April has come to an end, and so has the semester. Hurray!
Do to a number of circumstances—classes wrapping up, finals, getting sick again, applying for the bar, and of course revising my book—I only read seven books in April. All in all, it was a pretty good mix of books. I’ve posted full reviews for all but one of them, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here.
Speaking of which, I’ve really enjoyed writing longer, individual reviews for the books I’m reading, and I’m planning to keep it up. But I’d love to know if you’re enjoying them too, if there’s anything I can do to make them better or more helpful, or if you absolutely hate them. Please give me some feedback.
Onto the books.
I started April with The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson. This is a short story collection focusing on Magnus Bane, an important character in Cassandra Care’s Mortal Instruments books, and one who recurs across her other shadowhunter series. This book was a ton of fun, and if you like Clare’s shadowhunter stuff, I’d definitely recommend this. If you’re thinking of trying out Clare’s work for the first time, this probably isn’t the place to start. It might be confusing. But up to you. My full review is here.
Next, I read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling. I love how every time I reread these books my favorites shift. I used to really like this book, but now feel it isn’t as strong as some of the others. That being said, it’s still Harry Potter, and it will always be close to my heart, so don’t you dare criticize it. I didn’t finish Deathly Hallows in April, but I did finish it May 1, so keep an eye out for my thoughts on these last two books. In the meantime, I finally posted my random thoughts on Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets here and Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and Order of the Phoenix here. Be warned, there are spoilers.
Next I read The Street by Ann Petry. This was our April book club selection. It’s the story of a single mother trying to raise her son and better her life in 1940s Harlem. It’s so powerful and heartbreaking, and I loved it. Everyone should absolutely read this book. Go read it now!
After that, I read When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. This is a YA contemporary romance book, about two Indian-American kids at a pre-college app-development summer program, and their parents are trying to set them up to get married. I really liked the first half of this, and then it kind of fell flat for me, but it was still definitely an enjoyable read. My half-gushy, half-ranty thoughts are here, and if you’ve read this I would love to know what you think of it.
Next, I took an evening to read A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. I had to read this for my legal profession class, and so I’m not going to write a full review of it, because you don’t want to hear about whether Sir Thomas Moore was a good or ethical lawyer c(I personally think he was pretty stupid, actually). But it was a really interesting play, and I’m glad I read it. I hear the movie is good, too, but it cuts out the character of the Common Man, which strikes me as sad because he was such a great character.
Next, I read City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab. I loved her Shades of Magic series, so when I found out she was writing a middle grade series I was all over this. Cass’s parenss are TV ghost hunters. But Cass can actually see ghosts. Adventures ensue. It is great fun, and just my level of creepy. I definitely recommend.
And I finished off April with The Grownup by Gillian Flynn. This was our last book club selection for the school year, but I hope not our last book club book ever. I think we’ve decided to go on over skype or something, and I am very glad. I’ve read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and it wasn’t my type of fiction. I like to have at least one character in a book that I can cheer for, and Gone Girl did not have that. The Grown-Up was so short that I didn’t have time to really dislike anybody, which was a definite advantage. It was also so short that it was easy to fit into finals studying—I think I read it in an hour. I was surprised, but I actually really liked it.
And that’s it for April. Please do let me know what you think of the individual book reviews I’ve been doing, and if you’ve read any of these books, I’d be happy to talk about them in more detail.