Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined them chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the second day of the month is "Entertainment."
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4/1: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (library, 2013) - So long. So many drugs. 3/5 stars
4/3: Uprooted by Naomi Novik (library, 2015) - I didn't love this. 2/5 stars
4/7: The Heir Affiar (Royal We #2) by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (library ebook, 2020) - This couple is not okay. 2.5/5 stars
4/10: Larry's Party by Carol Shields (library, 1997) - I thought it was good observational writing, but it didn't blow my mind. 3/5 stars
4/11: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (library ebook, 2018) - The kind of book you'll never stop thinking about. 4.5/5 stars
4/11: A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher (library, 2023) - Humorous semi-horror book. I enjoyed every second of it. 5/5 stars
4/14: Verity by Colleen Hoover (library, 2018) - This was a bad, bad book. Like. Really bad. The main character was a nosy, nasty lady, sleeping with a guy while his sick wife was in the next room. I'm just...appalled that this has a 4.36/5 on Goodreads. What is wrong with people?! 1.5/5 stars
4/16: Mirror, Mirror by Jen Calonita (library ebook, 2019) - A retelling of Snow White - what if the princess saves the prince? Fine, I guess. Not really my jam. 2.5/5 stars
4/19: Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon (library, 2020) - Book club book for April about a woman fighting in World War II. And there's a dog. 3.5/stars
4/21: All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay (library, 2023) - Interesting family drama about the consequences when a father is the prime suspect in a mother's disappearance. 4.5/5 stars
4/21: The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren (library ebook, 2021) - Enemies to lover romance novel with a weird plot about genetic compatibility and a dating app. 3.5/5 stars
4/23: The One True Me and You by Remi K. England (library, 2022) - YA romance. I found it challenging for a number of reasons, but I'm glad it's out there for the teens who might need it. 2/5 stars
4/25: Misconduct by Penelope Douglas (library ebook, 2015) - I don't want to yuck anyone else's yum, but I was not excited by this romance novel. I'm glad it's there for folks who want this, but I had a lot of issues with it, but not enough to write up a full review because I think I'm mostly exhausted by writing reviews of average romance novels. 2.5/5 stars
4/27: Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children by Jessica McDiarmid (library, 2019) - A comprehensive look at the terrible treatment of indigenous women and children in Canada and the history of how it got this way. 4/5 stars
4/29: Happy Place by Emily Henry (library, 2023) - Mediocre second chance romance. 3/5 stars
It was sort of a rough month, but there were some highlights. I didn't abandon any books this month which is why I think the total is so low. If I'd given up on some of the books (Misconduct; Verity; Mirror, Mirror) things would have been slightly better.
Average star rating: 3.13/5 stars
I read a lot more in April than I normally do. Favourites were: What Alice Forgot, All The Light We Cannot See, Crying in H Mart, and The Nothing Man.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough call about when to give up on books. I pressed on through I'm Glad My Mom Died, but kinda wish I had abandoned it; same with Strangers to Ourselves. I felt like the point in the book I felt like DNFing it...was just too late in the game? Though clearly that is 100% arbitrary.
I really should have DNFed some of those books and the only reason I didn't was because I didn't have backup ebooks. The long queues and limited number of holds on ebooks at my library has become a bit of a problem for the book I'm reading in bed. I like to use my Kindle for reading in bed because of the backlight (my husband usually turns the light off long before I'm finished reading), but it's been challenging to make sure I always have a book available.
DeleteI have All That in Mine I Carry With Me out of the library right now, and I'm going to start it as soon as I finish Des Linden's book (probably tomorrow.) I also have The House on Mango Street waiting to be read. I wish I read faster!
ReplyDeleteThose are two books I really enjoyed, so I hope you find them as compelling as I did!
DeleteI will never cease to be delighted that you loved The Friend!!! Such a fantastic book! I didn't have any five-star reads this month (although five stars are very very rare), but definitely some 4/4.5s. Nora Goes Off Script was one of my favorites, as were Sea of Tranquility and The Secret History.
ReplyDeleteThe Friend really did speak to me, so I'm grateful for your recommendation. Nora Goes Off Script is one of my favorite romance novels of the last five years, I think. Love Lettering and Nora Goes Off Script are really the only ones that come to mind when I think about really fabulous romances.
DeleteBest book I read in April? Definitely Bear! Ha, just kidding. I had a few good reads that I can see I gave 4.5 stars to in my spreadsheet. Indelible in the Hippocampus, Trespasses, The Body Liberation Project, and Token Black Girl.
ReplyDeleteI'm so amused by all of us checking our spreadsheets to see what we've rated highly recently. We're all such nerds!
DeleteI HATED The Secret History but quite liked The Goldfinch. I really liked Uprooted. I remember liking Larry's Party but I think maybe like you, not blown away. My daughter took the Verity rec from BookTok (she reads a lot) and was incensed by how bad it was and by how Colleen Hoover remains so popular (I mean, people like what they like and that's fine but... um...nothing).
ReplyDeleteI know Emily Henry from two or three pretty cool YA fantasy-ish books, and was quite surprised to find out that she is principally a romance novelist - haven't tried any of those yet, not sure if I will.
I'm on a run of really excellent books right now, although they're kind of books that I don't know if other people will love as much - The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland, Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda and The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley. I keep going to bed earlier and earlier just so I can read longer.
Colleen Hoover's popularity will never cease to amaze me. Verity was so bad. It Ends with Us was meh. Layla made me want to scream about how domestic abuse is not sexy. I actually kind of liked Heart Bones, but I think the ending glossed over some challenges that are going to be pretty hard. I don't know. Maybe I'm too old to get the melodrama of those books.
DeleteI am totally putting some of these on my TBR list (The Friend, All That in Mine I Carry With Me) and I have words about some of your comments! Colleen Hoover is a complete thumbs down for me. I read It Ends With Us and it was meh, then I started November 9 and it was HORRID, so I DNFed it. I am not going to read any more of her books, even though they keep coming up in my library suggestions when I sort it by most popular. WTH! Also I feel a bit meh about Emily Henry, although I know that is an unpopular opinion.
ReplyDeleteI read the Goldfinch as an audiobook, and I am pretty sure it was over 30 hours long, so long that I actually had to give it back to the library and then check it out again. Some of my favorites in April were: We All Want Impossible Things, The Longest Race (about Kara Goucher, Nike and performance enhancing drugs), The Year of Living Danishly, The Golden Couple and Just the Nicest Couple. Whew. I read a lot in April because I went on a weekend hiking trip and I can listen to at least one audiobook per day when I am hiking!
I agree with you Hoover and Henry. They just aren't authors for me, no matter how much I try to like them. I should probably just skip any other books from here on out.
DeleteI love having uninterrupted time to listen to audiobooks! It's the best way to make the time pass by while feeling like you're doing something mentally meaningful.
I had a pretty good reading month in April. Probably my favourite book was The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley. I really like time travel type books so this was right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteHm. I'm usually on the fence about time travel books, but I'll take this one into consideration!
DeleteI read the Goldfinch years ago and kind of liked it but found it so overly long. I think I gave it 3 stars. It was meh overall? My April reading was pretty good. I'm reading fewer books than I did last year but that's ok.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think I wanted The Goldfinch to be better than I found it to be because of the length and how much other people love it. But at least I read it to find out for myself.
DeleteMy average rating in April was 3.4 so not the best reading month for me either!
ReplyDeleteI Have Some Questions for You was my only 5-star read.
Why aren't we doing better with our reading?! Why?
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