It’s Gonna Be A Wonderful Birthday Month <3 | Anticipated Reads of May 2021

Its my birthday month – and I honestly am not exactly excited for it – and lo, and behold, it’s not even because I am turning the BIG 3 – 0!

It’s mostly because the world has completely turned around and I can’t even begin to even smile or hope – and with news always being almost apocalyptic, it’s only thing I can do is try and make do with a little bit of normalcy, no matter where I can get it.

And while I may not be interested in much; Reading, or rather talking about reading (like we cool bloggers/bookstagrammers do) is something that will always give me a sense of peace and contentment – so without further ado; here’s my MOST ANTICIPATED READS of MAY 2021 *winks*.

As always, this is not the total list of all the books being released in this particular month; these are the books that I am looking forward in this month – and maybe just maybe update, the list with my review links at the end of the month, so that ya’ll can access to the reviews without any issues!

If you would like to, you can also check out January 2021, February 2021, March 2021  and April 2021 Anticipated Reads as well.

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ARC Review: That Thing We Call a Heart by Sheba Karim

Shabnam Qureshi is a funny, imaginative Pakistani-American teen attending a tony private school in suburban New Jersey. When her feisty best friend, Farah, starts wearing the headscarf without even consulting her, it begins to unravel their friendship. After telling a huge lie about a tragedy that happened to her family during the Partition of India in 1947, Shabnam is ready for high school to end. She faces a summer of boredom and regret, but she has a plan: Get through the summer. Get to college. Don’t look back. Begin anew.

Everything changes when she meets Jamie, who scores her a job at his aunt’s pie shack, and meets her there every afternoon. Shabnam begins to see Jamie and herself like the rose and the nightingale of classic Urdu poetry, which, according to her father, is the ultimate language of desire. Jamie finds Shabnam fascinating—her curls, her culture, her awkwardness. Shabnam finds herself falling in love, but Farah finds Jamie worrying.

With Farah’s help, Shabnam uncovers the truth about Jamie, about herself, and what really happened during Partition. As she rebuilds her friendship with Farah and grows closer to her parents, Shabnam learns powerful lessons about the importance of love, in all of its forms.

Featuring complex, Muslim-American characters who defy conventional stereotypes and set against a backdrop of Radiohead’s music and the evocative metaphors of Urdu poetry, THAT THING WE CALL A HEART is a honest, moving story of a young woman’s explorations of first love, sexuality, desire, self-worth, her relationship with her parents, the value of friendship, and what it means to be true.