Sunday Summary – 3rd May 2026

It makes a pleasant change for a Sunday Summary post that to come to you not at the end of the weekend! Yes, it’s the early May bank holiday weekend here, and I’m looking forward to an extra cheeky day off work. It also makes a change that the typical British bank holiday weather has held off so far. In fact, I was able to get out for a bike ride earlier, making the most of the weather being dry, if not the most sunny.

As much as I’m sure you really want to know my whereabouts this weekend, maybe I should stick to the topic at hand and catch you up on the blog posts and other content I’ve shared so far this week. Here on the blog, I shared a review of Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb, followed by my monthly wrap-up for April. Both of those are pretty lengthy posts, so if you’re in for an exciting read, go and check either (or both) of those posts out. 

Over on YouTube, I shared the equivalent of last week’s Sunday Summary catch-up in video form on Monday. Whilst I had hoped to get a little further with my posting schedule already, I plan to make up for that lack by getting my monthly wrap-up for April posted on YouTube today. 

 

Books Read

Looking at Women, Looking at War 

When I left you in last week’s Sunday Summary post, I had a reading marathon to achieve. I have just started Looking at Women, Looking at War and I still had a chunk to go.

With the deadline of returning this book before 5 pm on Monday, I stayed up late on Sunday night to get as far as I could, then finish the book Monday lunchtime with just enough time to spare to run it down to the library and return it. 

Who says being a reader doesn’t mean flying by the seat of your pants sometimes? I certainly do 🫣

Despite this needing to be a quick read out of necessity, the rapid case I had to read the book didn’t detract from the experience. It was both usual and unique to read a book of this nature. I went into it thinking it was more historical, but obviously it’s really kind of a current events book. 

What also made this interesting is that the book wasn’t finished by the author before she unfortunately lost her life. Therefore, there are sections of this book that are Victoria‘s rough handwritten notes as opposed to a fleshed-out chapter. Did that help me get through it? Absolutely! It’s a shame she obviously didn’t get to finish the book, but I really enjoyed reading it in the format it was nonetheless! 

 

Crown of Midnight 

One of my main reading priorities this week has been picking up Crown of Midnight. Yes, one surprisingly, my read-along book that I was meant to do in April, didn’t really happen as planned. I’ve got a good of that but also I didn’t make an effort to prioritise, but even knowing my reading month wasn’t going to plan. 

Nevertheless, I have finally started this book and as of this summary, I am around 20%. To be perfectly honest, it’s been quite easy to make this programme. I’ve enjoyed getting back into this world as we have enough overlap with one of the series, but also plenty of hints as to what to expect coming up in this latest, because I’m hoping to read for a rest with this book along very quickly. If I’m not talking about completion next week, I’m going to be upset with myself. My plans are to read the third book, Heir of Fire this May, so I definitely need to get my skates on! 

 

Why We Get Sick 

The book I feel like I’ve made the most progress with this week is called Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman.

I was a little disheartened with my recent lack of reading progress. That’s especially so for both my previous audiobook listen, Onyx and Ivory, but also more generally. With the hopes that a fresh start was exactly what I needed, I turned to a book not even on my TBR. Rather, I leaned into a subject I have wanted to read more about anyway. I hope the complete fresh start would help kickstart my reading journey once again.

The main focus of Why We Get Sick revolves around insulin resistance and how this strikingly common phenomenon impacts chronic health conditions. In some cases, I go so far as to explain the links between insulin resistance and these conditions, if not definite, then the correlation. Why am I reading about this subject, you ask? Because I think I have it. More importantly, whilst I am interested in the biology, (this was distinct criteria I gave ChatGPT when looking for a recommendation), but my motivation for reading this book is to find out what I can do about it.

As of this Sunday Summary, I’m actually about 90% through this audiobook and I reckon with a bit of a push, I could finish this tonight. I’ve taken to listening to sections of this audio before bed anyway. It feels reasonable that I could finish this book tonight! And, that would make me happy. After a bit of a slump in recent weeks with reading progress, a quick win is definitely not going to hurt my stats or my interpretation of progress. Numbers aren’t everything, don’t get me wrong. However, they don’t hurt sometimes when you need a little kick… 

 

Books Discovered

I’ve been good for another week in a row and not added any books to my TBR. What’s going on with me?! 

Maybe the need to refresh my TBR jar yesterday, sorting old books and putting in maybe 60 or so of my latest adds, was enough to dissuade me… 

 

Coming Up… 

What I’m Reading… 

Next week, my early priorities will be finishing Why We Get Sick as I’m so close to the end, and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas. With hopes to read Heir of Fire this month, I naturally need to read the predecessor book. 

Then, I think I’ll pick up Heir of Fire hot on the heels of Crown of Midnight. I need to read this in May and actually start my readalong in good time! Plus, I also don’t want to give away my May TBR reads before my post goes live 😉

 

Blog

I only filmed my May TBR and drew my books out of the TBR jar yesterday evening. So, I didn’t get time to post that list here this week. So, I’m naturally going to start next week with this one! It’s planned, and it’s a long list! I’ve also got some chunky books that came out. So, I’d best get back into the groove with reading, else my reading month will flop as hard as April… 

On Friday I’ll return with a Shelf Control feature. It’s been a few weeks since I posted one of these. If you’re keen to see what’s coming up on my TBR, that’s the post to check out 😊

Finally, another Sunday Summary will roll around before you know it. Let’s hope I can land some good reading progress in the next week and get my May TBR off to a great start. 

 

YouTube

Over on YouTube, I’ve got both my monthly wrap-up post and May TBR to edit and post – I hope you are looking out for those! 

 

Summary 

Thanks for reading today’s Sunday Summary and I hope you’re as excited for the content I’ve got planned, as well as joining me in reading some of the books I’m picking up in May. 

What are you going to be reading in May? 

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