Books I read during the months of March, April, and May 2024

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Is it just me or did spring go by in a whirlwind?

There were a couple family dinners, a beach trip, a bowling day with Mom and my sister and her kids. I paused my early morning walk due to allergies and not sleeping well. There was a double-housesitting weekend in early March and a triple pet-care week in late April. There was a stomach bug and the recovery from that—oof!

We had our first friend book club with two Tennessee friends! Oh—we got a dusting of snow in early April, and we can say it’s officially snowed every year we’ve lived here =D (whew!).

We celebrated Star Wars Day by watching Rogue One. The geese babies at the park are basically all grown up and I’m thankful I got to see it this season but I miss the babies already. There was the co-op’s end-of-year field trip to the Sacramento Zoo and I got to go.

Oh yeah! There was the weekend in May that Ant and I flew to Detroit for our friends’ wedding—we danced the night away, I met a fellow hedgie (Quill and Cup writer) the next morning, and Ant and I visited the Detroit Zoo.

Nephew Ethan turned ONE and his party was perfect. I’ve been spending lots of time with my plants—strawberries are coming in, the lilies from VBS last August are popping up, the Rose of Sharon is budding, and the Rudbeckia is expecting nine blooms! And it’s officially BBQ season in our household =D

It was a full season, but man it felt like it flew by!

As I was gathering the photos for this post’s photo shoot, I always marvel at what I read waaaaay back at the beginning of the season. Starting Spring off with the stand-alone SciFi novel, The Cityborn, feels like so long ago. Time is a weird soup, you guys.

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I read 10 books this season. Here they are in the order I read them:

• The Cityborn by Edward Willett
• The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
• The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy #2) by Michael Connelly
• Postcards from South Dakota by Chuck Cecil
• Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch by Dan O’Brien
• Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston, 2023
• The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill, 2022
• Reclaim Your Author Career: Using the Enneagram to Build Your Strategy, Unlock Deeper Purpose, and Celebrate Your Career by Claire Taylor
• The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power #1) by V.E. Schwab
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King,

Of the 10:

• Completed: 10ish
• Still Reading: N/A
• Did Not Finish (DNF): ehhh kinda 1

Books by the numbers:

• Own: 5
• Library Books: 4
• Borrowed elsewhere: 1
• Books published in 2023/2024: 2 in 2023
• Ant’s Shelves: 0
• Rereads: 0
• eBooks: 1
• Audio: 0

By Readership and Genre:

• Fiction: 7
• Non-fiction: 3
• YA: 2
• MG: 1
• Anthologies: 0
• Contemporary: 3
• Dystopian: 1
• Fantasy: 4
• Memoir/Biography: 1
• Poetry: 0
• Romance: 1
• Thriller: 1ish
• Writing: 1

I loved Fragile Threads of Power, the first in the new Threads of Power series! I also really enjoyed The Ogress and the Orphans, The Cityborn, Buffalo for the Brokenhearted, and Postcards of South Dakota.

I avoid spoilers as best I can, but there may be a few. You’ve been warned 🙂

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6/30 // The Cityborn by Edward Willett

I don’t naturally gravitate toward Science Fiction, but a trusted book friend recommended this novel and I really enjoyed it! The world was easy to understand the main characters were easy to root for. It also has a dystopian feel. I don’t know if that’s common genre combo Science Fiction, but it worked!

I finally gave the book back to our friend a couple days ago and didn’t realize I didn’t have a quote *facepalm* I’ll try to get one at the end of the year and update it here. Also, I’ve linked below directly to the author’s shop through his website; all prices are in Canadian dollars.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author

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7/30 // The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

I’ve loved all of Ashley’s Once Upon a Con YA books. I mean, nerds and conventions and young love!. so I wanted to try her Adult Contemporary Romance books. The Seven Year Slip, which was published in 2023 after this one, is on hold at my library.

I really enjoyed The Dead Romantics. I go into this genre warily because I don’t love spice in my books and so be wary of that if you don’t like reading it either. I loved that Florence, the main character, is a ghost writer for “one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry.” Coming off of a break-up, Florence struggles to write the next book. She lives in New York and her family run a funeral home in the south. Of course, something sends her back home and—not a spoiler, as it’s on the back cover copy—she shares her dad’s ability to see and talk to ghosts.

The story was great. The characters were easy to root for. And the writing is great and pretty too. Oh! It also has chapter titles, which I love as well 🙂

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Once Upon a Con books

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8/30 // The Scarecrow (Jack McEvoy #2) by Michael Connelly

Dedication: N/A

One favorite line: N/A

This wasn’t my favorite Michael Connelly novel. Granted, I’ve only read like five of them. (If I counted correctly on Goodreads.) This is the sequel The Poet and I loved that book, and in a moment in March when I was going through a library spree I put it on hold. It’s a sequel in the sense that newspaper reporter Jack McEvoy finds a case to cover and report on. The story is full of thrilling moments, but I didn’t connect with the characters or the story as much as with The Poet.

I started reading it at a time when I also started watching Season 1 of Bosch on Prime and so two intense thriller storylines made for some interesting dreams the couple weeks they overlapped haha. Season 1 is based off the eighth book in the Harry Bosch Universe. I went ahead and checked out the first book, The Black Echo, but I don’t know if I’d be able to keep the storyline of the first book and the TV series straight in my head, so I might put it off until I’ve watched through the show.

A funny sidenote: the library only had the large print edition of The Scarecrow and so it was just really funny to be reading this huge book.

End of season update: I didn’t read The Black Echo. I’ll finish watch the TV series and then eventually start the Bosch books from the beginning.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Bosch on Prime | Order of Connelly’s Books

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9/30 // Postcards from South Dakota by Chuck Cecil

I loved this book! I picked this up when we visited Badlands National Park on our South Dakota road trip in August 2022. (I’ve been reading it since then too haha.) It’s little pieces of SD’s history and it was so interesting and fun to read. Some historic pictures were interspersed throughout the book as well.

My favorite by far was #200, “Wind Cave Wedding”, where I learned that in 1920 a couple from Auburn, CA (where I live!) was married in Wind Cave.

Some other fun ones:

• #10 “Anthem in South Dakota”
• #34 “Sioux Calendar”
• #39 “Civil War Cannons”
• #64 “RSVP Rapid City”
• #71 “Cowboy Ed Lemmon”
• #96 “Mount Slaughter”

But really there were so many!

I want to buy similar books about the history of Auburn and California, Tennessee, etc. It was really fun to read about the state’s history in a short pieces. The next trip you’re on, I recommend visiting a local bookstore and finding the local authors/local history section—you’ll find some great things!

Buy the Book | Visit South Dakota | Badlands National Park

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10/30 // Buffalo for the Brokenhearted: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch by Dan O’Brien

And a second favorite quote: “They pushed and parried for a full minute and all that time the bigger bull’s frustration seemed to grow. Of course Curly could never win this confrontation, but I was moved by his courage” (237).

And a third one: “‘White-crowned sparrow,’ [Ereney] whispered, and smiled. I smiled, too, because I knew this was the northern plains’ first bird of spring. This chance encounter confirmed what we always know but sometimes forget: that all things will pass, that tomorrow will not be like today. Suddenly spring seemed possible” (211).

I enjoyed this book! I love the state of South Dakota and I’m so thankful we buy so many books there because I get to keep the love I have for it in my reading life. This was about a struggling cattle rancher who turned to bison to help out his financial situation and to start healing the prairie land of South Dakota. Some of the historical accounts sprinkled throughout were a bit slow, but interesting overall and relevant to the story.

I love that the author of the book is also the rancher, that he tells his story, and we get to see the state through his eyes. The beauty of the Black Hills, of the prairie and the bison and birds all in a cohesive ecosystem.

The original herds in this story sparked the idea of Wild Idea Buffalo, linked below.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Wild Idea Buffalo

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11/30 // Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston

I picked this book up at the library when I was picking up a hold and the thing that snagged my attention was the use of the word “druid” in the jacket copy and I instantly had visions of my interpretation of druids from Dungeon and Dragons (LOL). It ended up being a little different than that.

This book is based on Celtic and old Ireland lore. It’s told in alternating POVs between Neve, the female main character and the youngest daughter of the Dagda (ruler of the land), and Ronan, the male main character and druid apprentice-turned-thief. I could tell the magic and the world-building—a lot of thought was put into it, but I struggled with keeping all the factions straight, and that was even with the glossary at the front of the book. Personally, I would’ve preferred Chapter 1 to be labeled as “Prologue” instead.

I still gave it 3 stars on Goodreads because it’s good, but it wasn’t a favorite. If you enjoy Celtic legends, this book may be for you 🙂 This novel was published in 2022, so it’s currently standalone; I have an inkling there might be a sequel but I’m not sure.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author

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12/30 // The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

It is about a small fictional town, Stone-in-the-Glen, that is lovely and flourishing until the library burns down due to potential dragons. A dragon hunter shows up and fights off the dragons and is elected mayor. The town goes from flourishing to rundown and everyone is suspicious of each other. Kindness is lost and it’s up to the orphans to save their town.

I loved this book. Told in second person omniscient and it feels very fairy tale adjacent. The story is for young readers and for grownups.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author

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13/30 // Reclaim Your Author Career: Using the Enneagram to Build Your Strategy, Unlock Deeper Purpose, and Celebrate Your Career by Claire Thomas

This was my first book club with Quill and Cup, and I really enjoyed it!

The author is encouraging her writers to use the Enneagram in all aspects of their writing life—starting with the big topic of Creative Values and distilling down into the smaller topics of author persona, story themes, protagonists. And then she brings it all together by showing you how all those things are connected.

I enjoyed the book overall, but the book club discussions most of all. I am an information hoarder and often I don’t take the time to act on the information I’m taking in—or I don’t give myself the permission to just read a non-fiction for the sake of reading it. It was from the last couple book club discussions that I was reminded that I was still writing draft one (still am) and that the first draft was my permission slip to figure things out, that I don’t have to have all of the above figured out before drafting. I loved that reminder.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Quill and Cup

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14/30 // The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

Yay I finished a book in May! This has been a slow reading month for some reason.

I put this novel on hold through the Libby app way back in December (2023) and it was finally ready! The writing is beautiful and I underlined so many passages regarding setting, character description and action, etc. V.E. Schwab’s writing is magic.

So, this is the next book in the world of four Londons. It’s set seven years after the events of A Conjuring of Light, book three in the Shades of Magic series. All the original characters come back and new ones are introduced. In this story, Kell, Lila, and Alucard are searching for any news regarding The Hand, a REBEL group trying to take down the king.

As mentioned above I started reading this book in the Libby app, but I was getting consistent enough headaches that it made reading on my phone not fun (and I’m pretty sure my library doesn’t have a physical copy yet) (just double checked—nope!). And Ant and I were gearing up for our weekend trip to Detroit mid-May and I didn’t want to bring two copies of Fairy Tale (more on this below!), so I bought the physical copy of Threads at Target the week of our trip.

I’m looking forward to how the story continues!

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Shades of Magic trilogy

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15/30 // Fairy Tale by Stephen King

We read this book for a book club with two friends in Tennessee. It is the most contemporary Stephen King book I’ve ever read—in setting and publishing date. Published in 2022, it takes place in 2013. Charlie is a junior or senior in high school and he befriends the neighborhood recluse, Mr. Bowditch, due to the old man’s old dog Radar barking because Mr. Bowditch fell off a ladder trying to clean his gutters. The story is told from an older Charlie’s perspective, looking back on the events after they’ve happened.

I was intrigued by this book when it came out, but if our friend hadn’t picked it for book club, I don’t think I would’ve read it anytime soon. The jacket copy reveals that Stephen King wrote this book because early during covid he asked himself, “What could you write that would make you happy?” I believe that most if not all of SK’s stories are ones he truly wants to explore, but I love that I know this about this book.

Overall, I thought the book was good. I love the characters of Charlie and Radar. I loved that <spoiler alert> that his dad has a redemption arc (which isn’t typical in the novels I’ve read so far). Also, Radar <spoiler alert> doesn’t turn evil. There are so many nods to fairy tales, and I did enjoy that. However, I felt the ending was too rushed.

Buy the Book | Meet the Author

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What I’m looking forward to reading this next season

Stephen King Summer kicks off in June for its fourth summer hosted by author and podcaster Laura Tremaine! We’re reading Salem’s Lot, selected stories in You Like it Darker (his newest book made up of 12 or so short stories and just released this May), and 11/22/63 (the host’s favorite SK book).

This is my third summer joining and I love it! These books will probably consume most of my summer haha Last year The Stand felt sooooo long, and I felt like I stayed in that world too long, I’m sure I’ll find something quick and/or different to read in the middle of all the SK novels. It’s really fun, though, and it you want join it’s through Patreon. You can find out more info here.

Summer Plans

No road trips this year. I’m lovingly calling it our “heads down summer” since we’re working and choosing adventures close to home. Ant’s birthday is in a couple weeks. We’ll celebrate our 11^th anniversary in July. I’m going to try to get us to the Pacific Ocean again and possibly a new-to-us zoo in the greater vicinity, and we’ve added some local hikes to our exploration list.

Closing questions:

• How was your Spring?
• Favorite book you read?
• What are you looking forward to reading this Summer?

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See what else I’ve read this season?

• Winter 2023
• All the Books! post