I love this time of year (April is my birthday month after all) but it’s such a busy season. I have a work trip this month, Violet starts soccer and Jona starts golf, plus ongoing gymnastics (Violet) and a piano recital (Jona). All are fun things, but finding time to read won’t always be easy. I’m filling my April reading list with a lot of variety, which always helps me stay excited about what I’m reading.
If you’re looking for a wide variety of books too, here are some ideas for this month.
Creating a Tech-Healthy Family: Ten Must-Have Conversations to Help You Worry Less and Connect More With Your Kids by Andrea Davis. This is my personal growth/educational nonfiction pick for April. I heard the author on a podcast I listen to, 3 in 30 Takeaways for Moms, and she talked about strategies for helping your family have a healthy relationship with technology. The older my kids get, the more I realize that I’m going to need some strategies to help me manage their technology use, and I look forward to learning a lot from this book.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. I included this recently released novel in my recent new release round-up post. This is about Byron and Benny, whose mother dies and leaves them a puzzling inheritance: a traditional Caribbean black cake made from a family recipe, and a voice recording. It’s about their relationship and family secrets, memory and history.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I loved The Martian when I read it several years ago, and I’ve heard so many good things about this one. It’s about an astronaut who is the “sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.” He wakes up and has no idea who he is or why he’s there, and tries to figure out how to get back home as his memory slowly comes back. Just about everyone I know who has read this has loved it (except my dad—dad, if I love this one too you’ll just have to try it again!)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I’ve been trying to read more classics and modern classics lately, and Virginia Woolf has been on my list for a long time. This is about a day in one woman’s life as she prepares for a dinner party and reflects on her life. I love stories about ordinary people living ordinary lives, but whose reflections are inevitably about so much more than that.
The Institute by Stephen King. I’ve been on quite a Stephen King kick lately! About Luke, a boy who is kidnapped after his parents are killed, and taken to a place called The Institute. He soon learns that it’s a place for children with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—and that if you don’t follow their rules, punishment is severe. I’m planning to listen to this one on audio, and NOT right before I go to sleep!
Have you read any of these? What are you reading this month?
