I think we need to accept that these updates are not going to happen during the first week of the month.

I only read nine books during April. Work is increasingly demanding and I have a lot of feelings about that, but that’s not what we’re here for. At the end of last month, I was on 62% of my Goodreads challenge of reading 120 books and said I was going to remove all the really short books. Now, I’m on 63%. Again, if you want to see what I’m reading and follow my annual reading challenge on Goodreads I’m always keen to find new reader friends.

I was hoping to finish one of the paperbacks from Penguin Random House, but I’m making it last because it’s a beautiful book. The

With the 19 books I read during March, I crossed off number one. It’s a true crime jobby called “For the thrill of it” and if you ask me, it was unnecessarily long. But I pushed through. It’s an interesting case, but so meandering. Ok. What else? I could’ve added more to my tally because Audible has lots of short true crime listens and I decided that it’s less than two hours I’m not going to add it anymore.

1. A book with more than 500 pages (audiobook of more than 8 hours)
2. A classic romance
3. A book that was made into a movie/TV series (sometimes books are created from the movie/series; we’ll allow that too)
4. A book published this year
5. A book with a number in the title
6. A book you can finish in a day
7. A book set in a location you’ve always wanted to visit
8. A book that was first published in the year you were born
9. A book with bad reviews (I usually say life is too short to waste on bad books, but if you select one specifically for this challenge you should finish it and tell me why you think it got bad reviews, do you agree, etc.)
10. A book from your childhood
11. A series – two or more books. Starting a series that you can’t read more of one book of because only one’s been published doesn’t count.
12. A mystery
13. A thriller
14. A non-fiction
15. A book with a colour in the title
16. A book that made you cry
17. A book you chose based on its cover
18. A book a friend recommended
19. A book your mom/dad loves
20. A memoir
21. A book from a genre you usually avoid.

So number 21, a genre I usually avoid, is a tricky one, but The Awesome Girl’s Guide to Dating Extraordinary Men is about four incredible African American women. Because it’s not the kind of book I’d have read if I was fully aware of that, because I didn’t think I’d be able to relate to any of the characters. And while there is a lot I can’t relate to, there were also the universal themes everyone can relate to.

I once tried to read Eat, Pray, Love, but didn’t get very far. I’d since read both fiction and non-fiction written by Elizabeth Gilbert. I don’t know why it took me so long to finally read (listen to) City of Girls – it is glorious, and I loved every minute of it. It also made me wish – not for the first time in the last year – that I was skilled in making clothes. It was an easy five-star rating from me.

Those two books were the only fiction I read. Tweak was the other side of the story of Beautiful Boy. Where the latter was told from the father’s perspective, Tweak was a painfully honest acount of Nic Sheff during the same time. I gave it and The Awesome Girl’s Guide each four stars.

I’m on the fifth (audio)book of the month and I should probably finish my lovely book that will undoubtebly get five stars, unless the author cheats on the end; I feel hopeful.