April was a slow month for reading

April is only thirty days long, and yet it feels so much longer. Not in a nice way, like wow, I got so much done this month! In a "this will never end" way, like I hurt myself and couldn't do any of the things I liked but still had to do all the things I don't like. In the "my aide quit during book fair week because she got some negative feedback for openly not doing her job and didn't like it" way. In the "it's so cruel that there are lots of holiday breaks stacked in the first half of the school year and then none at the end of it" way.

Anyway, in case you aren't picking up what I'm throwing down, I didn't make much Read Harder progress this month. I did START Underground Railroad and The Hard Parts, which are my last April books...but I am nowhere near finished with them. I'll keep working on them this month, though, and at the same time, I'll be working on these challenges:

#9: Read a romantasy with a queer and/or BIPOC main character - For this, I picked Deadly Ever After by Brittany Johnson, which I picked up from the library this past week, and Peter Darling by Austin Chant, which I had to buy and in a very deja vu moment I am once again still waiting on any word re: shipment. I bought it from a different bookstore, who said it was shipping directly from their warehouse, which is actually what the other bookstore told me when they finally answered my email about my other purchased and delayed book, which now has me wondering...do all these local bookstores use the same "warehouse"? And why are their deliveries so slow? I just want my books without supporting Temu Lex Luther, man.

$20: Read a book set in space - You now, this prompt may have helped me realize that I don't particularly love sci fi as a genre. Are there books set in space that I enjoy? For sure. Illuminae, for instance, one of my favorite series of all time. But when I read this prompt, there was no joy in my heart for it. It is not a prompt that excites me. Maybe I'll change my tune when I read my chosen books, Beyond the Red by Gabe Cole Novoa and Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh. But space...books set in it...just doesn't do it for me the way other genres and settings do.

Well, there you have it. Bring on the May.