April 2021 Reading Wrap-Up
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
April was a tiring month. I broke up with my long term partner (that sucked) and my entire family came down with a cold (as far as we know, it wasn't COVID). Also Mochi decided to choose violence this month and was just a complete menace, so that was fun. I was in a funk for a good chunk of the month too, just tired and depressed and not wanting to do anything productive. Luckily for me, I guess, reading doesn't count as productivity in my eyes. This month I read eight novels, two poetry collections, and eleven manga volumes. I also hauled a lot of books so keep reading until the end if you want to know what I bought.
Let's get into the wrap up!
---
Novels
1. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Star rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 345 pages
Date(s) read: 04.01 - 04.03
Goodreads thoughts: This destroyed me. I remember learning about the witch trials in Vardø from my father and thinking “this is my heritage. This is who I come from, and should I have been born then, I would have been accused along with my ancestors.” And now this book makes me feel that ten-fold. Of course I’m going to feel a deeper attachment to any story that focuses on Nordic people, but then add in a f/f relationship?? Well, I had no chance, I’m getting personally invested in the story and nothing will stop me.
Personal attachment aside, the writing was beautiful and you could truly feel the cold of the winter and smell the salt of the sea, and taste the terror of these women on your tongue. But the love between Maren and Ursa was also so palpable, that it could make you forget about all of the horrible things happening around them, if only for a little while.
2. Set Fire to the Gods by Sara Raasch and Kristin Simmons
Star rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 432 pages
Date(s) read: 04.03 - 04.05
Goodreads thoughts: Meh? It wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible either. The magic system was interesting but I feel like the political side, which was so important to the plot, wasn’t fleshed out enough. And that seemed to all take a back seat once the romance was introduced, which is always a bummer. I’m still going to read the sequel though, because why not.
3. The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Star rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 362 pages
Date(s) read: 04.05 - 04.08
Goodreads thoughts: I’ll tell you right now, if you didn’t grow up in the Midwest, you won’t understand most of this book. It has that kind of nostalgia that won’t make sense unless you were there for it. Personally, Minnesota will always be home (even if I’ve never actually lived there) so I feel a connection to this book. I also feel a connection with the brewing aspect, since my grandfather, father, and I all grew our own beers. It’s not really a family business but it’s a family endeavor, and if there is one thing that connects me to my dad and grandad, it’s beer (and softball, but ya know). So this book really just checked all the boxes for me. It’s super depressing in some parts but overall it’s about family and how messy and unconditional it is. And I’ll most definitely be recommending this to my grandpa.
All of that being said, this is not without its problems. For one, the complete lack of diversity. Remember this is set in Minnesota, and the lack of diversity is glaring. Glaring, as in you’ll be blinded by everyone’s whiteness. Seriously, there is only one speaking character that isn’t white—one of the three MC’s husband, a half-Japanese man—and he doesn’t make an appearance until the final third of the book. Queer characters are thrown in as tokens and don’t actually have any relevance to the story. It’s about as whitewashed as the beer that they make (trust me, if you read it, you know that this is an insult, and true to a fault).
4. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Star rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Page count: 176 pages
Date(s) read: 04.15 - 04.16
Goodreads thoughts: I found this absolutely fascinating as well as heartbreaking. I can relate to the narrator in more ways than one and this book felt like a mixture of a call out and a reassurance that there are other people like me out there. I’m excited to read more of this author’s work.
5. Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark
Star rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Page count: 192 pages
Date(s) read: 04.16 - 04.18
Goodreads thoughts: Very good! Totally different from his usual writing style but still wonderful. And terrifying, obviously.
6. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Star rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 356 pages
Date(s) read: 04.18 - 04.19
Goodreads thoughts: (Apparently Goodreads deleted my review of this book which SUCKS because I gushed so hard about it, and I don't remember what I said. Basically, this is a new favorite, if you like dragons you should definitely read this, etc. etc.)
7. The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell
Star rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Page count: 768 pages
Date(s) read: 04.22 - 04.28
Goodreads thoughts: Is this...not the last book in this series? I thought this was a trilogy, but that ending wasn’t an ending?
8. The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager
Star rating: I don't rate nonfiction
Page count: 304 pages
Date(s) read: 04.26 - 04.30
Goodreads thoughts: Sara Seager has been a scientist that I’ve followed religiously since 2016 with the ASTERIA launch, so of course I had to read her memoir. And wow, she’s been through a lot. But at the end of the day, the important thing (to us both) is the discoveries that she has made, and the branch of astrophysics that she helped pioneer. I won’t say that I didn’t care about reading about her personal life’s because I did and I can’t imagine how vulnerable she must have felt while rehashing all that she went through, but the star of the show was the science, and it did not disappoint. I think anyone with a remote interest in astronomy would benefit from reading this book, because at the end of the day it tells us that nothing is impossible if you believe hard enough.
Poetry
1. The Chaos of Longing by K.Y. Robinson (ONE DAY READ)
Star rating: I don't rate nonfiction
Page count: 160 pages
Date(s) read: 04.27
Goodreads thoughts: I like how brutally honest and human this collection was.
2. 2am Thoughts by Makenzie Campbell (ONE DAY READ)
Star rating: I don't rate nonfiction
Page count: 160 pages
Date(s) read: 04.30
Goodreads thoughts: “I indulge myself in a book because diving headfirst into another fantasy is so much more peaceful than living in this reality.”
Amen to that.
I’ll probably come back to this the next time I experience heartbreak, but it didn’t really hit me the way it would’ve had I read it at the right time.
Manga
1. Dreamin' Sun vol. 1-10 by Ichigo Takano
Star rating: N/A
Page count: 1,992 pages
Date(s) read: 04.12 - 04.13
Goodreads thoughts: vol 1 - It reminds me of fruits basket with the whole “girl moves into a house with three guys” plot
vol. 10 - Ahh, that ending had me tearing up!!
Star rating: N/A
Page count: 200 pages
Date(s) read: 04.28
Goodreads thoughts: I thought this was adorable! Onisa is just the sweetest person and I love that he is slowly coming out of his shell with Nao. I hope they continue to be cute!
Comments
Post a Comment