April Book Wrap Up
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ID: Graphic with a grey background. The words April Bookish Wrap Up are in the centre and surrounding them is a picture of some books, a cup of tea and some gold stars
Hello Friends,
I decided to post my April Wrap Up a little early as May is M.E Awareness Month and I have a number of posts planned around that for the month. So I didn’t want my Wrap Up to get missed or mixed up with those articles.
I didn’t really have a set TBR for April, just an idea of what I wanted to pick up. So in total I managed to read six books, three physically and three via audiobook. Here’s my mini reviews on the books I’ve managed to read in April:
ID: The book The Fates Divide. It has a blue/green cover with an illustration that looks similar to lightning behind the title.
This was a re-read for me as after reading so many books during March, I felt I wanted to read something more familiar and spend time with some of my favourite characters.
I read this book as I’d re-read the first book, Carve The Mark, last year. I’ve mentioned this series before, along with my thoughts, so I won’t repeat myself. Plus this is the second book of a duology and I don’t want to give away anything. All I will say is that I always enjoy reading this book and I always notice more details I missed during the previous read of both books, including a little “Easter egg” that Veronica Roth included that related to her first series, Divergent.
The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James
This book took an unexpected turn and wasn’t what I expected at all and I loved it for that! We follow Lowrie and Shen, the youngest people on the planet after a virus caused global infertility. They live in a very derelict London and are part of an ageing community, but despite that, life seems pretty idyllic. However, all is not what it seems and when Lowrie and Shen uncover the secret of their little community, they have to decide what their future will be and that of the entire human race.
ID The book The Quiet at the End of the World. It has a drawing of a man and a woman on the cover along with an illustration around them that looks look a butterfly but the wings are drawn to resemble arteries or veins.
Lowrie and Shen also enjoy treasure hunting, which adds an interesting aspect to their personality and the story. Each chapter gives information on an item that they’ve come across while exploring London or the “Manor” that Lowrie lives in ~ which is worth looking up as although the book doesn’t name it, it does give the general location. There’s also numerous social media tweets from people of past that Lowrie has looked up in relation to an object she found. Those posts are very interesting to read as they give incite to the time of the virus and how the world evolves afterwards.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and there was an interesting discussion about what constitutes life and there’s also an absolutely adorable little robot named Mitch! What I also found interesting is that as the twist happens and the plot progresses, it began to remind me of the Star Trek The Next Generation episode The Measure of a Man ~ if you know, you know. There’s also a random mention of Cardassians, so I think Lauren James may be a Star Trek fan.
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
This was the next pick of my Dickens read through and it was both a sad and enjoyable listen. I don’t own a physical copy of this at the moment.
Like most, I knew the general story of Oliver Twist before picking this up thanks to a few adaptations I’ve come across. Dickens’ writing style didn’t disappoint with this one as he sets a very atmospheric scene of Victorian London and the hardships people, especially children, experienced at that time.
While I did enjoy this story, there was some things that I didn’t really like and are a good reminder that this book is definitely a book of its time. My main annoyance is that Fagin is referred to a “the Jew” throughout this book far more than his name, which is only really used by the other characters speaking to him. After doing a bit of searching, it seems this was an issue brought up to Dickens while he was alive. From what I can find, he went began to revise Oliver Twist and removed the term “the jew” from the last 15 chapters of the book.
I really suggest doing a bit of research on Fagin, as it’s really interesting.
The Wonderland Collection by Lewis Carroll
This collections consists of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and a Tangled Tale. I listened the first two via audiobook and the second physically.
ID: The book The Wonderland Collection. It has a light blue cover with a laser cut design in it of Alice sat in a tree.
I feel most people will be familiar with these stories, especially as there’s been so many adaptations of them over the years. I will be totally honest, I’ve never found those appealing but years ago, a local theatre put on a production of the stories set in a local park {each scene took place in a different part of the park} and ever since I’ve been meaning to read the books as I found it weirdly fascinating.
These stories didn’t disappoint at all. They’re weird and just a lot of warped fun, though I did find Alice a little annoying at times ~ like how many times do you have to drink or eat something unknown before you realise it’s not a good idea!?
Also I really recommend the audiobook narrated by Christoper Plummer ~ it’s spectacular!
So those are the books I was able to read during April. Oh also, I’ve just started reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow but as I’m posting this early, I’ll include it in my May Wrap Up instead. My TBR for May isn’t quite finalised, though I will definitely be reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales From The Cafe both by Toshikazu Kawaguchi as the first one is my book club’s optional read for May and I’ll be reading the second book straight after the first. I think after those two, I’ll probably read some of the lighter books on my TBR as May can be a hard month mentally due to M.E Awareness and the last thing I feel I want is for my reading material to hard mentally as well.
I’d love to hear what you’ve all been reading this month, feel free to leave me a comment letting me know.
Stay Safe. Read a Book.
L x
