Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, how is your week going? I can’t believe it is almost May. April was a very busy month as I expected it to be. I went back to school for my second class in my medical coding certificate. So far it is pretty easy but I’m expecting it to get harder as it goes. I like getting out of the house though and am enjoying my class so far.
I enjoyed doing two readathons in April, BookRoast’s Magical Readathon. This is one where you pick out a career at a magical academy and read books for specific prompts. I picked a pretty simple career of Hearthkeeper. Hearthkeepers are kind of like magical bakers and I created a new character for that.
I succeed with doing this calling and read four books for it. For Alchemy which had to have an uppercase title I read Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon. For Spells and Incantations I read the second the second volume of Skip and Loafer by Misaki Takamatsu. The prompt for this one was a word from my last read. For Elemental Studies which required a book with fruit on the cover. I read With Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo. And finally for Restoration I read a book with a 4+ star rating. I chose The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I enjoyed it greatly and am looking forward to continuing the trilogy. I have the the eventual goal to read the prequels as well.
For Disability Readathon I read The Anti-ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu. Everything Everything was also a part of this one as it portrays disability. And I managed to get a good chunk of The Future is Disabled read. I will be continuing that read into next month. In addition I will be starting on the book Care Work also by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. I also read the graphic novel Speechless which talks about selective mutism. Other books I enjoyed for this readathon were Give Me a Sign by Ava Sortino and Octopus Moon by Bobbie Pyron.
In addition to the readathons I managed to catch up on some ARC from NetGalley. I read It’s Okay to Be Takei by George Takei. This second graphic novel from the former Star Trek star and activist deals with his homosexuality and how it affected his life. Takei discusses the change in attitude around the subject of homosexuality in the media. He also discusses the fear and shame that accompanied living in the closet for most of his life.
The other book that I read as a NetGalley arc was We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer. This book focuses on the journey of a plus sized Black heroine who wants to become a character actor at her favorite theme park. The book draws a number of parallels with the character actors of the Disney franchise. It talks about issues of representation and anti-fat sentiments. The story ends happily though and I very much enjoyed it.
The final books that I enjoyed this month were Sempai is An Otokonoko by Pom and Magical Boy by The Kao. Both dealt with LGBTQ themes. Sempai focusing on a boy in high school who is a cross dresser and a girl who confesses her affection to him.
Meanwhile Magical Boy focuses on a transman that comes from a long line of magical girls. The story shows how he adjusts the destiny to fit his life. The story also focuses on his friends and supporters. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to check out the second volume.
How was your April for reading? What have you been up to in life in general? Do you have any recommendations for what you are doing for reading in May?
Rose's Book Garden 