what i read in april

Very productive month! I’m trying to get close to the a-book-a-week goal, so I added a couple of shorties but I also read the longer ones at a good pace because they were compelling.

Catch 22 - I enjoyed the writing more than the story. It was difficult distinguishing a few of the characters which I think made me miss some nuance.

The Giver - I didn’t realize this was a YA book. I thought the dystopian set up was interesting but the writing wasn’t great.

Mao II - I son’t really get the title. All 4 of the main characters were exhausting with their diatribes and two of them were so similar in tone, I had to go back to check which of them was speaking. Some good ideas but also some open questions I wish had been resolved.

The Glutton - I had no idea this was inspired by a real person! Very interesting tale but the writer’s use of SAT words was pretentious and distracting because yes, I had to stop and look many of them up; it would’ve been a 4 rather than a 3 but for that. To the author’s credit, my thoughts do frequently come back to the main character.

Good People - This book has been so hyped I had to put it on hold at the library. I didn’t love the narrative technique but overall I guess the writing was good. I was very disappointed in the ending. Writers need to make conscious choices for the stories they create. It’s not my job to determine how it ends, and for the predominant option to be so trite.

Blues for Mr Charlie - The best thing about this was the stage direction; very interesting treatment. Other than that I pretty much hated it. I didn’t like any of the characters and thought the ending was trite. I’m guessing it was a bold expression when it first came out.

Cursed Bunny - Really good. I gave it a 4 on Goodreads because some stories were better than others and I rounded up. I’d definitely read more from this author and I didn’t feel like I wanted the story to go longer like I usually do with short stories.