Wednesday, May 4, 2022

April 2022 Book Review

This week has been a doozy! I can't believe I'm so late in posting my monthly reads, but work is busy and life is busy. Nothing bad just a lot going on!


I read 8 books this month bringing my total for 2022 up to 37 compared to my goal of 100 for the year. I read 3 nonfiction, 5 fiction; 1 audiobook, 1 physical book, 6 ebooks; and 3 books written by POC. Pretty good mix if I do say so myself!


The Last Black Unicorn
 by Tiffany Haddish [audiobook] - I knew Tiffany Haddish's name, but nothing about her, before listening to her memoir. I liked the cover picture and was curious about the title. Well, this was so, so good! Her life story is one that will break your heart and also be amazed that she overcame so much! She has a special talent for comedy because parts of her book were making my heart hurt for her yet laugh at the same time. It was also great to listen to her voice, loved the way she told her story.


Recursion
 by Blake Crouch - Holy mind-bending mental f*ck. This was such an absolute crazy story. It was so original and unique and I flew through it. Only thing that kept it from being 5 stars is I felt like the end didn't totally work for me. It got a smidge off-kilter. But seriously crazy and fun.


Never Fall For Your 
Fiancée by Virginia Heath - This was a fun, light historical romance. Trope of fake fiancée. I truly liked the characters and flew through this. It didn't set my world on fire, but it's the first book of a series, and I'm definitely going to read the others.


Black Cake
 by Charmaine Wilkerson - This was my work book club selection, and it was a WINNER! I love multi-generational family stories, and this one was done especially well. We travel from the Caribbean, to the UK, to California and New York, from the 1960s to the present. Carrying us through the story is a family with lots of secrets and misunderstandings that sometimes made me SO ANGRY at the characters, ha. It was truly a work of art though from a story-telling perspective! My boss even said it was the best book she'd ever read! I highly, highly recommend.


The Charm Offensive
 by Alison Cochrun - A queer Bachelor-esque love story that focuses on mental health?! Sign me up! Loved this! I finished this in less than 24 hours and loved it!


Evidence of Love
by John Bloom - I read this because they filmed scenes for an HBO Max series {not the Hulu series advertised on the cover picture above ha} in my town a few months back. This book was written in 1983 and it has held up! It was fantastic! The beginning was a smidge slow, but you can tell the authors put a ton of research into creating this book. I'm very excited for the show now!


Begin Again
 by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. - We read this for another work book club, and honestly, it fell flat for me. I blame user error because I don't know anything about James Baldwin. I have heard so much about him over the last handful of years but didn't know much. And I think this book would be much better with a good understanding of him and his works. I just didn't connect with the book, boo.


Little Secrets
by Jennifer Hillier - I ended the month with a little banger of a thriller. I've shared before that this isn't my favorite genre, but I devoured this book. There are a lot of trigger warnings with this one, so this definitely isn't for everyone, but I couldn't put it down! [Trigger warnings: kidnapping, child abuse, suicide, depression]

And that was my month! May is off to a great start. Hope you are reading something great!!


2 comments:

Emily said...

Did you like "Recurssion" more than "Dark Matter"? I can barely remember Dark Matter now but I thought it was overall a good book. And thanks for all the trigger warnings on "Little Secrets"; won't even try to pick that one up. :)

Kathryn Bagley said...

Lots of good reads! Some I need to check out!! On a side note do you watch documentaries? Chance told me about a couple that I really think you would like.