Books I read in April
April was a good reading month for me. I spent the first part of the month in Florida visiting family and I was able to find more time than usual to indulge my reading habit.
Here are a few of my favorite books from this month.
Grant Park
By Leonard Pitts
This book jumps between 1968 and Martin Luther King Junior’s fatal visit to Memphis and the eve of the 2008 election in Chicago. This book is a mix of reality and suspense that will keep you riveted until the last page.
Falling Angels
By Tracy Chevalier
This was a best seller in 2001. I love discovering a mix of new and slightly older books. I also discovered a new author with this book who wrote several other books.
This historic fiction begins with the death of Queen Victoria and the meeting of two five year old girls at their families cemetery plots where they gather to pay tribute to the death of the queen. Inn counter-points their voices and several others tell the story of how society began to unravel. She is a great writer and I am glad I found her.
The Revised Fundamentals of Care Giving
By Jonathan Evison
I am continuously drawn to the books where a group of people take some kind of a journey and fix one another’s lives. This is a great example of that kind of book. The main character has reached the bottom due to some really sad events in his life that are slowly explained throughout the book. He takes a course in care giving and a job caring for a young man with Muscular Dystrophy. They decide to take a trip across country to visit the young man’s somewhat dysfunctional father and pick up the usual stray characters along the way. Trust me on this one, you will laugh and cry and feel good when the book is finished. You might also learn about some odd and interesting places to visit.
Dead Wake The Last Crossing of The Lusitania
By Erik Larson
I really love his writing. The Devil in The White City is one of my most loved books. He has done it again with this book. It amazes me that my attention could be grabbed when I knew perfectly well how things would end. I could not put this book down. Filled with interesting facts about World War 1 as well as facts about the passengers and the two ship captains involved in this story you feel like you are witnessing history. I finished this book in 24 hours and I did not want it to end. Keep the tissues handy. You will be amazed at how submarines became so powerful.
The Girl In The Spider’s Web, a Lisbeth Salander novel continuing Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series
By David Lagercrant
The author of the first three books in this series dies much too soon. This new author has continued the series with the same strength of writing. If you liked the first books you will like this one. Although the first part of the book does a lot of catching up, I found it helpful and a bit dull. Then the real story kicks in and you are off for a wild and rewarding ride.
I have tried to mention a range of books. I love to hear about other books so please email me with reading suggestions at
gayle@gayleconnected.com