What I've Been Reading, Watching And Listening To // April

If I thought March was busy then April was a whole new level, meaning that this month's roundup is a little shorter than usual, but seeing as they're usually pretty hefty maybe that's a good thing! Here's what I've been reading, watching and listening to this month:

R E A D I N G :

Behind The Scenes At The Museum by Kate Atkinson // I was bought Life After Life by a friend and it's one of my favourite books I've ever read so when I spotted Kate Atkinson's first book in a little local bookshop I thought it was high time I read it. It follows the life (from conception which is a little odd) of Ruby Lennox and her family through the ages (it can sometimes be a little confusing keeping up with who everyone is) and it took me a while to get into it, but once I got in the swing of it I couldn't put it down. It definitely wasn't on the same level as Life After Life for me, but still a good read and I still rated it four stars.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett // The Vanishing Half is the story of light-skinned black twins who follow completely different paths; Desiree marries a dark-skinned black man and Stella disappears to live her life as a white woman. I found this such an interesting and gripping read and even rated it five stars, which is such a rarity for me!

Songbirds by Christy Lefteri // After reading her first book, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, and absolutely loving it I knew I had to read this one soon! In this one, Nisha, a Sri Lankan housemaid working in Cyprus, disappears and we follow both the family she's been working for and her boyfriend as they try to find out where she is. I loved this almost as much as her first book and rated it five stars, so it's been a pretty good book month! 

W A T C H I N G :

The Crown / Netflix // We watched the first series of The Crown last year before getting a little bored or just not in the mood for it, but we've just picked it up again with the second series and are really enjoying it again. I'm not really into the royal family (pls don't come after me royalists), but there's something about The Crown that I find super interesting (and it makes me like them even less to be honest...)

Hullraisers / iPlayer // Seeing as we both lived in Hull for a long time we were intrigued to see what this comedy set in our home(ish) city was like. I was pleasantly surprised as I'm not the biggest fan of Lucy Beaumont's stand up; this was very easy watching, made me laugh out loud in some parts and it was nice to see parts of Hull we know really well on the telly!

Married At First Sight Australia / All 4 // My trashy TV choice of the month is Married At First Sight Australia, which I always love. I'm not at all up to date (there are sooo many episodes!) so I'm sure it'll last me nicely into May too.

L I S T E N I N G :

Long Story Short // This is a podcast by three childhood best friends, discussing everything from toxic friendships to vaginas. I'm not usually a fan of podcasts where it's just friends chatting, but something about this one makes me feel really involved; the girls chat about such relatable topics and it sort of feels like you're just sat having a coffee and a natter with some mates! Just to note the sound on the first episode isn't great, but it gets better as they go on!