April Reading

April’s reading ended up being pretty fruitful. Truth be told, it didn’t feel like a reading heavy month but I still ended up finishing eight books.

The Wife Upstairs, by Rachel Hawkins

Suspense novel written on the chassis of Jane Eyre. I actually really enjoyed how Hawkins reworked Jane and Rochester’s respective characters for this modern version of the tale. The story has turns, most of which are well-handled as to not be predictable but to also be consistent with the characters as they are written. I had mixed feelings about the ending, but it was earned (that is, the ending was not a cop-out or inconsistent with the characters’ natures) so it worked. It was a pretty quick read, but note that the language is rough (i.e., lots of cursing), so don’t expect it to read like Bronte.

This Time Next Year, by Sophie Cousins

This story focuses on a protagonist named Minnie Cooper (yes, like the car) whose bad luck started when she was born minutes too late to be the first child of the New Year, which would have won her family money that, for them, would have been life-changing. Minnie ends up meeting the “winning” baby–Quinn–on their shared 30th birthday, and it seems he received all the good fortune of the two. The story focuses on the intersections of their lives and the lives of their respective families. I went into this book thinking it was a light romance, but it is more than that. The characterization is great and it was a palette-cleansing read that still had some emotional heft.

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of done, by Jon Acuff

Quick read that is helpful if you’re the kind of person (*raises hand*) who sometimes struggles to finish projects. Not particularly deep, but motivating and it does have good tips for when you’re feeling stuck and what to do about it.

Before She Disappeared, by Lisa Gardner

Suspense novel featuring the protagonist Frankie Elkin, a civilian who specializes in tracking down missing people. Gardner did a great job with Frankie’s character, who was complex but approachable particularly as the reader learns more about her life from before she started hunting for the missing. The plot moved well and the ending made sense. I did feel like some of the romance was a bit forced, but overall it was a good read.

Writers and Lover, by Lily King

Loved this book. Beautifully written and just so many great scenes. As a work of literary fiction, it is character driven (not a page-turner in the traditional sense). It will particularly appeal to people who are writers themselves, as the protagonist is a writer struggling to finish her first novel while grieving the sudden death of her mother, a complicated love life, and a job waitressing at a high-end restaurant. One thing I really enjoyed was the fact that while the book was published in 2020, it is set in 1997 which means that cell phones, email, etc. are not ubiquitous. Answering machines for the win!!

There were tons of great quotes/lovely writing, but here is one that stuck out to me:

“Nearly every guy I’ve dated believed they should already be famous, believed that greatness was their destiny and they were already behind schedule. An early moment of intimacy often involved a confession of this sort: a childhood vision, teacher’s prophesy, a genius IQ. At first, with my boyfriend in college, I believed it too. Later, I thought I was just choosing delusional men. Now I understand it’s how boys are raised to think, how they are lured into adulthood. I’ve met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny.”

Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, by Wendy Wood, Ph.D.

Fairly quick read on habits, how to make/break them, and the general role that they play in our lives. As a nerdy academic, I enjoyed the discussions of the original research on some of these topics, but this was a book that I wished offered a few more concrete tips and/or stories of real-world people putting some of the tactics into practice. For example, the topic of friction is discussed (i.e., the idea that we are less likely to do something the more difficult it is), but providing more examples of common strategies that people use to either increase friction (to break bad habits) or decrease friction (to instill new ones) would have helped. Don’t get me wrong, there are some, but having a few more would have made the book more approachable for the average reader. I kind of feel like this book is at an awkward intersection of popular/academic writing, which is a hard line to navigate.

Story Genius: How To Use Brains Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel, by Lisa Cron

This craft book is one that I’ve seen recommended multiple times on writing forums/Twitter. I’ve heard the author on several writing-related podcasts, so most of the material in the book wasn’t a surprise to me. One thing I really appreciated was how she walked through a real example at each step of the process, allowing you to see how an actual work might use this method to build a novel. My only fear with this, and similar books, is the danger of producing novels that follow a predictable pattern. That being said, I will be using some of the strategies for my next book as I think some of her approaches to scene construction will help to better hold my plot together.

The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett

This book has been highly recommended and rightfully so. It tells the stories of two twins–one who “crosses over” to live her life as a white woman while the other continues living her life as a black woman. It also examines how the twins’ choices impact their respective children and the relationship they ultimately share. I enjoyed the structure of the novel–being able to see pieces from each main character’s life through their own lives. The book deals with difficult, but important, subjects: racial identity, sexual and gender identity, and secrets among family members. Similar to Writers and Lovers, I liked how this novel was not set in the present, a choice that made sense for a variety of reasons. Highly recommended for people who enjoy literary fiction.