Footnotes:: April

The enchantment of new adventures

April has been a wild ride of temperature swings.

We’ve been into spring and back to winter and around again and again this month. Even with the dramatic swings, it is still one of my favorite months. I love the contrast between the chill and the warmth of the sun and the creative way I can combine clothes unlike any other time of year. The bright sun against the gloomy rain makes me pay more attention to my surroundings, which helps improve writing.

As always, we watched the film adaptation of Enchanted April, one of my favorite rituals for the first week of the month. I adore both the book and the film, and have always been delighted by the costuming. We leave for a two-week holiday this Wednesday, and I’m going to be channeling this vibe as I pack.

** The horrible music in this trailer does not feature anywhere in the film. I promise.

We are traveling to Mallorca, an entirely new destination for us, and I cannot wait. The weather will be a smidge cooler than expected, but I always love entirely new views, food, language (although it’s very easy to get by on German there, apparently) and routines.

I will be extending our theme of attention into May, so stay tuned for posts and thoughts on this topic. I’m planning to daydream about new things to share here on Book Alchemy during my holiday, so look forward to a few updates with views while I’m there, and a lot of new excitement and ideas when I return mid-May.

And now… on to my April roundup for you.

"‘Don’t you ever see things in a kind of flash before they happen?’ asked Mrs. Wilkins.
’Never,’ said Mrs. Arbuthnot." - Elizabeth von Arnim, The Enchanted April

Discoveries this month:

Favorite books from April:

• Worn: A People’s History of Clothing, Sofi Thanhauser. I have, it would appear an inexhaustible appetite for books on textiles and clothing history. I have also read (and loved) Victoria Finaly’s Fabric, which covers similar ground, but each of these books finds different interview subjects and little corners of the history and current production of clothes, even as it goes through fabric one chapter at a time, focusing on one cloth as it goes. As always, I was enraged by the greed and environmental cost of sustaining the world’s disposable attitude toward fashion. Even so, I finished the book hopeful and inspired.

• Knife Skills for Beginners, Orlando Murrin. The first in a new mystery series by lauded cookbook author and journalist, Orlando Murrin, featuring a murder set inside a culinary school. Very funny, charming, and full of quirky characters, I’m delighted to have found a new sleuth character in Paul, and am relieved there’s already a second out in the series — set on a boat, no less! Stay tuned to The Secret Library, as Orlando is my guest on our next episode, and he is just as delightful as this book.

• The Verifiers, Jane Pek. Another mystery, but a bit of a genre-bender. Main character Claudia gets a job working for a secret agency that works to verify the details people provide on online dating profiles for their suspicious matches. When one of their clients ends up dead, Claudia is keep to get the full story. This novel features an Asian-American queer protagonist who was a thoughtful rule-breaker, one of my very favorite character traits of all. This one dives into family, identity, and what the truth looks like when algorithms are set up to help people fall in love.

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“I just caught replay. Big announcements. … Thanks, Caroline, for giving all of us permission to shift and change too. I am happy to be part of a community not afraid to evolve.”

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Other delights for your attention:

• Petya K. Grady
  wrote this post the very end of March, but I read it in April, but I’m including it here as it got me so fired up. Petya’s take on having a reading kink.

• Once again cheating on the pub date, but if I read it in April, it’s fair game. This post about letter-writing resources to support lonely elderly people warmed my heart to no end. Thank you

  Audrey Gidman
  for collecting these beautiful organizations.

• Fellow Notion nerds, we much thank

  Emily Charlotte
  for making an excellent novel-organization template and giving it away for nothing.

• B made the mistake of sending me a message about a new edition from Folio Society, thinking it was just an interview and now I WANT this copy. To be fair, I’m a junkie for all their editions.

• Shira Gill
  interviewed
  Laura Fenton
  on Breaking up with Amazon, and it is such an inspiring and helpful read.

• Season Eleven of the podcast continues! Catch up on what you’ve missed:
  The Secret Library 👈 just the current season for easy listening.

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I’ve removed the paywall on this post for the next week, in honor of my travel. Enjoy the read!
If you enjoy it, consider upgrading to get full access to all posts in the archive.

How do we write about place?

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Let’s take the enchantment of April into May.

What has shifted in your environment over the past month?

What do you notice first thing in the morning that’s different?
How do your evenings feel?
How do you want the next month to feel?

What small step can you take today to enjoy the next month a little more?

xx,
Caroline