April Calendar CAT

List of holidays and observances in April - http://www.holidays-and-observances.com/april-holidays.html

A few highlights:

Walpurgis Night
International Year of Indigenous Languages
International Year of Moderation
International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements
Autism Awareness Month,
Earth Day and Arbor Day
Black Women's History Month,
Asian-Pacific Heritage Month
World Health Day
Paul Revere ride (rebellions)

April is named for Greek Goddess Aphrodite.

April flowers: sweet pea (blissful pleasure and goodbye), daisy (innocence, purity, loyal love, secrets "I'll never tell")

April precious stones: diamonds (in Sanskrit, the diamond is called “vajra,” which also means lightning; in Hindu mythology, vajra was the weapon of Indra, the king of gods.

April is the 4th month, so 4th in a series,

Please remember the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2019_CalendarCAT

A couple more ideas: Easter is April 21, Passover is April 19-27, and April is National Poetry Month. Also, April 23 is Shakespeare's birthday!

Earth Day is April 22 which I might use if I don't go for International Astronomy Day.

April 7-13 is National Library Week for those who use the library a lot.

April 25 is ANZAC Day, to remember Australia's and New Zealand's service men and women. April 25th is the date the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli in 1915.

Thinking about The Cruellest Month to pick up on National Poetry Month (T.S. Elliot's The Wasteland is the reference in the title) and take me one more book into the Louise Penny Three Pines Series.

I've earmarked Ships in the Bay!, by D.K. Broster, for this challenge -- National Maritime Day is April 5.

This year the ascension of the Prophet Mohammad is celebrated on 3 April. He flew from Mecca to Jerusalem and then ascended to heaven on a flying horse called Bouraq and returned to Mecca all in a single night.

Indonesian elections are to be held on 17 April.

23 April is St. George's day. He is the patron saint of England, Catalunya, and Georgia.

I'm planning on reading Edward Adrift by Craig Lancaster for Autism Awareness Month.

There are quite a few that appeal to me this month, though (surprisingly) not an animal one that appeals as much!

I may go with something for Earth Day, Road Map Week (travel), Siblings Day, Librarian Day, or International Astronomy Day.

The second week in April is also National Library Week.

I'm going to read something for Earth Day, I have several on my shelf that would work. I have the next in the Miss Zukas series (librarian) on my shelf and may read that too.

I am going to read Broken April by Ismail Kadare and The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey which features a character called Peter Diamond.

For Earth Day I'm considering:

The folded earth by Anuradha Roy
Love in a cold climate by Nancy Mitford
Solar by Ian McEwan - I'll borrow this from the library it could also be for Librarian Day, 16th.

And for the daisy's innocence:

Ordeal by innocence by Agatha Christie

I could read Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland.

I already have several siblings books (Siblings Day) identified:
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Blotto, Twinks and the Rodents of the Riviera
It's Only the Sister: An Autobiography
Jenny Wren
Murder's Little Sister
Segu
Seven Alone

And I have three books about the American Revolution, to honor Paul Revere's Ride:
Drums Along the Mohawk
Liberty's Daughters
The Revolution Remembered

I'm also interested in reading The Daisy Chain by Charlotte Yonge, but I'm really trying to read TBRs.

And one more idea. I have A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey, autobiography of a Gallipoli veteran, for ANZAC day. It's supposed to be really good--with 142 ratings it has 4.27 stars on LT.

I'm planning to read The Big Rock Candy Mountain for an adult education course which means I can also count it here for siblings day books.

I would also like to reread Marguerite de Angeli's Bright April which I remember loving as a child.

Ok, I've picked out a few (though there are so.many.more that could fit!):
- Classified as Murder / Miranda James (Librarian's Day, LibraryWeek)
- Packing for Mars / Mary Roach (Astronomy Day, Road Map Week (travel))
- An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth / Chris Hadfield (Astronomy Day)

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

I have a ROOT called Comic and Bawdy Tales, which contains the prologue and some of the Canterbury Tales, so I might use that.

Michel Houellebecq's The Map and the Territory for Earth Day.

>15 NinieB: A Fortunate Life is really good!

>19 pamelad: I'm looking forward to it. This month's challenge is a really good excuse to read it!

>16 sallylou61: Wow, that's a coincidence! I'm not sure I'll get to it in April, but I have been meaning to read more Stegner for a while now.

On looking at my possibles I settled on Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams for International Year of the Periodic Table.

I'm one day early, but will still count The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell which I chose for World Penguin Day. A quick and enjoyable read!

>9 dudes22:, That's just the book I thought of when I saw Autism Awareness Month. I was really impressed with 600 Hours of Edward, and have been meaning to get to that one for ages. I may try to fit it in also if I can.

I've already started Red April, which has been on my TBR for a while. So far, it's interesting enough--sort of a strange, understated noir--but I'm hoping it picks up the pace a bit and gets going somewhere. It keeps giving me flashes of creepiness that I love, but then pulls back, so we'll see.

Finished Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey for Earth Day and Till Death Do Us Tart by Ellie Alexander for Siblings Day.

For Earth Day I've read two good books: A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen and The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq.

I just finished Daisy Jones and the Six. The book about a 1970's band has the usual sex and drugs elements, and leads up to answering the questions of why the various members stopped performing together. It's written in an interesting format of first person accounts from each member which made reading go pretty fast.

COMPLETED Comic and Bawdy Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (extracts from the Canterbury Tales, which is set in April).

Did I say earlier on that this would be the first month I wasn't reading for an animal!? Nope! This fits Librarian Day, but one "missing" "holiday" above is "National Pet Day". Now, I'm in Canada, so that may just be a Canadian one, but it works for me and it also works for this book!

Classified as Murder / Miranda James
4 stars

Charlie is a librarian and works with rare books at the local college. While volunteering at the local public library, he meets wealthy James Delacorte. James asks to hire Charlie to go through his personal rare book library to help discover what’s gone missing, as James is certain some items have. Unfortunately, James is found dead on Charlie’s first day of work.

I really enjoyed this! I loved Charlie’s Maine Coon cat, Diesel, who pretty much goes everywhere with Charlie. Charlie’s adult son also moved back him with his dog, so the critters were a lot of fun! There may have been a few things, librarian-related, that I found more interesting or enjoyable than others might (and there were a few things I wasn’t sure a non-librarian would understand, but maybe those things were small enough for most people to gloss over if it didn’t mean anything to them?). Overall, very enjoyable cozy mystery.

>29 LibraryCin: Do I really need to start ANOTHER series? NO. But BB. First in the series wishlisted.

Colin Cotterill lived in Australia for a while. I read this to celebrate "Hug an Australian Day" because my Australian friend is coming to visit me next week. She will be staying for a month so my reading will be severely cut back during that time.

Thirty-three teeth by Colin Cotterill

Having thirty three teeth, as Buddha had, indicates being born as a bridge to the spirit world. Turns out, Dr Siri also has the requisite number giving him mystic connections. This is a delightful story about the national coroner of Laos and his comrades. The mystery isn't up to much but that doesn't matter, the story is fun.

>30 Robertgreaves: LOL! I completely understand!! And I hope you enjoy!

>29 LibraryCin:, >30 Robertgreaves: . I see that this is the murder mystery which my husband gave me for Christmas last year when I said that I wanted to start the "Cat in the Stacks" series. Maybe I'll get it read this month. (I just looked up the author on the web and was surprised to discover that he is a man writing under a female pseudonym.

>33 sallylou61: I actually knew that and almost mentioned it in post >32 LibraryCin:. I am on a listserv for cataloguers, and when the first book in the series came out the author (I can't recall his real name) promoted it a bit there. That's what prompted me to first add that first book to my tbr.

I've finished Edward Adrift by Craig Lancaster for "Autism Awareness Month".

The May Calendar Cat Thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/305915

I have completed my read of The Last Detective in which the main character has the last name of "Diamond" which is April's Gem.

I completed O Pioneers by Willa Cather for Earth Day.

I often say I don't read YA and yet whenever I do, I am so blown away by the quality of the writing. This month I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. No wonder all the accolades! The dialog is so authentic and the descriptions are artistic and beautifully drawn, offering the reader a brief respite from the plot. April is Sexual Assault Awareness month.

For National Pet Day on April 11th, I am reading A Letter to My Cat by Lisa Erspamer

Finished Red April… not what I expected, which threw me off a bit. From the description, I expected something quite a bit darker and more suspenseful than what this actually was, which was a sort of quiet, character-driven noir set against political corruption/upheaval (and that phrasing makes it sound quite a bit more exciting than this element actually was). There were just enough dark/intriguing moments to keep me going, but I wanted something much darker and more suspenseful from it, honestly. Full review written if you're interested.

My mother was an "April Girl", so in her memory during her birthday month, I read The Three Clerks, a book by one of her favorite authors, Anthony Trollope, that I have not read. I enjoyed it, and almost didn't want it to end.

I've finished reading Devotions: the selected poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver for the CalendarCAT (national poetry month, U.S. and Canada), and in honor of the poet who died earlier this year. This collection was selected by Ms. Oliver herself from her published work throughout her career. The majority of these poems are about nature and the poet's enjoyment of being outdoors in it. Some of the poems, especially those from Thirst published in 2006 are religious poems, mentioning God or Jesus. However, most of the nature poems could be considered spiritual poems; being in nature appeared to be a spiritual experience for Ms. Oliver.

I've also read The Big Rock Candy Mountain for an upcoming adult education class. Although two siblings appear in it, it is much more a family story; the struggles of the boys, particularly with their father, are much more dominant than sibling relationships.

I enjoyed the third book in the Don Tillman trilogy - The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion - and a perfect fit for Autism Awareness Month.

>44 lkernagh: - I still need to read book 2.

I read Frank Sheed's To Know Christ Jesus to coincide with Lent and Easter. An interesting read focusing on the life of Jesus as described in the gospels.

I read Unhallowed Ground the 4th in the Hugh Singleton mystery series by Mel Starr, set in 14th century England. April is the 4th month.

I ended up reading The Eldest Son by Archibald Marshall for Siblings Day. This 1911 book is the second in a series called The Clinton Chronicles. Eldest son Dick Clinton, heir to Kencote, plans to marry Virginia Dubec, widow of Lord George Dubec. Problem is, she's an American, had a brief stage career, and her husband was a thorough blackguard. Dick's father, the Squire, can't abide the thought of such a daughter-in-law, and he refuses to meet Virginia. Before long the Squire declares he will cut Dick out of his will if he marries Virginia. The second son, Humphrey, who also wants to marry, sees an opportunity to improve his financial circumstances, and it's the relationship between brothers Dick and Humphrey that is of interest for Siblings Day.

I read Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind for World Book and Copyright Day, as it features on a list promoted for the day.

Shout Another one for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This memoir written in free verse also qualifies as National Poetry Month. 5* read!

I am reading Blue Horses by Mary Oliver in honor of National Poetry Month. I haven't finished yet, as I'm only reading one poem or so a day, but I am really loving it and thinking this might bring me back to reading poetry on the regular again.

I don't normally read poetry, but I managed to finish The Circle Game by Margaret Atwood, for April's challenge, in honour of National Poetry Month.