To be honest I’m really glad that May is finally over because it was the most exhausting month EVER. Okay, maybe not ever, but it was definitely exhausting 😀 I had four family birthdays that I had to attend (waaaay too much socializing for just one month…), work was also quite stressful and the little free time that remained went on for my running training since I ran a half-marathon at the end of the month… did I already mention that May was exhausting? 😀

Besides that there was also some really exciting stuff that happened last month (which I’m going to talk about later) but all these things eventually led to me not really having a lot of reading time (let’s not even start talking about blogging time…) so that I’m definitely happy (and also a bit proud^^) that I even managed to read 9 books in the end 🙂

Books & Audiobooks

Let’s start with the disappointments: Since I’ve been wanting to start watching „House of Cards“ for the longest time I thought it would be a good idea to listen to the audiobook of the original novel first but I didn’t know that the book was set in Great Britain instead of the US, had flat characters and was also pretty boring… „Locke & Key“ was even worse because I had such high expectations after having listened to so many great Audible audio dramas already but the plot was lame and annoying and I was also disappointed by the narration.

If you’re looking for a gripping audio drama then better pick up the new „Macbeth“ adaptation instead – yes, you’ve probably been forced to read the play in school and maybe don’t ever want to be confronted with Shakespeare again but this feels more like a Game of Thrones version of the play AND I LOVED IT. So dark, so violent, so good!

Another audiobook I’ve listened to in May was „Der letzte Pilger“ („The Last Pilgrim“) by Gard Sveen which was an interesting mix of Scandinavian crime fiction and historical spy novel but I should have better read it for myself because the plot was often very complex and confusing so that I was sometimes a bit lost with the audiobook.

„Rewinder“ by Brett Battles was the only review copy I read last month but I definitely enjoyed this one – time travel stories just never get boring for me!

Another great read was „The Strings of Murder“ by Oscar de Muriel, a historical thriller that was not only set in one of my favorite cities (Edinburgh) but also had two snarky protagonists which were right up my alley 😀

I usually only do re-reads when I want to read a new book in a favorite series of mine and can’t remember a single thing of what happened before but May was almost what I would call a re-reads month for me since FOUR out of the 9 books that I’ve read were re-reads (yes, I definitely count „Macbeth“ as a re-read :P). My main motivation for this was the release of the final book in Rick Yancey’s „The 5th Wave“ trilogy, that’s why I read „The 5th Wave“ and „The Infinite Sea“ for a second time and enjoyed them just as much as the first time, especially since I buddy-read them with Maraia and Jade.

Let’s now come to the most entertaining part of my reading month and to a book I never ever planned to re-read but eventually did anyway: „Nil“ by Lynne Matson. Don’t get me wrong, I actually did enjoy this survival thriller set on an mysterious island when I read it for the first time about 2 years ago and even bought the sequel but I admit that all the swooning of the two main characters was often hard to bear for a reader like me who tries to avoid annoying romances in books at all costs. But then I had to take a picture for the Bookish Scene theme „Sunshine“ and chose „Nil“ due to it’s pretty summer cover and suddenly felt the urge to visit this island again because I just can’t resist island mysteries and I was also looking for a sunny summer read. Fortunately Maraia joined me for it so that I didn’t have to suffer through all the swooning on my own and it turned out that „Nil“ is a helluva fun if you enjoy the mystery part on the one hand and just mock the romance as much as possible. So I would definitely give 5 stars for entertainment but I’m going stick to my 3-star rating for the book itself ;D

Let’s talk about music!

I usually don’t talk about music in my recaps because then they would get even longer but since May was such an amazing musical month for me I just have to write about it. It started with a Mumford & Sons concert in Düsseldorf which was even better than expected because they’re such a good live band and their songs are quite rich in variety.

But it even got better because the day after I went to Cologne to see THE ONE AND ONLY ADELE! Not only is she probably the best singer alive but she’s also hilarious as a person because she’s quite snarky and her cackle is the best XD

Think it can’t get better than that? Well, wait for the June roundup… 😛

Movies

      

• ADAM: I’ve watched this movie for the third time now and still love it. If you’re looking for a romance that is not cheesy but quite realistic, then watch this one!
• ZODIAC: Another movie I’ve watched for the third time last month and I’m definitely still fascinated by the Zodiac case so that watching this movie was again pretty exciting for me.
• ADELE LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL: Well, since I went to see Adele in Cologne last month I just had to watch the Blu-Ray of her most famous concert again to practice the lyrics one last time 😀
• PANIC ROOM: I have no idea how often I’ve seen this movie now but it’s still one of my all-time favorite thrillers, maybe because the setting is so simple but still scary. And I really want a panic room for myself to hide from people and read xD
• THE BONE COLLECTOR: Since I already made Maraia read the book I also had to make her watch the movie which I think is quite a good adaptation of the Jeffery Deaver thriller. I’m still a bit sad that they didn’t turn more books of this series into movies.
• DOCTOR WHO – THE END OF TIME: I decided that it was about time to continue watching Doctor Who but I still had to watch the last special between seasons 4 and 5. Farewell David Tennant, you always were my favorite doctor (out of the two I’ve seen :P).
• CAPTAIN AMERICA – CIVIL WAR: I shouldn’t have been surprised since I was bored by all Captain America Hydra movies so far but I had still hoped that the appearance of some of the Avengers would make the movie more exciting – well, it didn’t. I don’t give a shit about Cap and Bucky so can we maybe please start telling a different story now?

TV shows

    

• GAME OF THRONES is back and it’s the first season where I don’t already know what happens from reading the books, so I hope it’s going to be more interesting than season 5. The first episodes of season 6 didn’t exactly blow my mind yet but already had some interesting things happening…
• MODERN FAMILY: Finished season 6 last month and am already impatiently waiting for the next season showing up on Netflix or Smartflix or anywhere else where I don’t have to watch a crappy stream 😀
• AGENTS OF SHIELD: Season 3 of one of my favorite shows ended last month and it was the first SHIELD season finale that didn’t rip my heart out even though it was still a bit painful…
• CRIMINAL MINDS: I’m in the middle of season 3 right now and still glad that this annoying character is no longer a part of the team, Prentiss is just SO much better than X… 😀
• BONES: Finally finished season 9 last month and was relieved that the terrible thing I expected to happen didn’t happen (yet).

   

• THE NIGHT MANAGER: I started watching this mini-series last month and had quite low expectations since I’ve seen mixed reactions about it but surprisingly I’m really enjoying it so far. It feels a bit like watching a Bond movie (OMG I LOVE the intro of the show!) without the action parts (which is NOT a bad thing :P) and it’s also nice to watch a show with Hugh Laurie again.
• THE BIG BANG THEORY: Continued season 9, still funny 😛
• BROADCHURCH: Watched season 2 last month and even though I liked the first one a bit more it was still very addictive and also quite painful again (what a surprise…^^). Can’t wait to watch season 3!
• GOTHAM: The last episodes of season 2 aired last month and it was such a great season with so many interesting villains and the ending (especially the last scene aaaaah) made me REALLY excited for season 3!

Reviews

   

Other blog posts

• [New books on the shelves] April 2016
• [Ankündigung] #SmokyIsBack – Die große Smoky-Barrett-Leserunde
• [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Mother’s Love
• [Read-a-thon] I’m participating in Bout of Books 16
• [Roundup] April 2016
• [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Sunshine
• [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Diversity
• [Das Jahr des Taschenbuchs] Meine Bücher für den Mai
• [Bookish Scene: Project 52] Balance