April Reading Update

 It's that time again. I need to find a way to get back to my reviews, but I've been struggling because there are so many to do, and I'm not happy with my rating system. Does anyone have any special ways of rating their books that they'd like to share? I feel like I'm not being precise enough when I rate them, because I tend to have three reactions: "This is the best book ever," "This is the worst book ever" and "Meh." So I tend to rate between three to five stars in 95% of all my books. I rarely rate any below three, though that's partially due to the fact that if I've DNF'd it, I don't rate it. And those tend to be the ones that are 1 or 2 stars at best. So I'd love to hear how others decide what to rate their books, when they rate them.

My numbers went up once again. I'm sure at some point, they will start to waver, but I read a lot of shorts this month, so that helped with the total. In March, I read a total of thirty four, and in April, I read thirty seven. I also finished eight series, so I got to start several new series, as well as a few companion or continuation series. Which meant I finally got to Shadow and Bone before the series appeared on Netflix last weekend. If you haven't read, I highly recommend. And if you have, but haven't read the books, I highly recommend those, too. I also got to read the two books in the Simon Snow series that are currently out, and I'm looking forward to reading the third as soon as I can get my hands on it.

So of the thirty seven books I finished in April, one was physical, eight were EBooks, and twenty-eight were Audiobooks. Even better, I didn't DNF a single book this month. It's been great enjoying so many books. Five of the books were written by men, while the other thirty-two books were written by women. I think I lean towards female authors because I read majority romance and YA, which are, to a large extent, written by women. I don't think that ratio is likely to change a whole lot. But we shall see. Once again, the mix of characters are almost evenly divided: thirty two male main characters, and twenty-seven female. Again, most books had more than one POV, so that helped. I also read seventeen books with LGBT+ content, and eleven with major non-white characters. I want to up both, though. that's only about a third of the books I read this past month. A few years ago, I did a year where I focused on stories that featured either LGBT+ or POC characters, or were Jewish stories, so I may do that again sometime soon, though I will say the Jewish content was hard to get through. Knowing what my grandfather's relations were subjected to just hurts my heart. The audience ratio for my books in April were one Middle Grade, thirteen Young Adult, eight New Adult, and eighteen Adult stories. New Adult can sometimes be hard for me to define, so some of these books might be interchangeable with either one or the other of their neighboring audience types.

My newest book this month was one from the end of last year: How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black, which came out in November. It was a cute story. If you enjoyed the Folk of the Air series, it's a cute little addition which will give you a bit more insight into Cardan's character. The oldest book I read was actually part of a collected series I've been working my way through: Asterix Omnibus. I read the 4th volume, which starts with Asterix the Legionary, which was first published in 1966. I'm really enjoying these, especially since I haven't gotten to some of the later books, so I'm finally getting to read them. For those who have not read, they are great fun, but beware of Northern European prejudices against many groups, in particular Black people.

Unsurprisingly, my favorite book of the month is Six of Crows. I've been hearing about this book for so many years that I've always been certain I would enjoy it, and given how many people love it over Shadow and Bone, I had a feeling I would feel the same. I will just stop with that and say how much I love Jesper. He's just wonderful. I look forward to picking up the second book and see what they get up to in that. Runners up for the month: Siege and Storm (Really fills in the world well), The Fifth Season (A fabulous post-apocalyptic world populated with nearly all characters of color), and Twilight's Dawn (I can never get enough of Daemon and his brother).

Currently Reading:

• Lords of the Underworld Volume 3 by Gena Showalter (21%)
• Opening Gambit (The Once and Future Queen #1) by Adam P Knave (not sure how far in I am)
• Naamah's Curse (Naamah Trilogy #2) by Jacqueline Carey (35%)
• Necropolis (Whyborne and Griffin #4) by Jordan L Hawk (not sure how far I am)

I also have two more books to listen to next week: Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake, and Day by Elie Weisel. With Day, I'll have finished another series, and I'm nearly at the end of a few others, so I'll get to start at least a few new ones this month. The series I'm most looking forward to trying are The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken, Mirage by Somaiya Daud, and Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. Lots more beyond those three, but at the moment, that's what I'm most looking forward to trying. Have you read any of them? Which of the three do you most recommend? And if you've read all three, what order would you recommend them in?

I'm getting to the point where it's hard to find sequels that have audio books currently at the library, but I do have three I'm waiting for, plus two more that I'm waiting to be released, so here's what I'm currently waiting on:

• The Killing Dance (Anita Blake #6) by Laurell K Hamilton
• The Queen's Weapons (Black Jewels #11) by Anne Bishop
• Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga #4) by Pierce Brown
• The Queen Will Betray You (Kingdoms of Sand and Sky #2) by Sarah Henning (Will be released July 7th)
• Any Way the Wind Blows (Simon Snow #3) by Rainbow Rowell (Will be released July 7th)

Many of my ongoing series don't have audiobooks available from my library, and I read much slower than I used to, so getting ebooks from the library means waiting until I'm ready to read them, or dropping everything to read them. Doesn't mean I won't, just makes them harder to get. I do plan to read a bunch more of the shorts I have in my series, so at least that will probably plump up my numbers again this month. Wish me luck!

I also finally managed to figure out how to get my Kindle set up the way I like it, because I've been struggling with that ever since the latest update, so now my newest search is for an app that might read my ebooks to me. Not sure if that's possible, but we shall see what I can find. 

So what is everyone else reading? Any new favorites this past month? Any you think I should read?