April Monthly Recap

Time for our April recap. Find out which books were favorites, which were duds, and which ones we are most looking forward to the following month. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out in May and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading next month.

Jen: I had a good reading month with lots of great books. I also participated, at least partially, in Dewey’s 24 hour readathon and I set up and opened my Little Free Library.

I mentioned last month that I like to keep track of how diversely I’m reading. I was a little disappointed in how I did this month in terms of diversity. I’m reading way too many White authors and not enough international literature. In April I finished 11 books. 5 books (45%) were written by women, five (45%) were written by authors born outside the U.S. (U.K. and Japan), and 5 (45%) were set outside the U.S. Two were a translated book. 10 (91%) books were written by White authors. In terms of genre, I read one non-fiction book, reread two post-apocalyptic novels (The first two Passage novels in preparation for the third one which comes out this month), read one classic, and the rest were mostly literary fiction.

Favorite book read in April: My favorite book this month was House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. Honorable mention goes to The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (review to follow soon). It was hard to pick this month because I read a lot of great books.

Least favorite book read in April: I didn’t dislike any books this month. Probably my least favorite was Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate. I gave it 3 stars so I liked it, I just didn’t love it.

Future Goals: So below were my new year’s resolutions and here’s how I’ve done so far. They remain my goals for the rest of the year.

• Slow down my reading pace: Although I read quite a few books this month, I never felt like I was rushing through any of them.
• Read more books published in 2016: Failed. None of the books I read this month were published this year. A few were published in 2015. I have lots of galleys to read so next month I should do better with this goal.
• Clearing out my physical TBR before buying new books: I did okay with this goal. I bought 4 new books, reread two previously owned, and the rest were books on my physical TBR.

Book Worm:  In April I managed to read 9 books including all the books I aimed to read that month, so I am still on target for my 110 books this year. I also managed to read 2 dead tree books from my TBR pile, unfortunately I also had to buy a DTB so I didn’t hit my target of reducing my net books by 2 I only managed a net reduction of 1.

Favorite book read in April: Anne Frank Diary of a Young Girl (review to appear here soon) and an honourable mention goes to The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney (review to appear here soon).

Least favorite book read in April: A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson – this is my least favourite not because I hated it (it was a 3 star read), but because after Life After Life I was expecting something more from this book, and it just didn’t deliver.

New Year’s Resolution (& May goals): I plan to keep reading towards my goal of 110 books this year. In May I will be reading Their Eyes were Watching God, That they may Face the Rising Sun, A Tale of Love and Darkness, and Choke from the 1001 list. I will also be reading more of the Bailey’s short list books.

For my 1001 challenge I need to buy 1 book so I am now aiming to read 3 books from my existing TBR pile to make a net reduction of 2 books overall for May. I already predict that I will fail this aim, but I will give it my best shot.

What can you look forward to on our blog in May? In addition to our regular posts, we’ll be featuring our first reader-book match with our first one posting early in the month. We hope you help us out! Our March Madness Challenge continues through June. Annapi won the prediction bracket and Rachel nominated the winning book. They are both guaranteed prizes that will be announced in June. Only one prize per person so if Anna wins both predictions and grand prize, she can chose her prize and a runner up will be chosen for the second prize.

May 2016 book releases: May is jam-packed with great book releases and events. Here are just a few selections. Which ones do you plan on reading?

Everybody Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. Release date: May 3
The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror by Joyce Carol Oates. Release date: May 3
Zero K by Don DeLillo. Release date: May 3
Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay. Release date: May 3
LaRose by Louise Erdrich. Release date: May 10
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes. U.S. Release Date: May 10
The Pier Falls: And Other Stories by Mark Haddon. Release date: May 10
The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin. Release date: May 24
The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman. Release date: May 31

Jen will be attending Book Expo America mid-May so look for updates related to that. Are you going? Let us know because we’d love to meet our fellow bloggers and readers.

We want to hear from you. So what are your plans for May? Which books were your favorites and least favorites in April