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Caitlyn’s Monthly Wrap Up: April 2024

Hello hello friends! Well, it’s gonna be May and you know what that means, April wrap up time!

Get comfy and cozy and let’s chat about all things April!

As I do every April, I focused on a lot of Shakespeare related reads; this time around I mainly focused on graphic novel adaptations and plays inspired by Shakespeare and/or Shakespeare retellings (which I posted about last week) and it was a lot of fun! I ended up reading 10 or 17 books on my Shakespeare themed tbr which I think is pretty darn good!

I participated in the No Body, No Crime readathon this month (which I also posted about) and read 4 great new mystery/thrillers — it was definitely my most successful readathon to date!

I didn’t get to read for about a week due to tech week and performances, and then once we were done I was so exhausted that I just did a reread of the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series instead of picking up any of my new books or books I had started pre-tech week, but you know, such is life!

As of today (Thursday), I’ve read 17 books. I’m hoping to get one or two more read before the end of the month, but we’ll see!

Books read this month:

  • Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet Graphic Novel by Martin Powell & Eva Cabrera (3 stars)
  • Shakespeare: Macbeth Graphic Novel by Martin Powell & F. Daniel Perez (3 stars)
  • Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Graphic Novel by Carl Bowen & Eduardo Garcia (3 stars)
  • Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Graphic Novel by Nel Yomtov & Berenice Muniz (2.5)
  • Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth (ARC, 4.5 stars)
  • Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh (4 stars)
  • Murder Road by Simone St. James (4 stars)
  • Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (4 stars)
  • Listen for the Lie by Amy Tinera (4.5 stars)
  • King Cheer by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm, Jamie Green (3 stars)
  • Twelfth Night (Musical Adaptation) by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub (4 stars)
  • In Juliet’s Garden by Judy Elliot McDonald (4 stars)
  • Fat Ham by James Ijames (3.5 stars)
  • Death by Shakespeare by Philip L. Nicholas, Jr (2 stars)
  • A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (reread, 5 stars)
  • Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (reread, 5 stars)
  • As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson (reread, 5 stars)

Blog posts and vlogs I loved this month:

  • Marisa Kanter has had some books that I’ve enjoyed quite a bit and I’m really looking forward to reading her next release, Finally Fitz. Helena’s glowing review has made me more excited to pick up a copy of it soon!
  • The discussion of the tropification of books is definitely something that I find interesting, and I think it’s a more nuanced conversation than most people assume it to be. Leonie from The Book Leo is one of my favorite booktubers, and I always think her discussion videos are super interesting. She puts so much detail and research into them and this one brought up a lot of good points that I hadn’t thought of before and agree with. So, if you have 45 minutes, I definitely recommend checking out her are tropes on booktok ruining reading? video

My posts this month:

Oh wow, what a month. April was incredibly busy for me, and quite frankly, very exhausting. Work was so busy and pretty stressful — we had tech for the musical that we were working on, and tech was ROUGH. I left most days feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. The shows really turned things around and went great, which we all were super pleased with and while I’ll miss working with these kids until next year, I am happy it’s over and that May will be a little less physically exhausting.

The highlight of my month was definitely being able to hang out with one of my closest friends in person for the first time in years. We’ve been friends since we were 15, and even though we hadn’t seen each other in years, or talked for a while, the second we saw each other we picked up right where we left off and to me, those are the most special friendships. It was great to spend the entire day together and catch up and reminisce about old times. We also did an escape room with some of her family which was a ton of fun. It was a great day and really, it was the happiest I’d been in a long time.

My dad and I got to go to a Giants game unexpectedly — our neighbor had tickets but couldn’t go, so he gave them to us and we had a great time! We hadn’t been to a game since 2019 (but don’t worry, we do watch almost every game together), so it felt so nice to be back in the ballpark! We had incredible seats, right by the Giants dugout, and directly behind their on-deck circle. We’ve never sat that close before, and we really had a fantastic view. The Giants, unfortunately, didn’t win, but it was still a great night and I’m glad that my dad and I got to go together. We’re looking into a few other games that we can go to this season and I’m excited about that!

Music wise this month I’ve been mostly listening to Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter, Forget About Us by Perrie and The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift. I started a rewatch of Heartstopper after the news that Kit Connor would be playing Romeo on Broadway this fall (literally they did this for me!) and god, I just love this show! It brings me so much joy and I can’t wait for season 3! Other things I’ve been loving this month are doing daily games (Wordle, Strands, and Connections) as well as playing some mindless games like Merge Dragons and Wordscapes before I go to sleep.

May is going to be a more relaxed month than April was, and I’m definitely thankful for that! Work wise it’ll mostly be getting ready for summer camps. I’ll be going to a few book events in May, which I’m really looking forward to, but otherwise the month is pretty open and will hopefully be slightly more relaxed than April!

I’d love to hear how the month of April went for you! What did you read? What have you been watching? What have you been listening to? Tell me all the things in the comments! Until next time! 💜

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