What are we reading in April?

I'm reading Of Mortal Love, Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton and Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, which is from The Jeeves Omnibus - Volume 4.

I just started Exit West by Mohsin Hamid.

I am reading Jerusalem as a longterm project
And reading A woman is no man as a book I ought to finish before next week's discussion of it.

Hoping to get started on Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike, by Charlotte Gray.

LOL, I have a spreadsheet of books for 2021 and LT; but I'm currently tying to decipher my scrawl on a hot pink Post-It Note (that's doubling as a bookmark) to see what I've listed for April! It's looks like:

• wrapping up the chapter on King Richard II in Asimov's Shakespeare; finishing The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer; performed by 6 narrators (but not an audio drama!)); and starting some essays from France in the World (edited by Patrick Boucheron covering the years 34,0000 BCE to 800 CE);
• Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare); plus the corresponding chapters in the DK's The Shakespeare Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained; Asimov's Shakespeare and, Shakespeare's Kings (by John Julius Norwich); Maybe some reading of Julian of Norwich's material but admittedly I'm a bit skeptical that I'll get to it;
• Network Effect (Murderbot series by Martha Wells) for AlphaKit (W) and SFFkit (Series)
• Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin) form ScaredyKit (Possession)

I've finished The Rose Code by Kate Quinn today because I fell asleep last night before I could get it done. I'm also reading The Dig by John Preston, finishing up World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and am planning to start A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen.

I am reading The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo, and Monster Nation by David Wellington.

>6 dudes22:. I notice that dudes22 is reading World of Wonders. Since I'm also reading it, we can both count it in this month's RandomCAT. I'll still also be reading Circe for my book club which is also owned by Tess_W and RidgewayGirl.

I see that World of Wonders also qualifies for this month's AlphaKIT.

I’m started The Lewis Man, but then I felt like I didn’t remember anything, so I’m rereading The Blackhouse to refresh my memory.

>9 lsh63: I read The Blackhouse in February and was blown away! I hope to get to The Lewis Man soonish, too.

>8 sallylou61: - I could but I read it for March's Random. I just didn't quite finish it.

Exit West is very intense and I felt like I needed something else to balance it a bit. I read a collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham and have already finished because there were only six quite short ones.

I'm reading The Executor and The Rector by Mrs. Oliphant as part of a group read in the Virago Modern Classics group. These are both short stories, so should not be demanding. Please come join us!

I finished Exit West today and I'm halfway through The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi.

I raced through my reread of The Blackhouse, and reads of The Lewis Man, and The Chessmen. I was intrigued my Lisa Scottoline’s first attempt at historical fiction, so I’m reading Eternal. It’s pretty good so far, a love triangle set right before the outbreak of World War II.

I have started A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay for the ScaredyKit, and Massacre At Cawnpore by V.A. Stuart for the April Reading Through Time theme, "The Sun Never Sets (on the British Empire)".

After finishing >4 rabbitprincess:, I am picking up Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese.

Also slowly making my way through Serial Reader reads: Kidnapped and Ivanhoe, both of which would fit the "one-word title" square on the BingoDog.

I had a couple of books come in at the library - Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear and Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel which I've already read but it's next month's book club choice so I thought I'd do a reread.

I am reading The Jam and Jelly Nook which is the final installment in a series.

I stayed up far too late last night reading Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos, and I am really paying for it today!. Next up is Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow.

>20 christina_reads: I loved A Gentleman in Moscow! Also, make time to watch, Casablanca afterwards! ;-)

Finished A woman is no man. Good but not the sort of book you can say you "enjoyed". Now turned to a spot of murder for light relief, with The Ghost Fields.

>21 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Ooh, I do love Casablanca...now I'm even more intrigued!

Finished listening to Pandora's Jar, as read by the author. Intelligent, witty and full of snark, it was excellent. I gave it 5 stars - and I'm pretty mean with those.

Indian Horse was excellent. Highly recommended.

Today I started Blood Hunt, by Ian Rankin (writing as Jack Harvey).

I am currently reading Die A Little by one of my favorite authors, Megan Abbott. I also am just about to start A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold, another favorite author. :)

Adding some non-fiction to my reading diet with The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson.

Finished The Ghost Fields, another fun entry in the Ruth Galloway series.
Next up in The Foundling

I read At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig by John Gimlette, which is a travel and history book focussing on Paraguay in South America. I found the author an unlikeable character and his often crude attempts to explain the, frankly, inexplicable history and society of Paraguay are an uphill struggle, although presumably less for the reader than the writer. 2.5*

I read Little Night / Nochecita by Mexican / USian author Yuyi Morales, which is a resplendently illustrated bilingual English / Spanish children's book about Mother Sky playing hide and seek with her daughter Little Night while they get Little Night bathed, dressed, fed, and ready to go. 4*

I finished The Jam and Jelly Nook and I am now reading Fatal Fried Rice which I am enjoying so far.

Started The Art of Dying, by Ambrose Parry.

I'm reading Circe for the April History CAT.

I read Sunken cities : Egypt's lost worlds, which is an exhibition catalogue mostly of recent Egyptian marine archaeology, published by the British Museum. It focuses on the lost cities of Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion, now under sea off the western Nile Delta, which first thrived during the Late Period when ancient "Greek" cultures in what are now Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece, established trade links with the richest Mediterranean culture of the ancient world in Egypt. The book then continues on into Greco-Roman ruled Egypt. 4*

ETA: I also flagged the message and profile of the above spammer.

I am reading Mother May I as well as trying to fit in Sunflower Sisters, The Drowning Kind and Good Company. All four of these digital library holds came in one after the other! I've realized that my reading plans are a little ambitious for the rest of the month, I will have to make some adjustments.

I read The African Child, aka The Dark Child, by Camara Laye, first published in French in 1954, which is an autobiographical recollection of the author's childhood in a Malinke family in Guinea (then French Guinea), and is considered a classic of Malinke and Guinean literature. 3.5*

I have finally started Kidnapped by R. L. Stevenson that I have been planning on reading for a few months now. I also am reading Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill.

I'm reading Circe for my book club and the April History, Genre, and RandomCATs.

I read Fanfare for Tin Trumpets by Margery Sharp, 1932, which was her second novel and another mildly satirical comedy.

>39 sallylou61: ohhh, enjoy that one.

I have just finished The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie, and Shakespeare auf 100 Seiten, an introduction to Shakespeare by Stefana Sabin.
Now I'm starting Warlight by Michael Ondaatje and I'm so excited about it!

I have finished Redemption by Jussi Adler-Olsen and am starting The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles. I still have Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel to read for book club next month but it's a reread so I'm not hurrying to start it and I'm pretty sure I can renew it from the library if I have to.

I'm reading Writers and Lovers and Luster. I'm not too far in either one.

I read The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, which is a science fiction novel in her Wayfarers series although it reads perfectly as a standalone. A well-written story focussing primarily on a small group of disparate characters and the complexities of their relationships. The simple classic plot of confining several strangers together in a stressful situation and seeing how they cope also works updated into this futuristic setting. 5*

Currently I am reading a vintage crime story with Missing or Murdered by Robin Forsythe and also my 10 Chapters for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms group read. I have My Dark Vanessa lined up as well.

I read Nature Writing for the Common Good, which is a varied collection of 11 non-fiction nature essays, mostly by previously unpublished writers. Any given reader will probably find one to love and at least one which leaves them indifferent. I especially enjoyed Sophie Lawson on the external and internal space that interactions with the natural world can give us for healing; and Liz Child on revivifying a council estate for the tenants and their wild visitors.

Just finished and reviewed Fatal Fried Rice and still working on Midwinter Murder short stories.

Finished The Foundling It stands up well on a re-read, but without the element of surprise, I'm downgrading my rating a smidge.
Finished Book 1 of Jerusalem, which feels like an achievement, even though I'm only ~ 1/4 of the way through.
Starting Island Dreams next

I read Code Name: Butterfly by Ahlam Bsharat, 2009 (English translation 2016 by Nancy N Roberts), which is a painfully honest YA story told by a young teenage Palestinian girl living in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories near Nablus. She has many questions about life which she daren't ask for cultural or political reasons so she locks them away inside herself and begins to wonder if adult humans emerge from their cocoon of childhood questions much as butterflies emerge after their own transformations. 3.5*

I finished reading Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare) and am reading the corresponding chapter in Asimov's Shakespeare. I can't make up my mind whether I want to to read The Merry Wives of Windsor or Henry IV, Part II next...
I've started Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells) and hope to finish it and the short story, "Home" before starting Fugitive Telemetry by the end of the month.
I'm also listening to Agent to the Stars (by John Scalzi; narrated by Wil Wheaton).

I read Empress of Mars, by Kage Baker, which is a pastiche of old west gold rush narratives about Irish immigrants, saloon owners with a heart of gold, navvies and prospectors, conmen and gamblers, except the expected evil American cattle barons have been replaced with capitalist English landlords, all successfully transposed to a futuristic Mars. 4*

I read State of Emergency : a novel, by Jeremy Tiang, which is mostly set in Singapore and Malaysia before, during, and after independence. It focusses on the Singaporean and Malayan Chinese communities' political relationships with the state, especially repression against anyone left of centre, told through the actions of one woman and the reactions rippling outwards through her extended family. It's surprisingly honest, and I note that the author lives in the US not Singapore. Before I read this I'd only encountered Tiang as a translator, and a good one, but he's a skilled storyteller too. An extremely impressive first novel. 4.5*

I am reading Death in the Andes and Jeeves in the Offing.

Finished reading Island Dreams (bit too much like a stone skimming on water) and listening to D A Tale of Two Worlds (plot holes ahoy!)
Now starting Death of a Ghost and listening to Dear Reader

I read The Mysteries of Love & Eloquence, or, The arts of wooing and complementing as they are manag'd in the Spring Garden, Hide Park, the New Exchange, and other eminent places : a work in which is drawn to the life the deportments of the most accomplisht persons, the mode of their courtly entertainments, treatments of their ladies at balls, their accustom'd sports, drolls and fancies, the witchcrafts of their perswasive language in their approaches, or other more secret dispatches, by Edward Phillips, 1685, which is basically a 17th century pick-up manual written by an ex-Puritan, lol. Unrated because it's both awesome and awful simultaneously.

>56 spiralsheep: I am assuming that the title falls under the "awesome" side of the ledger :)

Finished two books today: a re-read of Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson; and a souvenir of my most recent Scotland trip (in 2018), Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop, by Vic Galloway.

Next up will probably be Famous Last Words, by Timothy Findley.

>57 rabbitprincess: The title and "the witchcrafts of perswasive language" in general were more awesome than awful, yes, although some of it was also awful, lol. I laughed through most of it though with very minimal gnashing of teeth. :D

> I read Destination Cambodia, by Walter Mason, which is a travel book written by an Australian. Solid personal travelogue writing 3*

Over the weekend I read and enjoyed All the Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White. Now I've begun Love at First by Kate Clayborn, which I'm liking a lot so far!

I read Wherever it is Summer by Tamara Bach, which is a young adult novel about two teenage girls in Germany and What They Did On Their Holidays. I can't judge the original German story or writing because it has been let down by the English translation. 2.5*

Warning for repeated discussion of suicide (this is not a spoiler as it happened before the book begins).

Since I finished Love at First in one gulp, I'm on to Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, which I'm both excited and scared about! Hoping to finish it by the end of the month.

I read Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, by Sonia Nimr, which is a novel aimed at young adult readers that was originally written in Arabic then translated into English. It was billed to me as a fantasy but it's more a travel themed (historical) adventure novel. This isn't my preferred type of story but it is a well constructed and dramatic traveller's tale within the historical adventure genre. 4*

Finished Death of a Ghost which was an interesting mystery, whodunit was discovered fairly early, proving it far more difficult.

Now reading Sicily by John Julius Norwich. He writes history that's interesting to read, being full of anecdote and asides.

Wrapping up the month...

• Network Effect (Murderbot #5; by Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Murderbot #5.5; by Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐
• Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot #6; by Martha Wells) ⭐⭐⭐-1/2
• Some Days (written & illustrated by María Wernicke; translated by Lawrence Schimel) ⭐-1/2
• The Dating Itinerary (by Brooke Williams) ⭐⭐
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous; translated by Simon Armitage; narrated by Bill Wallis) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The Professor and the Madman (written and narrated by Simon Winchester) ⭐⭐⭐
• The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe (by Arvind Ethan David; narrated by Neil Gaiman & Jewel Staite) ⭐-1/2

The only title I didn't get to that I had in my stacks at the beginning of the month was Rosemary's Baby (by Ira Levin). While I didn't make it for ScaredyKit, I'll save it for AlphaKit "L" in September.

So it looks like I've been averaging around twelve books a month... which seems just about right for someone who works full-time and still has a daughter at home :-)