April Wrap-up Post

Wow! I can’t believe it is already May! Time for a wrap-up post— a post to take a look at where reading journey has taken me and where I want to go. Below if a summary of my April in reading. You can check my progress towards my goals anytime by clicking the 2018 Challenges and Goals tab above.

Progress Towards Goals

2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge  - 3 books read/16 book read this year

Well, it’s been a slow month, reading-wise. One of the reasons is my commitment to reading more non-fiction. I’ve been jumping around from book to book, trying to find a Grant biography I want to stick with. More about that in a minute.

Here are the books I DID complete this month.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini

Same Beach, Next Year by Dorothea Benton Frank

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

2018 Nonfiction Reading Challenge

I didn’t complete any nonfiction books this month, but nonfiction did take a big dent of my reading time. After reading Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule I was convinced I wanted to read more about Ulysses S Grant, so I went on a hunt for Grant biographies. I have about a half-dozen on my shelf right now and read bits of most of them, before settling on Grant by Ron Chernow. It’s a slow read, but one I want to do. It may take awhile, though.

And early this month I went to see Hamilton, the musical. Awesome show, in case you were wondering! And I’m now officially Hamilton-obsessed! I’m in the middle of reading Hamilton, The Revolution, an account of the musical. And my reserve list is full of books about both Alexander and Eliza. I could write a whole post about Grant books and another about Hamilton books — and I probably will!

2018 Bookworms Selections

I read our April book club selection, Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini. I’ll be posting a review of it soon!

2018 Read My Own Shelf Progress

None of the books I read in April came from my own shelves, though two came off my wishlist from the library. No progress here, but I think I can still make my goal of 10-12 books for the year!

2018 Write My Reviews Progress - 2 books reviewed

I’m currently at 75% for the year. I wrote and posted reviews for only one of the three books I read last month (although I have a review post scheduled for another one this week) and one was for a book I read last month

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Only Child by Rhiannon Navin

I didn’t realize until now how little I’d blogged in April. I posted only four times and I’m three reviews behind for the year..

2018 Cull My Shelves Progress

This was another unsuccessful month. Our April book club was very sparsely attended and I don’t think my friend is collecting books for her LIttle Free Library. In addition, the thrift store that was accepting books is no longer doing this.Finding another outlet for donating my books is now a priority.

I did manage to give away one book from my collection, A Piece Of The World by Christina Baker Kline. Friends were down visiting and we had dinner together. One mentioned she had visited a site on her last vacation where another friend wanted to view a painting. As soon as she described the painting of the woman in the grass, I knew she was talking about Christina’s World and Andrew Wyeth. I showed her the photo of the painting in the back of the book and she confirmed it was the painting she was referring to, so I gave her the book!

Next Month

I just started my May selection for book club,The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I have two books scheduled to read for book tours in May, Penguin and Tiny Shrimp Don’t Do Bedtime, a children’s book by Cate Berry, and Becoming The Talbot Sisters, by Rachel Linden.

I’d like to make some more progress in reading my nonfiction, and at the same time work on my U.S. Presidents project. As I mentioned above, I’m in the middle of Grant by Ron Chernow. I expect this to take me into June, as it is a slow, but informative, read. I will probably pick up on or two ‘free-range’ books that are relatively light to give me a break while reading Grant.

In between reading, I’m hoping to get a few more reviews posted, as well as a post or two about my nonfiction reading plans.

How’s your reading going?