4/4: The Book That Matters the Most by Ann Hood (library audiobook narrated by Nina Alvamar, 2016) - I don't know. There were things I really liked about this book and things I really didn't like. Confusing. 3/5 stars (is that a good star rating? I DON'T KNOW.)
4/11: Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler (library, 2012) - Teen love triangle with ice skating and hockey. Look, I have GOT TO STOP READING YA. Not for me. 2.5/5 stars
4/11: The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz (library audiobook narrated by the good and great Julia Whelan, 2022) - Props to Korelitz for writing a book in which every character is terrible, but you somehow want to keep reading more. 4/5 stars
4/15: The Martian Contingency (Lady Astronaut #4) by Mary Robinette Kowal (library ebook, 2025) - I really liked the first three books in this series and was excited to see Kowal was continuing the series. But I thought this book was like 800 pages long because it was taking me so long to read it. It's not that long, but it was boring. Just read the first three books. 2.5/5 stars
4/17: We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated from the Japanese by E. Madison Shimoda (library, 2023) - Book club book. What the hell did I just read? 2.5/5 stars
4/18: Ruins by Lily Dalton-Brooks (library, 2026) - Good Morning, Midnight and The Light Pirate were such great books. I was PUMPED for this one. And it was...not my favorite. 2.5/5 stars
4/19:
Good People by Patmeena Sabit (library ebook, 2026) - Interesting. Cleverly done. I'm still contemplating the ending. 4.5/5 stars
4/21:
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (library audiobook narrated by Karen White, 2008) - Sometimes you read a gentle book with weird magical realism and you just go with it. Also, I read this in
2012 when I was going through my Sarah Addison Allen phase, so that explains why I knew all the "twists." 4/5 stars
4/24:
Legacy by Nora Roberts (library audiobook narrated by January LaVoy, 2021) - Sometimes you just want to listen to a Nora Roberts book, you know? 4/5 stars
4/24:
Kin by Tayari Jones (ebook I own, 2026) - Buddy read with Sarah! We both loved it! 4.5/5 stars
4/26:
The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne (library, 2026) - Yes! I love an epistolary novel. They are so propulsive. 4.5/5 stars
4/27:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (library audiobook, 2006) - And my stellar run of books has ended. This is bleak, plodding, and plotless. I know people consider it to be a modern classic, so I apologize if I'm offending anyone, but this book did not do it for me. 2/5 stars
Total: 12 books
Average star rating: 3.42/5 stars
Did not finish:
By the Sword (Valdemar) by Mercedes Lackey - In my review for
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang,
I wrote "I liked the first part of this book when the main character was at school, but as soon as the actual war started, I was less enthused." That's how I felt about this book. As soon as she started fighting battles, I was not into it. Dare I say I think I'm done with
Valdemar? DNF at 46%.
Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain #2) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - I read the
first book and it was meh and the start of this book was not making me revisit that thought. DNF at 23%.
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Is there a modern classic you want to like, but just don't? Is there a modern classic you recommend to everyone?
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Oof- your reading month had a lot of ups and downs. Good People is still on my TBR. And you've convinced me to skip The Road. I think it's actually sitting on my bookshelf for some reason, has been there for years. I should just donate it.
ReplyDeleteI did read some great books, though, so I think of April as a good reading month.
DeleteSome people love The Road. And it is short. So do what you will with that information.
OMG. The Road. I LOATHED that book. It's loved by so many people and I do not understand why. But I have little patience for books that don't use quotation marks or identify who is speaking - I remember long stretches of back and forth conversations between the father and son and I could not tell who was saying what. I read it 10+ years ago! I gave it 1 star which is something I rarely do. 2026 Lisa would have DNF'd it.
ReplyDeleteI bought my husband Good Morning, Midnight, and oops…it looks like we watched the movie version starring George Clooney back in 2020. Oh well, he still wants to read it.
ReplyDeleteI loved The Road, though I don’t think I could bear to read it again, it was so, so bleak. I liked how the writing was so sparse when they were starving, and more fleshed out when they had food. I found it to be beautifully written. There is no way in hell I would see the film though.
I’m looking forward to reading Kin when it finally comes in via my library hold. I just re-listened to An American Marriage, which was excellent, just as I remember it being.
Julia Whelan…When she was a teenager, she was on a TV show called Once and Again, about a blended family. I just finished listening to an audiobook called Once and Again, narrated by Julia Whelan, but of course it had nothing whatsoever to do with the TV show. I liked thinking about how she probably thought about the TV show when she was offered the title. The TV show starred Sela Ward as the mom, and Sela Ward was before that in a show called Sisters, where her love interest was George Clooney (before he went on to ER), and of course George Clooney was the star (and director?) of the movie I mentioned at the beginning of my comment. That’s my 6 degrees of separation to myself comment.