First off, I forgot a title when sharing my January and February reads:

Beth and Amy by Virginia Kantra
In this follow-up to Meg and Jo, we get the modernized stories of the two youngest March sisters. Beth (in this version, Beth is named after Marmee’s sister, who died young) is traveling with a country superstar who, despite her crippling anxiety, brings her on stage every night to sing the hit she wrote for him. And Amy is struggling to raise the capital to expand her bespoke handbag business and with some guilt over a night she spent in Paris a few years back. They’ve both returned home to South Carolina for Jo’s wedding and to spend a few weeks sorting out their respective lives. This is a solid modernization and reinterpretation of how Beth and Amy’s stories might have turned out. If either was your favorite in the original Little Women or if you like retellings, this duology should be on your radar.
Pages: 352. Library copy.

In March and April I finished five historical fiction titles (Fortune Favors the Dead, A Rogue of One’s Own, and A Marvellous Light in March and The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes and God of Jade and Shadow in April), recorded here.

I also finished these titles in April:

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
A trans teen runs away from her parents’ home only to face additional abuse from the friend she sought for refuge. But when she plays her beloved violin in the park, she is discovered by one of the most successful teachers of the last century, who also happens to be one soul away from paying off a debt to the devil. Meanwhile, across town, a mother manages her family in the running of a doughnut shop by day and commands their interplanetary exploration by night. When these three women’s paths cross, none of them will ever be the same again. Highly recommended for those who enjoy alternative reality stories.
Pages: 372. Library copy.

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
Lenni is 17 and dying. Margot is 83 and dealing with a heart issue. When they both find themselves in the same therapeutic art class, Lenni points out that together they’ve lived a hundred years. As they set out to document a painting from each of their years, they build a little family in their hospital community. You all know what a stickler I am for found family stories. If you are, too, I recommend checking this title out. It’s sweet and sad without being cloying, sentimental, or melodramatic.
Pages: 352. Library copy.

Shelf Respect by Annie Austen
Honestly, this tiny book is the sort of thing that you give book lovers when you don’t know what to give them. And it will make you think, well, I could have written this. But it’s cute and sometimes funny and will require next to none of your attention, making it perfect for times when you’re distracted and just want an eight-page essay or a two-page list about reading and books.
Pages: 192. Library copy.

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
When a recently graduated Miami senior loses her grandmother and gets dumped by her boyfriend and then has her best friend only give her hours before leaving for Africa for a year, she has a bit of a meltdown, causing her family to send her the English countryside for the summer. There, she finds herself baking for her cousin’s b&b (her family owns a bakery that she and her sister intend on taking over) and falling for the boy down the lane, who sells tea. Cute international YA romance.
Pages: 320. Library copy.

Yours Cruelly, Elvia: Memoirs from the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson
In this engaging memoir, Cassandra Peterson gives a self-aware recounting of her life, from her early teen years as a gogo dancer and rock star groupie in Colorado to being a 17-year-old showgirl in Vegas who meets the like of Penn and Teller, Elvis, and the Osmond family to her years with the legendary comedy troupe, The Groundlings, to being cast as the queen of horror, Elvira. She recounts her assorted romances, including a year living in a tree house, doesn’t mince words about which celebrities are crap human beings (or which ones were utter sweethearts), displays a ton of business acumen about her brand, and maintains a sense of humor throughout. I’m not a fan of the macabre, but Elvira was a tv fixture of my childhood, and it was truly entertaining to hear her read her stories.
Pages: 304. Library audio copy.

I wasn’t feeling this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl and I didn’t get my act together to write a summary of recent reads, which had been my original backup plan. So, instead, I’m sharing ten books that are currently in various stages of being read:

1. Saint Young Men by Hikaru Nakamura
2. The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa
3. Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore
4. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. Great or Nothing by Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood
6. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
7. The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery
8. Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
9. Hello, Molly! by Molly Shannon
10. An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten

What are you reading?

I mentioned last week that I’m trying to get a few projects off my needles by the end of this month so I can cast on something new for the Tour de France Knitalong on July 1st without feeling guilty. A pair of socks just need their ends woven in to be done, and this shawl, my Fully Charged from last year’s race, is blocking and awaiting a fashion show. If I’m very productive, I have three projects I’d like to wrap up in the next three weeks. That may be an ambitious goal, but I’m trying to focus on creative endeavors this month as part of my sabbatical before I have to turn my attention to job hunting.

On the reading front, I am actively listening to two books, Lyssa Kay Adams’ The Bromance Book Club and The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery. I’m only a couple chapters into the latter and just getting to know the three main characters, but I’m wondering if it’s the read for me. (On the face of it, three women creating a bookshop/cupcake bakery/giftshop on the beach should be right up my alley, but it’s feeling a little … traditional … in its scene setting at the moment. I’ll probably give it another chapter before I decide to something that feels a little more up-to-date. I have Molly Shannon’s and Jenny Lawson’s latest memoirs and Benjamin Alire Sáere’s sequel to Aristotle and Dante Conquer the World (read by Lin-Manuel Miranda) checked out already and just waiting for me to clear space enough to download them to my phone.

On the paper front, I’ve returned to Saint Young Men, the Japanese manga about Jesus and Buddha rooming together in Tokyo in the early-aughts (it’s going much faster now that I understand that while I read the text left to right, I read the text bubbles right to left), picked up and immediately started Mia Sosa’s The Wedding Crasher (set here in D.C.) at a Little Free Library in the park, and am savoring Malinda Lo’s highly lauded The Telegraph Club for Pride Month.

Check out what others are reading and crafting at As Kat Knits.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share books with units of time in their title. Here are ten from my to-be-read list:

1. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Donald Miller
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
3. My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock
4. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison
5. Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr
6. Around the World in 72 Days by Nellie Bly
7. Ghost Month by Ed Lin
8. Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
9. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
10. The 24-Hour Café by Libby Page

Have you read any of these? Do you have other timely titles to recommend?

On my list of projects I’d like to get off my needles is my mother’s Christmas shawl, which will likely arrive to her with fall’s first frost. My progress is infinitesimal at this time, but I’m down to four more rows (or, roughly 1200 stitches) of that patterned section before I move on to knitting that lends itself to doing other things at the same time, like listening to an audiobook. (I tried to jump the gun on multitasking and ended up with an extra stitch a couple rows back. I’m hoping I corrected it properly after some time out to consider what it had done, but, Mum, if I didn’t, we may have to consider it a design feature.)

On the reading front, I started two new books this week. The first is Great or Nothing, a Little Women retelling set during World War II authored by Joy McCullough, Carline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and D.C. novelist and librarian Jessica Spotswood, each of whom voices a sister.

The second is The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams, which I’m listening to on my phone. I’d picked up the second one a couple years back and hated the “voice” of the main guy character, so had put it back down. In this one, the first book of the series, that guy is a secondary character and talks less. So while I still don’t love him, his obnoxious tone is less grating. But I borrowed the audio because a D.C. librarian recommended it as humorous. Once I remembered I could adjust the speed of the reader (we’re up to 1.4 times the normal speed), I found myself better able to relax into the story, which focuses on a major league ballplayer whose wife has just asked him for a divorce. His buddies (including the irritating guy) and some other high-powered Nashville men come to his rescue by inviting him to join their bookclub, which reads only romance novels in an effort to better understand the women in their lives.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are reading and crafting.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share comfort reads — either titles if you have specific books you return to week after week or the qualities that you look for when the world is hard.

Here are ten things I’m considering when I need a book not to be one of my 99 problems:

1. A reread of a book I’ve loved. These are all over the place in terms of audience and genre, but they were all five-star reads.
2. A happy ending. I don’t want ambivalent and I don’t want tears.
3. Cozy mysteries are often good for the previous item.
4. As are romance novels.
5. Retellings of traditional tales — such as Jane Austen’s works, Little Women, and the Sherlock Holmes series — are often solid contenders. Much like the previous two items, retellings have a generally reliable structure.
6. 350 pages or fewer. This is not the time for a sweeping saga.
7. Likable main characters. Overall, I prefer this anyway, but an unlikable main character is immediately getting that book put down when I’m in a mood.
8. Sometimes combining words with pictures — like in a collection of comics or a graphic novel — is called for. But that one can be tricky, and it only works singly. I never binge read more than one.
9. A new book in a favorite series or by a favorite author can help a grumpy mood.
10. When all else fails, I turn to middle grade fiction.

How about you? What do you look for in a comfort read? And do you have particular ones you turn to in times of trouble?