Wow, April already! I was hoping the 2nd time we met this year wouldn’t be so cold! I’m glad we ended up inside this time. It was great to see everyone who came out. Here’s what we’ve been reading:
This month Christiana continued reading The Mountain Shadow, an inspiration for me. One day I will get there. She also read Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid, that Shana is borrowing next. It seems to fit into a theme of second guessing your life’s choices as in The Midnight Library on many TBR lists, Sliding Doors, Love Your Life and The Two Lives of Lydia Bird.
Hugh finished Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandell. This one has made its round through the group; I guess it’s hard to resist a pandemic story during a pandemic. Hugh also read The Burning Room by Michael Connelly, 1901 by Robert Conroy, Little Deaths by Emma Flint (I’m borrowing) and The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli (Matt is borrowing.)
Shana’s picks were all thrillers from some of my favorite writers. I wish these ladies would start writing books faster! She read One by One by Ruth Ware, The End of Her by Shari Lapena, as well as The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone both by Lisa Jewell.
Mariya finished Christian’s pick by Mindy Kaling, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? as well as The 12 Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss. She read my pick from last month, The Stationary Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali and Death du Jour by Kathy Reichs; Christiana is borrowing them both.
Matt read, the now “book club famous,” No Exit by Taylor Adams. Shana caved and borrowed it as the only one of us who hasn’t read it yet. Matt also read The Wall by John Lanchester, one of Christiana’s picks last month.
I read Christiana’s pick, The Map of Salt and Stars, a beautiful book by Zeyn Joukhadar I listened to Mariya’s pick from last month Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved my Life by Christie Tate; a memoir read by the author, my favorite kind of audiobook. I also read You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. I can’t wait to hear what Mariya thinks about it next month.
All in all, I think we are swapping fewer books because we are each close to being buried by our “to be read’ stacks! But I still really enjoy hearing about what everyone is reading and the books you love. Thanks again for coming out. If you couldn’t be here this month you were certainly missed. I’m looking forward to the next time we can catch up! Until then, may your to be read stacks become manageable! Hahaha, so unlikely, for me anyway.
