The month that was… May 2025

What a difference a day month makes!  I mentioned last month that the company I work for is going through a significant restructure, with some 200 redundancies expected as part of that process.  My role doesn’t exist in the new structure, putting me “at risk”, albeit with the expectation that I would migrate into a similar role.  I feel that I should say at this point that while I was feeling pretty low about things this time last month – I’d just been given formal communication regarding my situation – I do appreciate that things could have been much worse.  At least there was a role for me, right?  The issue for me was that it didn’t appeal in the slightest – I didn’t want more of the same, and I think that I would have left if that was all that was on offer. 

A month on – and it’s not been the easiest month, but again, could have been much worse – I have secured a new role at the company that I’m happy with.  It’s not what I was expected to do and is a bit of a step up in terms of responsibility, but I’m looking forward to the change and the new challenge.  And I’m pleased that I can stay with the company.  Despite this restructure, I do like the company and it would have saddened me to leave.  My new role starts in June, and I’m looking forward to it.

In other news, May is Hay Festival month.  It’s one of my favourite events of the year and came as a balm after the recent upheaval – I was particularly glad that it came at the end of the month when everything was resolved so that I could enjoy it to the max.  While I attended events by authors that I know and love, my favourite events this year were ones featuring books and authors who are new to me, particularly Roisin O’Donnell discussing her debut novel, Nesting, and Suzie Miller discussing the novel based upon her one-woman play, Prima Facie.  My festival book haul is shown below! 🤗

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My favourite books this month

• At the Stroke of Midnight by Jenni Keer
• The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
• The Botanist by M. W. Craven

I also read / reviewed:

• The Continental Affair by Christine Mangan
• Murder Road by Simone St. James
• Conspiracyland: Trolls, True Believers and the New Information War by Marianna Spring
• The Trees by Percival Everett
• Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell

I also celebrated my ten year blogiversary and, perhaps foolishly, signed up for 20 15 books of summer.

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Books acquired

I sense some outside influence in these titles… 🕵🏻‍♀️

And my – actually quite modest, for me – haul from Hay Festival. It looks as though I’ve organised these by red / pink vs. blue colour tones, but this genuinely just the order that I bought them in. It’s very pleasing to look at though 😏

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TBR Watch

And it was all going so well! 😂 This happens every year, and honestly – it could have been much, much worse!

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And that’s my bookish month! Happy reading! 🩷