Mid-Month Reading Update: Surviving, Not Thriving
Plus, all the good links from around the web that I collected for you this month
Hi, friends.
Between an intense couple of weeks at work, another double ear infection for the baby, and now a dry cough of my own that will probably send me to the doctor later today, I’m this guy:
But — we persist! And many good things have happened recently, too. I ran a 5K at my local zoo, my first postpartum race. I’ve had some deeply wonderful extended family time. Some days, it’s warm outside. The baby started crawling and waving and clapping, which is so stinkin’ cute. And we’re headed to the beach in a week and a half.
Speaking of which: Independent Bookstore Day is a week from Saturday, on April 26! We will be doing the second leg of a long drive that day, but I’m planning to map out a couple of stops along our route so I can still celebrate. Do you have any fun IBD plans? Let me know in the comments.
Okay, on to the books!
What I’ve read so far this month
Only two books, alas. But one of them was the new Emily Henry, so how can I complain?
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry† 🎧: This is Book Lovers meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and it’s as good as it sounds.
Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives by Sami Sage and Emily Amick 📖🎧: More to come in my Conversation Pushers coverage of this one, but for now I’ll just say it was quick, it was accessbile, and it gives readers helpful tools.
Currently reading
Playground by Richard Powers 📖🎧
Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, #2) by Robin Hobb 📖🎧 — finally!
Still on my April TBR
The way this month is shaping up, I’m going to focus on the “definites” for now, but I’m still eyeing some of those looser possibilities from my April TBR, too.
The Mask Falling (The Bone Season, #4) by Samantha Shannon
The Antidote by Karen Russell*†
Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake*†
*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher
Those sweet, sweet links
Prize list season is in full swing!
The Women’s Prize announced the Fiction and Nonfiction shortlists.
The International Booker Prize (for translated books) announced its shortlist, too.
And a third shortlist: the Carol Shields Prize, which recognizes women and nonbinary authors in the US and Canada.
And my personal favorite this time of year: the Hugo Awards finalists. Bring on the SFF!
The Millions has published their Great Spring 2025 Book Preview. I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet, but you can expect my Bookshop list of anticipated releases to get a bit bigger very soon.
“Inside a Book Tour Turned Road Trip With Best Friends and Best-Selling Authors Tommy Orange and Kaveh Akbar” from Vanity Fair. I just love them.
“A First Look at the Joan Didion Archives” from Vulture 👀👀👀
I still don’t think we need a remake of this movie, but I’m definitely here for the God is
a womanMeryl Streep energy.I obviously felt seen by this one: “Welcome to the Preschool Plague Years” from The New Yorker.
I was on the Books with Betsy podcast and it was a super fun time! We talked about TBR snowballs and Ducks, Newburyport and a lot of other shenanigans.
Libro.fm is having a big sale in celebration of the upcoming Indie Bookstore Day! Plus you can get three audiobooks for the price of one when you sign up with code BOOKSTOREDAY.
As a NYT Games superfan, this made me lol
Recent hits
Last but not least, friendly reminder for my Booker of the Month folks that we are meeting early this month — this coming Monday! Register here if you haven’t yet, and I can’t wait to talk about Playground by Richard Powers with you.
As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear how your April reading is going in the comments, too.
Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.
Until next time!
— Deedi (she/her)
IBD is on my birthday this year so I'll be starting my day at my favorite indie before it gets too crowded. Then an afternoon of reading, hopefully outside but who knows what the St Louis weather will be. I may do some online Indie shopping at stores I like to support but are too far for me to visit.