Books Read
- The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins (★★★★☆ – print, owned, Book of the Month) – a popcorn thriller that had lots of great twists and turns
- All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – a heavy YA novel with themes of grief, mental illness, and suicide
- The Switch by Beth O’Leary (★★★★☆ – e-book, Libby) – a sweet “switching places” sort of novel with an octagenarian protagonist and her 20-something granddaughter
- Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (★★★★★ – e-book, Libby) – such a great f/f love story that was well-written and poignant
- The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee (★★★☆☆ – #ownvoices, audiobook, Libby) – a historical YA novel that tried to take on too many issues in one book
- When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (★★★★★ – print, owned, from a friend) – a dystopian novel that felt more real-life than fantasy
- Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain (★★★★★, #ownvoices, print, owned, Amazon) – a unique look on 400 years of Black American history told from the perspectives of 80 different Black authors
- The Lemon Sisters by Jill Shalvis (★★★☆☆ – e-book, Libby) – a solid contemporary romance that was a little heavy-handed with the fatphobic language
- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (★★★★★ – audiobook, Libby) – a gem of a novel with characters who will stick with me for a long, long time
Book Stats
- # of books read: 9
- # of pages read: 3,306 pages
- Genre breakdown: Fiction (33%), YA (22%), Romance (11%), Mystery/Thriller (11%), Nonfiction (11%), and Science Fiction (11%)
- Format breakdown: print (33%), e-book (33%), and audiobook (33%)
- Fastest read: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (4 days)
- Slowest read: Four Hundred Souls (25 days)
- Star average: 4.3
- % of books by or about BIPOC or the LGBT community: 33%
- Abandoned books: 1 (The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton)
- Goodreads goal check-in: I set a goal of 135 books this year and currently, I am 3 books behind schedule. Eeks!
Superlatives of April
- Favorite book of April: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
- Favorite romance of April: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
- The book I stayed up late to finish: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
- The book with the most visceral imagery that will stick with me: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
- The book I want to most press into the hands of every reader I know: Four Hundred Souls
What was the best book you read in April?
Okay, based on your recommendation, I just ordered Delilah Green Doesn’t Care from my library. I am in a romance novel rut and I hope this breaks me out of it!
I really hope you like it! It was such a well-written f/f romance.
A 4.3 average rating is so great! I think it’s wonderful that you’ve had more 5 star ratings than you normally do. I have sort of loosened my standards for a 5 stars. I figure – why we so stingy! My latest 5 star read was Goodnight Beautiful. I think you really liked that one, too. So twisty and such a page-turner! My best read from April was a tie between The Anthropocene Reviewed and One Two Three.
I agree – I’ve stopped worrying too much about giving a book a 5-star rating. Even if there were some issues with it, I go by the way it made me feel and if it made me feel something big, it gets 5 stars from me!
So many great recommendations – very intrigued by so many 5 star reviews!
It’s been crazy to have so many 5-star books! But I guess I’m being less stingy with my ratings this year.