April Reading Wrap-Up
Hello and welcome to my reading wrap-up for the month of April!
Boy, April was the longest month on record, wasn’t it? Or was that just me? I had a lot going on in my personal life, plus a very stressful federal election here in Canada… it was rough. Thank goodness reading exists! This was my first month with NetGalley, which has been AMAZING so far. I completed and reviewed 4 NetGalley eARCs in April, and I’m hoping to make that my monthly average moving forward.
Anyway, let’s get right to it! These are the 12 books I read in April 2025, ranked from worst to best (in my personal opinion). (All titles are clickable links to each book’s Goodreads page.)
Least Favourites
⭐
A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman
I found this on ebook through my library and thought it sounded interesting: Did Lana Turner murder her boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, and get away with it? The realistic answer is a resounding “Um… maybe?” and yet this book makes it sound like “Yes!” is a well-known fact. Lana Turner’s every thought, action, and utterance are delivered to us with such detail that I thought she’d confessed all of this in her autobiography. She didn’t. Neither did her daughter, who historically did kill Stompanato as a justifiable homicide. Everything in this book is conjecture.
Even if every word of this were true, I can’t say this was a good read. The writing is bland, and too much time is given to the life story of someone who ends up being a background player. I wish I’d just read an article about it or something.
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
I wasn’t able to rate this one, because I don’t think it’s a book that you’re meant to “enjoy,” per se. It’s a story of human weakness and the dark places people can fall into, especially when you find yourself in an unfamiliar culture where the people treat you like an oddity. It’s beautifully written and seems to have important things to say, but I just couldn’t get into it. The main problem for me was the author’s depiction of women. Pardon my bluntness, but we’re more than just thighs waiting to spread, you know?
A Whole Lot of 4-Star Reads
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This one is sweet and kind of cozy. I think I’m one of the last people in the world to read this, but in case you’re even slower than me, it’s about a coffee shop where one seat allows you to travel through time to talk to someone for as long as your coffee stays warm. But it’s also more than that. I really liked the regulars at the coffee shop and their ongoing stories happening around each time travel story. If you try not to care too much about making sense of the time travel rules, and if you try not to mind the emotional manipulation of the storylines, and if you try to ignore the obvious things the characters somehow miss… this is a sweet, wholesome book that’ll make you think about the things you’ve put off saying today that you might not be able to say tomorrow.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk by Faiz Siddiqui
I reviewed this one here, since this was one of my NetGalley eARCs. It’s a really important and timely deep-dive into the past 7 years of Musk’s roller coaster of a career. I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve been wondering if there’s a method to all the madness.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis
I’ve always loved Mariah Carey. Even when she was going through a mental health crisis, and the press were having a great time making fun of her, I just felt bad for her and hoped she’d pull through it. Well, she did, and now she has told the whole story from her own perspective. I really enjoyed this memoir, especially learning about everything she had to overcome as a child and as a struggling young artist. At times, there was some bitterness or even pettiness in her comments, but I took some of her stories with a grain of salt, knowing the other parties have their own POVs to tell as well. But for the most part, this was inspiring and enlightening. I love so many of her songs even more now, knowing what she was really writing about.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a new release that I reviewed here. It’s one of the hardest books to describe that I’ve ever read! The unique writing style really isn’t for everyone, but if you like a mind-bending, introspective, plot-free character study, be sure to check this one out. I found it weirdly enjoyable and thought-provoking.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was another NetGalley eARC, which I reviewed here. It’s an exquisitely-written debut novel that explores the question, “Can a name change the course of a life?”
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Another new release, which I reviewed here. I love The Hunger Games franchise, books and movies, and this prequel is no exception. While at times it feels like fan service, it stands up to the quality of the original trilogy and gives us lots of information about one of the series’ most beloved characters, Haymitch Abernathy.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was my first NetGalley eARC, which I reviewed here. I absolutely LOVED this collection. Each of these stories is unsettling on some level and truly did give me the shivers! I already know and love Joe Hill, SGJ, and Grady Hendrix, but I’d never read Catriona Ward or Owen King before, and I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed them and want to seek out more of their work.
April’s 5-Star Reads
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Stories, My Times by Jean Chrétien
In 2017, Jean Chrétien (former Prime Minister of Canada) decided to write down some of the stories he tells his kids and grandkids about his life, and it’s every bit as funny and charming as you’d expect from this world-class storyteller. I also appreciated his gentle warnings to Canadians not to become complacent in our Canadianness and believe that we can’t become as divided as the U.S. under Trump. Boy was he right.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura Spinney
You have no idea how excited I was when NetGalley granted me early access to this book. If you’re reading this blog, you can see how much I love studying languages! This is a fascinating, engaging look at Proto-Indo-European, the mother-language that spawned almost half the languages spoken in the world today. I absolutely loved every second of it. You can read my full review here.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery
This was a re-read for me, but nostalgically my favourite read of the month. Unpopular opinion: Pat Gardiner was my favourite L.M. Montgomery heroine for a looooong time. I relate to her and her intense fear of change so much, and I was madly in love with Jingle as a kid. Also, I’ve never really had roots or lived in a house that felt like my forever-home, but I’ve always desperately wanted to, so Pat’s deep love of Silver Bush always did bittersweet things to my soul. And Judy Plum! She’s one of my favourite fictional characters ever, I love her. So I’ve never understood why Anne and Emily are the super-popular Montgomery heroines and nobody ever talks about Pat.
This was my first time re-reading this book as an adult, and I can kind of see the flaws now – even though Pat clings so hard to her family, we never really get to know them or get attached to them ourselves. Pat, Judy, and Jingle are the only fleshed-out characters in the entire book, which is unusual for Montgomery. Maybe that’s why this duology is less popular? Well, that and Judy’s dialect.
For me, though, it’s just the way the story I love has always been told, so it didn’t bother me. Pat’s family is so big and busy, it would have overshadowed Pat’s rather simple story if each family member came to life on the page. Because that’s kind of the point, imo – Pat’s whole world revolves around Silver Bush, and she barely notices that her brothers and sisters are getting lives of their own. She can’t see that they’re independent people who are growing and changing and moving on, so neither can we, until the moment that some huge life change is announced. That was always how I felt as a kid, too.
I think Pat is Montgomery’s most unique heroine with the most (for me) heartbreakingly relatable story, and I love her dearly. I guess she could be annoying to anyone who loves change and can’t imagine being afraid of it. But Montgomery created Pat just for people like me.
Final Thoughts
And those are the 12 books I read in April 2025. As you can see, I was in a nonfiction mood for most of the month! I’ll be back on Monday to post my May TBR, so until then, happy reading!
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