April Recommendations
Books, Hacks & More
I’m barely getting this month’s recs in under the wire here. Happy final day of April, everyone! As usual, I’ve got some books recs for you, plus one hack, and one bonus recommendation. Let’s go!
Books
WRITERS & LOVERS by Lily King
I’m usually wary of novels with a writer for a protagonist but this one is so good. Here’s a description I found: Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart, vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
And this book leads directly to my next recommendation — the sequel.
HEART THE LOVER by Lily King
I was very skeptical about this. A sequel? Really? WRITERS & LOVERS wrapped so completely, so totally, I didn’t understand how a sequel even made sense. So I will say just two things about HEART THE LOVER: 1.) You DO need to read the first book in order to understand the second. And 2.) This one is EVEN BETTER than the first. So read them both, in order, and then come back and tell me what you think of them!
WHERE THE FIREFLIES by Aisha Hassan
If you enjoy learning about a different place in the world through a well-told story, this is the book for you. It’s set in Pakistan and when I finished, I discovered it’s actually based on a true story, which is c R a Z y. This is a perfect Spring read.
Hack
I’ve been struggling with more migraines than usual lately. I get migraines with an aura so I always have a 15-30 minute warning signal before what I call the BFH (Big F$#@ing Headache). The aura isn’t great but it’s nice to have the forewarning. It gives me a few pain-free minutes to grab all my rescue meds and, if possible, get to a dark, quiet room to ride it out.
I’ve been researching recently about stimulating the vagus nerve to help with migraines. Apparently there’s a fair amount of research showing the efficacy of vagal nerve stimulation for migraine relief so I wanted to give it a try. I’m not interested in buying a device since there are ways to stimulate the nerve on your own so I’ve been doing the exercises every day to see if they help. So far, the answer is… maybe?! I’ve still had a few migraines but with one, the pain was minimal and with the other, I got the aura, but the headache never came.
Here’s what I figure. The vagal nerve stimulation feels good and relaxing and forces me to chill for a little while every day. There’s also evidence showing it’s effective at treating other things as well — depression, epilepsy, stroke rehab. It can’t hurt, feels really good, and might be helping with my migraines. That’s a win. If you want to know which exercises / things I do, just let me know in the comments!
Bonus Rec!
Travel edition. My family (4 of us — me, Jason, and our two teen boys) just returned from Taiwan and it was an amazing trip. We spent two days in Taipei, then we rented a car and worked our way up to the north coast to spend a night in Jiufen. After that, we spent three days on the east coast near Tarako Gorge, and our final two nights were in the hot springs town of Jiaoxi. Consider this destination next time you’re dreaming about seeing the world.
The country is green, green, green, in every direction. The mountains are amazing, the green onion pancakes kind of changed my life, and the people are friendly, creative, and passionate.
Bonus Book Rec
THE GREEN ISLAND by Shawna Yang Ryan
Here’s the description from Goodreads: “As the novel sweeps across six decades and two continents, the life of the narrator shadows the course of Taiwan’s history from the end of Japanese colonial rule to the decades under martial law and, finally, to Taiwan’s transformation into a democracy. But, above all, Green Island is a lush and lyrical story of a family and a nation grappling with the nuances of complicity and survival, raising the question: how far would you be willing to go for the ones you love?”
Good book, great vacation, amazing country.
Happy end of April, friends. If you have any good reads or recs to share, please do leave them in the comments so others can enjoy them as well.
Recent posts your might enjoy:
March Recommendations
On Writing Every Day (and why you don’t need to do it)
The Mantra That’s Helping Me This Week
3 (NON-WRITING) Ways AI can Help you as a Writer
Yes to Lily King! Also: I recently started vagus nerve stimulation too! And also: I was SO nervous about that Netflix show😆