April Wrap-Up // basically just more graphic novels

Happy May! I hope that now that we are in the “brings May flowers” part of the rhyme, the rain can be over, because I am really looking forward to some sunshine! April was both a rainy and busy month for me. It was the last full month of school, without a spring break to buoy me through like March had. As a result, most of the books I read this month were either for school or were audiobooks.

I was very ambitious going into this month, so I didn’t quite meet all my reading goals. However, that is not to say I had a poor reading month. I re-read Imogen, Obviously in preparation to write my review for this blog (posted now!), and that was definitely my favorite book of the month. However, my reading for class introduced me to a few other really amazing books, including Mira Jacob’s Good Talk: a Memoir in Conversations and Let There be Light by Liana Finck. As with last month, because I am taking a class in graphic novels, I ended up reading a lot of graphic novels this month, which really helped boost my overall book count.

Books Read

• Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli – 5/5 stars ★★★★★
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown – 3/5 stars ★★★
• As I Remember, Adam by Angus L. Bowmer – 3/5 stars ★★★
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang – 3.5/5 stars ★★★
• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob – 4.5/5 stars ★★★★★
• Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe – 3/5 stars ★★★
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – 4/5 stars ★★★★
• Let There be Light by Liana Finck – 4/5 stars ★★★★
• Last Call by Elon Green – 3/5 stars ★★★
• Heartstopper Volume Four by Alice Oseman – 4/5 stars ★★★★

On the Blog

As I already mentioned, I posted a review for Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I truly loved this book so much and am so glad that it is being published today!

The other post I wrote this month was another review, Empty Theatre by Jac Jemc. This is a campy historical fiction book that is both incredibly thoughtful and incredibly funny. Both of these books I received ARCs for.

Posts I Loved Reading

Morgan shared her bookish unpopular opinions
Helena’s review of Fake Dates and Mooncakes
24hr.YABookBlog shared YA books with Spring vibes

This Month’s Listening

I am about to see MUNA in concert (which I am freaking out about by the way), so I have been listening to a lot of MUNA recently, but especially songs that are newer to me, like I Know a Place and their new single The One that Got Away.
I also listened to a podcast on my backlist, Edith!, a fictional podcast about first lady Edith Wilson which was really entertaining.

What’s up with me

This month was incredibly packed with fun activities! I made my final visit to a graduate school, and then committed to a graduate program for next year! (Which is, of course, actually the next five years). Of course, with that has come things like apartment hunting which is stressful but also exciting.

Since my friends and I are graduating, and April was the last full month, there was a lot of celebration of accomplishments! Everyone had final recitals and sports games to attend. I submitted my thesis (which I have to defend later this week), and gave a presentation on it for a conference at my school. My friends and I completed an escape room which was incredibly fun. We also celebrated some really cool school traditions which I am being vague about because I don’t want to doxx myself, but suffice to say it was really fun! It is pretty clearly reflected that all of these activities “got in the way” of my reading, but I think it is worth it because I love my friends a lot!