A (Very Overdue) April Reading Wrap Up
It’s the first of June so, following in Kate’s shoes, I’m finally uploading my April reading wrap up!
The last two months have been completely mad with work and life in general, but I’ve still been reading an absolute ton of great books in this time (keep your eyes peeled for my May reading wrap up, which will follow very closely on the heels of this one!).
The first book I read in April was Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. It has been an incredibly hyped novel (something I talked about in this blog post) which I think ended up being to its detriment as the hype was maybe too much. That said, I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait for the sequel to find out what happens to these characters! I got to the end and all I could think was ‘where has this fantasy been all my life?’. Which goes to show that we should have plenty more diverse fantasy books in the market, and I want them all on my TBR now.
Next up I read Storm Wake by Lucy Christopher, which is a reimagining of The Tempest. Anyone who follows my escapades over at Discovering Shakespeare knows I am a mega-Shakespeare buff, and so a retelling of one of his plays was right up my street! Storm Wake was a very ethereal novel, with more of a feeling than a plot for me – something that I really liked about it. This could just be because I know the story of The Tempest so I paid the plot less attention, but either way I really enjoyed this book. The way Shakespeare’s characters were reshaped and reformed for a modern MG/YA adventure worked really well for me, and I stayed up late finishing this because it was so compelling.
After that was another recommended read from a friend in the form of Flying Tips For Flightless Birds by Kelly McCaughrain. This was a really sweet story about siblings, friendship, first love, and adventures at the circus! I liked how simple but effective this story was; I found I’d been reading a lot of ‘emotional rollercoaster’ books recently and this story expressed its emotions in such a simple and effective way, I was instantly in love. I’ve been recommending this book to people ever since I finished it – definitely one for your TBRs!
The next book I have to count twice, because I read it twice this month, and that book was Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I read it at the start of the month before I went to watch Love, Simon, and then watched the film again, then read it a second time to compare before I went and saw it for a third time. I know. I am obsessed. For those of you who still might not know, Simon Vs is a story about Simon, a gay teenager who is falling in love with the mysterious Blue, who he’s been emailing for months. It’s all about friendship and falling in love (noticing a theme this month, anyone?!) all building up to us finding out who Blue is. I don’t know whether I loved the book or the film more – all I know is I will definitely be reading (and watching!) this story again as soon as I can.
Continuing the Becky Albertalli theme, I returned to her second novel, The Upside of Unrequited. I’d already tried this book once and not really got in to it, but after becoming so completely obsessed with Simon I thought I’d give it another go. And I’m so glad I did! I think this may be my favourite of the three Becky Albertalli books I’ve read, and it was a book I needed so much when I was younger. It’s all about how you feel about yourself, and whether you feel worthy of love, plus friendship and family, and I loved it so so much. If you read any Becky Albertalli, I’d really suggest it’s this one. Sometimes a book touches your heart, and for me this one did.
On the audiobook front this month, I’ve returned to the BBC dramatisation of Good Omens. I probably don’t need to elaborate on this any more as it’s featured in my wrap ups before (I listen to it as my bedtime audiobook almost constantly), but it wouldn’t be a wrap up without my mentioning my audiobook of choice!
I also returned to another old favourite, and that was the audiobook of Pride and Prejudice, specifically the version read by Joanna David (who – fun fact! – played Aunt Gardiner in the BBC TV adaptation). I went away for the easter holidays and I can’t read in the car, so old favourite it was. It was like being wrapped in a comfort blanket the whole way, and I loved it!
So that’s it for my belated April Reading Wrap Up! What have you been reading recently, and what should I be adding to my TBR this month?
Happy reading / writing!
Katherine x
