What I read in May 2026

May was actually pretty productive! I re-taught myself InDesign (which I last used in 2010!) to make something resembling a zine (more about that next time), and went to the second Writing with Images workshop, which not only helped me finish my story for Emotional Madness in June, but gave me an opportunity to play around and make bad art.

I had a lot of fun making this, but I can only apologise to Poppy.

On top of that, I read 12 books of varying lengths – a quarter of which had “bones” in the title, which was totally unplanned. (Not forgetting I also posted my review of The Bone Mother, by Suzy Aspley this month!)

Of Beasts and Bones, edited by Robin Knabel - 3.5*

The Third Rule of Time Travel, by Philip Fracassi - 4*

Thin Places in Hard Concrete, by Ray Newman - 5*

Space Dragons: Cosmic Survivors, by Veo Corva - 5*

Floating Hotel, by Grace Curtis - 4*

Under the Blazing Sun, by Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Paul Russell Garrett - 3.5*

Nettle and Bone, by T. Kingfisher - 4.5*

The Wrong Son, by Neil Griffiths - 4.5*

Maggots, by Nina Allan - 4*

The Crawling Moon, edited by Dave Ring - 4*

The Cellar Below the Cellar, by Ivy Grimes - 4*

Silent Bones, by Val McDermid - 4*

Looking ahead…

My T. Kingfisher (and apparent ‘books with “bones” in the title’) journey will continue this month with A House with Good Bones.

I meant to read Men at Arms, by Terry Pratchett, last month, but that didn’t end up happening, so I will try to get to it this month!

I’m on the blog tour for The Poppy Fields, by Nikki Erlick, which looks really good. Another book I’m looking forward to reading is E. Saxey’s short story collection, Lost in the Archives, which I (virtually) picked up after particularly enjoying their contribution to The Crawling Moon.