Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
So here’s the thing about spring and my reading habits:
I tend to dramatically slow down on my reading time once the weather warms up, April showers have ended, and spending ample time outdoors is pleasant again for the first time in about six months.
If Ontario happens to have an unusually cold or stormy spring in a given year, this obviously does not happen.
I try to plan for all sorts of possibilities since you never know what the weather might do as the seasons change.
Let’s see which new books coming out this spring have caught my eye. I hope to read them on stormy days when going outdoors is not such an appealing idea.
1. The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon
Publication Date: Today!
Why I’m Interested: Not only am I part of this demographic group, I was also a preacher’s kid. I’m really curious to see what the author has to say about us and how much of her research matches my own experiences.
2. The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
Publication Date: April 2
Why I’m Interested: As an author, I have my own little cemetery of abandoned stories that I feel guilty about and do hope to go back and finish one day. Personifying forgotten characters is such a creative idea. This could be an excellent read.
3. A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Publication Date: April 9
Why I’m Interested: Romance isn’t a genre I visit very often as you all may remember, but I love the fact that this is a retelling of the classic folktale The Selkie Wife and am excited to see what the author does with it.
4. The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry
Publication Date: May 14
Why I’m Interested: It’s much less common for me to read horror since the pandemic started, but I do find the occasional stories in this genre that aren’t too scary. Here’s hoping I can handle some paranormal horror as the protagonist sounds like a very interesting person who just so happens to work in what sounds like might be a haunted house.
The Evangelicals sounds interesting!
I hope you like it if you read it.
The house that horror built sounds good
Glad you think so, too. 🙂
Did you have any issues visiting the Artsy Reader Girl’s site today? It’s not loading the element with people’s links in it for me. That first book is mildly interesting — not too applicable for me because I grew up in the Pentecostal church, which is thoroughly mixed-race. My own list is here.
No, I didn’t have any troubles at all. I hope it’s working for you now.
It finally loaded, but I had to leave the page running for a while before it finally finished. Definitely not the connection — thinking it may be a browser issue, since I use a non-chromium browser.
Thanks for the update.
These all sound very interesting! I haven’t heard of them before—so I look forward to seeing your thoughts when you get around to them.
Happy reading! Here’s my TTT this week.
Thanks. 🙂
Even though you slow down your reading with nice weather, I hope you get these three read. They look good.
Thanks!
Okay, I’m fascinated with religions so I’m going to have to pick up The Exvangelicals. Had no idea you were the child of a preacher, that’s very interesting!
If you haven’t read it yet, I’d suggest Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristen Kobes du Mez. I learned a lot from it.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
I hope you like it! And for some reason I thought you knew I was a PK. 🙂
I’m looking up Jesus and John Wayne now. Sounds interesting.
You have a nice mix of genres. Hopefully you will find time for them all.
Thanks. 🙂
My new annual reading pattern is falling in a slump late winter and picking up again in spring! So I’m looking forward to my slump ending.
Oh, interesting! My fingers are crossed for you.
Looks like you have a varied reading TBR coming up! It’s always fun to mix up genres or styles of books, and this list looks to be full of different possibilities which will, hopefully, result in some great reading for ya! Happy spring TBR-ing, and many thanks for visiting my website. 🙂
Absolutely. And you’re welcome.
The House That Horror Built sounds intriguing. It is exceedingly rare that I read horror, but a story that features a haunted house does seem to draw me in.
Oh, cool! Hope you like it.
The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon sounds interesting! I look forward to hearing your thoughts once you read it.
Thank you!
Hope you’ll love all of these, but also that you’ll have lots of nice weather and days spent outside 🙂
Aww, thanks, Lindsey!
My reading slows down a lot too! I hope you enjoy these!
I’m glad you get that, and thanks. Happy reading to you as well.
What a neat list, Lydia! Love how you explained why you want to read it as well. Hope you get to them this spring.
Thank you, Cheryl. Fingers crossed!
All of these sound good in different ways. What a great list! I’m definitely curious about the Exvangelicals and I’ll be looking out for your thoughts about it when you’ve read it.
Thanks. 🙂 I’ll try to remember to blog about it.
I’m very interested in Sarah McCammon’s book as well. Happy reading!l and happy spring!
May you enjoy it. Happy spring!
The Cemetery of Untold Stories and The House That Horror Built both sound very interesting, the titles really grab your attention.
They sure do. 🙂
The first one! Off to request it. THANKS!!
Woohoo! Enjoy.
These all sound really interesting, especially the selkie retelling. I can’t wait to read what you think of them!
Thank you. 🙂
Hope you find the time to enjoy these but that you also enjoy some nice weather!
Thank you. That would be a nice balance for sure.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories is a great title!
Agreed. 🙂
I didn’t know about a new book by Julia Alvarez, sounds good
I hope you like it!
These all sound interesting Lydia. I’m drawn to The books by Alvarez and Sutherland. Let’s hope spring doesn’t revert to winter here in SW Ontario. Weirdest winter ever – but would love a lovely spring. All the best!
Fingers crossed! We’ve certainly had a strange winter indeed.
They sound good. I hope you get some good book reading weather! I’m not a horror reader as I like to sleep plus during the day at the moment it’s me and my 8 month old son so being scared isn’t the best option 😂
It will be interesting to see with the first one how close the experience is. I like to know where authors go/what they do to research their books!
Have a great week!
Heh, that’s totally understandable. And thanks.
I’ve seen a lot of hype for The Exvangelicals because I follow way too much cult stuff on TikTok. I want to read it too!
Oh, cool! Here’s hoping it will be good.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories sounds really interesting!
🙂
An interesting combination of genres, I hope you enjoy them
Thank you. I like bouncing around different genres.
Hope you get the good weather! I’m always an indoors-y type, haha, so I’m a reading fiend all year round. XD
Thank you. May you enjoy the indoors. 🙂
The House That Horror Built is one on my TBR. I hope it’s one you can enjoy since the genre isn’t really your thing. Happy reading with all of these!
Thank you. Hope you like it, too.
An interesting list. I haven’t heard of any of these books but I can see why you want to read them. I hope you enjoy them.
Thanks. 🙂
This is a great list, Lydia! I love the sound of The Cemetery of Untold Stories and The Sweet Sting of Salt. I added those to my TBR, and appreciate that you always find the most interesting books, and they’re always new to me.
Thank you. I hope you like them.
We seem to have similar tastes in books, so fingers crossed for you!
And thank you for your kind words.
Ooh, I recently got the ARC of Julia Alvarez’s book and it sounds so good! I’m looking forward to reading it and I hope we both enjoy it 🙂 Happy reading!
Good for you! Happy reading to you as well.
I was invited to read an early copy of The Exvangelicals but I couldn’t fit it in. I’m intrigued by it too, though, since I’m also part of the demographic group. If you get to pick it up, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you. We’ll see if I can find the time to blog about it.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories sounds really interesting. Thanks for mentioning it!
You’re welcome. Happy reading.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories sounds pretty good. I’ll have to look it up.
Cool!
I was a PK as well! My dad pastored a very loving church and I wasn’t left with the emotional baggage that many describe as a result of their church experience. It’s always fun to look forward to a new season of reading!
Cool! I’m glad you had such a positive experience.
Happy reading! I can understand about the weather (and how it affects one’s reading habits) and while east Tennessee weather isn’t nearly as extreme (I suspect) it’s still pretty unpredictable this time of year as well. Hopefully the weather plays nice this year. 🙂
Thank you. Fingers crossed.