April CalendarCAT

April's events include Earth Day, Easter this year, and April Fool's Day. Also the month of the Pink Moon, a Native American naming of the moon to represent the first pink flowers of Spring. The pink moon is also called Egg Moon (due to spring being an egg-laying season), Sprouting Grass Moon, and Fish Moon (due to the influx of shad fish that swim upstream during this time of year).

April is named after the Greek goddess of Love, Aphrodite. It's flowers are daisies and sweet peas. Birthstone is Diamond.

Astrological signs are both critters, Aries and Taurus.

A few other holidays in April:
National No Housework Day
National Find a Rainow Day

For our friends south of the equator ANZAC day is in April.

With all that background, find a book to read that somehow applies to April. Enjoy

Here's the WIKI

Authors with birthdays in April include Peter S. Beagle, Richard Peck, and Alistair MacLean.

Apparently April 4th is World Rat Day so I have decided to read Hunt for the Bamboo Rat by Graham Salisbury, a WW II novel set in the Philippines.

April 5th is National Maritime Day. I'm going to plan on reading The Wager :A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann.

Planning to read something by Ngaio March, who was born in April.

How could I not think of Earth Day!?

Anyway, I looked things up a few days ago and discovered April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. Also, something about Volunteer Week or Month?

I checked but nothing on the tbr for volunteering, but I might just read (for Prevention of Cruelty...) Saving Simon / Jon Katz

The ALA National Library Week is April 7-13 this year so maybe a library book for me. I will need to read To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf sometime this month for my May book club meeting so that will probably be it.

>7 LibraryCin: I like Jon Katz' works, and Saving Simon was one of the first I read.

Technically anything I read this month is April related since I am April.

Actually Easter is March 31 this year (and Orthodox Easter is May 5), but Easter Monday is in April.

I think I will choose The Silent Bride from my shelf, the first in the APRIL Woo mystery series.

>9 fuzzi: Good to hear! I should add I haven't checked to be sure my library has it, but hopefully!

>10 lowelibrary: bwahaha! Love it.

>4 clue: I am planning to read The Mousehole Cat for National Maritime Day.

I'll be reading April Fool Dead by Carolyn Hart for April Fools Day on the 1st. I have Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy that would fit Earth Day and I discovered that April 6 is Siamese Cat Day prompting one of Lilian Jackson Braun The Cat Who… books that are sitting on the shelves.

>15 LadyoftheLodge: Glad to have the company, that looks like a good one!

>1 majkia: Also there's going to be a total solar eclipse on April 8.

Related to ANZAC Day, I will be reading Armenia, Australia and the Great War.
The blurb says, "24 April 1915 marks the beginning of two great epics of the First World War. It was the day the allied invasion forces set out for Gallipoli; and it marked the beginning of what became the Genocide of the Ottoman Empire's Armenians. For the first time, this book tells the powerful, and until now neglected, story of how Australian humanitarians helped people they had barely heard of and never met, amid one of the twentieth century's most terrible human calamities. With 50 000 Armenian-Australians sharing direct family links with the Genocide, this has become truly an Australian story."

I plan to read The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny, since the title refers to the month of April, quoting from The Waste Land.

I've been meaning to read Linghun by Ai Jiang ever since it was published last April, so that's what I've got earmarked for this coming month!

>3 DeltaQueen50: That is a good one! I already read Bride of the rat god, otherwise I would have picket for this months challenge:-)

>22 amberwitch: Thanks, I am looking forward to my "ratty" read!

I'm reading Madam by Margaret Oliphant, who was born on the 4th of April, 1828.

I've just finished S is for Silence by Sue Grafton who was born on 4/24.

I read April Fool Dead by Carolyn G. Hart
Like an April Fool’s Day prank that falls flat, this was underwhelming. A generous 2 stars.

I've finished Madam by Margaret Oliphant, who was born in April.

For Earth Day I read Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Set in the not too distant future when climate change has wiped out most of the wildlife on earth. In Greenland, Franny Stone joined one of the last fishing boats in an attempt to follow the last Arctic terns on their migration to the Antarctic - a move that she promises will lead the boat to fish. It was hard to understand why she would do this, an action that could harm the migrating birds and deplete ocean wildlife even more. That was just one of the problems I had with this book. So much was omitted about what else was happening besides the empty oceans and sky.

Fragments of Franny’s troubled past are woven into the story along the way. At first I associated her dismal nomadic life with the terns’ migration, but eventually it began to appear more like McConaghy had two stories in mind and scrambled them together without much attention to continuity. I’ve heard so many good reports about this book and was surprised to find that it was not to my liking. The unexpected ending did not make up for a disappointing read.

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month

Saving Simon / Jon Katz
3.5 stars

Simon was a donkey close to death in a tiny enclosure with no shelter when he was rescued. Jon Katz had a small farm and offered to take Simon in and, along with his wife, bring Simon back to health and happiness. Jon indicates in this book that he also benefitted from having Simon, learning about compassion along the way.

I really liked the parts about Simon and the other animals on Jon’s farm (and neighbouring animals, particularly the 101-year old’s elderly blind pony, Rocky). When he philosophized about compassion, though, I didn’t agree with him. Yes, I am more compassionate toward animals than (some) people; I feel like animals are more like kids or babies, in that they are dependent on humans and aren’t always able to change their circumstances, whereas humans are more likely to be able to have the power to do that for themselves (or they can ask for help). He doesn’t address this when he insists that we should still be compassionate towards the humans who abuse animals. He did tend to repeat himself at times, though I think that’s a small thing. The stories about the animals were great, though, and that really was the bulk of the book.

I have finished Le rêve, a rather odd part of the Rougon-Macquart cycle. Zola was born on 2 April.

In honor of World Rat Day - April 4th - I read Hunt For the Bamboo Rat by Graham Salisbury. The Bamboo Rat of the title is a young Japanese-American boy who at 17 joins the military and heads to the Philippines to spy on the Japanese during WW II. An exciting survival story.

For Earth Day I read A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds.

I read Chenneville by Paulette Jiles who has an April birthday.

May's CalendarCat is up and can be found here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/360080#n8507740

I might count Malka Olders The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles as Aprils calendar challenge, as it takes place on Jupiter, and the Vinalia prima ("first Vinalia"), held in honour of Jupiter and Venus, was held on 23 April to bless and sample last year's wine and ask for good weather until the next harvest.

I have finished Watery Grave by Bruce Alexander, who has an April birthday.

I'm reading Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five; he passed away on April 11th, 2007.

Starting Way Station by Clifford D. Simak, who died on 25 April 1988.

Found one to fit volunteers/Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month:


White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan- Read and reviewed

Cute story of a family who does animal rescue and the new neighbors who move in next door. Not much depth for an adult read, but should be fine for the target audience of younger children.

April is (unofficially) Shakespeare month, too. William Shakespeare died in April 1616, and was possibly born in April as well. And I’ve been reading Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about the poet’s son who died in childhood, so there’s an April connection there. Also will probably re-read “Hamlet” for April.

Since April birthstone is diamond, I read the first book in the Peter Diamond series The Last Detective by Peter Lovesey

>41 bookworm3091: Oh! I forgot about that! I think I can count Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts for the CalendarCAT then, because Carrick, king of the faeries, turns dew into diamonds in the book, and gives one to the protagonist!

Earth Day

The Homing Instinct / Bernd Heinrich
3.25 stars

Not just about birds, but butterflies, bees, insects, other critters, humans, even trees… and home. What makes a home and compels critters to create that home and either migrate to/from or just want to “cocoon” and stay there?

I found some of the info more interesting than others. Of course, it started off with birds and other critters that migrate and how they manage to find their way to/from. But the book expands far beyond, even speculating on humans and home. I have to agree with others that I could have done without the hunting chapter. Even though this wasn’t an audio book, I did lose interest at times, though, which is why the rating somewhere between “ok” and “good” for me.

Finished Linghun by Ai Jiang, which was published in April of last year. It is absolutely wonderous. Readers of speculative fiction and (light/non-gory/gothic) horror should all check it out. While the book contains a few short stories at the end, the novella at the heart of the book, and taking up 85% of it, is a haunting story about a neighborhood where grief-stricken people fight to live in order to be close to the ghosts of their loved ones rather than moving on with their lives, and the people/ghosts trapped/struggling within it. It is wonderful.

I will say that the couple of short stories tucked in at the very back of the book suffer from being preceded by such a powerful novella; I wish I'd taken some time before reading them (instead of reading them right after) so that I could really appreciate them, or realized they were there and read them first.

Either way, this was a five-star read for me, and utterly fantastic and haunting. Full review written.

>44 whitewavedarling: That's a BB for me!

>45 LisaMorr:, I'm so glad! It's getting some attention in SFF circles, but deserves ever more readers!

I am reading What You Are Looking For Is In The Library for National Library Day on April 6th.

I finished Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut this morning; he died on 11 April. I have one more by Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, that I might get to this month.

For Earth Day I just finished reading Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Mary Robinson with Caitriona Palmer.

Starting William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction by Stanley Wells in honour of the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death.

I've read Daisy Miller & Washington Square by Henry James who was born in April.

COMPLETED William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction by Stanley Wells (April births and deaths)

Richard Peck was born in April, so I read one of his books:


Fair Weather by Richard Peck

It's 1893 and Chicago is hosting the World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the World's Fair, and people are coming from all over to see the sights. Rosie, her older sister and younger brother are invited to attend as guests of their aunt, a rich widow who lives in the city. As usual with this author's tales, things don't always go as planned, but with smile-inducing results. Fun read as an adult, probably would be a good book to eventually pass on to my grandchildren, who live in Chicago!

I really have enjoyed every book of his that I've read.

Ended up with a few more books that fit for April:

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, National Gardening Day, 4/14
A Season in Hell and the Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud for poetry month
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu for First Contact Day, 4/5 (this is technically a Star Trek related observance, but I think any story about first contact would count)
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett who was born in April

I am very late, but I wanted to add that I read The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny for April, and it was a perfect fit!