6 Books I Read in April
6 Books I Read in April
By: Brittany Shields
In case you haven’t kept up with my new content, here are the six books I read last month with a short blurb from each review. I read a variety of genres so there should be something for everyone!
Click each button to read my full review and don’t forget to share your favorites to your social media pages or pin to your Pinterest reading lists!
The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery
“Sisterly relationships are so strange. The way I can be mad at her but still want to please her. Be terrified of her and also want to run to her. Hate her and love her, both at the same time. Maybe when it comes to sisters, boundaries are always a little bit blurry. Blurred boundaries, I think, are what sisters do best.”
Fern and Rose. Twins. With a close sisterly bond forged in a traumatic childhood. Plus a pretty cute relationship between one of the sisters and a stranger that resembles ‘Where's Wally?’ (aka Waldo-this is set in Australia) who lives in a big orange van. But there is a foreboding cloud hovering over all of them. I had my suspicions near the beginning but the situation is more sinister than I had first imagined.
This is a psychological thriller you’ll probably finish in one day— two tops.
“My sister holds the key to my sanity (even though I never gave it to her).”
And. That. Last. Page.
2. The Marriage Code by Brooke Burroughs
Genre: Romance, Fiction
“Rishi couldn’t hide his real life from his parents forever, and doing so had potentially ruined the one thing he’d ever had that was real.”
In short: The love boat that is two IT coworkers from different parts of the world is tossed to and fro by the waves of initial mutual hatred, tradition, an I’m-going-to-find-you-a-wife mission, you-are-the-air-I-breathe lust, culture, and straight up you-lied-to-me drama. Can their relationship, with all its ups and downs, weather the storm of their worlds colliding?
3. The Secular Creed by Rebecca McLaughlin
Genre: Christian Living, Cultural, Theology
“The idea that minorities should be protected, not oppressed, came to us from Christianity… when a poor man from a historically oppressed racial and religious group claimed to be God in human flesh, commanded love for society’s most vulnerable and died a slave’s death on a Roman cross, he made the poor, oppressed, and victimized forever central to God’s moral plan.”
We’ve all seen the multi-colored signs posted in people’s yards or hung in windows that proclaim (in some form):
In this house we believe that:
Black Lives Matter
Love is Love
Women’s Rights Are Human Rights
We Are All Immigrants
Diversity Makes Us Stronger
Rebecca McLaughlin has written this short, concise book, not to hammer these signs in every yard and neither to smash them to pieces. She writes “wielding a marker instead of a mallet” to edit and explore these signs’ tenets and to hold them up to Scripture, correcting where we must and championing all that God commands to us in his Word.
4. Broken (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson
Genre: Humor, Memoir
“It’s weird because we often try to present our fake, shiny, happy selves to others and make sure we’re not wearing too-obvious pajamas at the grocery store, but really, who wants to see that level of fraud? No one.”
If you are already a fan of Jenny, I’m assuming you will find this book to enjoyable. If you, like me, are a Jenny-Lawson-newbie, here’s a brief summary of her niche:
She deals with mental and physical illnesses of many forms including severe anxiety, agoraphobia, rheumatoid arthritis, pre-diabetes, and some memory loss (among others—don’t worry, she’ll tell ya about it; she says she “collects diseases like other people collect Beanie Babies”). She writes books and finds the humor in her ailments. Considering all that she has gone through, it’s an amazing feat that, like she says, is necessary to her survival. She is very transparent and honest and throughout the book she intersperses more meaningful and sober meditations on life, health, pain, and identity.
5. In Her Tracks by Robert Dugoni
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
“I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that walking out that door, leaving these cases unsolved, will be both the hardest and the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Why the hardest?”
“Because I always believe I’m one phone call, one DNA hit away from solving another case.”
“And why the easiest?”
“Because I’m tired of lying to myself.”
Coming off of the last book, Tracy had to take some time off work from the trauma. Upon her return to work she finds herself out of her A team detective job and relegated to the Cold Case department. Not one to give up or give in, she accepts the less-than-desirable lot she has been given by her captain/nemesis and dives all in.
We end up with a multi-level plot as Tracy re-opens a cold case file on an abducted little girl, the files of two abducted prostitutes, and, due to low personnel, joins her friend Kins on an active missing person’s case—a young female runner.
Will Tracy’s new job description keep her away from the action? Can she overcome the hopelessness of closed case files? Is she really just one phone call away from solving another case, or is it a self-concocted lie to boost morale?
6. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Genre: Fiction
“We need James Bond with a library science degree.”
Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to smuggle out ‘the book’ that’s locked in a guarded subterranean chamber, decode the encryption, and discover the key to immortality. (I know this is more Mission Impossible than Die Another Day- so sue me.)
The scene: A skinny little mysterious bookstore with the ‘Waybacklist’—the back shelves containing thick, old, encrypted books only “members” (who are all weird, old people) can reserve.
The caveat: These books are not ordinary books. They hold secrets. They are part of a historic and elaborate puzzle that is thought to hold the key to immortality.
If you give any of these a try, let me know what you think! And share what you read in April in the comments below.
