For the Record: March 2010:

I had a pretty good month for reading.  I got a few books read that have been on my shelf for quite awhile (my goal for the year is to get through some of those!) and had a nice mix of different types of books.

 20. Prayers For Sale, Sandra Dallas (4.5)  Sandra Dallas is so much fun to read...she has a great balance of real, slightly historical and heartwarming, with a fluid writing style. This story is about an older lady in a small mining town in Colorado in the 1930s having to come to terms with moving out of her town to live with her daughter because of her age.

21. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (5)  The last of Jane Austen's published novels I had yet to read.  It was great, much better than I expected to be honest.  I didn't find the main character to be overly pious or prissy as I have heard from other people.

22. The Return of the Plant That Ate Dirty Socks, Nancy McArthur (3) This was a read-aloud for my kids, because they rolled with laughter at the first book in the series.  This one wasn't quite as funny, but the kids loved it and want to read the rest.

23. Matilda, Roald Dahl (4.5) The more I read of Roald Dahl, the more impressed I am.  I wasn't exposed to him in my youth, and always held the preconceived notion that all of his books would be like the Gene Wilder version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (which I didn't like).  Matilda was great, magical in fact.  Makes me want to read more.

 24. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford (4) Read for my book club, see my review here.

25, 26. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll (3) The average rating was arrived at because I felt that the lasting quality, making this into a classic, had to balance out the fact that I really didn't like either book.  They got old fast and were difficult for me to get through.  Most likely, however, it just simply isn't my style.  I didn't like Peter Pan or Wizard of Oz either.

27. Sixteen Brides, Stephanie Grace Whitson (3.5) Read for LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, see my review here.

28. The Double Bind, Chris Bohjalian (2.5) Borrowed from one of my book club cronies.  I'd read another book by this author (Midwives) and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd give this one a shot.  While I thought the plot/premise was great, and enjoyed the tie-in to The Great Gatsby and the major twist at the end, I just didn't think that it was well written at all.  There were parts that seemed to be focused on too much (especially considering they didn't factor into the ending at all) and most characters were pretty 2D.  Oh well.