April Reads: 50 books already?!

And a sneaky giveaway for 100 subscribers!

May 02, 2025

Dear Reader,

April flew by, and I was on a ROLL with my reading. I got it in my head that I wanted to read 50 in five months because I was getting close…completely did not realize I could have used all of May.

My reading? Great. Math? Not so much.

Anyway, it was a great month of books! I’ve been really lucky to receive a lot of ARCs (advanced reading copies!) from publishers, and I make sure I read those in a timely manner. AKA speedy! But I’m slowing it down on those, and reading in general, to focus on writing for a bit. More on that to come, but first…let’s get to the books.

The Best Listen:

Okay, hear me out: just because it’s a self-help book about healing, doesn’t mean you have to read it when you’re in dire need of healing. I enjoy Brianna’s writing a lot, and this one finally came up for my Libby. And, as she points out, healing isn’t a one-time thing, anyway.

When You’re Ready, This is How You Heal was a great reminder about what matters to myself, and was a great reflection of these past years. I’m not sure what the shift has been in the last five or so years, but I do feel like the most ‘me’ I’ve ever been, and this was a great reset on my thinking to continue that.

If You’re Going to Pick Just One:

UGH. I can’t pick just one this month. I cannot. I know it’s tiny in the image, but you can see my ratings, and I had a LOT of five-star reads! But alas, I’ll pick two: Romantic Friction and The Book Club for Troublesome Women. Very different reads, and both kept me hooked.

Oh shoot, but The Spellshop too! If you like cozy fantasy!

I’d Skip It (I Guess):

Well, I only really had one meh read…and it has a bit of lore.

And now, because we like a little drama…

I read a poetry book that was okay - it wasn’t bad, I wouldn’t buy it, but I did finish it. The images inside were giving AI and were a little odd but still! I gave it a three star and moved on. Imagine my surprise when the author emailed me within an hour telling me to change my rating to help with sales. Absoloutely not! So down to 0.5 stars it went, because even the most bookish of people can be a little petty.

And now…March’s book club pick!

There’s a strange ache to The Virgin Suicides, like remembering a summer that was never really yours, but still hurts like it was.

Told through the collective voice of a group of neighborhood boys who are now men, haunted still by the five Lisbon sisters, the novel isn’t so much about what happened (though that’s horrifying enough) but about how the memory of it loops, stains, and mythologizes. It's a story wrapped in suburban malaise, parental silence, religious repression, and the unbearable beauty of girlhood as seen, but never truly understood, from the outside.

It was nostalgic in a way, kinda felt like standing just outside a glasshouse. I recognized the performance, the longing, the quiet suffocation. The way girlhood can become a spectacle, a prison, a ghost story told in someone else’s voice. The Lisbon sisters aren’t given much agency, and maybe that’s the point: they’re remembered, not known. Framed in nostalgia and objectified even in grief, their lives become symbols instead of stories.

But there’s power in discomfort, and this book offers plenty of it. Eugenides writes with an eerie, precise beauty that lingers. Lines that catch you off guard and settle under your skin. It’s a novel that knows how memory distorts and how pain romanticized, is still pain.

Not an easy read. Not always a kind one. But worth it, if only to examine the stories we tell about girls, and the stories we don’t let them tell themselves.

It came out in 1993, but I’m glad I’ve read it now!

For May, I’d like to do something a little different…

I’ve created a poll (you can vote once, and I don’t think it can be edited…so choose wisely), and that will be our pick for the month! These are all on my TBR, and I cannot for the life of me decide which one to choose…

And last but not least…I’ve surpassed 100 subscribers! I launched this newsletter around a year ago because I missed having a blog and a place to write more regularly. It’s been really fun to do, and I wanted to say thank you for having me in your mailbox.

I’m going to do a draw for my subscribers, and all you have to do to enter is comment on this post with your fave book of 2025 so far, and I’ll buy the winner their next read!