April Booklist

 

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr (fiction/audio)

I wasn't super invested, but enjoyed it overall.

Would read it myself next time - not a great narration.

One of the endings was very well done, though, & stuck with me.

"Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, 

waiting to be rediscovered." (Rex)

"Each of these books child, is a door.

A gateway to another place & time." (Mrs Flowers)

The Beatryce Prophecy, Kate DiCamillo (youth lit)

DiCamillo has a bit of a quirky writing style & is queen of contrasting light & dark.

Felt obligated to read her latest work but quite enjoyed it. A fun, shorter read.

"what kind of bird sang such a complicated, 

heartbroken & beautiful song?"

"he watched the letters appear one by one beneath her hand, & he felt

as if each letter were a door pushed open inside of him,

a door that led to a lighted room."

the God of the Garden, Andrew Peterson (memoir)

This book wasn't what I was expecting, tho I didn't realize it was a memoir.

Felt a bit scattered, but food for thought. Made me want to travel more.

"In the overlay of time & particularity, we can walk among words 

as surely as we walk among the ancient groves."

"Time itself will be redeemed, no longer an adversary, 

but a friend, an everlasting Sabbath, an unending feast."

"Love conquers slowly, like seedlings pushing through mud."

A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ni Ghriofa (memoir/audio)

I wish I enjoyed this book more than I did, though it was a beautiful narration.

Part memoir / part biography / part poem. I enjoyed the memoir bits the most.

Des, maybe you'd like this one?

"months passed, the way months will - in a spin of grocery lists, 

vomiting bugs, easter eggs, hoovering & electricity bills."

"the milk, the mother, the baby, the dark."

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen (fiction/audio by Rosamund Pike)

It was my goal to read a Jane Austen this year as I never have.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! Find myself more interested 

in the time period at large - P&P was written in 1813!

A couple insufferable characters... what I found most amusing was that 

Jemaine Clement was the person who popped into my mind for Mr Darcy.

"We are all liable to error." (Mr Collins)

Jemaine Clements (aka my Mr Darcy)

Reading some Vanderbeeker books with Edie

Roald Dahl has been fun on audio for the boys - 

reading James & the Giant Peach with James.