Mid-April Reading Wrap-Up

 Halfway through April already--I can barely keep up. 😐As always, I have been reading. Here's what I've been immersed in so far this month. Someone asked if I could post pictures of the book covers in these posts, so I will do so where possible. Just bear in mind that covers may be quite different where you are and depending on the edition of the book.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson (personal copy)

I love Kate Atkinson, but I wouldn't place this in the top tier of her books. It's Kate Atkinson, so it was a good read, but I didn't love it to the same degree I've loved some of her other work. This is not a sequel to her previous WWII novels, Life After Life and A God in Ruins, but it is set partly in 1940. The book opens in 1981 with Juliet Armstrong lying in the street after being struck by a car. She begins to think back to a couple of different times in her life, so readers are quickly whisked back to 1950 where Juliet sees someone from her past. This person isn't interested in acknowledging her, though, which she finds puzzling. The story moves backwards a decade where we learn that with the death of her mother, Juliet is alone and is soon recruited to be a transcriptionist for M15. Eventually, her duties expand. The book moves back and forth between 1940 and 1950 before circling back to 1981 again. These 1981 moments serve as bookends of sorts, with a few pages at the beginning and again at the end. I enjoyed the book--the perspective and subject matter was different to other novels I've read that are set in that time period. If new to Atkinson though, I wouldn't start with this one.

Wasp on the Prayer Flag: Haiku and Senryu by Maeve O'Sullivan (borrowed from the library)

I don't have a picture of this cover, which was simply royal blue with white text. It's a delightful collection of haiku and senryu written by an Irish author and situated in an Irish environment. I enjoyed it very much.

Continental Christie by Agatha Christie (BorrowBox audiobook)

This is a collection of 12 short stories, all taking place in continental Europe. There are various readers--mostly Hugh Fraser, but others as well. This was a very fun listen. Although I would've read all of these stories at some point, most of them were slightly less well known. There was a Miss Marple, several Poirots (many from The Labours of Hercules collection), a few featuring Mr. Parker Pyne, and some featuring Mr. Satterthwaite and Mr. Harley Quin. With the exception of a couple, I didn't really remember these stories so it was nice to sit, stitch, and listen.

Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope (personal copy)

This is the second novel in what has come to be known as Trollope's Palliser series. I first read this series 46 years ago. Needless to say, all those years and thousands of books later, I don't really remember it, so it's like reading it again for the first time. A few years ago, I read his Barsetshire series, which was structured around church politics. This series, first known as the Parliament series, is structured (loosely) around government and, well, Parliament. While in the first book, politics was there, but not central to the plot. Here it plays a very large role. Phineas Finn himself is the son of an Irish doctor. He comes from a small district in rural Ireland, but has been studying for the bar in London. His family is not wealthy, so he's expected to start earning his way. When at his club one day, he's encouraged to run for a seat in Parliament from his district. This idea grows on Phineas, but there's a catch--MPs get no salary. His father tries to discourage him as does his mentor, who wants him to make a career in law first and then try for Parliament as he himself is planning. Phineas decides to go against all this advice and runs. Plot ensues from there. Of course, this being Trollope, Phineas finds himself enmeshed in various dramas involving power, class, gender roles and expectations, and relationships, whether romantic, friendly, or hostile. Phineas also contends with issues involving the situation of Ireland which was at that time, still colonized by the British (I acknowledge here that for some Irish people, the colonization will not end until the six counties of Northern Ireland are no longer under British control). 

I do love Trollope and enjoyed this book immensely. I started the next book in the series last night. There are six books in the series altogether, but so far I don't see any reason why one would have to read them in order. Both of the first two work perfectly well as standalone novels and the third, although I'm only a couple of chapters in, seems to be going off in yet a different direction. There are some characters that recur in this book and there is progression from the first book, but nothing that would be problematic if one read this book without reading the first one.

Furies by various authors (personal copy)

This book was published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Virago, a feminist publisher. It contains stories by current authors, each one titled using one of the words on the back, traditionally used to describe strong women who disturb cultural expectations about how women are supposed to behave--harridan, muckraker, spitfire, vituperator, churail, termagant, fury, warrior, virago. The stories range across cultures, time frames, and genres. There's even a graphic short story. Some of the stories were weird and I found myself off-balance as I read them. There were a couple I didn't really care for and a few I loved. The rest were good stories that I enjoyed reading. I don't think I'd read the entire book again, but there are stories I will revisit in future, so I plan to keep this one.

Finally, I read a book to be published soon--thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital review copy.

Tree by Aya Koda (translated by Charlotte Goff and to be published on May 14, 2026 by Penguin Press UK/Penguin Classics)

As Aya Koda navigates her 'golden years' she thinks about her relationships with trees over the course of her lifetime. From her childhood, she's always felt a connection to trees. She realizes that as she ages, her time to learn all she can about trees is growing shorter and she sets out to take something of a tree tour of Japan. She initiates some of her experiences and others come to her and she accepts the invitations to view and earn about particular trees and their habitats as they arise. She visits Ezo spruce, wisteria, hinoki cypress, poplars, cherry blossoms, cedar, and others. She's open about the difficulties she has in some places where reaching the trees requires more physical stamina than she has and she's grateful for the help she receives in these cases. She's also grateful for people who patiently explain things about trees to her, even as her memory falters and it's harder for her to take notes. Her descriptions of the trees involve physical attributes, information about habitat and what changes in it do to the trees, and about her own emotional responses to the trees and their situations. In one case, she starts out feeling upbeat and hopeful, but in learning about the trees, becomes gloomy. She does anthropomorphize the trees quite a lot. For example, in one instance she writes about how she sees the trees as 'kimono-wearers.' I wasn't quite sure what I thought about that. On the one hand, I think it's good to see trees and the natural world in general as valuable in their own right, not just as something to be used, conquered, and destroyed. And having read a bit about the possibility of plants having some form of consciousness, I have to admit that I just don't know. I suspect that if plants do have some sort of consciousness though, it's their own and not the same as that of humans. Then again, we all interpret things based on our own experiences and the cultures in which we grew up and lived in. This question is an interesting one for me and one I'll continue to think about. Beyond that, I found the book to be a fascinating read which combines memoir, tree science, Japanese culture, environmental issues, and more. It's a slim volume that contains so much. It's definitely worth a read.

On to the second half of April--plenty of reading awaits!

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