A Reading Life (53) What I read in April, what I'm #reading in May

I had a very successful reading month in April. I read/finished six five books (I thought it was six, but I was including Good Omens which I'm just about finished listening to on audio. Oops). I completed a four month reading challenge. I would also call it a successful participation in my Spring into Horror Readathon at Seasons of Reading. It has been a long time since I've read that many books in a month's time. Color me proud!

What I read:
Necroscope, Brian Lumley  Review
The Scapegoat, Daphne Du Maurier  Review
The King of Bones and Ashes, J.D. Horn  Review
The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius  Review
The Giver, Lois Lowry  Review 

I completed the four month challenge, Book Challenge by Erin 10.0. The next one is July through October (11.0) and I think I'll participate again. Looking forward to the new categories being announced on June 1st. Here's my completed list:

• 5 points: Freebie – Read a book that is at least 200 pages - Orphan Train by Christina Baker Cline
• 10 points: Read a book that was made into a movie - The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier
• 10 points: Read a book that is set in Europe - The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
• 15 points: Read a book that was a Newberry Award winner (medal winner or honor book): The Giver by Lois Lowry (Winner, 1994)
• 20 points: Read a book that is a friend or family member’s favourite...or the favourite book by another participant in this challenge - Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (one of my mom’s favorites)
• 20 points: Read a book originally published over 100 years ago - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• 25 points: Read a book with six words (and only six words) in the title - The King of Bones and Ashes by J.D. Horn
• 30 points: Read a book with a compass or cardinal direction in the title - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• 30 points: Read a book that was originally published in a different language than your own - The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, Robert Graves (Translation)
• 35 points: Read a book that begins with the letter “N” - Necroscope by Brian Lumley

Currently Reading

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury (my Classics Spin book)
In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, Michael Wood
NOS4A2, Joe Hill
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (audio-almost finished)

My continued May reading plans

Florence & Giles, John Harding
Dear Jane, Allie Cresswell (for review)

New audio book title - to be determined

On a final note, and speaking of the Classics Club, I decided to revise my list and restart my goal date. The reason? In my current living situation, many of my books are difficult to access so there were many books on the list I could not get my hands on. I decided to replace those titles mostly with classic writing books (some of them which I consider classics) and a couple of novels. One notable title, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson which I recently acquired on Kindle. Here's my new list (also found in the Classics Club tab in the menu):

Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale Read in March 2017
Negotiating with the Dead

Jane Austen 

Emma
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey Read in March 2019

Elizabeth Berg
Escaping into the open

Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes Read October 2018
The Martian Chronicles

Zen and the Art of Writing

Dorothea Brande
Becoming a Writer

Anne Bronte

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 

Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
Villette

Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights

Julia Cameron

The Vein of Gold

Truman Capote

In Cold Blood

Colette
Cheri (with The Last of Cheri)

Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White

Daniel Defoe

Roxana

Charles Dickens

David Copperfield
Great Expectations
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Little Dorritt
A Tale of Two Cities 

Annie Dillard

The Writing Life

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

Daphne du Maurier

My Cousin Rachel Read in April 2017

George Eliot 

The Mill on the Floss
Silas Marner

T.S. Eliot

Murder in the Cathedral

Mary Hanford Ford

The Legends of Parsifal

John Fowles

The Collector
The French Lieutenant's Woman

Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank
(Changed from Updike's Rabbit, Run which was a DNF)

Bonnie Friedman

Writing Past Dark

Elizabeth Gaskell

Cranford
North and South

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
The Sylph

John Gardner

The Art of Fiction
On Becoming a Novelist
On Writers and Writing

Natalie Goldberg

Thunder and Lightning
Writing Down the Bones

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Marble Faun

Victor Hugo
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Les Miserables

Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Henry James

The Portrait of a Lady
The Golden Bowl
The Turn of the Screw
Roderick Hudson

Ralph Keyes
The Courage to Write

Madame de Lafayette
The Princess of Cleves Read in February 2019

Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird Read in July 2018

Sheridan Le Fanu

Uncle Silas

Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera

Ursula K. Le Guin

Steering the Craft

Betsy Lerner

The Forest for the Trees

Thomas Mann

Buddenbrooks

W. Somerset Maugham

The Painted Veil

Joyce Carol Oates

The Faith of a Writer

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

Steven Pressfield

The War of Art

Ann Radcliffe

The Mysteries of Udolpho 

Sir Walter Scott

Rob Roy

Mary Shelley

Frankenstein Read in February 2019

Twyla Tharp

The Creative Habit

Brenda Ueland

If You Want to Write

Lew Wallace

Ben-Hur

Evelyn Waugh

Brideshead Revisited

Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence
Ethan Frome
The House of Mirth
The Writing of Fiction

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lady Windermere's Fan
A Woman of No Importance
An Ideal Husband

Virginia Woolf

Orlando
The Virginia Woolf reader

Jane Yolen

Take Joy

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