Looking Back: April Highlights

I don't know about the rest of you, but after this week of rain, I am so very glad to be seeing the sun today. I thought I might have to start kayaking to work (and I'm really not a good kayaker at all). To celebrate the return of spring weather, here are my favorite April reads:

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin: You guys! This book! It's so lovely and wonderful and hilarious and sad and trying and emotional and did I say lovely? An ode to bookstores and book love and the power of reading and stories. Review to come, just as soon as I catch my breath.

Thunderstruck & Other Stories, by Elizabeth McCracken: McCracken is one helluva a writer, friends. The stories here are taut and emotional, as families are broken apart and stitched back together and trying to cope with the most unexpected turns of event. Really captivating. Review to come.

A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip, by Kevin Brockmeier: I loved Kevin Brockmeier's The Illumination years ago, so was excited to read his first memoir. Brockmeier dedicates the entire slim volume to one year--the seventh grade--and perfectly captures the awkwardness and discomfort that so many of us remember from our own middle school years. Read my full review of A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip and see what Kevin Brockmeier had to say about the memoir.

The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon: I guess April was the month for books about books, but where The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry explores the power of reading through a quaint independent bookstore, The Word Exchange moves us into a future where books--and words--are threatened by our growing dependence on technology. Sound uncomfortably familiar, perhaps? Read my full review of The Word Exchange.

What fabulous April books did I miss? What were your favorites?