How did it go?
HOW did I read so much and yet cover so little on the list? Book boxes, gifting and reviewing this month came back to bite me – in a good way, of course, because I loved what I read.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters was a total highlight. I was given a copy through a giveaway on Twitter and couldn’t put it down as soon as I started. Deeply nuanced examinations of relationships, pregnancy and the ways our identity effects our experiences of both.
I also adored This is How You Lose the Time War co-written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Told in letters from time-travelling agents Red on Blue on different sides of a war, each writer wrote all the letters for one of the characters, ensuring they both have a unique voice. Aside from that I love it’s depiction of time, queerness and love.
Okay, okay. I also cracked. Bookshops reopened on the 26th and I made it until the 27th until I “just popped in” to my local charity shop, followed by a trip to the bookshop the next day.
I bought books because I won’t be close to these places soon – the move is imminent! But also because of just how good it felt to be in a bookshop, looking through shelves crammed with things I want to read. I got a copy of Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts and devoured it within 24 hours. It was deeply dark, violent, unsettling and exactly what I fancied.
What I have I learned this month?
I’m moving next month and was considering getting a little treat of some new books, but I definitely need to reign it in and get back on track.
What I read in April 2021
- Birchfield Close, Jon McNaught (on the list)
- The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood (on the list, second hand from my mother-in-law)
- This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (not on the list, found in book box)
- Jews Don’t Count, David Baddiel (audiobook)
- Love, Pan-Fried, Gray Crosbie (on the list)
- The Book of Anna, Carmen Boullosa (not on list, book group)
- The Carpet People, Terry Pratchett (not on list, reviewed for BBC Scotland)
- Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters (not on list, given a copy)
- Jellyfish, Janice Galloway (on the list)
- Boy Parts, Eliza Clark (not on the list, bought a copy)
Total ticked off the list: 18
Total still to go: 77
Full list here.
However… I also gained the following books in April 2021…
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (book box, read)- Winter, Ali Smith (book box)
- The Bi-Ble Vol. 2: New Testimonials, Various (book box)
- My Squirrel Days, Ellie Kemper (book box)
Detransition Baby, Torrey Peters (giveaway on Twitter, read)The Carpet People, Terry Pratchett (review copy, read)- Girls Against God, Jenny Hval (book group)
Boy Parts, Eliza Clark (bought, read)- Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (bought, have read before but wanted own copy)
- The Water Cure, Sophie Mackintosh (bought)
- When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson (bought)
Next Up…
I have been reading Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer (on the list!) on and off since the start of April so I need to go back to that. I will also be reading The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizu (not on the list) with my mother – we’re doing a wee book group together through the power of the internet!
Moomin Writer 