April 2025 Reads!

[tjs_whatnot]

According to Fable, at this speed, I will reach my 2025 reading goal by August. 😍😍

Oh, and hey, let's follow each other on Fable! (That link will give us both 5$ to spend on books through their stores and I'll love you forever. ❤️)

Artificial Intelligence by Martha Wells ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I am really loving this series! One weird thing that happened in the second one was that I listened to it rather than read it and had such a cognitive dissonance with the gender of the MurderBot. Maybe because I'd just finished This is How You Lose the Time War, or maybe because I personally identified with the character, and I, myself, identify those feelings and thoughts (and sassiness) with my femaleness that I just took it for granted that the character was female… or as female as a humanoid robot could be. So the narrator being a dude was really weird.

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

But, by the time I listened to this one, I'd seen the trailer for the upcoming show based on the books and I was resigned. I'm also anxious to finish the series before watching the show (that does look really good 🤞🤞).

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

I seem to (accidentally) be on a Outside Perspective of Humanity Kick (Murderbots and This is How You Lose the Time War [maybe?] and now this). And I'm not mad about it.

These perspectives so beautifully articulate all the thoughts and feelings I too have about mankind, that I'm starting to worry about myself a bit. But only a bit, because I also resonate with their humor, their pessimism and their begrudging awe of mankind as well.

Besides all of that, this book was also such a great look into a literal found family and the fate of life that I was on the edge of my seat, screaming at characters as I listened.

And the voice of Marcellus?

PERFECTION!!

❤️❤️❤️

Run Away With Me by Brian Selznick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have always dreamed of running away to Italy. And now I have. And I fell in love, and had adventures that I will keep with me forever.

I found this book in the Coming Soon page in my library's app and I got so excited about another book by this artist and the cover told me I was going to love it. I was expecting more drawings and less words, but I quickly got over that. These characters, their story and their surroundings needed all the art and all the words so beautifully strung together by Selznick.

Perfetto! ❤️❤️

The Broposal by Sonora Reyes ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

I'll admit, I rage-read a lot of this book. I just have little patience for miscommunication and misreading of people and my limits were pushed a lot.

But that might just be a me thing. It was hard to be in the head of two people very much not like me (one a ridiculous level of people pleaser and another on the spectrum).

I think too that this book might read better than it listens. The narrators were good, but they did make the villain in the story even more so with how they portrayed her voice.

But, I will say that I was intrigued and invested enough to keep going even past my irritations and I'm glad I did.

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Cat Sebastian just makes me so content, so happy to be alive and able to read (or listen, let's be honest). ❤️❤️

Burn by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm glad I read it, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend anyone else should (unless they're as much a completist as I am with authors they love). For one thing, it's a part one, it ends very much as a part one and there is no part two. I doubt there ever will be. Not only because he's pretty much said there wouldn't be, but also because he's come so far as a writer since this book, I don't know if even he would like to revisit it as much as he'd have to to get it to the press again for sequels to follow.

Still, it had Klune's wit, his heart and his ridiculously loveable characters, so I'm glad I read it, glad I met them.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The book was described as "Firefly meets Star Trek" and I was sold. And it very much is exactly that, in which I mean it's strongly character driven, it's very, very found family and I loved it.

The comparison also helped remind me that while I rarely seek out sci-fi to read, that I actually do really like it. I think it's the visuals that tv and movies gives me that makes me like sci-fi better in those mediums. I have a hard time building worlds and meeting a lot of new types of characters (especially ones with similar names like Kizzy and Sissix) and keeping them straight in my head. But once the struggle is over, they are cemented in my head and heart even stronger.

Having said all of that, I'm not sure how likely I am to read more of the series. I liked where it ended. It was happy enough, they were broken just the right amount and some characters had become more connected then they started and maybe my imagination can do the rest.

Anyone read the rest of the series and want to talk me into (or out of) continuing? 😍😍

Most Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This easily climbs to the top of my P&P reimaginings (of which there have been many). The characterizations made so much sense and were completely believable. The suffering Oliver endures with being able to be his true self was exquisitely handled.

Really well done!

I'd like to say that I had enough forethought to have purposely read this book for Trans Awareness Month, but honestly, it was just luck that my Libby hold finally came through, just in time. I love just how trans it was: trans character, author and narrator and it was EVERYTHING! ❤️❤️

Comments

[profiterole_reads]

I loved The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, it was so much fun! <3 But you can stop there. Each book is about a different set of characters in the same verse. Book 2 is darker, Book 3 is about grief, and I stopped there.

[tjs_whatnot]

Awesome! Thanks for the insight. I did like the world, but I've started so many serieses that I just don't know when I'd get around to it. Nice to see I don't need to. ❤️❤️

[nonesensed]

Artificial Intelligence & Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
Yay, I love this series! Hope you continue to enjoy it 💖 I rarely fully picture characters when I read, so I didn't really have a "look" for Murderbot, but it certainly wasnt' Alexander Skarsgård 😅 Still looking forward to the TV show though - more cakes, so to speak 💖

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Oooooh, I love the Wayfarers series!!! 💚 Though just like profiterole_reads has said, characters rarely reoccur between books, so each entry in the series is more of a "meanwhile, elsewhere in the galaxy" kind of thing. Same aliens, same politics, but different people. Book 4 in this series might be my favorite, though I suspect it's because I'm a sucker for Cool Aliens 🌸

Most Ardently: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa
Funny coincidence, I'm also reading Most Ardently right now - though I'm early in the book as of yet. Would love to talk more about it once I've finished it, if you feel like it 😊

[tjs_whatnot]

Yes! I am loving The Murderbot! Had to take a break for The Wayfarers, but I'm glad to get back to them, and yes, obviously Skarsgård wasn't on my list either, but I'm happy to be proven wrong. ❤️❤️

Ahhhh, I'd love to talk Most Ardently with you. ❤️❤️

[nonesensed]

Most Ardently finished! Enjoyed it as a book, though less as a P&P adaptation (Wickham and Mr Collins teaming up and Wickham being an obvious awful person from the get-go was a little too OOC for me to sync it up with the original story). Darcy and Oliver were a cute couple and the happy ending they got really worked for me - and I'm glad no one had to end up with Wickham! What were your favorite parts?

Also, I'd love to follow you on Fable, though I think I can't use that link since I already have the app installed on my phone (I am feeling very behind on tech in this very moment 😅). Is your name over there also tjs_whatnot? Just so I follow the right person 😊I'm Nonesensed over there too and have this icon as profile pic.

[tjs_whatnot]

Yeah, as a full on P&P adaptation, it lacked a bit of character development, but as a exploration of the relationship between the two mains, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I sort of wanted them to touch a bit more on the class system that they seemed to have been setting up between Oliver's privilege that Charlotte didn't have, but it was sort of glossed over. And, yeah, Wickham as asshat from the onset and Lydia getting no action sort of saddened me (but that might just be the Lizzie Bennett Diaries fan in me). 🤣🤣

Here is my Fable (without the referral code-- though I think we could invite each other to book clubs and get some sort of $$ for that 🤣🤣).

[tinkaton]

Oh I've had Most Ardently on my TBR for a while now and never got around to it. I DID just experience Pride & Prejudice for the first time yesterday (through the 2005 movie which I had never seen before lol) so maybe I should bump this book up the TBR now that I'm in a P&P mood haha.

[tjs_whatnot]

I DID just experience Pride & Prejudice for the first time yesterday (through the 2005 movie which I had never seen before lol)

WHAT?!? LIKE, SERIOUSLY?!?

WHAT?!?

Please tell me this was the Colin Firth P&P?? If not, you MUST watch that one first before reading this, but then, yes, read this. It's delightful. ❤️❤️❤️

[tinkaton]

It was the Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen film! I've never actually read or watched any version of Pride and Prejudice before... I thought I had but I realized I was confusing it with Jane Eyre which I did watch once jshdfksjhs

[tjs_whatnot]

Ah.Okay. I've only seen that one once and I think remembering that it was good, but that Darcy just seemed a bit too Heathcliff for me. I think my P&P journey started with the Colin Firth series (as a movie, but the BBC broke it down into 6 episodes last time I watched) and he's been my ideal every since. ❤️Firth❤️

Then I read the book, then I read a lot more Austen and now I just sort of gobble up any iterations of the book (including the Zombie one).

I would say Most Ardently really works the best if you're familiar with the original story (and I myself can't recall how true to the characters the 2005 film was) but, it's still better than no P&P. 😍😍