The months have been going by quickly, but April felt like it went by fastest out of all of them. This was an incredible reading month for me, and I enjoyed a lot of the books I read. The weather is getting warmer here in New York, and I’m having mixed feelings about that, since I truly do love winter.

This year I vowed to focus on my goals and bring up some positive things I experience throughout the year. So here we go:

• I got a lot more followers this month, bringing my total to 352! That means, I’ve gained 35 in the last month.
• Water drinking has become routine at this point, and I’m hitting my goal nearly every day.
• I’m FULLY VACCINATED against COVID!
• Blog posts have continued daily, and scheduling in advance was especially helpful. Rather than just scheduling posts one day in advance, I’ve been scheduling posts multiple days in advance, so that I have the time to plan out thoughtful posts.
• I somehow managed to read 34 books. That is probably a new record for me.
• I read 6 ARCs and got my ratio to 80%, but got approved for one more ARC the next day, bringing my total down to 79%. My State of the ARC accountability post has been helpful with that, and I’m committed to working on my ARCs this month too.
• As far as diversifying my reading: I’m still reading more adult books than YA, and although I read more fantasy this month, I’ve also continued reading a bunch of other genres (which was a goal). Out of the 34 books I read this month, 15 had an LGBTQ+ character, 21 had a BIPOC character, and almost half (16) were written by BIPOC authors. I also read a bunch of Jewish OwnVoices books, which was awesome to see becoming more mainstream.

Here’s my breakdown of monthly/cumulative totals for April:

April Totals

• Books read: 34
• Books DNF’d: 0
• Pages read: 5,749
• Hours listened: 142 hours, 53 minutes, 54 seconds
• Average pages: 302.6
• Average hours listened: 10 hours, 12 minutes, 25 seconds

Cumulative Averages

• Days per book: 2.97
• Pages read per day: 195.13
• Books read per month: 23.33
• DNF’d books per month: 1.25

Genres Read in April:

• Biography/Memoir: 3
• Fantasy: 11
• General Fiction: 6
• Historical Fiction: 1
• Mystery/Suspense: 5
• Romance/Erotica: 6
• Travel/Food: 2

Backlist vs. New Releases

• Backlist books: 20
• 2021 releases: 14

Fiction Vs. Non-Fiction

• Fiction: 29
• Nonfiction: 5

Format Read:

• Print: 10
• Digital: 9
• Audio: 15

Age Range

• Adult: 19
• YA: 15

My favorite books of the month were We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal, Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, and The Bride Test by Helen Hoang.

Here’s what I read in April:

• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis #1)
• Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman (Maus #1)
• Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman (Maus #2)
• The Lost Warriors by Cait Marie (The Nihryst #0.1)
• Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
• The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan (The Roommate #2)
• The Bride Test by Helen Hoang (The Kiss Quotient #2)
• We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal (Sands of Arawiya #2)
• Epic Vegan Quick and Easy: Simple One-Pot and One-Pan Plant-Based Recipes by Dustin Harder (ARC)
• Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo (King of Scars #2)

• Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
• Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann
• The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner (ARC)
• Cool for the Summer by Dahlia Adler (ARC)

• American Panda by Gloria Chao
• You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
• An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
• Namesake by Adrienne Young (Fable #2)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark (Fatma al-Sha’arawi #0.6)
• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (ARC)
• Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (Tiny Pretty Things #1)
• Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien (A Noodle Shop Mystery #1)
• Shiny Broken Pieces by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (Tiny Pretty Things #2)
• Dim Sum of All Fears by Vivien Chien (A Noodle Shop Mystery #2)

• A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi (The Star-Touched Queen #2)
• The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (The Bone Witch #1)
• A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark (Fatma al-Sha’arawi #0.5)
• Catastrophe Queen by Emma Hart

• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• A Vow So Bold and Deadly by Brigid Kemmerer (Cursebreakers #3)

• Heart on a Leash by Alanna Martin (ARC)

• Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella (Shopaholic #1)

• Joyful Delicious Vegan: Life Without Heart Disease by Sherra Aguirre (ARC)

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal (Sands of Arawiya #1) — this was a reread, and my rating didn’t change from the first read through, so I didn’t rate it.

How did your April go?