April 2025 Wrap Up

April was a dud. I hope I’m not about to go into yet another reading slump. I think I just wasted too much of this month trying to read the wrong book. Let’s talk about my April 2025 wrap up. Don’t worry it won’t take long, hahaha.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Synopsis:

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds”—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. 

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

Audiobooks saved my butt this month and I really did enjoy my time with them. I’m in a history phase right now and this book is the reason. Dead Wake really pulled me in. I will say it did follow some rabbit trails so the story could have been streamlined a bit. Overall, though, it was a good time.

 

Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America

Synopsis:

O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th Century organized crime in the United States, and expertly plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious serial robbers, conmen, murderers, and especially, mob family bosses. Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, O’Reilly and Dugard trace the prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era, such as John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby-Face Nelson. In addition, the authors highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the “Five Families,” the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas and Hollywood, as well as the personal war between the U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and legendary Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

O’Reilly and Dugard turn these legendary criminals and their true-life escapades into a read that rivals the most riveting crime novel. With Killing the Mob, their hit series is primed for its greatest success yet.

Killing the Mob sent me even further down my history deep dive. I love this series, and this was probably one of my favorite entries. I’ve always been pretty fascinated by the mob, and I was shocked by just how much it has influenced politics, casinos, games, etc.

DNF

Howling Dark

Synopsis:

Hadrian Marlowe is lost.
 
For half a century, he has searched the farther suns for the lost planet of Vorgossos, hoping to discover a way to contact the elusive alien Cielcin. He has pursued false leads for years among the barbarian Normans as captain of a band of mercenaries, but Hadrian remains determined to make peace and bring an end to nearly four hundred years of war.

Desperate to find answers, Hadrian must venture beyond the security of the Sollan Empire and among the Extrasolarians who dwell between the stars. There, he will face not only the aliens he has come to offer peace, but contend with creatures that once were human, with traitors in his midst, and with a meeting that will bring him face to face with no less than the oldest enemy of mankind.
 
If he succeeds, he will usher in a peace unlike any in recorded history. If he fails, the galaxy will burn.

Remember in the beginning when I mentioned focusing on a book for too long. Well, here it is. I tried my very best to stick with Howling Dark, but it just didn’t work. I even started a new blog series base around it. Check out my first post in my DNF Diaries to know my full thoughts. But I just have to say don’t make my mistake. DNF books if they don’t work for you. There are too many other books out there waiting to be discovered.

So that is my very short April 2025 wrap up. What did you read this month?