April Wrap Up & May TBR

I have been so pleased with this month, and was really looking forward to sharing all the exciting things I’ve done – there’s been lots of interesting content up on my blog, there have been loads of great ones in the community, and I’ve done so much reading! So, without further ado, on to the wrap up.

This month, I have read:

1. Margot & Me by Juno Dawson -> read my review!
2. Girl Hearts Girl by Lucy Sutcliffe -> read my review!
3. No Virgin by Anne Cassidy
4. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
5. The Pale Dreamer by Samantha Shannon
6. Quiet by Susan Cain
7. With Malice by Eileen Cook
8. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
9. The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder
10. We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan
11. All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher
12. Free Lunch: Easily Digestible Economics by David Smith
13. 100 Prized Poems: Twenty-Five Years of the Forward Books edited by William Sieghart
14. Atonement by Ian McEwan
15. Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf
16. Chase by Linwood Barclay
17. George by Alex Gino
18. Troublemakers by Catherine Barter
19. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
20. Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher
21. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
22. Mad Girl by Bryony Gordon
23. Healthy is the New Skinny by Katie H. Willcox
24. The Way I See It by Nicole Dryburgh
25. London Belongs to Us by Sarra Manning

My favourite YA books were Margot & Me (which I wrote a five-star review of!) and Troublemakers, and I also really enjoyed Atonement and Never Let Me Go, even though they were only four-star reads for me, as the themes in them mean I’m still thinking about these books and am very keen to go watch the films too! I’m happy with the balance of YA with other genres this month – I feel like I covered non-fiction, poetry, middle grade, literary fiction, and some academic reading for school as well as lots of lovely YA. I also managed to read almost everything on my list from last month, which I’m happy about.

I’ve done fairly well on my challenges too – eighteen of these books were by British authors (and I’ve posted four reviews for the challenge this month), and twenty of these were published before 2017, although none of them were retellings so I didn’t manage to tick that box on any account.

This month I’ve done some pretty cool stuff on my blog and in the bookish community. I went to the evening in conversation with Angie Thomas and Patrice Lawrence which was amazing, and I held a giveaway of Orangeboy. Over Easter, I participated in the SundayYAthon – I’ve done two of them now, and it was lots of fun – and I also got to interview Danielle Younge-Ullman as part of the blog tour for her gorgeous book, Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined. A series of Blogger Awards were also launched over on Write Through the Night, and I have been nominated by Joce, Kelly, Lia, Bex, and Sarah, which has been very exciting, and I made some nominations myself!

There have been so many good blog posts in the community this month! I normally talk about four posts, but I simply have to stretch it to eight (!) posts because there were too many I had to mention.

• Yes, I Love YA – Twist in the Taile (a post I couldn’t agree with more, discussing how people can view YA as ‘inferior’ to other literature when it is actually such a valuable genre)
• YA Book Box Subscriptions to Try – My Shelf and Myself (a list of book box subscription ideas, with lots of pictures and links, so great for reference and suggestions)
• Discussion: The Importance of Bully-Representation, 13 Reasons Why & Recommendations – Lost in a Story (discussion around 13 Reasons Why and how important it is for these topics to be portrayed in media)
• Discussion: Is It Bad to Read Too Far Above Your Grade Level? – Write Through the Night (an unusual topic, but a post I actually really agreed with when I thought about it – that sometimes it’s better to wait to read a book, as you may appreciate it more when you’re older)
• When Authors Approach You – Chapter Adventures (a helpful post, especially for slightly newer bloggers, about what to do about reviewing books when asked by the author)
• Readathon Tips – The Book Moo (some great tips for people who are interested in doing readathons)
• Let’s Talk: Do You Wear Your Blogger Status Proudly? – A Frolic Through Fiction (discussion around whether or not you talk about being a blogger)
• Confession: I Have Too Many Books (My Book Culling Tips) – The Bibliomaniac (advice for what to do when your piles of books are looking a little overwhelming)

And I wanted to mention a post that actually went up in March that I contributed to, but I didn’t realise until earlier this month, on the opinions of young adults on the YA community.

This month, I’m hoping to read:

1. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
2. False Hearts by Laura Lam
3. The Problem With Forever by Jennifer Armentrout
4. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney
5. The Guggenheim Mystery by Robin Stevens
6. Knighthood for Beginners by Elys Dolan
7. Mold and the Poison Plot by Lorraine Gregory
8. Kick by Mitch Johnson
9. If Birds Fly Back by Carlie Sorosiak
10. Show Stopper by Hayley Barker
11. Noah Can’t Even by Simon James Green
12. The Puzzle of Ethics by Peter Vardy
13. The Puzzle of God by Peter Vardy
14. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

There’s a lot of middle grade in there (numbers 5 to 8), as I got a lot of MG from the bookshop I review for. This list is overambitious because I have some exams coming up, but I would still like to find time for a bit of reading, even if it’s not as much as normal.

What did you read this month? What are you hoping to read next month?