April has been a wonderful month for me; I celebrated my third blogiversary this month (not very publically). However the big news is the announcement of my Russian lit project, I am actually very excited to dive into this world and see what I discover. I have been feeling unmotivated with my blogging lately and I have fallen behind in my reviewing (currently ten reviews I need to write). I am struggling to find the motivation and the inspiration to blog but this Russian lit project has got me so excited. Even if I do not know how if it will work in terms of blogging or BookTube, my excitement is all directed towards what I will read and learn.

As far as reading goes, I was in a weird place where while I read an average amount of books, I still feel like I did not read much. I started the month off finishing The Whispering City by Sara Moliner, a Spanish crime novel translated by Mara Faye Lethem, that I had high hopes for but never really lived up to me expectation. However, I did follow that book up with another historical fiction novel, The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis which was my first attempt for this author and not sure if it was the best place to start. It had a very interesting premise but exploring Jewish heritage and culture during World War II has been done to death.

The next novel I read, I can actually review as part of my Russian lit project and that is the Ukrainian novel Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov (translated by George Bird). This novel explores a struggling writer named Viktor who was given a king penguin to look after when the Kiev Zoo ran out of money and could not afford to feed the animals. Viktor gets a job writing obituaries and the book has the wonderful contrast between life and death. This is a dark comedy and I love the way Kurkov handled the balance between the satire and the message. Next was What You See in the Dark by Manuel Muñoz, which tries to imitate the style of Alfred Hitchcock but I do not think worked. Hitchcock has a very visual style, playing with shadows and atmosphere and while this novel is able to replicate this to some extent, it does not work that well on paper. I followed that book with Haruki Murakami’s book Kafka on the Shore (translated by Philip Gabriel) which I love and have already posted a review for.

I attempted my first Ali Smith novel with There But For The, which is a witty and satirical book that I am still trying to get my head around. I love the style Smith writes in and I know I am going to read a whole lot more of her books. I then read Helen MacDonald’s memoir on grief H is for Hawk. I made the mistake of trying to annotate this; I had never tried to write in the margins of any book and while I loved the experience it was not the right choice. I found myself questioning MacDonald’s emotions and quickly decided I will try annotating again but with a work of fiction. I then moved onto Boyhood Island by Karl Ove Knausgård (translated by Don Bartlett) which is the third book in the autobiographical novel series My Struggle. Finally, the last book was a novel that reminded me that I was not that intelligent and that is 10:04 by Ben Lerner. This was an extremely sophisticated and intelligent novel, I am still struggling to wrap my head around it completely and I am beginning to fear I never will comprehend it fully.

In retrospect I had a pretty great reading month, even if I felt like I did not read enough. Going into May, I have Anna Karenina, The Firebird, Get Shorty and Manuscripts Don’t Burn all on the go. So I know I am going to have a good month, I also have some vacation time and I cannot wait. How was April for you, did you read anything amazing? Let me know in the comments below.

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I started March with a lot of work stress and as a result I thought I would not get much reading done. All I wanted was to play video games or watch TV. The month never improved workwise but I still had a productive reading month; I was actually surprised with how much I read. As for my adventures on BookTube, things are still going well, I am enjoying the experience and I feel like I am slowly improving. Hopefully this will translate into my writing as well. I have also been looking at other way to improve my writing, I may join Hitrecord and try their writing challenges or just try my hand at short stories. However, I might just do some research and wait till work gets a little less stressful.

It did take me over ten days to finish my first novel this month. Sadly that novel was not enjoyable and I wish I had not spent so much time with the book. That novel was The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell, I really enjoyed the first book in the series, London Falling and was expecting so much more. Thankfully the next book was better; it was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, however I cannot work out if I had read it before or not. I guess because the movie is so memorable I thought I had read the book; I would have a record of reading Fear and Loathing if I had.

The longlist for the IFFP (The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize) was announced this month and reminded me that I want to read more books in translation. As most people know, my current reading challenge is more books in translations and some rereads (at least one of each, every month). This month I read the 2011 IFFP winner, Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo (translated by Edith Grossman). I did the reading diversity tag on BookTube this month and realised I needed to read a lot more books from South America; Red April is by an author from Peru. While it did follow many of the tropes found in crime fiction, it still found this to be a fascinating read; I loved exploring Peruvian culture. My reread for the month was The Stranger by Algerian author Albert Camus (translated by Matthew Ward), which was a lot better than I remember it being, I must have a better grip on the themes this time round.

I also picked up some short story collections to read this month, firstly The UnAmericans by Molly Antopol and then The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The UnAmericans was a contemporary collection that dealt mainly with immigrants living in America. While this was a great collection, The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories blow it out of the water. I was sucked in by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s style blending gothic with feminist ideas, I highly recommend reading this collection. I am not sure what Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s other books are like but I am curious to find out.

The highlight this month was Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham, which is the second book in the Veronica Mars series. I am a huge Veronica Mars fan and while this book was not as good as the first one, it was nice to return to Neptune. Followed by Something Coming Through by Paul McAuley which was very average and A Young Doctor’s Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov (translated by Hugh Alpin) after binge watching the TV adaptation. So that was seven books read in March, which was as many as February but still a very decent reading month. I currently have four books on the go at the moment and I hope April will be a much better month both in reading and work.

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Where has the month gone? I cannot believe that February is over already; time just moves too fast. I feel like this month has been a very busy month with work and life but I cannot really work out what occupied so much of my time. Having said that, in my reading life, I was very happy with February. While I have been making this the year of reading more books in translations and some re-reading, my wife has challenged herself to read a book by an author from every country in the world. This is fantastic challenge that might take her years to complete but it also reminds me that there are some gaps in my reading. On BookTube, there is a lot going around about reading more diversely, and while I have noticed some trending problems, it has let me evaluate my reading. I have never read a book by a non-binary author. I do not know of any non-binary authors, so do not know where to begin and finally I need to read more books from South America. I may do the reading diversely tag on my BookTube channel just so I have a document of this.

I have not done too much towards my challenge in February, my goal is to do at least one re-read and one book in translation a month and I did achieve that. I had one re-read and two books in translation; I feel like most of my rereads will be books in translation but I am okay with that, I finished The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (translated by Hugh Aplin) which I started in January and I enjoyed this book so much more the second time around, there is so much going on and it is hard to articulate everything I want to say about it but I will try to do that sometime soon. I even read Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (translated by Jay Rubin) and this is the first time I have read this book but I can see why people often pick this as their favourite from this author. I am currently reading two books in translation at the moment, The Whispering City by Sara Moliner (translated by Mara Faye Lethem) which is a book from Spain and Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo (translated by Edith Grossman) which is from Peru, but I still have not worked out what I am re-reading in March.

I started off very slow in February and I got to a point where Goodreads were telling me I had fallen behind on my reading goal already. However one of the advantages of reading multiple books at a time is that sometimes all the books being read finish at the same time and I was able to get back on track. I have mentioned three books already but I also read another six books. The first book I read this month was Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch which is the fourth book in the Peter Grant series and I am trying to resist the urge to move onto the next book; I want to read it but then I will have to wait months for book six.

My local indie bookshop hosts a book club and it has returned and this month we discussed Deeper Water by Jessie Cole, which I had to race through to get it read before the meet up. This is an interesting novel that explores the culture clash between the city and rural Australia and while I had issues with it I still enjoyed reading this one. I also picked up Save Me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald to compare with Tender Is The Night, which I read last month. I need to do some research into this book because I feel like F. Scott Fitzgerald may have white washed it a little to make himself appear like a nicer person. Finally after that I picked up my first Rose Tremain, which was a collection of short stories called The American Lover and shows off Tremain’s writing skills and character development, so much so I need to check out a novel by this author. Also I dived into Wolf in White Van which explored isolation and depression in a really interesting way and I read Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin. This book was amazing. It was my first Baldwin novel and I have so much I want to say about this book but I am unsure how to express these feelings. Finally I read The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, which seems to be getting mixed reviews but I really enjoyed; still sorting out my thoughts but I cannot wait to talk about this one with others.

I feel like I say this every month but I have no plans for March (reading wise) apart from what I am currently reading, which is The Whispering City, Red April and The World According to Garp by John Irving. I do have some books reserved at the library, The UnAmericans by Molly Antopol, Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard, Something Coming Through by Paul McAuley and The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell, so these books may make an appearance in my reading month. I would love to know what you have read in February and if you have any reading plans for March.

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