April was a strange old month. We were locked down for the entire month and I didn’t have much work coming in. As a result, my April wrap up is MAMMOTH. I read 30 books in total, 29 physical and one on audio. I gravitated towards quite slim books this month. With the whole global pandemic raging outside, my attention span suffered somewhat. But it still ended up being my biggest month ever! I even read some *whispers* poetry.
Please note, titles with an asterisk* were gifted by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I’m an affiliate for Blackwell’s, so this post contains affiliate links to their site.
Let’s dive right in to my favourites of the month!
April Wrap Up Highlights
Dark, Salt, Clear* by Lamorna Ash
If you’d told me I’d be including a non-fiction book about the fishing industry in my 2020 favourites list in January, I’d have laughed in your face. Ash’s book is a beautifully written, thoughtful reflection of the industry. She captures the sense of community in the fishing town of Newlyn, without romanticising an industry which is struggling in the face of globalisation. The vivid descriptions of nature were the perfect balm to lockdown life. I highly recommend this to anyone, even if you’re not much of a non-fiction OR fishing fan! Although veggies and vegans beware, the fish don’t fare too well.
Buy Dark, Salt, Clear at Blackwell’s
Miss Iceland* by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (tr. Brian FitzGibbon)
I’ve never read anything set in Iceland before, so this little historical fiction novel was very refreshing! As well as the naturally gorgeous setting, Miss Iceland offered a thought-provoking insight into the tight-knit communities of Iceland. These communities are proud of their heritage yet resistant to change. The story follows Hekla, Ísey and Jón John, three friends who want more than the strict societal roles of Iceland in the 1960s can offer them. The translation is clean and straightforward, propelled along by the varying plights of the three protagonists. Definitely recommend for something a little different!
Buy Miss Iceland at Blackwell’s
Wild Swims* by Dorthe Nors (tr. Misha Hoekstra)
I LOVE a good short story collection, and this one ticked all of my boxes. Quiet, introspective writing. Tightly controlled narratives. Explorations of everyday relationships and activities. A slight hint of darkness pulsing underneath. Perfection! I did prefer the stories in the first half of the book, but there were gems in the second half too. Moreover, I was in awe at how Nors managed to produce such fleshed out characters and narratives in so few pages. Nors is apparently well known for her sparse yet emotional prose in Danish, and Misha Hoekstra has rendered that brilliantly in English.
I only had one five-star in my April wrap up, but I did have an enjoyable month overall! Some other books I’d recommend from my stack include Kim JiYoung, Born 1982*, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line*, The Animals in That Country* and Boy Parts*.
April Reading Stats
Total books read: 30
Physical books: 29
Audiobooks: 1
Total pages read: 6865
I lost some of my audiobook mojo this month. As a result, I only listened to Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi for free via the LibroFM and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. But it was excellent! Check out my review here.
My reading the world challenge got a good boost this month, as I read books from six new-to-me countries:
- Dominican Republic (Made in Saturn* by Rita Indiana)
- Egypt (The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany)
- Denmark (Wild Swims* by Dorthe Nors)
- Iceland (Miss Iceland* by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir)
- Finland (Things that Fall From the Sky* by Selja Ahava)
- Belgium (Real Life* by Adeline Dieudonné)
You can keep up with my reading the world efforts on Instagram by looking under my hashtag #AbReadsAroundTheWorld.
Meanwhile, I made return visits to these countries via my books:
- Australia
- UK
- USA
- Colombia
- Japan
- India
- Ireland
- South Korea
- Sweden
- Syria
- Argentina
- Canada
- Norway
In terms of translations, I read 15 books translated from other languages and 15 originally published in English.
- Japanese (David Karashima)
- Five Spanish (Sydney Hutchinson; Katherine Silver; Annie McDermott & Carolina Orloff; Carolina de Robertis; Gregory Rabassa)
- Two Arabic (Humphrey Davies; Elisabeth Jaquette)
- Korean (Jamie Chang)
- Danish (Misha Hoekstra)
- Icelandic (Brian FitzGibbon)
- Finnish (Fleur & Emily Jeremiah)
- French (Roland Glasser)
- Swedish (Ebba Segerberg)
- Norwegian (Deborah Dawkin)
That’s it for my April wrap up! I post reviews for most books I read on Instagram, on The StoryGraph, and Goodreads.
If you missed my March wrap up, you can check that out here!