is mature with a capital M, so read only if you can handle large amounts of drinking, cursing, and blood. I love Ennis's black, Irish sense of humor, and I can't wait to read more.

Last book I really enjoyed this month is Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R. A. LaFevers. It's about a young British girl named Theodosia whose parents run an Egyptology museum in turn of the century London. Theo is particularly adept at sensing and handling the magical artifacts within the museum, and she uses her smarts to thwart the Brotherhood of Chaos, a secret society bent on the total destruction of order and civilization. This is the second book in the series, and a great read for age 10+.