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Hi! My name is Danika, and today I have my April wrap up. This month I read 7 books and
4 graphic novels, and almost all of them were on one day, which was the 24 hour readathon.
I made a video showing the books I that I read during the readathon, and what I thought
about them, so I'll try not to talk too much about those ones.
The first book I read in April was When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai. This book came
into the bookstore and Ron bought it for me, because he knows Arsenal Pulp Press is my
favourite publisher, and he thought this would be one I'd be interested in, and then the
next day a hold came in at the library for the same book, because apparently I had requested
it already and I didn't remember it! So, he thought right. I loved this book. It’s got
Chinese mythology and history, and one of the narrators is an almost thousand-year-old
fox. It's so good, I'm actually really surprised that this isn’t considered a classic of
lesbian books, because it's a fantastic story, and it's super ***. Definitely recommend
it.
Then I read The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice, which is a prequel
to the Unwritten series. Unwritten is one of my favourite comics, and it recently finished,
and I haven't read the last couple of volumes, so I'm rereading all the ones that I have
read in order, and then finishing up with the ones that I haven't. I'm really excited
about it. This was the prequel, which I hadn't read before, and it was okay. It was good
as some backstory to the series. I don't think it was as good as the other volumes, but I
still enjoyed and I'm really excited to dive back into the series.
Then I read The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss. Bit of backstory on this one: So Ron works
in the same bookstore that I do. He is the fiction expert. He does tons of recommendations.
He's kind of the recommendations person in the store. Uh, he realized a couple months
into our relationship that I hadn't read any books that he had recommended. I had recommended
him lots of books that he'd read, but it hadn't gone the other way around, which is weird.
So I asked him to recommend a book, and he was kind of nervous about it? Then he recommended
this one. And then he immediately was like no, no, no, never mind, don't read that one,
and I was like, no, no, you recommended me a book, I’ll read it! This is about a character
named Lucifer Box, who is basically Oscar Wilde, but as a spy. I really liked the style
of it, I liked the character and the writing, but what I didn't like was that Ron read this
years ago, before I starting tutoring him in feminism and social justice, and he didn’t
remember that there's some racism in this book, and there's also like a really transphobic...
turn. So. I ended up not enjoying this one that much, unforunately. But I’m sure Ron
will recommend me a book again. Eventually.
Then I reread The Unwritten, Volume 1. Loved it just as much I remembered. I can't wait
to keep going with this one.
And then, during the readathon--I'll just give you little snippets of what I read.
I read Rat Queens volume 1, which was just as good as I was hoping it would be. I’ve
got kind of a D&D craving right now, and it definitely scratched that itch. It has badass
ladies and *** content and it's SO GOOD I love it so much.
And then I read Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, and this is a book told in letters and it's
about a city where letters in the alphabet keep getting outlawed, so they can't use those
letters in their speech but also the writing. It’s a cute premise, but it’s actually
executed really well, and I really liked the political aspect of it.
I read 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which was cute, but it didn't have much of
a narrative to it. It’s just told in letters between a woman and a bookshop and kind of
how she becomes friends with people at this bookshop. And it's cute and she's funny, but,
you know, there wasn't a lot to it.
I finished DogTown by Stefan Bechtel, which is basically just a reality TV show in book
form, and the writing wasn’t amazing, but the stories were really good. It was exactly
what I was looking for.
And I read Silent Heart by Claire McNab, which is a lesbian romance novel from the 90s that
I got for a dollar at the Strand. And I was expecting something kind of fluffy and light
and easy to read during the readathon. It actually ended up being a little bit darker
than what I was expecting. So it was okay, but it wasn't exactly what I was going for.
And finally I read the first iZombie graphic novel, which I thought was not as good as
the TV Show.
And after I finished the readathon, the last book that I read in April was Rat Queens volume
2. Loved it just as much as the first one. These characters are amazing. I love the art.
It's just so great. It's so great!
So those were all the books that I read in April! Let me know if you’ve read any of
these and what you thought of them, and if you have a wrap-up for April, feel free to
link it down below and I’ll definitely check it out. And thank you for watching! Bye!