quick lit – next page, please {april 2021}

As I said in my Keeping Me Sane post, April was a very challenging month for me. So, my reading took a dive. I’m not that upset about it; last month I read 17 books and that was way too many, I think.  This month, I read five, which historically, is closer to my norm.

Read

  • Writer & Lovers by Lily King. If I’m remembering correctly, Anne Bogel of Modern Mrs. Darcy said that this book had one of the best endings that she has ever seen. I have to agree.  It had a very very slow start but that ending? It was just what I needed.
  • Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. This was a reread for me in anticipation of my participating live in the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club discussion of the work. The first time I read it was in 2012. This is a classic for a reason! If it was possible, I got more out of this reading than I did the first time I read it. This was a great flight for Writers & Lovers.
  • Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig. I have gushed here about Haig’s forthcoming release The Comfort Book. This was in the similar vein.  I enjoyed it but I LOVED The Comfort Book. Buy it, read it, if you’re feeling the need for a smidgen of comfort.
  • More Myself: A Journey by Alicia Keys. I enjoyed this memoir a lot more than I initially thought I would. And it was a nice unexpected flight pick with my next read.
  • The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton. This book has gotten a lot of press right out of the gate and I can see why. It’s very similar to Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, but with a singer of color and the implications/reverberations of that. As I was reading, I unfairly, was comparing it to Daisy Jones and thus was a smidge disappointed.  The books are not the same. I do own a physical copy and intend to reread at some point now that the comparison game is over.

Currently Reading

I’m linking up with Anne’s Quick Lit post. If you are here because of her, thank you. 

Let me know what you’re reading in the comments below.

enjoy life…

6 thoughts on “quick lit – next page, please {april 2021}”

  1. Lisa notes... says:
    Reply

    I’ll have to add Writer and Lovers to my list if it has a good ending. I recently finished another book that did NOT have a true ending and it made me regret I had started it at all. ha. I’ve decided an ending is very important to me, as well as characters that I can care about. 🙂

    I didn’t know Alicia Keys had a memoir. I really enjoy hearing her interviews (and of course her music) so I’ll watch for the book.

  2. Lis M says:
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    I appreciate seeing so many people saying that comparing Opal + Nev to Daisy Jones is not quite accurate and unfairly sets up the book. I really want to read it, but I think I’m going to wait for the hype and the comparisons to die down and then pick it up with a fresh mental slate for it. I’m super intrigued by the premise and how much people seem to enjoy it.

    Also, I think the Writers + Lovers flight pairing with Bird by Bird is my favorite yet – they went so well together!

    Here’s my quick lit for the month (and my family’s reads are in there too) with a wide range of genres – https://www.everyoneslibrarian.com/blog/quick-lit-may-2021

  3. Susan in TX says:
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    I felt similarly about Opal & Nev – the publisher is doing it a disservice, in my opinion, comparing it to Daisy Jones – it’s setting up reader expectations for something completely different. O&N is touching on much deeper subject matter. I think I would’ve appreciated it more if I had either gone in with zero expectations or been given a different book title than DJ to compare it with. I still enjoyed it, but can’t help but think it got cheated in my brain a little as I shifted expectations along the way.

what do you think?