April reading wrap up

Better late than never, but… I can’t believe it’s already May! Time flies by when you’re having fun… April was a month of warm sunny days, amazing food, having fun with various people, meeting old friends, and iced coffees. April was also filled with great reads, and I’m happy to say that I’ve read (and am currently reading) some remarkable stories.

This month I didn’t buy any physical books, because I already bought two books last month and wanted to save up some money for other things. However I did pick up some audiobooks from my Audible credit together with my brother’s selection.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie | The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett | True West by Sam Shepard

I haven’t been reading much audiobooks lately so I’m trying to read more of them as I’m commuting to work and when I’m chilling at home… I actually already finished listening to True West, which is part of the new Audible Originals in which each month we get to pick 2 free audiobooks from their selection. It’s about an estranged pair of brothers who meet again in their mother’s house.

On another note, I received a free e-ARC from NetGalley: They Call Me the Cat Lady by Amy Miller, which I’ve heard a lot of buzz about throughout the book blogging community. Super excited to pick this one up soon! Huge thanks to Bookouture for the opportunity to read this fun little novel.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

This is far from a fun, lighthearted novel as a young-adult contemporary road trip story. Through different point of views from a broken family: a thirteen year old Jojo and his drug-addict mother Leonie, we get to see how all the other family members and characters are seen through different eyes.

This book excels in its writing. I loved how Jesmyn Ward was able to write in such a lyrical but also different way from anything I’ve ever read before. The description of the setting is vivid and real, everything feels hot and sticky and dirty, and the certain events are really stuck to my mind as feeling really lifelike and authentic, from the air they breathe to the temperature and the atmosphere of that moment.

Overall this is a very captivating book, written beautifully that it really feels real to the bone. The last parts of the book was amazing and heartbreaking, and the characters throughout the story were very original and relatable. I highly recommend this touching and genuinely stirring book to everyone.

Full review of this book is available in my Goodreads.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

It’s such a lovely and new experience of revisiting one of your favourite characters and their adventures in audio format. It’s unique in the way that you have all these different effects and sounds that the amazing Stephen Fry does, as well as how you get to pick up some details that you don’t remember from the book because it’s been ages since I last read it.

Though probably one of my least favourite books in the series, I still really liked The Chamber of Secrets. I really loved Harry as a main character, he’s such a pure and wonderful person, and so clever at such a young age (in fact, a little too clever in my opinion). Overall a lovely trip down memory lane, and looking forward to reliving the rest of the series with this lovely format.

Full review of this book on my Goodreads.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Another incredible work by the talented Sally Rooney! After adoring Conversations with Friends earlier this year, I was eager to read her second book, which people claim was even better than the first one.

Sure, this book is a love story between two people. It shows how a little miscommunication or misunderstanding can make a huge difference in a relationship. And how sometimes what you think is obvious to other people is not really perceived in the same way, or vise versa.

Yet it’s also a commentary on the millenials and how they develop their own friendships, how they are affected by the people arround them, and what is defined as a relationship nowadays. It shows different kinds of love, and kinds of sex, and various types of people in this world, how we all navigate ourselves around the people we choose to be with. It shows how much we struggle to become normal people, but in fact no one is really normal. It made me cry, it made me giggle, and it made me root for the characters, it made me think and cry out loud. Sally Rooney succeeds once again to captivate us in this brilliantly woven story.

Check out my full review of this book in my blog post.

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

This first book in Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders series is part of a huge world that this amazing author has created. In this new series, we are focusing on a different part of the map, this time located in the port of Bingtown and parts of other port cities. We follow several main characters, including the brave and passionate Althea, the quiet Wintrow, and Keffria, Althea’s mother. What is quite different from the previous trilogy that I find in this one is the fact that this one is not written in first person POV like the Farseer trilogy was, and for each chapter there’ll be different characters that are focused on, and each located in a different place. As I mentioned in my latest Here and Now post, the concept of a live ship is amazing, and I am around 70% of the book so far and quite liking it.

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

The Idiot is a quite thick novel which has had a lot of hype and good praise for its clever writing and relatable character. I decided to pick it up on weekend and though I haven’t really focused much on reading this one, I’m quite liking it so far. Granted, the writing is quite detached and sometimes rambley – it is written through the perspective of a Turkish young woman who just moved to Harvard to study, and her daily life, and mostly we just follow her thoughts and her random actions in life. So far I’m only less than 10% into the story, and though I’m not hating it, I’m not loving it either.

What have you all been reading in April? Any goals for May? Let’s talk in the comments down below!

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