April Reading/Life
- Piggy-backing off a solid end of March, the beginning of April brought me one of my favorite books of the year so far! Unfortunately, the streak didn’t stay alive…leading to more of a quantity over quality type of month. My home life was also chaotic (sick children, random school closings), which probably contributed to my distracted/slumpy reading state.
- I felt inspired to write a full book review for the first time in quite awhile (for Shelter)!
- I actually enjoyed an audiobook (In the Water They Can’t See You Cry, Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard’s memoir), which is rare for me! And, I discovered I love listening to something (audiobook or podcast) while brushing my teeth, etc before bed.
- I started this season’s triathlon training. I’ll be competing in my second Sprint Triathlon on June 12 in Stamford, CT. After a long winter where I felt less than motivated, it feels great to be training for something again!
- I finally jumped on The Tsar of Love and Techno bandwagon after hearing so many great things and seeing it do well in the 2016 Tournament of Books, but I couldn’t do the same for Why We Came to the City and The Midnight Assassin.
Best Book of the Month
Shelter by Jung Yun (March 15, 2016)
Fiction, 336 Pages
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
May Releases I’m Excited About
The After Party by Anton DiSclafani (May 17)
Happy Family by Tracy Barone (May 24)
June by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore (May 31)
Top Backlist Books on my “To Be Read” List
Mudbound by Hillary Jordon
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Most Popular April Posts
Ten Books (Not By Dan Brown) Every Conspiracy Theorist Should Read
Ten Books That Will Unexpectedly Make You Laugh
What Makes A Book Work For Me…And You?
Favorite Posts by Fellow Bloggers
- Julianne at Outlandish Lit shared possibly my favorite reading story ever!
- Read Her Like An Open Book asked “what the hell is women’s lit?”
- Shannon at River City Reading shared her list of Ten Books I Wish I’d Read Ten Years Ago (which, for her, was right after graduating from college).
I really need to add Shelter to my queue, but I’m not sure of when I’ll be able to read it. Maybe before the end of the year. I’m looking forward to those three releases, too. Especially Happy Family.
I enjoyed In the Water They Can’t See You Cry but I didn’t love it. It seemed to me that Beard repeated the same mistakes over and over again.
I could also have enjoyed it more because I was a swimmer growing up and understand that world a bit. While I knew she was only 14 in the Atlanta Olympics, the book really hit home how truly young she was…while operating in an adult world. That must have been really hard.
It sounds like you had a good month. Good luck with your triathlon training. I don’t think I could ever do a triathlon. It’s a struggle for me just to get on the treadmill every day. 🙂
Haha – I didn’t think I could either! But you go through the training and you somehow end up prepared…and able to do more than you ever thought you could!
Well, you had an interesting month. Those are some good titles, I wish more of them had worked for you. Sorry Assassin didn’t pan out. I hope you’ll have more love for one of my favorites, Our Souls at Night, which I adored, but I’m a noted Haruf fan. You’re making me rethink the Marra and the Jasma. I hope this month is better for you, good luck training!
I just started Our Souls at Night today..literally only read a few pages so far, but they got me to buy the full Kindle book! I’ll keep you posted!
I hope things pick back up again in May! You MUST read Salvage the Bones; it’s so wonderful and heartbreaking.
Oh, I definitely will! Just waiting for the right time to sink my teeth into an emotional gut wrencher (which is not right now with a chronically sick daughter!).
Mudbound is so good! It’s good to see it making a bit of a comeback – I love shining the light on older books that get buried under all the new ones!
I had never heard of it until recently! Catherine at Gilmore Guide raved about it and it looks right up my alley!
I will read Shelter in May, I think. Did you notice two of your May covers feature women in green?
I didn’t, but I love the symmetry! Maybe I should pay better attention next time 🙂 Hope Shelter works for you!
Our Souls at Night just warmed my heart! I hope you are able to get to it!
Just started it – yay!
kudos to you for the triathlon! I’ll be eager to hear how you do! I had kind of a weird/busy month that also resulted in a slumpy month of reading.
Thanks 🙂 I feel like a chaotic personal life tends to impact my reading…especially this year!
Oooh, I totally forgot about Amanda Beard’s book; what a great suggestion for an audiobook! I’m going to see if my library has a copy; thanks for the reminder! I’m excited about your upcoming race; you’re going to do great. I’m also excited about The After Party; it’s gotten so much buzz, which always kind of scares me, and I hope it’s good.
I know, I’ve been so happy to see After Party’s good buzz! I feel like books like that are always a crapshoot…either a total winner or really annoying. I hope you get to listen to the Beard!
Looks like a good month! I’ve heard nothing but good things about Shelter — definitely going on my TBR list!
Yay!
I love that you are highlighting the books you are looking forward to! I like to plan out my reading a bit myself. 🙂
I’m reading Shelter as we speak! So far, so good. Very easy to read but oh so interesting…
Oh yay! I hope it works for you! And, I agree, it wasn’t challenging, but fascinating and so well-written.
You’ve got some great choices coming up! Mudbound is so good, but so very dark and Our Souls at Night is quietly sad. Maybe try The After Party in between those two. It fits our wealthy-women-behaving-badly but not awesome sauce (which is a technical term BTW).
I got Mudbound from you! So…does that mean The After Party is just so-so?