April 2019 Wrap Up
I was MIA yesterday because I spent the day at the local middle school talking to 6th graders about books. I love their teacher. He is a reader. He reads what he wants them to read. He gets excited about having me come talk about books. He takes notes on the books I talk about because he loves books! I love talking to his classes because they are used to having a grown up geek out over books and they are there with me. So yesterday was fun but exhausting. Then I got my hair done.
Click the link for a picture. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw8hWj8nFL4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Today I went to the eye doctor. My left eye has changed again. New glasses! But also, they had to dilate my eyes to do a diabetes exam. All is good and healthy. Yay!
They I went to the doctor for a diabetes check up. The nurse asked, "Have you had a diabetes eye exam?" This morning actually. My eyes are still dilated. So I got bonus points for taking care of myself in that regard. Also bonus points for getting regular pedicures to make sure my feet are in good shape.
Now it's time to talk about what I read in April! Beginning with my silly little TBR for April:
The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce - Done! This was the book club book for April. I got it read with plenty of time before the meeting. I really enjoyed it. It was about a group of shop owners in a little street in London that was beginning to crumble. The main character is a record shop owner who refuses to sell CDs in 1988. It's quirky and adorable and a little sad.
Writing My Wrongs by Shaka Senghor - Read! I finished this the very last day of April, but I did it. The author spent 19 years in prison for murder. His book is about what led him to the point where he could shoot and kill a man, what prison life is like for a black man convicted of murder, and how he changed from the inside out while still struggling against the culture inside the prison.
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo - Nope. I checked it out. It sat on my kitchen counter for a while. I returned it. I just couldn't make myself pick it up. I decided I didn't really want to read it after all.
The Cerulean by Amy Ewing - Nope. I read the description of this one and just decided it didn't sound too great. It's still on my shelf. If someone else reads it and tells me it's worth my time, I will pick it up later.
Dark Sky Rising by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - Done. Don't you hate it when you find a typo two months after you published something? Gr. This book was about how Jim Crow laws became a thing after the Civil War. I wondered about that. If the end of the Civil War created all these rights for blacks, why were they still segregated and without rights 50 years later?
Stain by A. G. Howard - Kinda? I read about half of it. Then I stalled out and didn't read anything for a week. One of my friends kindly gave me permission to stop reading it and go on to something else. If I need to come back to it later, I can. For now, I'm off the hook.
And now for the books I read that weren't on my list.
Giant Days, Vols. 8 & 9 and Extra Credit by John Allison - I love this little graphic novel series. These college kids are just so relatable.
Soaring Earth by Margarita Engle - This is a book of poetry about the author's coming of age in 1969-1971. She was a Cuban college student at a California university and she got caught up in the protests about the Vietnam war and the fight for female equality.
Karamo by Karamo Brown - I don't watch TV, but I do watch Netflix. I love the show Queer Eye! It's just such a feel-good show. Karamo Brown is the culture expert for the show and this is his memoir about his life up to the point of filming the 3rd season of the show. He is gay, but now has 2 kids. One of them he got the old fashioned way. Weird, I know. It's a really interesting story.
A Cave In the Clouds by Badeeah Hassan Ahmed - This is also a memoir. This is about a teen girl who is from a small religious group in Iraq that suffered decimation at the hands of ISIS. She was kidnapped and sold to an American man who was a big decision maker for ISIS. She was raped repeatedly by this man and then had to watch him Skype with his wife and daughter in America. it's a terrible story, but her escape is all the more amazing and healing for her suffering.
The Waning Age by S. E. Grove - This book is set in a future San Francisco where kids lose their emotions by puberty. Natalia's little brother is showing no signs of waning, which is what they call it when a child starts to lose their emotions. He is just as chaotic and overwrought as he's always been. Especially since their mom committed suicide 3 years ago. The company that makes false emotions for rich people to purchase and get addicted to, figures out how to kidnap her brother for testing in their fortress-like lab. Nat jumps through a bunch of hoops and risks her and her friends' lives to save him. It was pretty good. There were some good twists and excellent character building, especially with the secondary characters.
10 books. That's not too shabby! And I actually read a few of the ones on my TBR! That's better than expected. What did you read in April?