My April Reading Wrap-Up

Normally, I post my monthly wrap-up by participating in “It’s Monday, What are You Reading?” Sheila at BookJourney has been hosting this event since – well, as long as I’ve been blogging. Sadly, this month BookJourney went quiet, because Sheila lost one of her sons in a car accident.

My heart goes out to Sheila, and I know she won’t be reading this, but I miss her and wish her all the very best. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.

It’s a little hard to transition from that to reading, but here’s what I posted in April:

Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
And posts on how authors earn money, reviews of Selfish, Shallow, and Oyster’s best books of the last five years.

And here’s what I read in April:

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
The Vagabond Vicar by Charlotte Brentwood
A Long Thaw by Katie O’Rourke
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Water Knife by Paulo Bacigalupi
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon

My favorite read this month? Despite the violence, The Water Knife really blew me away. I’ve lived in Arizona and California, and this book is a near-future look at water rights and water shortage. It’s terrifying but feels very real, and very close.

The book I liked least? I liked everything, but in fairness I have to say The Portrait of a Lady. I appreciated Isabel’s independent spirit, and enjoyed the different settings of the book (Italy and England) and the comparisons of the English and Americans. But, I’m feeling mixed about Isabel’s character and about the ending. Then again, it’s not really fair to compare a book like this to the other things I read this month.

Here are the books I read for challenges:

TBR Pile and The Classics Club: The Portrait of a Lady
Around the World: All the Light We Cannot See (France, Germany)

What I’m reading now: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. It finally came in from the library!

So for my wrap-up, here are a few things that made me happy this month:

Outlander’s back! And the last few episodes have been sooo good. I would never have guessed a show could capture the book as well as this one has. There are things I could quibble with, but small things. What do you think? Plus I just bought the soundtrack which has all the beautiful and haunting music you hear on the show.
Upgrading my home office. Everyone in my office is being asked to telework more, so this month that meant taking a trip to The Container Store and finally putting some shelving into my office. It cost a bit but turned out great.
This month I volunteered at my library’s Annual Book Sale – my time was limited due to being sick and having two graduate classes – but I put in half a day and was glad I did. It just felt like a good thing to do, and I even scored a copy of Swamplandia and the latest Armistead Maupin.
My new Hungry Girl cookbook. Lisa Lillien just published an expansion of her diet cookbook from last year, which I use religiously. I’m excited to have a whole bunch of new recipes to try. What I love about these recipes is that everything is balanced in terms of protein, carbs, fat, and fiber. Her food is simple, tasty, and filling. I’ve already tried two recipes and will be writing about the book once I’ve used it more.