Travis Baldree – The Book Date

Month in Review

April Reading Round up

May 2, 2024 Kathryn

Total books read this month: 17

Book Ratings

Worst Wingman Ever. Own audio -short story. 4.25 stars.
Legends and Lattes. Library book. 4 .25 stars
The Beautiful Mystery Own print book. 5 stars.
The Underground Library. Library book. 4.25 stars
Just for the Summer. Own audiobook. 5 stars.
Secrets of Riverside. Review book. 3 stars.
The Wanderer. Audiobook. 5 stars. (Reread)
What Happened to Nina? Review book. 3.75 stars
Grown Ups. Own print book. 4 stars.
Love, Just In. Library book. 3.75 stars
The Radio Hour. Review book. 4 stars
The Library of Borrowed Hearts. Review audiobook. 4.25 stars
The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue. Review book. 3 stars.
The Rivertown Vet. Library book. 4.5 stars.
The Grazier’s Son. Library book 4.5 stars
Death at a Scottish Wedding. Own kIndle book. 4 stars.
Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Own print book. 4 stars.

Settings:

USA 6
Canada 1
England 1
Fantasy world 2
Australia 5
Ireland 1
Scotland 1

New to me authors:

8 new to me authors. And probably a first for these month in reviews that I’d read all of these authors again – with different books of course!

Travis Baldree. *
Natalie Murray*
Lucy Gilmore*
Dervla McTiernan*
Marian Keyes *
Jennifer Scoullar*
Cathryn Hein*
Jessica Townsend*

*Authors I’d read again.

Top Books for April

Looking forward to publishing in May

I’ll be listening to these.

2024 Reading Goals check

24 in 24 books that I own. (on a list made in January). No additions this month. Still 12/24

Emilie Richard Reader Challenge. April. Book that makes you laugh. Worst Wingman Ever. Abby Jimenez. And Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez. Well a couple of LOL moments.

Rachael John’s Book Club selection for April. Love, Just In. Natalie Murray

Slow Reading book – 24 minutes at least a day. Grown Ups. Marion Keyes Completed. Now reading a middle grade book. Not a big book, but one way to fit it into my reading. Finished The Trials of Morrigan Crow. Going to read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld next as my slow and steady.

Genre Check

Cozy Fantasy 2
Contemporary Romance 8
Crime/Mystery 3
Historical Fiction 2
Contemporary Fiction 2

Buy 2 – 4 books per month

Books bought in April

Linking up with Nicole from FeedYourFiction Addiction.

#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 8, 2024April 8, 2024 Kathryn

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn here at The Book Date.

Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kidlit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle grade novels, young adult novels or anything in those genres – join them.

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Well it was a reasonable week. We had cool but pleasant weather with one evening of rain. Not much or enough but at least some. My winter wood came on Tuesday and I spent that day putting it away. Usually I do it over about three days but not this time. I was rather stiff the next day. I think I might have to get a bit more but the thought of wheelbarrowing it around the back and stacking is too fresh in my mind at the moment.

We changed our clocks this week, so that will take a little adjusting too as it always does until it feels totally normal again.

What I read last week:

All good reads. I really liked The Beautiful Mystery, it is very tempting to go straight into the next one but there are library and review books waiting so will have to wait a while.

What I am reading now:

book cover

I am listening to…

book cover

And also. The Wanderer by Robyn Carr. A reread but on Audible Plus so I am enjoying that book all over again.

I continue on with my slow and steady read. It’s not gripping but I want to see how it all works out. I can see some of them are going to meet a crisis point.

Grown Ups

Up next:

Secrets of Riverside

Last Week’s Posts

March Reading Round Up

The Happiness Blueprint Ally Zetterburg

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#IMWAYR

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

April 1, 2024April 1, 2024 Kathryn

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Welcome in to another week of sharing what you have been reading.

What I read last week:

I thoroughly enjoyed Quarter to Midnight and Red Dirt Home. The two audiobooks were okay.

I also finished my slow and steady read. I thought it was really good, Pat Conroy can sure tell a story of a dysfunctional family, yet the bonds of love and forgiveness that lie there are amazing.

I had one DNF during the week. It was a review book from NetGalley. In case you’d like to see all the good reviews for this book I have linked the cover to Goodreads.

My review:

I have been forcing myself to read but at 57% I give up. It does have a great premise and some really interesting issues for the two main characters. The trouble is I couldn’t warm to them. I couldn’t feel any emotional pull. The writers’ room – really that’s what goes on? I am a fan of the podcast Happier in Hollywood, those two women do not make the writers’ room sound like this book does. Obviously the author does know how the writers’ room operates because evidently she is successful in her work.I wish her well in whatever writing she undertakes, but I realise I am not her audience, this has no “gotcha” pull for me. It seems to work for many readers here and that’s great, she has found her audience.

I rated it 2.0 stars. I usually do not give a DNF a star rating, but I felt I had read enough to do so.

What do you do with your DNF books in terms of ratings on a site like GR or NG?

What I am reading now:

From the library, one of those titles I picked up on my journey around blogs!

Legends & Lattes

I am listening to…

This is just 1hr 17min. So I will go onto something else while I wait for Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez to publish. I’ve just used my most recent credit to pre – order it!

Worst Wingman Ever

My next Slow and Steady book is Grown Ups, it’s about 600 pages and has been sitting on my shelf for far too long – since it published in 2020. One of those spur of the moment buys!

Grown Ups