April 2025 Reading Journal

April was the longest month and then May appeared out of nowhere and has moved at light speed. That's partially owing to the fact that April is the armpit of off-season where winter activities have ended but summer fun and summer jobs haven't started yet and everyone leaves town. I got in a bit more reading than I anticipated in April because my summer job start date kept getting pushed further and further back due to a flooring remodel in our office space that went on longer than anticipated. That was a double edge sword, though, because while I had nothing but time, I wasn't mentally in the best spot. I'd really looked forward to going back to work, so the delay wasn't exactly welcome. I tried to make the best of it, but April is a month that I, emotionally, hope to never return to. 

Much like the blah state of my month, the actual books I read also left much to be desired. It was an interesting reading month in the sense that every book was lacking in some fundamental element but all in very different ways. Mostly, I thought these books had a lot of promise until I was in too deep to be able to justify DNFing them. In a way, I find reading months like this interesting because they give me a chance to put on my writer brain alongside my reader one to diagnose what particular problems were dragging these books under. They all had promise but also Achilles heels that prevented them from fully hitting the mark. I finished 9 total books. I was going to count Dorian Gray in there as the tenth, but I realized in the black hole that May has been so far that even though I read the majority of the book in April, I didn't read the last 80 pages until yesterday. It was going to be the shining star of the group, but I guess we'll have to wait till the end of May to discuss my latest dip into the classics.

The month was mostly fueled by a big library haul I did picking up all the new releases that had amassed in the few weeks since I'd last been to the library. First of this month was Crush. I get into it more in the review, but this book's inherent flaw was the author's confusion about what it takes to write a novel—mostly the fact that a novel implies there will be dialogue and actual scenes, which is not what is actually delivered. It reads much more like a voicey memoir, which makes sense after reading the author's bio and discovering her past experience with writing. It felt like an even less fleshed out version of a book I'm famously not a fan of, All Fours. If the concept intrigues you, just go straight to Miranda July's version. 

We'll get the two disappointing audiobook reads out of the way now. First up, Health and Safety, which truly did nothing for me. I was intrigued by the concept and the hype created by an interminable Libby wait, but the book meandered around in a way that felt utterly pointless, and I struggled to stay engaged. Similarly, I'm embarrassed to admit I listened to this, but I ran out of podcasts and it was available immediately and suggested by Libby: I read The Shift by Tinx. I couldn't tell you one thing about it all these weeks later, so I'll go out on a limb and say that one didn't make much of an impression either. When I saw the title on my spreadsheet, actually, it took me a second to place the book in my reading experience. 

The next novel I jumped into was Good Girl, a novel in translation that's gotten some attention this season. I don't quite get the magical charm that others have seen in it. The first chapter blew me away, and I thought I was in for a serious treat. Sadly, the book gets extremely monotonous, and the characters, relationships, and plot all simultaneously fail to feel like they're progressing. There's only so many of the same scenes I can read at the Berlin 24/7 warehouse raves before I wonder what else I'm meant to be getting from them. Also, books that feature these strained, large-age-gap relationships also just feel so constrained in the paths that they can follow, and they so rarely subvert expectations. Sometimes, it felt like the author was intentionally making choices to stall out the story progress in a way that didn't serve the creation of a compelling narrative. It just grew tedious even though some of the passages were quite well written and interesting in isolation. 

The next two books were a diversion from my usual print-reading categories. I read New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe. I did not realize until I'd finished the book that Mary Oliver also has a poetry book by the same title, the much more popular one that Gracie Abrams also recommends. I thought I'd picked up the Mary Oliver book, but when Libby pulled up Howe's as the first option, I was so excited it was immediately available that I didn't double check the author... I was about a quarter into the book when I was asking myself why in the world this collection was so popular and started looking closer at the details. I guess I should reattempt with Mary Oliver's version soon, but I might take a poetry break for a while after that one. I also picked up Pure Innocent Fun and read it in print because my Libby loan was taking forever. The voice was fun. I probably would've enjoyed it more on audio, but it was an interesting collection of essays about millennial focused pop culture. I weirdly enjoy reading essays about pop culture from before I have a real memory as I feel like it gives me a better sense of overall context to current pop culture and just world culture. I will say my big critique is that the book feels marketed at people who remember this same era and want to reminisce with the author, but then there's a lot of tedious explanations of things that it feels like the intended reader would already be well aware of. Really basic stuff that I even grasped without the handholding with no prior context. Still, glad that I read it. 

The Mess We're In was the last book I had lingering from my Ireland trip. They'd been such a fantastic crop of books, I'd been drawing out finishing the last ones as a treat, but unfortunately, this was where the stellar stack finally fell flat for me. I just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the book to actually start, and it never did. By the look of the cover, the flap copy, and the style of writing, I expected this to be a more commercial leaning story about a girl who moves in with a band in London where hijinks ensue. I realize now that the author seemed to think she was writing a contemplative literary novel and that's why the plot never truly feels like it begins. But that's not the style she achieved or the level of writing she delivered, so it just felt stunted. 

Finally, we have the two more successful novels of the month which both came at the end. The first is the much hyped for its International Booker nomination—On The Calculation of Volume 1. This is a well written, interesting book that has a unique take on the Groundhog Day type trope. I thought that the rules of the world were well defined and the boundaries drawn clearly in a way that I find super satisfying. The mushy quality of some sci-fi stories really grates on me. While I enjoyed it, there was an element that did feel really repetitive, and I wasn't sad to see the book end. I can't really imagine reading seven volumes of this story, but it was a phenomenally well crafted book for what it was. The second winner of the month was Audition by Katie Kitamura. This book got tons of hype and an interview that promoted the book even sparked its own bit of Substack controversy. I really enjoyed this one as I've been a fan of Kitamura's prior work, but I did feel like the book lost steam at the end, and I didn't love the direction it curved in. The first half of the book, though, gets a pure five stars from me. 

Then I spent the last week of the month reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. Since I'll be attending a school named after Oscar Wilde in the fall, I figured I should check off a book by him from the classics list. Thankfully, I now have an epic amount of respect for Wilde's work. This book was dark and intriguing and twisty and absolutely hilarious, and Wilde is an author I'm most definitely pleased to be aligned with. But that's a story for May. 

This month is going to be a re-read month, I think. I'm planning on rereading all of Sally Rooney's novels in order and then maybe revisiting The Rachel Incident. That's probably all I'll manage to get through in a busy month, but I also have two James Joyce books checked out that I'd like to read at some point. Working full time and having a ton of plans this month (including one of the few souls to go see Katy Perry on tour (there is more context to this)) probably means less reading, but this week, I'm resolving to pick back up my exercise and reading habits that have fallen by the wayside in the working 9 days straight madness. I'm trying to reset and find a more balanced, sustainable pace with everything. I keep blinking and having entire days disappear. But it's good to be busy. I'll take it compared to the alternative.