Oh I’m just loathe to talk about April Books this month. You can probably tell since it is going on the third week of May and I’m just now getting around to it. I usually post about it during the first week of the month because I’m excited to talk books, but man — this was one of my worst reading month thus far. If this were The Bachelor, this would be the Most Dramatic! Rose Ceremony! Ever!

Here’s how it started.

A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
So many people loved this book! It came so highly recommended! I really wanted to love it. And I just…didn’t. It wasn’t for lack of trying, this was actually my third time starting it and checking it out from the library. It is written well, each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character and while they don’t all tell the same story, they are all loosely connected. Typically, this is one of my favorite types of books.

But something for me didn’t connect. I started this book at the beginning of the month and the days just kept ticking by one by one, and I kept leaving this book on my nightstand. Finally it was halfway through the month and I was feeling sad about not being involved with a good book, but still without actual desire to go back to this one. I put it down mid-month, and while I feel bad that I didn’t finish it (Oh how I HATE not finishing a book!) I think it just wasn’t for me. Maybe it’s for you though? Like I said, so many of my trusted reader friends loved it. It’s not you, Jennifer Egan, it’s me.

Then I moved on to a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf forever that I’ve been super excited to read.

The Town That Food Saved: How One Town Found Vitality in Local Food by Ben Hewitt
This book details the journey of Hardwick, Vermont, a small farming community whose economy had fallen on some hard times. It develops a local, sustainable food system that basically turns its economy around.

THIS IS RIGHT UP MY ALLEY…and yet.

I just couldn’t get into it this month and that bummed me out. It was not the author or the story, both were very interesting. Clearly I was just a little bit book moody this month. Instead of ruining this book for myself though, I just hit the pause button, put it back up on the bookshelf, and I will come back to it when I am feeling less like an adolescent with respect to my books. But if we’re keeping score, that’s now two books I HAVEN’T finished in April.

Then it was time to move on to the the book I was required to read this month.

You Have No Idea by Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams with Irene Zutell

I’ll tell you what, I have never been so happy to have been forced to finish a book! At this point in the month I was fanning myself on my Victorian fainting couch and feeling overwhelming devastation over my bad luck with books. Well, okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but come on — you know what it’s like to be on an icky book run. So unsatisfying!

So I finished this one. Excellent. And I told you what I thought about it already, so we won’t beat a dead horse. But I do have to mention this one thing: I am fascinated with the life of ghost writers. Or well, celebrity co-authors, shall we say. How do you think one goes about getting that job?

For the record, I would like to offer up my services to have any of the following celebrities air out their dirty laundry to me, while I craft it into a compelling book with a reader friendly format:

*Shemar Moore
*David Beckham
*Ok, ok George Clooney, I will sit down with you IF I MUST!

Seriously, Irene Zutell — how does one get your job?

Lastly, because this month had been so ALL OVER THE PLACE I had to call in a sure thing. Yeah, I’m going to admit it, fluffy chick lit is my sure thing. So I picked up The Beach House by Jane Green

And you know what? This was just fine. Not earth shattering. Not even particularly fabulous. But I wanted to turn the pages every night, it didn’t give me anxiety when I read it before bed (I’m looking at you: The Snowman) and when I finished it I was happy I read it. Well, mostly because it is a book I can check off The Bookshelf Project, and man do I love to cross things off of a list. In that sense the month wasn’t a total loss now, was it?

Luckily I just picked up a huge batch of awesome (I hope) new books from the library that I have been waiting for. Man, the request queue at the library has just changed my life! And also, I’m currently reading a super awesome book (from my bookshelf, no less!) that I will tell you about next month so thankfully my bad luck is not sticking around for two months in a row.

*******

So because I’m so traumatized from last month, do me a solid and tell me one (or all) of the following:

*Your favorite book(s) if you can narrow it down. And it doesn’t have to be your favorite of all time, or particularly fancy, but just a book that you compare others too.

*A super trashy, guilty pleasure book (or series) that you shamelessly enjoy.

Ready….go!

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