April 2025 Reading Wrap Up
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
April was a rough month for me, guys. I was front seat on the struggle bus. I won't get into the nitty gritty details, but the short version is that I had a medical test in the middle of the month and it didn't yield the results I was hoping for, so I am back at square one. I also had a little mishap with my antidepressant medication and was seriously struggling for a minute there. But all's well once again, I'm back to normal, and ready to talk about my reading.
Since April didn't go so well in my personal life, I don't think you'll be surprised that it mirrored my reading life. I only managed to read 9 books this month: 6 novels, 1 novella, 1 poetry collection, and 1 nonfiction. It's not the lowest number of books read per month I've had (that was January) but it does come in second place. And I would say that 90% of that reading happened in the first half of the month. I suppose the bright side is that I managed to read all of my book club picks minus one (my IRL book club, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it to the meeting). Two books were from my physical TBR, one was a reread, two were books that I bought this year, and four books were from the library. Also, three of the books were translated, and two from countries I hadn't yet read from. I'd call that a win, myself.
Alright, let's get into the wrap up!
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Novels
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.92 CAWPILE
Page count: 592 pages
Day(s) read: 4.01 - 4.09
Final thoughts: I love coming across fantasy series that I had no idea existed out in the wild. I found a copy of this at my library's little bookstore and figured, why not? I like dragons. It's comped as "Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Mistborn" and at first I had no idea how those three things would mesh together, but now I totally get it. It took me a while to understand everything that was happening, be it the magic system or the politics, but I got the hang of it by about a third of the way through and then it was just a fun time. I definitely liked one of the three POVs more than the others, but they were all interesting in their own way, and they all were needed to further the story along. I'm excited to read the next book in this trilogy.
Genre: Historical Fiction, Horror, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.37 CAWPILE
Page count: 448 pages
Day(s) read: 4.04 - 4.10
Final thoughts: I was rather confused in the beginning just because of the different POV switches, but once I figured that out I was hooked. Reading this story felt like I was actually sitting there, listening to Good Stab narrate his life to me. I loved the historical aspect and the way it tied into the story, and I learned something new, which I always like to chase in my reading. Every book I read from Stephen Graham Jones leaves me more and more impressed with his mind and his ability to create such vivid stories. While this wasn't my favorite book of his (that is still The Only Good Indians), I think it's a very close second.
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Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, YA
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 5 stars/9.62 CAWPILE
Page count: 382 pages
Day(s) read: 4.10 - 4.12
Final thoughts: Suzanne, I just want to talk, okay?
You really think that you know Haymitch's story and understand him as a character from the Hunger Games trilogy, and then Suzanne comes along and takes everything you thought you knew and sets it on fire. Aside from Finnick, who was literally sold into prostitution by President Snow, I think Haymitch might just be the one who has suffered the most at Snow's hand. And the worst part is that no one knew. He was only one who knew the whole truth about what happened to him, and so he had to suffer alone for twenty-five years until Katniss came along and fanned the spark he created into a roaring flame. I actually feel physically sick thinking about it all. 10/10 would get my heart broken again.
Genre: Classic, Historical Fiction, Adult
Means of reading: Mixed Media
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4.5 stars/8.35 CAWPILE
Page count: 601 pages (25 hrs 28 mins audio)
Day(s) read: 4.13 - 4.19
Final thoughts: This might just be the biggest surprise of the year. When Emma and Carolyn announced that the quarter two pick for the Game of Tomes book club was going to be East of Eden, I seriously considered just passing it over. I had past experiences with John Steinbeck, none of them good. In fact, for over a decade I said that he was my least favorite author. Before East of Eden I had read three stories of his (Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, and The Pearl) and I hated every one of them. But this book exceeded all of my expectations, and exponentially at that. I read this in a single week and probably would have read it even faster if I didn't have the habit of picking it up right before I went to sleep. I wasn't prepared at all for the onslaught of feelings this book would awaken in me, and I found myself deeply attached to Adam and the Hamilton family. Not to mention the setting and atmosphere had me in full on nostalgia mode. Never have I missed California more than when reading this book.
Translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Genre: Literary Fiction, Mythology, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 2.5 stars/4.24 CAWPILE
Page count: 176 pages
Day(s) read: 4.15 - 4.30
Final thoughts: After the high that was East of Eden, it truly felt like I was falling from heaven with how disappointing this book was. In theory, a story following the biblical figure Cain as he wanders the earth encountering other people from the Bible seems right up my alley, but the actual execution of the story just didn't work for me at all. The writing style was hard to enjoy, all run on sentences and no dialogue markers, and we didn't spend enough time with any of the characters (aside from Cain) to actually feel connected to them. There were a few truly insightful quotes and passages, but that just isn't enough in the wake of everything else.
Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/5.66 CAWPILE
Page count: 262 pages
Day(s) read: 4.20 - 4.28
Final thoughts: Read for the World Tour book club for Hungary. I feel like this book went right over my head. Despite rather hating the term "big-brained" as it implies that some people are just inherently unable to understand some things, this was a big-brained book and I just didn't understand what it was trying to say. It was actually pretty frustrating because I could tell there was a lot of philosophy in the text but I just couldn't pick it out. All I could focus on was the surface-level plot and (this might be SPOILERS) the animal abuse. It made me sick to my stomach reading about poor Viola and the suffering he was put through. Not cool.
Novellas
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Adult
Means of reading: E-book
Star rating/CAWPILE: 4 stars/7.40 CAWPILE
Page count: 133 pages
Day(s) read: 4.12 - 4.13
Final thoughts: I thought this was so fun. It had the same exact vibe as a Grimm fairy-tale despite being a retelling of the British murder balled The Twa Sisters. I loved the way magic was described as grammar. Amal El-Mohtar is a true wordsmith. And you can bet this dragged me down into a rabbit hole all about murder ballads, a term I had never before heard until reading this story. If you're a fan of purple prose then you should definitely check this out.
Poetry
Translated from the German by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
Genre: Classic, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: N/A
Page count: 166 pages
Day(s) read: 4.10 - 4.12
Final thoughts: I reread this for the Wellread book club. I love rereading poetry because I always get something new out of it each time. I especially love rereading poetry that I've already annotated once before, because then I can see what poems I resonated with at that time in my life compared to now. Rilke's poetry is so amazing, I think I could reread a hundred times and still manage to gain something new.
Nonfiction
Genre: History, Mythology, Adult
Means of reading: Physical
Star rating/CAWPILE: 3 stars/5.66 CAWPILE
Page count: 288 pages
Day(s) read: 4.02 - 4.15
Final thoughts: I can appreciate this for what it is, but there was nothing new in here for me. If I was just starting out in my mythology obsession, maybe I would have gotten more out of this. As it was, this wasn't quite a waste of time (no book ever is, in my opinion) but it didn't add anything to my life or knowledge and I was hoping to learn something new. I do appreciate that the author took what we know of the Trojan War (mainly from the Iliad) and supported it with evidence from other contemporary (to that time) examples.
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Total pages read: 3,048 pages (25 hrs 28 mins total audio)
Favorite book of April: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
No DNFs this month
No unfinished books this month
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And that's it for April! I'd love to know what your favorite book of the month was. Let me know in the comments below, or DM me on Instagram (link in sidebar under the heading "More Media").
Until next time, friends!
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