I MAY have read some good books this month, I MAY have read some amazing ones…..

 A pretty average month this month. I read 10 books. A total of 3,157 pages. And an average of 102 pages a day. So let’s get into what I read, shall we?

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (386 pages). Elsie Hannaway is a theoretical physicist (think Sheldon from Big Bang Theory) and adjunct professor at several Boston area colleges, hoping to one day become a tenured professor.  But Elsie is also a people pleasing chameleon who supplements her income by being a fake girlfriend. And she’s hoping to get a job at MIT. But the experimental physicist (think Leonard from Big Bang) standing in her way is Jack Smith, the man who made a mockery of theorists with one article. Jack also happens to be the older brother of her favorite fake girlfriend client. Turns out all that hatred she thought was emanating from Jack was actually admiration. Once Elsie learns to be honest, she opens herself up to the idea that theorists and experimentalists can actually get along, maybe better than she ever imagined. Not many rom-coms focus on women in STEM, so I love that about this author. It was a cute, nerdy love story. I finished in 4 days.

Heard it in a Love Song by Tracey Garcia Graves (289 pages). Layla is an elementary school music teacher who once has dreams of being a rock star. She’s also recently divorced. Josh is the father of Sasha, one of Layla’s kindergarteners, and recently separated himself. After Sasha asks Layla if she likes dogs, Layla inadvertently ends up as their dog sitter. But Josh and Layla slowly realize their attraction to each other. I liked the slow pace of their relationship.  Both of them are still trying to figure out who they are (Layla’s marriage was about a decade, Josh got married after high school graduation). The book also contained flashbacks for each of them, so you understood their former relationships. It was pretty good. I finished in 3 days.

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (117 pages). 10 year olds Billy and Alan make a bet. Alan bets Billy $50 that Billy can’t eat 1 worm a day for 15 days. Billy knows he can. And the rules are that he must eat every bit of the worm but can cook it and condiment it any way he wants. As the days pass, Billy worries that he’s bitten off more than he can chew (literally). And Alan plots on how he can keep Billy from winning. I hadn’t read this book since I was a kid. It was fun then and fun now. Kids are crazy!  I finished in 1 day. 

The Husbands by Holly Gramazio (338 pages). Lauren comes home to her flat after a night out with the girls to find her husband, amused with her attempts to quietly come in. The problem?  Lauren doesn’t have a husband. When he goes up into the attic to change a lightbulb, he comes down a completely different man. And this begins Lauren’s discovery of her magic attic. Some husbands stay for a few moments before she sends them back up into the attic. Others stay for a week until she decides they aren’t the right fit. But when do you know you’ve found the right one?  I finished in 2 days.

The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (380 pages). Stan and Charmaine are just a young couple, trying to make it in a world that is in the midst of economic collapse. When they hear about the Positron Project in the city of Consilience, they decide to sign up.  In Consilience, they’ll have jobs and a house and security. Every other month. Those alternating months?  They’ll be living in Positron Prison and the inmates will take over their lives. At first, everything seems perfect. But things are never as they appear. And bad things are happening in Positron. Very bad (and crazy) things. I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this one (Atwood is the queen of social commentary), but I wasn’t expecting what I read. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t love it like some of the other books of hers I’ve read. I finished in 3 days.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (444 pages). Starr Carter is 16 years old and divides her time between two worlds- her predominantly white private school where she’s cool just because she’s black and her poor black neighborhood where she doesn’t really fit in anymore because she goes to a white school. One night, she leaves a party with a friend from the Heights. And they get stopped by a cop. What happens next changes Starr’s life and the lives of her entire community. I saw the movie adaption years ago and found it very powerful. The book is even more so. It’s a very heavy book, so I wanted to take it slow. And I’m glad I did- it’s one that needs to be processed to be appreciated. I finished in 5 days. 

Endless Summer by Elin Hilderbrand (356 pages). This was a collection of 9 short stories (that were really more continuations of novels). I think I need to read more Hilderbrand novels so I appreciate this one even more. But the ones that were connected to the books I had read were a lot of fun to revisit!  I finished in 2 days.

The Bookseller of Dachau by Shari J Ryan (265 pages). In 1940’s Augsburg, Germany, 17 year old Matilda Ellman enjoys spending time with her best friend (and love of her life), 17 year old Hans Bauer. The problem is that Hans is Jewish. So Matilda does everything in her power to save him, including hiding him in the attic. In 2018 Boston, architect Grace Laurent receives the shock of her life. After her mother spent her entire life trying to track down family, Grace learns that she had inherited a bookshop in Dachau from her maternal grandmother. So Grace did something completely out of character- she immediately flew to Germany to learn the story of her family. And what a story it was!  Y’all know I love some WWII historical fiction!  And this one had me in tears for the entire last quarter of the book it seemed. I finished in 2 days.

Diva by Daisy Goodwin (324 pages). When I was in college, I planned to double major in English and Theater. And one of the classes I took toward my theater major was a current NY seminar. For spring break, we went to New York and saw 6 plays in 4 days. One of those plays was Master Class. I doubt I had ever heard of Maria Callas before then. Maria Callas was the greatest soprano to ever live. She was glamorous and world famous. And when she met Aristotle Onassis, her whole world changed. She left her husband for him. And after 9 years of a relationship, found out that he was leaving her when it was announced that he had married Jackie Kennedy. On his private island. In the chapel he’d been building for Maria. I loved this novel so much. I finished in 4 days.

Blood on their Hands by Mandy Matney (258 pages). I started listening to the Murdaugh Murders Podcast back in 2020. And followed it up through Alex’s conviction. This is the story of how Mandy became the Murdaugh expert. I really enjoyed reading the background of her journalism career and how it took off. She truly is a phenomenal writer. I finished in 4 days.

This month’s favorite is…….a tie. Between The Bookseller and Diva. I can’t choose a favorite and you can’t make me!

April readings bring forth a lot of happiness (sadly no flowers)

 April was a good reading month. 8 books. 3,348 pages total. An average of 112 pages a day. I finished off and started some great series. So let’s get to it!

The Crown by Kiera Cass (282 pages). The fifth book in the Selection series. Only the Elite remain. Eadlyn is down to only five men who she thinks could share her life. Fashionable Hale. Foreign born Henri (with his translator Erik). Companionable Fox. Aloof but committed Ean. And childhood friend Kile. But when a heart attack sidelines her mother (and father to be nursemaid), Eadlyn realizes that she needs to take on the task of ruling in order to bring peace to her family and their country. But which young man will be by her side at the end?  This was a great ending to this series. Following the family from King Clarkson to Queen Eadlyn showed a beautiful progression. I finished in 3 days.

Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass (390 pages).  So this was a companion book to the series. It contained a map of Illea (would have been nice to have at the start of the series, just because I’m a dork like that). And a lot more in depth information about the characters of the series: Queen Amberly, Prince Maxon, Aspen, Marlee, Celeste, Lucy, Kriss, Natalie and Elise. We learned more about the Selection from their points of view. And what some of them did post Selection.  I really liked this. I actually would have loved to have read them during the other novels. But enjoyed it nonetheless.  I finished in 3 days.

The Midwife of Auschwitz by Anna Stuart (348  pages). Ana Kaminski is a midwife in Poland in the 1940’s. As life in her town becomes more overrun with Nazis, Ana and her family fight with the Resistence. Across town in the ghetto, young Ester Pasternak is a newlywed and a nurse. The women had known each other before the war began but found themselves together in Auschwitz. One for being Jewish and one for being a traitor. Together, they helped bring babies into the world. And when the Nazis began taking the “acceptably Aryan” ones to be raised by good German families, they tattooed them with their mothers’ numbers, so that the mothers could find them if they survived the camps.  Y’all- when I tell you I wept, I WEPT. This story was so beautiful. The horrors or WW2 still just appall me. But the stories of survival and love that came from it give me such warmth. This book was based on the life of Stanislawa Leszczynska, a Polish midwife who was sent to Auschwitz for being part of the Resistence. And one who delivered over 3000 babies during her 2 year internment, never losing a mother or a child during childbirth. And yes, she tattooed the babies, in the hopes they could be returned to their birth parents. Honestly, other than her name being changed and Ester being a family friend rather than her biological daughter, most of the characters are real- the SS, the Nazi doctors and kapo, even some of her children’s names. Y’all- reading just a little bit about this woman brought me to tears. She has been nominated for sainthood in the Catholic Church. I sure hope she gets it- she sounds like a literal angel on earth who lived through literal hell. I finished in 4 days.

Haunting Adeline by HD Carlton (538 pages). Adeline Reilly is a 26 year old successful author who just inherited her grandparents’ very gothic home, Parsons Manor. The Manor has a dark history, as her great grandmother Gigi was murdered there in the 1940’s. Her murder was never solved, but Addie suspects that Gigi’s stalker killed her. Meanwhile, Addie has a stalker of her own. Zade Meadows created an underground organization and their sole purpose is to take down human traffickers. Honestly I didn’t like this book.  I don’t mind a “dark romance.”  But this one pushed my limits of what I can handle. Zade seems like a wonderful man in some ways. Who doesn’t love a man who rights atrocities of this world?  But the fact that he stalks Addie and blurs the line of consent while mentally/emotionally abusing her was very disturbing. Very. I’m not sure why this book was so booktok famous. The only part I really liked was Addie solving Gigi’s murder. I finished in 5 days. 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (385 pages).  I read this book about 2 years ago and loved it. But one of my book clubs decided to read it so I did a re-read. Monique Grant is a scrub writer for a magazine in New York. So no one is more shocked than she is when Evelyn Hugo’s people reach out and state that Monique (and Monique only) can have an exclusive. But Evelyn has more than an article in mind- she has handpicked Monique to tell her story. For reasons only Evelyn knows. But Evelyn was one of the biggest movie stars of all time. Monique isn’t going to let this chance pass her by. The book is in 7 parts- one for each of Evelyn’s husbands.  Turns out I loved this book just as much the second time around!  I finished in 2 days.

The Midwife of Berlin by Anna Stuart (444 pages). A sequel of sorts to The Midwife of Auschwitz. It’s 1961 Berlin. The country (and the city) are divided into East and West. The war is over but the world hasn’t fully healed yet. Ester is now a midwife outside of Berlin. Her 17 year old adopted daughter Olivia helps her. Olivia was the first baby that Ester tattooed under her armpit. And that tattoo is what brought Olivia into their family. But then Olivia discovers her own love- throwing the javelin. So she joins Dynamo, an athletic club in East Berlin, for training. Meanwhile, 17 year old Kirsten works in a cafe across town in West Berlin. She and her friends, led by student Dieter, question the socialism that is happening just across the street from them. Kirsten begins to learn some family secrets, including the truth as to how she got a scar under her armpit. But then, the unimaginable happens- a wall is built. A wall that separates the East from the West. And Olivia from Kirsten.  But Olivia isn’t happy under communist rule. And Kirsten isn’t going to let her stay there. So good. Apparently only one character was a real person- Dieter. But the events (the wall, the separation, the communist regime) were all true. Oddly, this is not an era of history that I had much knowledge about. So I found it fascinating. I finished in 4 days. 

Bridesmaid for Hire by Meghan Quinn (444 pages). Maggie Mitchell is an event planner. Brody McFadden works for Hopper Industries. And they have known each other for years- he was her brother’s fraternity brother and best friend. But after a drunken kiss gone bad, Maggie just can’t stand him. When they both end up at a resort in Bora Bora (her for vacation and him for his boss’s daughter’s wedding), they realize they can help each other. Meeting the Hoppers could help Maggie’s business. Having Maggie on his arm could help Brody make in-waves with the Hoppers. And when the maid of honor can’t make it, Maggie steps in as a last minute bridesmaid. Spending all this time together makes it hard for Maggie and Brody to deny their chemistry. But Brody’s boss is a shrewd man who has figured out that Brody is there to try to get ahead at Hopper Industries and Maggie is there to get a leg up with her own business. And Mr Hopper is not a man who likes to be played. So one drunken night turns everything upside down for Brody and Maggie. Alas- the path of love never is easy in a rom com!  This one was super cute. And I love that Meghan Quinn interweaves characters from other series into each new series (the Cane brothers from an earlier series I read). I finished in 4 days.

The Way I Hate Him by Meghan Quinn (517 pages). Hattie Rowley is a little bit worried. She’s still lost after her beloved oldest sister’s death, she’s failed out of graduate school and she just got dumped by her jerk of a boyfriend, who had been rock star Hayes Farrow’s assistant. Until he got fired for stealing from Hayes. Which Hattie knew about because she’d helped steal Hayes’ Grammy. But when Hattie and Hayes both end up back in their small hometown of Almond Bay, a deep seated family rivalry sets sparks flying. But Hayes has real issues with abandonment. And when his past shows up, his fears cause him to push Hattie away. Can love overcome everything?  This is a rom-com, of course it can!  Hattie is Maggie’s best friend and this story takes place before the prior book. I finished in 5 days.

This month’s favorite is…….The Midwife of Auschwitz