Books Read in April

April was a sort of transitory reading month for me. I only finished four books, but I had a few others started but set aside (I don't normally do that). I spent most of the month reading in preparation for Booktopia 2017, which I just attended this past weekend (recap to come!). Here are the books I finished in April:

• Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (MN, CA, GA, MD. HI), memoir
• Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato (NJ), adult novel
• Celine by Peter Heller (NY, WY), adult novel on audio

• The Leavers by Lisa Ko (China, NY), adult novel

The first book was read for my neighborhood book group, and the next three were all read for Booktopia. Because of my Booktopia focus, they were all adult fiction, plus the memoir at the start of the month, so no YA or middle-grade last month for me. And I only finished one audio last month because my husband and I started one on our trip but didn't finish it. All four of these books were outstanding, and I would highly recommend them all to just about anyone (check out my reviews at the links). If you were to force me to choose a favorite, it would probably be Edgar and Lucy, though it's a very close contest. I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting the authors of the last three at Booktopia. Victor Lodato has a background in theater, and hearing him read from Edgar and Lucy was absolutely amazing - we could have listened to him read to us all day!

Progress on 2017 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges! I did not read a single book from my own shelves for the second month in a row for my Read Your Own Damn Books Challenge! I plan to rectify that now that Booktopia is over. For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, April was Award Winner month and The Leavers by Lisa Ko won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver (no wonder I loved it so much!).  Another month without a single classic for the 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge - I have to do better on that one! I slotted all 4 books into categories for my Well-Rounded Challenge, but that is getting tougher as the categories fill up. For my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge, I added China. For my 2017 Literary Escapes Challenge, I added Hawaii and Wyoming.

Finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! Here is my Bingo card for April, with 15 squares filled in, which is pretty good for only four books!

Books fit in the following squares:

Lab Girl - Made you laugh, Introvert
Edgar & Lucy - Stormy weather, library book, dreams
Celine - One word title, phone/phone call, orphan, audio book, conspiracy, mystery
The Leavers - Free book, embarrassment, new release (2017)

Free space

What was your favorite book read in April?