What We Read in April

April was a decent reading month for me. I read 8 books, evenly split between fiction and non-fiction. Year-to-date, non-fiction has accounted for about 40% of my reading and I think this has to be above average for me. I almost exclusively read ebooks from the library, so I read what is available, and much has been non-fiction so far this year. But I must be putting more non-fiction on my request list, too! 

Non-Fiction:

My favorite non-fiction reads were The Anthropocene Reviewed (5 stars!) and The Gratitude Diaries. I listened to The Anthropocene Reviewed and it was really delightful. It's a collection of essays about a random assortment of topics and he concludes each essay by rating what he talked about. The reason for that is that he talks about how recent a phenomenon the 5-star rating scale is. If I remember correctly, it became popular when amazon came on the scene. I ended up telling Phil about a lot of the various essays since he shares a lot of really interesting nuggets of information in an engaging manner. I appreciated the perspective of The Gratitude Diaries, which is a memoir about the author's year spent focusing on gratitude. It inspired me to start a gratitude practice but I haven't quite decided what exactly I will do but it will probably be done in my Wonderland222 planner.

Fiction:

I'll start off by saying I HATED "Matrix" by Lauren Groff. I loved her previous novel, "Fates and Furies," so I thought I might like this. But I didn't. I slogged through it because it is a book club book and I try my best to finish book club books so I can be part of the discussion. I was glad this book was short (it was less than 300pgs). My best fiction read of the month was "One Two Three." It has Erin Brokovitch vibes because it's about a family living in a town where a corporation has polluted the water and it has resulted in many health problems for the town's residents. It's told by triplet sisters. I loved the author's previous book "This Is How It Always Is." It would be hard to replicate the magic of that book, but this book was also excellent so I will read more by this author (Laurie Frankel).

Paul's Reads:

These were the hits of the past month. "Delicious" and "A Pipkin of Pepper" are follow-ups to "Pumpkin Soup" which is a much-loved book in our house. Both of the follow-ups were excellent and were read multiple times! "The Rabbit Listened" and "Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend" were very sweet books written by a local author. The Rabbit Listened is about how to support someone who is having a bad day, and Goodbye, Friend! Hello, Friend! Is about endings and beginnings. Anatole was my personal favorite. It has Ratatouille vibes as it's about a mouse living in Paris. It was delightful!

What did you read this month?