Reading Round-Up ~ April

I’ve continued a decent reading streak for the past month. I finished off eight books (yes, two of them were junk food books during a rough week) and started another three while making some progress on a few others. And, of course, I added a few more to the list!

I will try to write up some reviews this month, but my schedule doesn’t really let up until June when I’ll have more time to write. I’d pick some favorites, but I’ve read such a range of styles and topics that it’s difficult to compare the books!

What I haven’t yet read this year is a quality adult fiction book that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

I enjoyed my junk food books, but they are not quality. I’ve read several books that were fascinating or astounding or enlightening, but I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed them due to the difficult or intellectually challenging subject matter. I thoroughly enjoyed one quality book, but it was a children’s book. Although it wasn’t a fun book, The Chosen probably comes the closest. The narrative kept my interest and it was a fascinating window into a world so different from mine. It wasn’t cheerful, but it wasn’t brutal.

Did you read any enjoyable quality fiction this past month?

Here is my updated list.

The 2015 Book List Challenge

[*Added to original list]

Novels

Lila: A Novel

Hood

The Sunday Philosophy Club

A Girl of The Limberlost (ChocLit Guild)

The Brothers K

The Road

Dune

The Once and Future King

The Chosen

Beloved [in progress]

The Book Thief

*Whose Body?

Clouds of Witness

Catch-22

Lord of the Flies

The Great Gatsby

Invisible Man

The Return of the Native

The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel

The Grapes of Wrath

Slaughterhouse-Five

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The Signature of All Things [in progress]

*Godric: A Novel

Merry Hall

*Go Set a Watchman: A Novel

*Gone with the Wind (ChocLit Guild)

Classics

Pride and Prejudice (ChocLit Guild)

Gulliver’s Travels (An abridged re-telling)

Moby Dick

Paradise Lost (ChocLit Guild)

The Brothers Karamazov

The Lord of the Rings

Frankenstein [in progress]

No Name (Or something else by Wilkie Collins. ChocLit Guild)

Hamlet (CC Moms Book Club) [deep reading in progress]

Ancients

The Iliad

The Odyssey

Children’s and YA Novels

The Door in the Wall (CC Challenge A)

A Gathering of Days (CC Challenge A)

Crispin: The Cross of Lead (CC Challenge A)

Where the Red Fern Grows (CC Challenge B)

Junk Food

*Highland Fling 

*Paradise Fields

Non-Fiction

Biography/History

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (ChocLit Guild)

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris (ChocLit Guild)

The Hiding Place (CC Challenge B)

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Faith, Culture, and Education

The Pursuit of God (ChocLit Guild) [in progress]

Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age (CiRCE Conference)

Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education (CiRCE Conference) [in progress]

Leisure: The Basis of Culture

The Soul of Science (CC Parent Practicum)

Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art (CC Parent Practicum)

Honey for a Teen’s Heart

Invitation to the Classics: A Guide to Books You’ve Always Wanted to Read

*Just Walk Across the Room (ChocLit Guild)

Re-Reads

*The Bronze Bow (CC Challenge A)

*The Question (CC Moms Book Club) [deep reading in progress]

*A Tale of Two Cities (reading aloud) [in progress]

*The Catcher in the Rye  

*Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

*Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (read aloud)

*Heidi by Johanna Spyri