My Reading in April 2024

2024-05-01

Fiction & Prose

  • Dune by Frank Herbert: I admittedly had a hard time reading this one. The world-building was excellent. The history, the lore, the planet… Amazing. The characters, less so. But it was interesting enough for me to not drop it.
  • Ghosts Still Linger by Kat Cameron: A collection of poems. Most of them were alright. I am not a poem expert so it is hard for me to judge the quality. My favourite poems were the ones where the author wrote poems about mundane historical figures.
  • The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: A re-read. Kind of. I listened to an audiobook version first. This time I read the actual words with my eyes. An easy and fun read.

Non-Fiction

  • I’d Rather be Reading by Anne Bogel: A collection of essays about reading. Fun. Relatable. Although I don’t think I’m as quite book-ish as Bogel.
  • Quarterlife by Satya Doyle Byock: Guess who’s going through their quarterlife crisis? Me! This was an interesting book. More concerned about validating and narrating the journey of the quarterlife crisis. Not a lot of actionable steps. But I was glued from front to back.
  • Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison: Very American/Eurocentric. As a non-American, I wonder how I can apply similar criticisms to literature from other cultures. I have no doubt that they can be applied, just how is my question. To be honest, I love Morrison but her non-fiction is no easy read for me. Maybe I just suck at reading more academic literature. But I think I managed to parse things out in the end.

Graphic Novels

  • Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle: I LOVED this book. I think this was my favourite graphic novel of the month. The art was really cool. The characters intriguing. The plot is so interesting.
  • Lilies, Voice, Wear Wind (Volume 1-4) by Renmei: This was recommended by Yukari. I really loved it. It was beautiful and touching and… Reassuring. My favourite manga of the month.
  • Talk to My Back by Yamada Murasaki: A beautiful manga. It kinda reinforced some of my hangs up on marriage and child bearing but I think this was ultimately (hopefully) a product of its time. I really liked how my edition had a long essay on Murasaki’s life and art.
  • Pass Me By #2: Electric Vice by Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen: This is the second instalment in the “Pass Me By” series. This was mostly all flashback but I think it was integral to building up Ed’s backstory. It finished off on a cliffhanger and left me wanting to know how the past leads to Ed’s current circumstances, especially considering his queer past.
  • Dear Sophie, Love Sophie by Sophie Lucido Johnson: I tooted about this but I was constantly annoyed by how self-congratulatory this came off. Which is the point!! The point of the book is to console, reassure, and validate Sophie’s past self. But I was just so tired of it maybe two thirds of the way through. Still, a very wholesome and feel good book.
  • Archival Quality by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz: As an aspiring information scientist, I felt obligated to read this. The plot left some things to be desired but the art was cute, even if it’s not really up my alley.
  • How to Be Alone by Tanya Davis and Andrea Dorfman: Quick and easy read. In my opinion, not too much was added by making this an illustrated poem.
  • Pizzeria Kamikaze by Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka: A really interesting premise but they don’t go far enough with it. And the conclusion is far from satisfying but what else would you expect from this cast of characters?
  • Through the Woods by Emily Carroll: Really cool horror stories. I love Carroll’s art style, it fits the tone of the stories. To be honest, though, I’m not a big horror person and some stories stood out more than others.
  • A Girl Called Echo #1: Pemmican Wars by Katherena Vermette: A slim volume. Very cool story line. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in love with the art.
  • The New York Four by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly: This book is soooo 2000’s. The Blackberry! The skater t-shirts! Like a time capsule.
  • My Only Child by Wang Ning, Xu Ziran, and Qin Chang: I wasn’t ready for how devastating this would be. It’s not something one thinks about often: what happens to parents who lose their only child back in one-child-policy China.
  • Good Talk by Mira Jacob: This was a bit of a slog to get through, even if I found Jacob’s stories interesting and relevant. I think it was the layout of the panels (literally just the characters talking to each other except their faces are facing front the entire time). But she really did touch on a lot of topics I think about often: raising half-POC kids in a racist world (let’s admit it, if I do have kids, they will be half. Not necessarily half-POC and half-white but just half-Filipino and half-something-else), dealing with in-laws of different cultural and religious backgrounds, dealing with your own bigotry, etc., etc.
  • Goodbye, My Rose Garden (Volume 1-3) by Dr. Pepperco: A cute girls love manga about characters who are into literature! But the plot and cliches made it ultimately fall flat for me.
  • Slumbering Beauty (Volume 1) by Yuumi Unita: This was not what I thought this would be. I expected a literal princess. But it’s about a regular high school girl. Kind of a bummer.
  • Satoko and Nada (Volume 3) by Yupechika: It all feels like the same old same old but I enjoy their little adventures.

What I’m Still Reading

  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky: I have one more week to go and then I will be done with this book!
  • The Socratic Method by Ward Farnsworth: I put this on hold as I continue to read other books.
  • Planetary Aspects: An Astrological Guide to Managing your T-Square by Tracy Marks: Slowly reading through this one. A lot of good information here, especially since my T-square involves such integral planets (including my chart ruler) in my chart.
  • Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library by Amanda Oliver: Admittedly, I paused this book a little bit because it was a lot. I felt kinda hopeless reading it. I have written a few papers about librarian burnout but they pulled from very academic sources. Nothing as personal as this.
  • My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottesa Moshfegh: I am devouring this book. I’m reading this as a Misery May read and yup. Pretty miserable so far.
  • The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: This is a re-read. I do love Lily Bart. I keep meaning to read more Wharton but I guess a re-read will do.
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Another Misery May read. This is more of a fun read than I initially thought it would be. I’m also speeding through this one quite fast. I don’t really know where things are going (although there are hints here and there). In my reading journal I literally wrote, “I’m just here for the ride.”