What I Read: April

Now that the kids are in school and I'm back to work I get a decent amount of audiobook listening in, just driving to and from the kids' school and my work alone after dropping them off/before picking them up. I haven't been getting quite as much reading in now that I'm subbing because I don't make it to car line as early so don't really have much reading time then. I've still gotten in some great reads this month!

I love it when we go fishing, I take along a book and just hang out!

Books:

• Beating About the Bush by M.C. Beaton- This was on the recommendation shelf of a librarian whose picks I usually love so I picked it up. Once I started reading it I saw it was an "Agatha Raisin Mystery" so I looked it up and saw it was book #30. I decided to go ahead and finish it and didn't really like it very much. It mainly made we want to go back and read the Stephanie Plum series which I read quite a few books into and got bored with and haven't read in probably 10ish years. I know with the Stephanie Plum series the first ones were the best, so I may go back and read the first Agatha Raisin Mystery at some point to see if I'll like it.

• Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris- When I found out there was a companion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz that focused on Cilka's life after surviving Auschwitz, I knew I wanted to read it at some point. On one of my visits to Goodwill I found it there. I had no idea the Russian Gulag system was so similar to concentration camps and it blew my mind that they were allowed to run these prisons for so long after what everyone had seen with the concentration camps after World War II. I can't imagine surviving Auschwitz, only to be sent to a gulag. Cilka really was an incredible woman and I'm so glad I got to learn about her life. 
  

• Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot- I randomly picked this one up at the library because it had a pretty cover and the book jacket description sounded interesting. It reminded me a lot of Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo.

• The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty- I only have a couple of her books left and I'm spacing them out because I don't want to be finished but I found out she had a new book coming out in September! This one was really good and I didn't figure out the twist at all. Then she threw in a total shocker on the last page. So cool!

• Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham- This was our book club pick for the month of June. We're coming up on the 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot or Massacre, however you prefer to describe it, which is why this book was chosen. I liked how it was written with the story going back and forth between the past and present day. The way it was written, you felt the horrendousness of the riots without being totally overwhelmed in despair over it.
  
  
  
• Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson- This is her newest book. I put it on hold before it was released and was so excited to finally get it. I read it in a matter of days because it was so good! I'd say it was one of her best books.

eBooks:

• The Guthrie Short Stories by Andrea C. Neil- When I wanted to read the 2nd book in the Beverley Green Adventures series, our library only had the 1st book. I decided to buy the 2nd book on iTunes and saw there were 5 books in the series and they were all super cheap as ebooks! I went ahead and bought all the books in the series as ebooks. This was book #5 and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There were some stories I liked more then others. I liked that she wrote each short story from a different character's perspective so we got to read from some of the minor characters' perspectives.

Audiobooks:

• Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey- I kept seeing reviews about this and seeing it on book lists. It had such rave reviews, I expected it to be really good. My expectations may have been a bit too high, I didn't think it was amazing. I did enjoy it though and the story about his "Alright, alright, alright," line from Dazed and Confused was really good! I would definitely recommend this as an audiobook. Listening to it read by McConaughey himself was so good. I doubt I would have liked this one as much had I read it. The story about being arrested playing the bongos nude had me cracking up laughing while I was running.
  
  
  

• Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich- I was super excited to figure out which book I was on in the Stephanie Plum series after reading Beating About the Bush. Based on reading the blurbs of the books I thought maybe I was on this one. It was a little hard to tell because the books all have similar plots and the blurbs sound a lot alike and all seemed familiar. I started this one and was pretty sure I had already read it but it wasn't until about half-way through that I was certain I had already read it. I was enjoying it enough I went ahead and finished it. Reading the blurb for #16 I'm pretty sure I've also read it, but may go ahead and try it to see. I thought I stopped around an even number and was thinking it was 10, but it may have been 20. I stopped reading them because they were all just so similar and got too repetitive but not having read one in so long, I really enjoyed this one.

• If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane- One of my Facebook friends recommended this as an audiobook so I added it to my list and I loved it. It was very predictable and I had the ending figured out but that didn't take away any of my enjoyment along the way. It had a similar plotline to a Debbie Macomber Christmas book I loved but with unexpected twists.
  
  
  

• Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America by Bill Geist- One of my college friends had a house on the Lake of the Ozarks so when I was scrolling through my app, I thought this would be an interesting book. It was, but not quite what I expected. 

• All Adults Here by Emma Straub- I also came across this scrolling through the app our library uses for downloads and liked the cover. I skimmed the description and it sounded interesting so I went with it. It was good but not something I loved so much I'd go around recommending it.

• Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson- I was a few hours away from finishing The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks when it returned back to the library. I wanted something short to listen to while I waited to get that audiobook back to finish. The cover of this one got my attention and when I read the blurb it sounded interesting. I really liked it. It was goofy and quirky with unusual humor and the narrator was perfect.