u/Cloud-Bat030

Three books in April which felt great, but I'm still sitting behind pace (need ~17 by end of April for 52 — currently at 13). May is going to have to work harder.

11/52 — Beach Read by Emily Henry ✅

I kept putting this one off because I assumed "enemies-to-lovers romance at a beach house" wasn't really my thing. I was wrong. What got me wasn't the romance — it was the way Henry writes around grief. Both characters are dealing with loss and using it as an excuse not to write, not to feel, not to commit to anything. The banter is fun but the undercurrent is genuinely sad in a way I wasn't expecting. Four stars.

12/52 — The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman ✅

Pure joy. Four retirees in a posh English care home who solve cold cases together — it sounds like a cozy cliché but Osman actually has something to say about aging, about being underestimated, and what people do with time when the world stops taking them seriously. Elizabeth is one of my favourite characters in recent memory. The mystery itself is fun but secondary. Four stars.

13/52 — Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ✅

This one hit harder than I expected. On the surface it's about two people who make video games together over 30 years. Underneath it's about creative partnership, the fear of being truly known by someone, and how we use work to avoid the harder parts of being alive. I read the last 50 pages in one sitting at midnight and then just sat there for a while. Five stars, easily one of the best things I've read this year.

Attaching my April reading calendar — 4 rest days and still managed three books, which I'm counting as a win even if the pace says otherwise 😅