April RandomCAT- Showers and Flowers

The month of April is typically a rainy period, which led to the proverb that April showers bring May flowers. For this month's RandomCAT, please read a book with a title that pertains to rain, showers, clouds, storm or a flower.


A few suggestions:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Prayers for Rain
Cloud Atlas
The Neon Rain
Killers of the Flower Moon
Peony in Love
Flowers for Algernon
The Name of the Rose
Purple Hibiscus

What a wonderful theme! I haven't looked yet, but I believe I have several that would fit, including a couple you mention.

Great theme! I have lots of books that will fit this theme...flowers are just what we need right now.

One of many books I have tagged for re-reading and reviewing is The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy, so I will take this opportunity to pull it out!

I like it! I imagine I'll have something storm or weather-related. Will likely not take time to check till the weekend.

This reminds me of one of my favorite books of the last few years: Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison. If you haven't read that one, I recommend it!

I believe I’ll try to read Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes.

I think I'll probably read Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley or The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey

I think it will be The Constant Gardener by John le Carre for me. I can use it for another CAT too.

It's autumn here. April is warm and sunny, the nicest month of the year in Melbourne.

I am going to read Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson.

Great theme! I am going to go with a book that's been on my shelves for years, Sunshine After Rain by Dee Williams.

What a perfect time for this theme! Flowers are just what we need. I will have to check what is on my TBR.

Hmm. I have The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt on my shelves. I'm going to make that my April read, tentatively.

Thanks, this is a great theme! We need some cheeriness. Checking my shelves now. I am thinking of Flowers in the Rain which is a selection of short stories and hits on two of the topics. This has been on my shelves for years. Also another possibility is Bloomability which has also been in my book crate for years.

Well, being slightly more restricted by what's available at home or via the online library only, I think I'm going to go with:
Hands Like Clouds / Mark Zuehlke

(Now, hopefully I still have a Z somewhere when that month comes up in AlphaKIT! Or, is that one of the year-long letters?)

Lovely theme! I need to check my books for options (as the library is closd due to Corona), but I'm sure I can find something on my shelves.

Leaving a flower here for now:

>15 LibraryCin: Z is a yearlong letter. Enjoy!

>17 NinieB: Perfect! Thank you!

I planning on reading Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson as it will also work for the April time travel theme of the SFFKit.

I'm thinking about reading Neon Rain which I have had on my shelves for eons!

I'll probably read Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly. It is one of the books I bought in hardback and have not yet read, and recently have seen in paperback.

I'm getting a jump-start on this CAT with The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

I'm reading Flowering Wilderness, book 8 of Galsworthy's Forsytes.

I'm reading It's raining in Mango by Thea Astley for the April GeoCAT.

I have chosen Storm of the Century by Stephen King

I've read The Flowering Thorn by Marjery Sharp.

I read Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie describes a religious fanatic of the worst kind. Although her prose is lovely and she evokes the characters quite well, this simple story has not much more to it than a man who savagely assaults his wife and children if they fail to obey his own twisted version of godliness.

It was difficult to endure this book. I cannot recommend it to anyone. 1★

Spent a lovely rainy afternoon curled up on the couch with my quilt and some tea finishing Sheltering Rain by Jojo Moyes.

Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell proved to be a disappointment to me. I had heard great things about this book, but it did not deliver for me. Will runs wild on a plantation in Zimbabwe, loving her outdoor life. When her father dies and her guardian marries a much younger woman, Will is sent to England to a boarding school. She is unable to cope with the bullying and strictness of the environment with its many rules and regulated lifestyle. She makes some decisions that are at times pathetic and hilarious. Touchstone for this book is not coming up. 3 stars This was a bonus read for me, since it filled a Bingo square and several Challenges for April. Yippee!

I completed The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke. 3.5 stars

I finished Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson a very different take on time travel. 'Time storms' started to appear on earth - these were stationary or moving storm fronts. The moving storm fronts would change the time period of the areas they moved through - either to the future or the past. Most people didn't survive if they passed through a storm front (or it passed over them). The story follows the main character, Marc, and a mute girl and a leopard that he connects with, as they travel around the country looking for a solution.

I finished Rainwater by Sandra Brown, a historical literary fiction (not her usual contemporary romance suspense) set in Gilead, Texas during the Great Depression. While the story is wonderfully written and has a quiet, contemplative story-telling aspect, I found the characters to be on the wooden side and the parts of the depression era setting are just a bit too perfect and orderly, right down to the planned tear-jerker ending for this bittersweet tale.

May's RandomCat is up. It can be found here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/318924#

I have decided to reread Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart for this CAT. I am sure that I have some other books that will fit but can't seem to think what they might be...

I've finished Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley and although many have liked the book, it just didn't work for me.

>29 LadyoftheLodge: I just finished the same book last night, but with a different title, The Girl Savage. I think it was Rundell's first children's novel.

I finished It's raining in Mango by Thea Astley. It is set in the tropical north of Queensland Australia and the title pertains to the rainy season.

Hands Like Clouds / Mark Zuehlke
3 stars

Elias is the coroner in the small town of Tofino, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. When a local environmentalist/activist (or “ecoterrorist”) is found hanging from a tree, the initial thought is suicide, but Elias quickly figures out that Ian was strangled before he was hung. The local RCMP, though, is busy preparing for a US Senator to tour the area, looking at the ancient rainforest (and the already clear-cut sections) that the logging companies want to continue to raze.

Especially with the environmental angle, I had hoped this would draw me in more. The mystery itself was interesting, but the characters weren’t as much so – at least to me – until at least the second half of the book. Zuehlke puts a lot of description in the book, which does paint a clear picture of Vancouver Island, but it’s a bit too much for me, overall. I did love the setting, though.

>36 avatiakh: I like The Girl Savage as a title much more than Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms. I think it gives a better flavor of the book.

I read The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart.

I really enjoyed my choice for this theme, Sunshine After Rain by Dee Williams. Set in London in the years leading up to and including WW I, this story about two feisty sisters was an easy and enjoyable read.

I read The Robot in the Garden by Deborah Install

I finished the novella Buried by Buttercups by Joyce & Jim Lavene. Nice cozy mystery though perhaps a tad predictable.

I knew I had some books lurking on my Kindle that would fit this month's theme! I have found and finished another cozy mystery - Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris.

I finished The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly, which I really loved. 19th century London and New York, a mix of poverty and luxury, interesting characters and the right amount of romance.

I found The white rose murders on my shelves, a historical mystery set in the reign of Henry VIII. The author tried to create a rogue hero in the line of Harry Flashman and did not succeed.

ETA: touchstone fixed

I just finished Lantana Lane yesterday and while the lantana vine is considered an invasive species in Australia, while researching it, I found it does have some pretty flowers, so I think it would count for this this month's theme.

>46 LisaMorr: I love lantana in the garden!

>47 Dejah_Thoris: That's great to hear - all the different flowers look so pretty on Wikipedia.

>48 LisaMorr: If mine were blooming yet, I'd post pictures. Lantana thrive in warm weather - growing up in Florida, I see it 'volunteering' along highways, etc. Where I am in Georgia, there's only one variety that survives the winter - all others have to be bought new each Spring, or babied indoors through the Winter. I grow it because I have fond memories of it and because the butterflies love it.

I can easily understand how it might be invasive anywhere very warm.

>49 Dejah_Thoris: I love Lantana. I usually get at least a couple plants for my "bird" gardens, but so far I've not found any at the local Lowe's (home & garden). I did snag a couple Pentas, which also attract butterflies and hummingbirds!

>49 Dejah_Thoris: Would love to see pictures when they are blooming!

>50 fuzzi: I'll have to see if it's something I can get around here to bring more butterflies and hummingbirds.

>51 LisaMorr: go for flowers with red or close to red blossoms. I usually have butterflies all over my Lantana and Pentas, and for that reason I buy plants every year (they are annuals).

I also plant Mexican sunflower seeds (Tithonia) most years because they are butterfly magnets.

The butterflies also like my perennial Monarda and Purple coneflowers, which I try to keep alive from year to year.

Edited to add photos:


Sleepy Orange on Monarda


Monarch on Mexican sunflower (Tithonia)


Palamedes swallowtail on Lantana


American lady on a Purple coneflower

>52 fuzzi: Thanks for the advice on the red flowers; I'll look for them. Our goldfinches love our purple coneflowers too.

ETA - thanks for the pics! I didn't know that what's Monarda was - I see those around our neighborhood here.

Gorgeous pictures!

>53 LisaMorr: you're welcome! Monarda is in the mint family, and is also called "Bee balm" for obvious reasons.

>54 DeltaQueen50: thank you. It's a hobby of mine.

Showers: A day late, but I finished The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough. The Spring of 1889 was one of the rainiest on record for Western Pennsylvania. After unprecedented heavy rains hit May 30, a small dam broke the next day, completely destroying small towns along the river. The massive water carried houses, freight cars, animals and human bodies of the destroyed towns downriver through Johnstown like a tsunami, until all the debris stopped at a huge stone bridge after sweeping through the town. More than 2200 lives were lost, many when all the accumulated debris caught fire.

McCullough, a Pittsburgh native, researched the disaster for years, which became his first published book in 1968. Besides archival material and newspaper accounts, McCullough interviewed several survivors. The book is over-loaded with detail and way too many names, but there are some amazing stories. This story-telling gift will take center stage in McCullough's later works.

Flowers: And yesterday I finished A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor.

So feel satisfied to have read a showers and a flowers, and both were books off my shelves.