The Last Day of #WyrdandWonder 2022 | Showcase of Top 5 Sunday

Today is May 31st and that means that it is the last day of the fifth Wyrd and Wonder and of my first time as a co-host. I thought of doing a wrap up post today but always do the Dancing out of wrap up post with read books and what I posted during the month and some personal bits, and I didn’t really want to change that this time around.

I thought it was still good to take a look back at how I experienced Wyrd and Wonder this time around and if I managed to do what I wanted. And then I’ll be looking at the Top 5 Sunday post, a feature we did for the first time this edition. So I wanted to highlight the hosts posts and also those who took part in this new element. We loved all of your excitement for it.

My Experience

I’ve been an avid supporter of Wyrd and Wonder from the first edition. We all know I love fantasy so having a chance to give it some extra extra attention in a month to celebrate is just great in my world. I have also always loved the community feeling. Everyone jumping aboard to celebrate fantasy feels great and I’ve met some great people this way.

So becoming a co-host this year was a dream. Unfortunately this month and year has been battered my some personal life stuff that took away a lot of my time and concentration. Family life always comes first and my dad having cancer caused a lot of stress.

As a result I didn’t get around to doing what I wanted. I wanted to be on top of our instagram tag and like, share and comment there. Mostly the commenting didn’t really work. I also wanted to comment on everyone’s blogs in the discussion and list tag (and the rest if I managed but that section is always the largest). I didn’t get to that. I will still go through all those posts though when I have more time and room again.

I do think the 5 of us make a great team. So I want to thank Ariana, Imyril, Jorie and Lisa for their great support this month. Their enthusiasm, communication and care. I really appreciated it lovelies.

Top 5 Sunday

This year we had 5 hosts for the fifth year. And for the first time we had five top 5 Sundays. There were prompts to create a top 5 for. One for each Sunday of May. And so many of you jumped on board with our new idea and we loved it.

I’m pulling everything from the master schedule. Let me know if I missed yo! So lets start.

Books we’ve read since last Wyrd & Wonder
OR
Books we read during a previous Wyrd and Wonder

To start with we decided to talk about books we read since the last Wyrd and Wonder or books read during previous installments of Wyrd and Wonder. Sometimes we don’t find a lot in between Wyrd and Wonder or we just haven’t read a lot. So that is why we went with two options for this one.

Some of us hosts took part of course. Imyril talked about fantasy faves since last year, for instance Witchmark by C.L. Polk. Jorie talked about five books she read during Wyrd and Wonder, like The Magic Cup during her first year. I also talked about fantasy faves since last year with The Witness for the Dead mentioned first.

A great many of you talked about books you read since last Wyrd & Wonder. So i am going to mention one book from each as I link to you. Starr from Pages and Procastination talked about Skin and Bones. Louise from Foxes & Fairytales talked about Little Thieves. The thick big book The Jasmine Throne is mentioned by Cailyn from Realms of My Mind. Heather from Based on a True Story shares about The Wizard’s Butler. Book Forager featured The House of Shattered Wings as one of her top 5. Jade City gets mentioned by Peyton from Word Wilderness. Peat from Peat Longs Blog talked about She Who Became the Sun. Zezee with Books mentioned Fables. Beth’s Bookish Thoughts shared about Piranesi. Natalie from Too Short Too Read talked about Gideon the Ninth as one of the five. And Raybearer was on Arwens from I love a Good Books list. Mervih’s Book Reviews talked about The Dark Archive. James from Alligators and Aneurysms put The Bear and the Nightingale on his list. Celeste from A Literary Escape put up For the Wolf. The Bone Shard Daughter was on the list of Nicole from Thoughts Stained with Ink. Under the Whispering Door is on the list of Curly Geek from The Book Stop.

The team of The Fantasy Hive took it a step further and mixed the prompts with describing the books in 5 words. Sahi from My World of Books combined it with the 5 star read prompt from the photo challenge.

Forest Fantasy Recommendations

This round I shared our readalong book The Darkest part of the Forest as a part of my list. Imyril put The Green Man series on hers.

Again I will be mentioning one book of each list from our participants here. Louise from Foxes and Fairytales put Eva Evergreen and the Cursed Witch on her list. Nicole from The Bookwyrm Knits talked about In an Absent Dream. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn was on the list of Book Forager. Caitlin from Realms of My Mind went with The Shadow of the Gods as one of her picks. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is featured on Lexlingua’s list. Silver in the Wood appears on the list of Zezee with Books. Peat Long’s Blog mentions The Dragonlance trilogy. The Witcher comes up on Peyton’s from Word Wilderness list. While Uprooted is mentioned by James from Alligators and Aneurysms.

While Starr from Pages and Procastination went for five forest fantasies she wants to read like Witchlings. The team of The Fantasy Hive took it a step further and mixed the prompts with describing the books in 5 words

Books featuring our Wyrd and Wonder Mascots:
Dragon, Phoenix, Pegasus, Wolf, Raven

Both Imyril and I decided to pick one book per mascot. Imyril picked The Poppy War for Phoenix. While I picked The Book of Dragons for Dragon.

Mixed lists are incoming. Celeste from A Literary Escape choose Ruin and Rising for Phoenix. Book Forager choose The Sandman for Raven on her mixed list. The Wicked Deep is on the mixed list by Rachel from Green Tea Librarian. Peyton from Word Wilderness went with Monstress for Wolf on her list. Peat Long’s Blog choose Carpe Jugulum for phoenix. James from Alligators and Aneurysms choose An Apprentice to Elves for wolves. Louise from Foxes and Fairytales choose A Natural History of Dragons for Dragon.

Mervih’s Book Reviews choose an all dragon list with the Temeraire books on it. Nicole from The Bookwyrm Knits also went with a dragon list like Nice Dragons Finish Last. Jessticulates shared five raven covers. The team of The Fantasy Hive took it a step further and mixed the prompts with describing the books in 5 words

Single Serve Fantasy

Single serve fantasy, meaning short stories and novella’s are a great inbetween bite. One of the picks that Imyril made was Fireheart Tiger. Where I picked Silver in the Wood.

Louise from Foxes and Fairytales picked The Witness for the Dead for her list. Starr from Pages and Procastination recommends Lightspeed Magazine for short stories. Nicole from Bookwyrm Knits picked The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Zezee with Books picked The Ice Dragon. Mervih Book Reviews picked Bridge of Crows.

Books from a Favorite Fantasy Subgenre

With this pick I decided to go for Urban Fantasy while Imyril picked Historical Fantasy.

Louise from Foxes and Fairytales shared books for 5 different fantasy subgenres and picked 5 books for political fantasy. Book Forager decided to go with Fictional Authors. Zezee with books went with Middle Grade Fantasy.

This post will be updated when I come across new posts by you all in the following days. Of course with the post from Sunday I don’t think I have everyone. Again if you forgot to add your link to the master schedule for these then drop your links down below!