April Preview

 Hello Interwebs, 

I know I'm almost a week into April at this point but I was waiting for Read with Jenna and Reese's Book Club to announce the book picks for April to finish this and Reese's Book Club pick wasn't announced until today. But without further ado here's what I intend to read in April, the book club picks for this month, and books I'm excited about that are releasing this month. 

First up are the books I'm currently reading and may or may not finish in April. Two are audiobooks I've been working on for a while, one is an ebook and the fourth is a hard copy book. 

1. A Promised Land by Barack Obama (2020). This is the audiobook version of  former President Obama's memoir. I started this on November 30, 2020 and haven't really been listening to it despite enjoying it. So I'm going to keep working on it and eventually I will finish this. 
   
   
   
   
2. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (2020). This is another book I've been listening to as an audiobook (I also own it as a hardcover and an ebook). It's an adult urban fantasy about a young woman named Addie LaRue who makes a deal with the "darkness" so she'll live forever but no one will remember her. It's a good book but it was starting to feel heavy so I put it aside at like 50% completed. I started it on February 7th and I will try to finish this soon. 
   
   
   
   
3. A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas (2021). This is the most recently book in the ACOTAR series, this one focusing on Cassian and Nesta. I'm about 25% of the way done with this and I started it on March 29th so I should finish this easily in the first week or two of April. 
   
   
   
   
4. Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson (2021). This is a thriller and the April title for The Book Troop book club. It's about a woman on her honeymoon who is being stalked by the man she had an affair with during her bachelorette party trip. I'm only about 25 pages into this book and I'm liking it so far. I started this book on April 4th. 
   
   
   
   

When I wrote the first draft of this post I was also in the process of reading Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour. I started reading it around the first of April and read the first hundred pages or so, which was roughly a quarter of the book. I didn't dislike the book but I wasn't in a good place to read it if that makes sense. I won't get into too much detail about what I liked/didn't like about it but the part I was in the middle of when I DNF'd was the hell week of training at the start up that's mentioned in the back of book synopsis and although I knew and was prepared for it to be abusive I realized as I got into it that I was just not in the right kind of mindset to be reading about it. So I DNF'd it and I intend to pick it up later when I'm in a better headspace. 

Next I have the other ten books that I am wanting to read in the month of April. I am 100% aware that this is crazy considering that I average about 6 books a month but here we are. (5 of these happened when I went to return Black Buck and pick up a hold at the library yesterday). So here's what I'm wanting to read in April. 

1. King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo (2019). This is the first book in the King of Scars duology from Bardugo's Grishaverse. This duology follows Nikolai who is the King of Ravka and his trauma after the Ravkan civil war. 
   
   
   
   
2. Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (2021). This is the second book in the King of Scars duology that just released at the end of March. 
   
   
   
3. The Lost Apothecary  by Sarah Pennen. This is a historical fiction told both in the present day and in the late 1700s where a woman runs a secret apothecary where women can come for poisons to liberate them from the men who wrong them. This was my March Book of the Month selection. 
   
   
   
   
4. The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow (2020). This is a historical fiction, classics retelling about the middle Bennet sister, Mary, from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen reimagining her as the heroine of her own Jane Austen-esque story. 
   
   
   
   
5. The Bookwanderers by Anna James (2018). This is a middle grade fantasy following a young girl who lives with her grandparents above the bookstore they own. Then classic book characters start wandering out of their books and into the real world where they help her find out what really happened to her mom. This is the Darling Desi patreon buddy read for April. 
   
   
   
   
6. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman (2015). This is a novella about a boy and his grandfather learning to say goodbye and how to let go. 
   
   
   
   
7. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman (2013). This is about a young girl whose grandmother has died and left behind a series of letters apologizing to people she's wronged. The letters lead the girl on an adventure to fulfill her eccentric grandmother's last requests. 
   
   
   
   
8. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (1989). This is a story about a carnival family who have set out to breed their own sideshow's worth of human oddities and follows their adventures as they take their show across the rural US. 
   
   
   
   
9. The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict (2019). This is by the same author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie which I loved when I read it back in February. This one is a fictional novel about scientist and actress Hedy Lamarr. 
   
   
   
   
10. The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor (2021). This is another thriller and is actually the May pick for The Book Troop. It's more of a horror/thriller about a father and daughter who move to this town where 500 years before they burned a bunch of Protestant martyrs. Upon arrival he's gifted an exorcism kit with a warning. As they settle into the twon and get to know the inhabitants they end up being brought into the mystery of the city. My hold came in MUCH earlier than I anticipated but I have three weeks to read this so I'll read it towards the end of April to be ready for May. 
    
    
    
    

So those are the books I'm hoping to read in April. I currently follow along with four book clubs, two celebrity ones, one on YouTube, and one on patreon. These are the selections for April. I'm definitely doing The Book Troop and the Darling Desi books but may not do the Read with Jenna or Reese's Book Club ones until later. 

1. The Book Troop: Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson (2021). Thriller. 
   
   
   
   
2. Darling Desi buddy read: The Bookwanderers by Anna James (2018). Middle Grade Fantasy. 
   
   
   
3. Read with Jenna: Good Company by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney (2021). Adult Contemporary. 
   
   
   
4. Reese's Book Club: Northern Spy by Flynn Berry (2021). Thriller. 
   
   
    

Finally I have the books I'm excited about in April 2021. There's seven books I'm checking out right now. 

1. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland (April 6) 
   
   
   
   
2. The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin (April 6) 
   
   
   
   
3. Malice by Heather Walter (April 13). 
   
   
   
   
4. The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (April 13).
   
   
   
   
5. On This Day in History Shit Went Down by James Fell (April 17). 
   
   
   
   
6. Radical Remedies: An Herbalist's Guide to Empowered Self Care by Brittany Ducham (April 20)
   
   
   
   
7. Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart (April 20)
   
   
   
   

And that's all I have for the month of April, books I want to read and ones I'm hoping to get. Here's to a very productive month of reading. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle

March Wrap-Up

 Hello Interwebs!

So once again I have had another pretty good reading month, but not such a great blogging month again. I promised one day I will blog more consistently but it is apparently not this day. I cut back on my book buying a little bit and I read more of the books I own rather than buying them. All in all by the end of March I read seven books for a total of 2,545 pages and an average rating of 4.1 stars. 

First up, the books I read in the month of March. I read a historical romance, a science fiction, a classic and four fantasy novels this month and I rather enjoyed them all, none was below a 2.5/3 star read and even those I didn't dislike persay. So without further ado here's the books that I read in the month of March. 

1. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. This is a historical fiction novel that takes place in the leper colony of Kalaupapa on the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i. You follow the story of Rachel Kalama, a girl who is diagnosed with leprosy at the age of 7 and sent to the colony to live. She replaces her family with one she chooses there and lives and thrives for years in the colony. This was a wonderfully powerful read about a part of history that I didn't know much about. By the end of the book I was in tears. It was beautifully written and the characters felt so real. I read this book from March 2-9, 2021 and gave it a 5/5 stars. 
   
   
   
   
2. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This was a book I went into not knowing much about but it was a Goodreads award winner for 2020 and everyone's been talking and raving about it online so I had placed a hold for it. The hold came in and I picked it up right after Moloka'i and binge read it in two days. I absolutely loved it. This is a "fantasy" story about a young woman named Nora who commits suicide but instead of dying she ends up in the midnight library, filled with books that contain every possible life she could have had depending on the choices she made. It was a great story about mental illness and how our choices affect our outcomes. I loved it and gave it a 4/5 stars. I read it from March 8-9, 2021. 
   
   
   
   
3. Lady Susan by Jane Austen. This is a Jane Austen book I'd never read before despite seeing the Amazon movie Love & Friendship which is based off of it. It's about the windowed and scandalous  Lady Susan who is trying to marry her daughter off to the world's most boring human being while flirting with every man that breaths (especially ones that will cause scandal like her sister-in-law's younger brother and a married man). A comedy of errors that ends well for most people. I enjoyed it. It's far from my favorite Jane Austen but still enjoyable. I'm hoping to get a blog post up comparing this to the Amazon made movie. I read this from February 24-March 10, 2021 and gave it a 3/5 stars. 
   
   
   
   
4. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. This is the first book in a fantasy series called The Scholomance about a girl named El who is attending a school for mages that ends up with a bunch of them dying from the monsters every year. I enjoyed this book, definitely not my favorite, but I'm also looking forward to reading the rest of the series as it comes out. I read this book from March 10-16, 2021 and gave it a 4 stars. 
   
   
   
   
5. The Power by Naomi Alderman. This is a dystopian sci-fi novel about what would happen if women woke up one day with the power of electricity manipulation. It started out good adn interesting: women taking the power back and punishing those who deserve it (like the women in brothels who are victims of human trafficking) but then it devolves into religious extremism and turning the tables as far the opposite way from how it is now. I wanted so much more from this book and it ended up women are just as bad as men, if not worse, when it comes to having all the power and ruling the world. I read the first half of this as an ebook from the library and finished it as an audiobook while on a trip to visit family. I liked the set up but didn't like the follow through. I read this from March 16-22, 2021 and gave it a 2.5/5 star rating. 
   
   
   
   
6. A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas. This was a reread for me in preparation for the latest book in the series. This book is the final buildup to the war between Hybern and Prythia/Humans. I love this book series and liked this as a wrap-up to that initial story between Rhysand and Feyre. I gave it a 5/5 stars and read it from March 2-26, 2021. 
   
   
   
   
7. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J Maas. This is the novella that follows the initial series about Rhysand and Feyre about their first winter solstice with all of them together in the night court. This was also a reread and I still love it. 5/5 stars and read from March 26-29, 2021. 
   
   
   
   

So that's all the books that I read in March 2021. For the most part I enjoyed everything I read and didn't outright hate or dislike anything I read. 

I also bought 25 books, mostly on sale from Amazon but a handful were ebook versions I bought of books I own in hardcopy and want to reread soon. 

1. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (Earthseed #1). Amazon, ebook, sci-fi. 
2. The Conductors by Nicole Glover. Unplugged Book Box, paperback, historical fiction/fantasy. 
   
3. The Kennedy Debutante by Kerri Maher. Amazon, ebook, historical fiction. 
   
4. Lies We Bury by Elle Marr. Amazon, ebook, thriller
   
5. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. Amazon, ebook, contemporary.
   
6. Send for Me by Lauren Fox. Target, hardcover, historical fiction. 
   
7. Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev (The Rajes #1). Amazon, ebook, romance. 
   
8. One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London. Amazon, ebook, contemporary.
   
9. Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison. Amazon, ebook, historical fiction.
   
10. The Poldark Saga #1-3 by Winston Graham: Ross Poldark, Demelza, Jeremy Poldark. Amazon, ebook, historical fiction. 
    
11. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone #1). Amazon, ebook, fantasy. 
    
12. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone #2). Amazon, ebook, fantasy. 
    
13. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone #3). Amazon, ebook, fantasy. 
    
14. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows #1). Amazon, ebook, fantasy.
    
15. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows #2). Amazon, ebook, fantasy.
    
16. Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych ER by Julie Holland. Amazon, ebook, memoir.
    
17. Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter. Amazon, ebook, true crime. 
    
18. Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant. Amazon, ebook, romance. 
    
19. The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman. Barnes and Noble, hardcover, poetry.
    
20. Infinite Country by Patricia Engel. Barnes and Noble, hardcover, literary fiction.
    
21. Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (King of Scars #2). Barnes and Noble, hardcover, fantasy.
    
22. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Pennen. Book of the Month, hardcover, historical fiction.
    
23. How to be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman. Amazon, ebook, nonfiction. 

So that's how everything went in March. Some good reading, and some good book purchasing. On to April and more fun!

Happy Reading!

Richelle