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I'm not fooling -- it's April, and time to let us know what you’re reading this month. Tell us about your reads - all genres welcome here!

Diving into A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, which the group read some time ago and which will lead into one of the Books of the Month for May. Also going to try some nonfiction with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks.

Edited to add that I’m listening to The Cleaners by Ken Liu.

I enter April with non-fiction - reading Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World and listening to Watching the English by Kate Fox.

I'm really looking forward to Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt as the series read: I picked up most of the series in paperback in a charity shop find, and I've been getting them in Audible sales for a while.

Reads from other groups I'm up for are Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow as so many people have recommended it to me, and I may well jump into The God of Small Things which I've had for a while, and by The Future to read along with this group.

I also want to read Machine, the second of Elizabeth Bear's White Space novels, following on from the excellent Ancestral Night.

Kathi, I've loved all of Oliver Sacks' books - you'll enjoy that one!

I've started To Shape a Dragon's Breath, and I have Empire in Black and Gold loaded on my Kindle to read soon. I will probably read The Future at some point, but I'm not sure I'll read it for this month's discussion because I'm not really in a good head space for such a dystopia at the moment.

I'm currently reading The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson and enjoying it very much. It's more historical fiction than sff, with some nice mystery elements.

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

I finished A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, 9/10. I added some comments to the topic thread from several years ago when we read this book as BotM. Looking forward to the next book in the series, with is our fantasy BotM for May—yay!

I also finished listening to The Cleaners by Ken Liu, 8/10. For a short story, this managed to feel fairly complete. Yes, it’s just an episode in the lives of the 3 main characters, but we learn a lot about each of them as they learn about themselves.

Now reading Burr by Gore Vidal and listening to Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone, and still slowly working through The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales.

Reading an anthology of the stories by Hans Christian Andersen. After having been reading mostly modern picture-books and original fairy tales for the last many years, these sure strike me as preachy; kids must have been desperate. Good bits of clever writing, though.

After To Shape a Dragon's Breath (comments posted on the discussion thread), I took a quick break from the genre with Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and plan to pick up Empire in Black and Gold next.

I read a couple by Carrie Vaughn. I do like how she writes, even though I'm not interested in the subject matter (Greek gods and superheroes).

Then I read Andersen's Fairy Tales, which I still haven't written the review for (it's going to be pretty long, as this collection gave me a lot of things to think about).

And now I'm visiting my mother, who is a big fan of Lauran Paine, so I'm reading her copy of Patterson... again, not interested in Westerns, but he is a good writer so I'm enjoying it.

Finished Burr by Gore Vidal, 8.25/10. Certainly a different view of the early history of the US than the one I learned years ago in school. Lengthy, detailed, readable, entertaining, disturbing, and, in some ways, a little too close to current political reality.

Also finished listening to Hazel and Gray by Nic Stone, 6.5/10. I found it hard to connect with the characters (Hazel was far too compliant, which she herself admitted repeatedly; she was lucky that Gray was creative and bold in his thinking), but I will say this was an unusual twist on the Hansel & Gretel fairy tale of my childhood. Definitely not a children’s tale.

So after Sunday's question of the week, I got a desire to reread Fortress on the Sun. It was a quick and fun read and I finished it in one sitting.

In the past 2 weeks, I read:
The Hyde Park Headsman by Anne Perry, 9/10. A thoroughly satisfying mystery.
Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan, 7.5/10, book 1 in the Nanotech Quartet. I feel like this is a book that couldn’t quite decide what kind of story it wanted to tell—a young girl’s coming of age, or a quest to save a city, or a treatise on the nature of consciousness, or a story of conflicting world visions, or a dystopian tale of nanotech run amok, or a love story—and just what is love, or perhaps a perspective on our attitudes toward death� You get the idea—the plot was just being pulled in too many directions, as if the author had all these fantastic ideas and rather than pare them down to a manageable few, she tried to weave them all into a rather unwieldy story that suffered from uneven pacing and tone. Yet the characters were interesting, even as they sometimes metamorphosed into other characters, and the world-building was well done. The reader was fully immersed in Shaker Hill, Dayton, the voyage to Cincinnati, and the Queen City itself, in all its weirdness. Along the way, I learned a lot about bees and, while not a jazz aficionado, I could appreciate the importance of music and dance as a means of emotional expression and communication with others. I plan to continue the series.
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 9.25/10. My comments are in our series discussion folder.

I also listened to:
The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman, 7/10. A bit predictable, but still, a good story. A few plot holes bothered me.
The Prince and the Troll by Rainbow Rowell, 8/10. Short but bittersweet. I would have loved more backstory, but then, that’s almost always true with short stories.
The Princess Game by Soman Chainani, 4.25/10. This is exactly what I dislike about short stories—it’s like reading/listening to one chapter of a book without getting the whole story. Not enough time to distinguish one character from another and make them seem real, to delve into the dynamics at play, or really, bring the story to a satisfying conclusion.

I finished The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman. Historical fiction with a pinch of speculation. Premise invloving Jewish matchmaking, has a dual timeline (early and late 20th century), set in New York. It was well-written, enjoyable, and a quick read.

Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard which was a bit disappointing because not enough of what she saw, more science, and the actionable advice wasn't anything I'm up to doing. Of course, I already practice slow birding, so maybe I'm not the target audience. I advised my mom to consider it.

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper (yes, that Christian Cooper), which is a wonderful read so far. Fits in no genres, would appeal to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. I'm advising my mom to read it, but to skip chapter 6 and the end of 7 where he talks about making superhero comics, as she has no interest in that topic.

I've also discovered the Literacy Reads shelf at my mom's library, particularly books by Gemma Open Door. I loved Barn Cat (even though the cat did not have enough of a role but was rather a metaphor), and I liked American Lion so I checked out a stack of 'em. Very short, impactful reads for the adult who is a reluctant or emergent reader.

I posted my thoughts on Empire in Black and Gold on the spoiler thread - can't wait to go on with the series!

I recently finished listening to Strong Female Character by Fern Brady on audiobook. I'm not generally a big audiobook person, but I make an exception for memoirs that are read by the author (and I really enjoyed her Scottish accent). I'd originally downloaded it because I thought Fern Brady was hilarious on Taskmaster (find it on YouTube if you want a laugh) and I figured her memoir would be funny. It IS funny in parts but I was not expecting how intense it was, as it's a memoir of her growing up undiagnosed autistic in a small town working class Scottish neighborhood. It was excellent.

I was in a re-reading kind of mood so I just picked up Hyperion for the umpteenth time and will probably work my way through the whole quartet before moving on to A Gathering of Shadows, which I just picked up from the library.

I just finished savoring the 'small poems' of Musical Tables: Poems by Billy Collins.

And yes I've finished, and do recommend, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World.

Traitors Gate by Anne Perry, 9/10. Another excellent mystery featuring Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, along with commentary on colonialism & Africa as well as the status of women in Victorian England.

Daughter of Silence by Morris L. West, 6/10. While the legal case and its psychiatric aspects were complex, and the historical background of the case was interesting, the characters were not very likable. They definitely were not only flawed, but pretty wretched humans, with the possible exception of Professor Galuzzi, Ninette Lachaise, and Fra Bonifacio. Like the main character, Peter Landon, I found myself becoming impatient and struggling to care. Still, the book was well-written, with evocative descriptions and sound research unpinning the legal and psychiatric discussions and strategies.

I’m now debating whether to read Mississippi Blues by Kathleen Ann Goonan, book 2 in her Nanotech series, or dive right into A Gathering of Shadows for our group discussion in May.

Started and finished Light Chaser
It was ok. An interesting idea but I feel some of the more interesting parts were too glossed over. It makes it difficult for me to buy in on the premise.

I decided to read Mississippi Blues by Kathleen Ann Goonan. Not very far yet, so I’ll be finishing it in May.

Also started listening to Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune while I walk. Since I only walk 30-40 minutes, 3x a week, this may take a while.