Year in Books: April 2016

This year I'm taking part in the Year in Books organised by Circle of Pine Trees, with the aim of reading at least one book per month. March was a good month as I managed two books and two short stories (along with the odd magazine)!

Delirium is a young adult novel that I found on my daughter's bookshelf. It's set in a dystopian North America where love is considered a disease and all citizens are 'cured' at the age of 18. At the start of the book, Lena is 95 days away from the procedure and is just about to be evaluated and assigned both a future husband and career.

I think you can guess how this one goes. And that was the problem really: it was all very predictable. Someone said to me recently that, like perfume, great books should be complex with a top, middle and base note. For me, Delirium was missing that base note. It was an enjoyable read but just didn't have anything new to say. That said, I'm not the target audience and it does have a 4* rating on Amazon and Goodreads.

My next read was another young adult novel. I heard about the Lancashire Book of the Year which is celebrating its 30th year and decided to read one of the books on the shortlist. I chose this particular book because it reminded me of Lori Lansens' The Girls which I'd read and enjoyed.

One by Sarah Crossan is the story of conjoined twins, Grace and Tippi, who are about to start public school after being homeschooled. I finished this in a day and don't know whether it was because it was so good or because of the writing style: unusually, it's written in free verse. It's also narrated by Grace and is very sparse, so no long-winded descriptions, which means the story flows along quickly. Definitely one I'd recommend to a teenage girl.

My last pick was this little book of two short stories which I won in the lovely Kezzie's giveaway. Both stories are set in France and both tell the story of a chance encounter which leads to love. Of the two, Love in the Night and The Swimmers, I preferred the latter as it had more complexity and twists and turns. They were both beautifully written though, as you'd expect from F. Scott Fitzgerald.

For April, I'm going to read When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman which I've had in my pile for a while. It's had lots of good reviews so lets's see if I feel the same.

Other than that, I'm just going to see what appeals to me next. There are plenty on the pile to go at! x