April 2026 Reading Recap

We are 33% of the way through the year, and am I 33% of the way through my reading goals? I am not, but I’m a lot happier with how much reading I was doing this month, and I’m almost done with a long book I was looking forward to reading. Let’s recap my reading for the FOURTH month of the year–ahh!

Total books: 25

I am saying that I read-ish 25 books this month. That includes 23 books I finished in their entirety, I DNF’d one book, and I’m about 85% of the way through another book.

Audiobooks: 5 little ones plus a little bit of two more

I did 5 kid lit audiobooks in their entirety, and also finished two books this month that I listened to largely as audio–including a novel I read with my 4th and 5th graders at school over the course of several weeks.

2 Books to Review for Booklist + a Picture Book

Both books were middle grade fiction–male protagonists–and then I also reviewed a picture book biography that’s publishing this summer.

1 and a Half 450+ Page Books

One of my reading goals this year is to read 12 loong books, and this month I read The Mysterious Benedict Society (512 pages) and most of the fifth Skander and the Unicorn Thief book (544 pages) so this is making progress.

2 book club books

This month, my DAR book club did a “bring a poem” thing, so I only had 2 book club books to read. The alumni group read Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, and the book store read Moderation by Elaine Castillo—which I DNF’d after getting to like 40% and not loving it or feeling driven to continue after the book club discussion.

1 ARC of Dana’s new book

You can’t stop me from yelling to the rooftop how good Dana Schwartz’s new book, The Arcane Arts, is. It’s SO GOOD and saucy and academic and I cannot wait for the rest of the world to read it when it releases in May!

And a bunch of other little stuff…

Including the third Earl & Worm book, Mac Barnett’s new essay collection, some graphic novels I’d had on my shelf for too long, a book on Oak Hill Cemetery, Margo’s Got Money Troubles so I can watch the Apple TV+ show, and a romance novel I had an old ARC of.

So…that was an okay month! May is just around the corner, less travel planned so less reading time on the plane, but maybe more dedicated time as we head to the end of the school year. Let’s see how it shakes out!