April Reading Round-Up

I pride myself on my willingness to read just about anything across any genre. This typically means I read about 60% fiction and 40% nonfiction. And while I love a good audiobook, I mostly read physical books.

Mostly.

In April, I spent most of the month editing a work of fiction I've been working on, which meant that my brain couldn't process any fiction, nor could I read a physical book without slipping into editing mode.

All that to say, my reading in April was a little funky (two books about science??)

Happy reading, no matter what your month looked like.

Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green | Nonfiction, 5/5

I binged the audiobook in one day. This book is engaging and fascinating. I first realized that TB was "still a thing" when I moved to France and was required to get a chest X-ray for my visa. Before that experience, it was something that I attributed to the early 1900s.

Books like this one are so important, especially given the US cut to foreign aid. It not only made TB and its influence understandable, but also felt hopeful that someday we might live in a world without TB deaths. Green balances giving readers an inside look at a hospital in Sierra Leone with fun facts of how TB has shaped our world (we can thank it for the Adirondack chair!). I highly recommend this one.

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Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy | Fiction, 5/5

Wow, this book was stunning. More than anything else, this is a book about the love of a parent and child. This will stay with me for a long time. If you've been interested in reading more cli-fy, I think this book is a good place to start.

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Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry | Fiction, 2.5/5

I think this might be my last Emily Henry. I loved Beach Read and TPWMOV, but this felt like a rewrite of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo with a love story that, to me, was hard to believe. The main character felt one-dimensional, and I had a hard time rooting for her. Also, I don't know how many times it was mentioned that Hayden was tall, but it was a lot...

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Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson | Nonfiction, 4/5

I read this book to understand better what is currently going on with US politics. This book is long, but it was a quick read. This book did a good job of balancing all of Musk’s innovations with his dark side.

One of the most ironic takeaways was that Musk and his brother worked in the US illegally. After his brother was denied entry to the US, he found a way to cross the border anyway…

Really good on audio.

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Deep Cuts, Holly Brickley | Fiction, 3/5

I love music-adjacent books and was really intrigued by this one’s plot. However, I found the main character to be too self-involved, and the love story not to have enough detail to be believable. Great for some late 90s, early 2000s nostalgia!

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Theft By Finding, David Sedaris | Memoir, 4/5

If you like David Sedaris, you will like this book. It is everything I hoped it would be. Great on audio.

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On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters, Bonnie Tsui | Nonfiction, 4/5

I really loved the way this book wove together science and memoir. I found the vignettes in each chapter to be fascinating and caused me to do multiple deep dives (my favorite part of reading non-fiction!)

Thank you to Libro.fm for my copy.

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Daughter of Mine, Megan Miranda | Thriller, 3.5/5

I think this was a case of it’s not you, it’s me. I don’t think I had the headspace for this book. There were many minor characters and subplots that I had trouble keeping track of. I really enjoyed the writing and will read other books by Miranda.

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Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves, Alison Brooks Wood | Nonfiction, 4/5

This book did a great job of synthesizing what makes a good conversation and how to be a better conversationalist. I loved the way Brooks wove research in with real life situations.

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The Theory of Everything Else, Dan Schreiber | Nonfiction, 5/5

If you’ve ever found yourself on a Wikipedia deep dive on some random bit of trivia, this book is for you. It’s a great lighthearted listen. I knew of Schreiber from his podcast No Such Thing As a Fish. If you’re a fan of one, you’ll love the other.