Mid-Month Reading Update: The Books Are Blooming 🌸
Plus, a zillion great links from the last month.
Hi, book friends.
I hope your April is going great so far! I’m in NYC for work this week and it’s going to be a busy one, so I’ll keep this intro short. But we’re halfway through the month (already?!?), so here’s a status update on my TBR, plus allllll the links I’ve bookmarked for you over the last month.
What I’ve read so far this month
(Click each title for my full review.)
Sunbringer (Godkiller, #2) by Hannah Kaner 📖🎧 : A solid sequel to Godkiller. Slower pacing, but I enjoyed the character development here.
Funny Story by Emily Henry* 🎧: She’s done it again, my friends. Also, Miles might be my favorite Emily Henry boyfriend yet??
Fed Is Best: The Unintended Harms of the “Breast Is Best” Message and How to Find the Right Approach for You and Your Baby by Christie del Castillo-Hegyi and B. Jody Segrave-Daly* 📖: Full review coming soon, but this is REQUIRED READING for any expecting parent.
A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke* 📖🎧: Full review coming here too, but I liked this beautiful, sweeping adventure a lot, even if the plot was a bit too “and then, and then, and then” for it to fall into the love category for me.
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, #1) by Molly X. Chang* 📖: Okay, so I’m cheating a bit because I’m technically still reading this one, but it has a super strong intro and I can’t wait to see where it goes. It will be published tomorrow!
*gifted to me by the publisher
What’s left on my TBR this month
Real Americans by Rachel Khong (out 4/30)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (out 5/7)
We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons (out 5/14)
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (Booker of the Month — we meet 4/29!)
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (a Hugo finalist)
Ours by Phillip B Williams (it sounds so good)
Links, links, links, links links links, everybody
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (which I seriously loved) crossed 1 million copies sold, and James McBride gave a great interview to the New York Times (gift link).
Speaking of cool author interviews, Kelly Link did one with The New Yorker. A refreshing POV: “I salute and love the fact that fantasy is, in some ways, a frivolous genre.”
The Neverending Story is being re-adapted into two new films, and I’m torn about this! On the one hand, the original film is perfect. On the other, they only adapted half the book!!
The official list of Hugo finalists can be a little hard to dig up, so here it is if you haven’t seen it yet.
Here’s a neat article from Vox about the NYT Connections game, including some behind-the-scenes quotes from the Games editors. (h/t
from Fiction Matters for this one!)ICYMI, we are blessed with not one, but TWO trailers for season 2 of House of the Dragon??? It’s coming back June 16! Now to find time for House of R’s 2.25-hour deep dive into the trailers, lol.
- from Culture Study did a gorgeous interview with Hanna Pylväinen, author of (the equally gorgeous) National Book Award nominee The End of Drum-Time.
The Millions used to do their “great book preview” for the first half of the year (January to June) and the second (July to December), but this year they’ve shifted to a quarterly cadence. Anyway, Q2’s great book preview is here!
Trust me and scroll through this tweet thread of real places on Earth that don’t look real.
And last but DEFINITELY not least, may I introduce you to your new favorite wholesome Instagram account?
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 your thoughts in the comments, too.
Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.
See you on Instagram!
— Deedi (she/her)
Pretty sure you’re going to make an Emily Henry convert out of me.