Wednesday, May 4, 2011

For the Record: April 2011

April was a much more satisfying reading month than the last couple of months.  Mostly, this was due to finishing the bible and leaving my DailyLit subscriptions suspended (Our Mutual Friend and Daniel Deronda).  Less required reading = Happier reader.  Honestly, I don't care too much for Our Mutual Friend, but will probably complete it at some point anyhow.  I do want to read Daniel Deronda, I was just getting bored.  Maybe this summer/maybe not.

10 Books Read in April:(41 Year-to-Date)
1 for book club:
  - Tattoos on the Heart, Gregory Boyle (3.5)
3 ARCs:
  - The Bride's House, Sandra Dallas (3)
  - Tapestry of Love, Rosy Thornton (3)
  - Ten Thousand Saints, Eleanor Henderson (4/4.5)
6 just for fun:
  - After Hours at the Almost Home, Tara Yellen (4)
  - Leavings, Wendell Berry (Poetry) (3.5)
  - The Reese Chronological Bible, Edward Reese--King James (5)
  - Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson (5)
  - At Home, Bill Bryson (4)
  - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Cohn & Levithan (3)

Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless CompassionThe Bride's HouseThe Tapestry of LoveTen Thousand Saints: A NovelAfter Hours at the Almost HomeLeavings: PoemsThe Reese Chronological BibleMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics)At Home: A Short History of Private LifeNick & Norah's Infinite Playlist   [NICK & NORAHS INFINITE PLAYLIS] [Paperback]

The Tortilla Curtain

1 DNF:  - The Tortilla Curtain,   T.C. Boyle--this was a book club selection, and I'm usually so very good at reading those whether I like them or not, but I gave myself a break this time around.  This was just too dramatic and opinionated for me.  Every time I read it I got more frustrated.

5 Current Reads: (2 are the same as last month)
  - Miss Entropia and the Adam Bomb by George Rabasa
  - Ghost Light by Joseph O'Connor
  - If There is Something to Desire by Vera Pavlova (poetry)
  - The Troll Garden and Others by Willa Cather (short stories)
  - The Story of Christianity Vol. I by Justo L. Gonzalez (nonfiction)
Miss Entropia and the Adam BombGhost Light: A NovelIf There is Something to Desire: One Hundred PoemsThe Troll Garden and OthersStory of Christianity: Volume 1: Volume One: The Early Church to the Reformation

On My Nightstand:
  - Chocolat by Joanne Harris (for Book Club)
  - Townie by Andre Dubus III (current Indiespensible book)
  - Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
  - many other books, but these are the top of the stack right now.
ChocolatTownie: A MemoirGirl, Interrupted

Plan for May:
  - Make a dent in my Back to the Classics Challenge.  I have moved those book selections from my shelf to my nightstand--the equivalent of putting them on my To-Do list.  Hopefully having to look at them all the time will get me to read them.

  - Catch up on some book reviews!  I've fallen behind this year, but I think that May just might be my month to get back on schedule.

  - Finally finish reading The Troll Garden...I don't know if you're sick of seeing it languish around my blog, but I'm sick of seeing it languish on my nightstand.

5 comments:

  1. I had a horrible reading month--with 3 viewings, 2 funerals, and a tornado. Plus over the next few weeks I'm gearing up for 3 graduations starting this weekend with my oldest son graduating from college. I have hope for a better tomorrow!

    I have got to find Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I'm going to need a few fun, easy reads for summer. I'll be interested in what you have to say about the Story of Christianity. Is it a long book?

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  2. Speaking of languishing, I still have At Home languishing on my shelf...half read. It became a bit overwhelming...entertaining, but more info than my brain could handle.

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  3. Wow, Heidi! What a month! Hopefully summer will give you a little bit of time to relax? I got my copy of Miss Pettigrew from a Marketplace seller on Amazon...the Persephone books can be difficult to find inexpensively. Story of Christianity has been a very good follow-up to the bible. It's actually two volumes (each about 400 pages) but seems well researched, yet is not at all wordy, so it doesn't feel real long. Of course I'm reading at a fairly slow pace, mixed in with everything else, so it's very doable.

    Jill, I stalled at that same point in At Home! Somewhere around halfway I just had to give my brain a break. I used to think that Bryson would be a fun person to know, now I'm not so sure--he knows way too much...it might get annoying. :) It was entertaining, but there's no way I'll remember it.

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  4. You had a great reading month! I had 5 books read, and the horror of a weekly Spanish and weekly Math class. I think I'm going to slink behind on my reading until July. July and August are going to be my catch up. I don't know if I'll hit 100 or not. I hope so!

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  5. Belle, your comment really helped me stop and think about my reading so far this year. I've really only been back into reading since 2008 (when my brain finally started recovering from baby-mode)...I hit 100+ books each of those years, but that was greatly due to the amount of JF I was reading aloud and pre-reading for my kiddos. This year, only 7 of my 41 books read were JF which means I'm actually reading a lot more than I thought I was...but book blogging has added so many new books to my TBR that it doesn't feel that way!

    Sorry for getting off on a tangent, but thanks for the reminder to enjoy reading when you can. Whether or not you catch up in July/August, at least you should have a little more time to enjoy reading. Summer is in sight!

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