Spell the Month in Books is a monthly linkup hosted by Reviews from the Stacks. Participants need to find a book title that starts with each letter in the month's name, make a list, share their link, and that's it! The linkup opens on the first Saturday of the month and remains open through the end of the month so that one can participate whenever is convenient. Each month also has optional challenge themes.
Happy April Fool's Day! I completely forgot that it was the day of fools until I sat down this evening to put together this month's entry in Spell the Month in Books. The theme (thankfully, optional) is:
Poisson d'Avril – The French version of April Fool's Day involves fish, so let's look for books related to fish, bodies of water, or comedy
Reviews from the Stacks
I say "thankfully" as I have never been a big fan of fish and doubt that I have any books about them (there may be a few lurking on covers here or there). I do own a few books related to bodies of water but wrote about most of those in earlier memes. Comedy? Sure, but I passed on today's installment of "5 On My TBR" as the prompt was "Humor" and I didn't feel like combing through my list of books looking for funny ones. They are in there, but I certainly doubt I could find enough to spell out APRIL.
Thus, I am making this month's with random books matching the letters. It shouldn't be too difficult, right? I do have more than 5,500 book titles to choose from, only using the unread volumes.
I set some criteria. Any book that began with a definite article (a, an, the) was automatically disqualified. Having a nice book cover helps (I am trying to not share ugly design here). Finally, I decided to limit the list this month to fiction as non-fiction works that spelling out APRIL seemed easier to find in my collection.
It took me a while to find suitable as you can see from the list I made, shown in the image above. "A" proved the most elusive as I scrolled through my listings in calibre.
A
Ancient History by Sophie Penhaligon (published July 1, 2021)
Athena Duncan is living a life as a cosseted academic with her parents in Oxford when tragedy strikes in mysterious circumstances. In an effort to assuage her grief she travels to Paris where she meets the enigmatic playboy Patrice Moreau who is determined to show her what she has been missing in life. Meanwhile hovering in the background is the equally distracting Dr. Jack Latimer, professor of archeology from Harvard.
Both men seek to win her, but do they have an ulterior motive? A mystery involving her father's integrity and a missing Egyptian artifact causes Athena to question everything she once believed as true.
Goodreads
I own it but I am not sure if I will read it. I don't think I have ever read a romance. The archaeology tag intrigues me so, perhaps. Still, it's an "A".
P
Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve (published September 19, 2003)
Philip Reeve is back with this gripping sequel to the Smarties Gold Award winner, Mortal Engines. Fleeing from an Anti-Tractionist sect, the Green Storm, Tom and Hester are left drifting in the frozen Ice Wastes, slowly dying of cold after the Jenny Haniver's engines have failed. They are saved at the last minute, finding Anchorage, a once-beautiful ice city that has fallen on hard times. Crippled by plague, there are barely fifty souls on Anchorage now, and the teenage margravine has made a desperate choice. They are heading for America, the Dead Continent.
Goodreads
"P" was a tough choice as when I decided to exclusively focus on fiction this time, Portobello was the first novel I came across. I love Ruth Rendell but have not read this one yet. In the end, it was the cover art that swayed me. It has also been too long since I read Mortal Engines (and watched the movie) so it would be nice to get farther along in the quartet. And "America, the Dead Continent"? I'm in.
R
Red Mandarin Dress by Qiu Xiaolong (published November 27, 2007)
Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department is often put in charge of politically sensitive cases. Having recently ruffled more than a few official feathers, when he is asked to look into a sensitive corruption case he takes immediate action—he goes on leave from work. But while on vacation, the body of a murdered young woman is found in a highly trafficked area and the only notable aspect is that she was redressed in a red mandarin dress. When a second body appears, this time in the People's Park, also in precisely the same kind of red mandarin dress, the newspapers start screaming that Shanghai is being stalked by its first sexual serial killer. With the Party anxious to resolve the murders quickly, Chen finds himself in the midst of his most potentially dangerous and sensitive case to date.
Goodreads
Red Mandarin Dress is the fifth in the Inspector Chen series. I purchased the first, Death of a Red Heroine, in the San Francisco airport while en route to Beijing twenty-one years ago. I started reading it on the surreal flight that followed. The SARS pandemic disrupted pretty much everything once we finally landed so I never got to finish the book. It's time to remedy that and get caught up -- #13 was published last July. The setting will mean much more since I spent time in Shanghai once I was finally able to get out of the capital.
I
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (published November 7, 2023)
"The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity." —Xaden Riorson
Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.
Now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just that it's grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the riders' capacity for pain beyond endurance. It's the new vice commandant, who's made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.
Although Violet's body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else's, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.
But a determination to survive won't be enough this year.
Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
Goodreads
Yeah, I know. EVERYONE on Goodreads, BookTube, and the review blogs were gabbing about Fourth Wing when it was published last May. The talk never died down and then this second in the The Empyrean series came out in November with still more discussion. I am NOT jumping on the band wagon here. Not only was it the first to pop in my head when I was trying to think of "I" books but I am genuinely interested in the story as presented in the blurbs. I expect to start reading the first book within the next couple of months. These are both genuine chunksters (498 and 640 pages, respectively, in their hardcover forms) so I need to clear a few others from my TBR.
L
Lost In Translation by Nichole Mones (published August 17, 1998)
Expatriate translator Alice Mannegan spends her nights in Beijing's smoky bars, seeking fleeting encounters with Chinese men to blot out the shame of her racist father back in Texas. But when she signs on to an archaeological expedition searching for the missing bones of Peking Man in China's remote Northwest deserts, her world cracks open. As the group follows the trail of the Jesuit philosopher/paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin to close in on one of archaeology's greatest mysteries, Alice finds herself increasingly drawn to a Chinese professor who is shackled by his own painful memories. Love in all its forms--human, sexual, divine, between a nation and its history, a man and his past, a father and his daughter--drives the story to its breathtaking finish.
Emotionally charged and erotic, this widely translated bestseller has been universally praised for its authoritative portrayal of a China rarely captured in contemporary fiction. The novel's accolades include the Kafka Prize for the year's best work of fiction by any American woman, the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Association Book Award for the year's best novel from the five northwestern states, and the New York Times Book Review's Notable Book and Editor's Choice .
Goodreads
There are certain keywords that pique my interest when looking for books to add to my collection. Novels involving expats can draw me in as I am one myself. Those set in China have also grabbed me, particularly if there is an archaeological element. I studied various Australopithecines and other early hominins while at university and afterwards so the search for missing Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) bones as a plot line is worth a look as well. By the way, the Sofia Coppola-directed movie of the same name released in 2003 is completely unrelated to this book.
Which, of any, of these books have you read or would like to read? Do you know of other novels that spell out APRIL. Please let me know in the comments below.
#spellthemonthinbooks
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