A selection of quotes and pictures to represent April’s reading:

commonplace book
noun
a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

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“What on earth made you bring all those books with you?” said Edmund, looking up from his model, with a note of impatience in his voice. “They’re far more than you can possibly read in the time we’re going to be here.”

“I know,” said Richard, “but I like to choose the book I’m going to read from a lot of other books. That’s half the fun of reading.”

Linden Rise by Richmal Crompton (1952)

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“Lying wastes more time than anything else in the modern world.”

The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham (1952)

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‘But that leaves us with a bit of a problem,’ Dr Sarah said. ‘We can’t sit idly by and let such a thing happen. No matter the rights and wrongs of it. Do you see?’

The Edinburgh Murders by Catriona McPherson (2025)

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Each day had its own page, which Olive Branson had used not only for her appointments, in themselves scarce, but also to record books she wanted to read and observations about the weather. Here and there, the diary turned into a commonplace book, with short passages in French that had caught her eye.

That Dark Spring by Susannah Stapleton (2025)

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When Clara had proved right about the drifting back, George blamed her. Blaming inwardly is annoying when the one blamed is ignorant that blaming is taking place.

Aunt Clara by Noel Streatfeild (1952)

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People are complicated; most people do some good things and some bad things.

The Six Murders of Daphne St Clair by MacKenzie Common

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Favourite book read this month:

The Tiger in the Smoke

Authors read for the first time this month:

Susannah Stapleton, MacKenzie Common

Countries visited in my April reading:

England, France, Scotland, US, Canada

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Reading notes: April was a slower reading month for me, compared to the first three months of the year, and it was mainly devoted to reading books for the 1952 Club. Reading less means I’ve had time to start catching up with my backlog of reviews, although I still have some left to post.

I somehow have seven books from NetGalley all with publication dates in May and have so far only read one of them, so that’s what I’ll have to concentrate on for the next few weeks. Otherwise, I don’t have any other reading plans for May and will just see where my mood takes me.

What did you read in April? Do you have any plans for May?