All About Books discussion

What books are you planning on reading in May?

Oh dear - I am not ready to think about May yet! I'll come back and post in a bit.

I'll be attempting something from these -

Continuing buddy reads -
Ulysses (to end in June)
Don Quixote (to end in May) 3 stars

New buddy reads -
The Trial 3 stars

AAB seasonal authors -
Tipping the Velvet Sarah Waters returned without reading
The Iron Man Ted Hughes 3 stars
Tales from Ovid Ted Hughes

Personal challenges -
The War of the Worlds 4 stars
The Periodic Table 3 stars
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall currently listening

Library books currently on loan (gasp, how did this happen again?!) -
Guantánamo Diary 5 stars
River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life 2 stars
Bastard Out of Carolina 4 stars
HHhH returned without reading
Look Who's Back returned without reading
The Green Road DNF, it was okay, I just wasn't feeling in the mood for it
The Complete Maus 3 stars

More library books for The Guardian's 100 best non fiction books -
Dispatches
The Right Stuff 4 stars
and more to arrive!

See, this is why I don't make monthly tbr lists, they get out of hand and I end up reading completely different books! May should be interesting!

I have to see what I finish in April first.

I'm starting the month with
Angle of Repose
La Débâcle.
Then I want to read some books for my challenge
Zeno's Conscience
Monsignor Quixote

I'll be reading:
Ripper
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Spice & Wolf, Vol. 13: Side Colors III
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Anne's House of Dreams

Gill, I hope you'll like Zeno's Conscience! I read it a long time ago, and really liked it.

My plans for May, so far:

Dove comincia l'Abruzzo (no English edition, it's a travel book about Abruzzo, the region where I've been living for 7 months now)
Alias Grace
The Second Sex

I'll have to think about further reads!

Life After Life
Middlemarch
Horus Rising
And the next Agatha Christie

ETA I nearly forgot
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

My plan this month is utterly insane - impossible I could finish them all but here goes:

finish from last month:
The Church of Mercy by Pope Francis

various group reads I want to take part in:
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times by Jean-Charles Nault
Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Buddy reads:
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

seasonal play:
Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl

seasonal poet:
Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow by Ted Hughes

Good luck, Greg. You will be very busy!

My list has a lot of overlap with Greg's this month!

I will be continuing my buddy read of Don Quixote and will probably also be finishing up A Bend in the River.

For various group or buddy reads:
The Good Soldier
Angle of Repose {AAB group fiction}
The Bell Jar
The Paradise Mystery
Eurydice {AAB seasonal play}
Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow {AAB seasonal poet}
Fingersmith {AAB seasonal author}
Tempest-Tost

For personal challenges:
Selected Poems of Octavio Paz, poetry by Mexican Nobel Laureate Octavio Paz
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, short stories by Canadian Nobel Laureate Alice Munro
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Outlander
Elmer Gantry or Arrowsmith by U.S. Nobel Laureate Sinclair Lewis
some sort of sci fi -- perhaps Agent of Change or Gateway: Starship Troopers
Three Day Road

I will start with these two that I didn't have time with last month:

Royal Highness 2 stars read
Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams 3 stars read

then I will pick more.


See messages 12, 23, 31 and 32 and 43 or all books read this month.

Pink wrote: "I'll be attempting something from these -

Continuing buddy reads -
Ulysses (to end in June)
Don Quixote (to end in May)

New buddy reads -
The Trial

AAB ..."

Sounds like you have the same library-addiction as me Pink! I'm in there so often dropping off books and whenever I go I inevitably get out more! It's a vicious cycle :) But cheaper than buying books haha.

For May I'm going to start with:

The Feminine Mystique
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
The Miniaturist (AAB recommendation swap read)
The Versions of Us (AAB June Group read)

The last one I thought was the May group read so when I saw it was finally available at the library I snapped it up - so I'll be ready for the discussion in June :)

Oh, I forgot to include my book from the recommendation swap - Three Day Road . I picked it up from the library yesterday :)

Gill wrote: "Good luck, Greg. You will be very busy!"

Yes I will Gill! And good to see the overlap Leslie; could be some fun discussions! :)

Erica, yes I've had a huge library addiction over the past year or two, since I stopped buying books. Sometimes I control myself and only borrow a couple of books at a time, other times I'm like a kid in a sweet shop with maximum number of loans, fighting to read quicker than the renewal dates!

Planned reads for May:


One Hundred Years of Solitude
Norwegian Wood
The God of Small Things
Kokoro
In the Time of the Butterflies
Eyes Full of Empty
The Bamboo Stalk

Fatal Cure
Vector
The Funhouse
The Coffin Dancer

Read-a-Longs:
The Woman in White
Raven Cursed

New Releases:
Invision
The Darkest Torment

Time Allowing:
Spider’s Revenge
The Moscow Vector
Big Jack

Cathie wrote: "Planned reads for May:


One Hundred Years of Solitude
Norwegian Wood
The God of Small Things
Kokoro
In the Time of the Butterflies..."

Cathie, I have been considering Kokoro for quite some time. I am curious to hear your impression of it. I wonder how you will react to the first five books. If you don't go for One Hundred Years of Solitude try Love in the Time of Cholera. I liked it much, much more.

Chrissie, it'll be interestimg reads for the month. Bel Canto mentioned One Hundred Years of Solitude that piqued my interest having not read this author's works. I will keep in mind your recommendation- thank you!

Cathie, good luck.

These are very impressive lists! You all are superstar readers. :D

For May, I hope to read:

Ulysses (Group read; continuing until June)
Pavilion of Women: A Novel of Life in the Women's Quarters (Group read in another group)
Within a Budding Grove (a bit ambitious for May but we'll see)
Delicious Foods

Other than these, I will see what I pick up.

I keep eyeing Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow and if I find a copy would like to join in that discussion.

I will next be reading these:

Light Years 4 stars
An American Childhood 5 stars
Hannah Coulter 2 stars read
Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads 4 stars read
The Aviator's Wife 2stars read

See messages 12, 23, 31 and 32 and 43 for all books read this month.

Pink, cool, you are going to read Bastard Out of Carolina.

I cannot make up my mind on whether to read The Green Road: A Novel. Please advice me when you have read it.

I'll let you know Chrissie :)

Thanks, Pink. Pink, I want you and everybody to read An American Childhood, I loved it so much.

Thanks for the recommendation Chrissie, I've added it to my list and I'll see if they've got a copy at my library. Not that I need any more books to read, but I'll squeeze it in if it gets such high praise from you :)

Pink, I do think you will like it but sometimes just because I love a book it will not necessarily fit others........

I know Chrissie, there's no pressure, your recommendation is good enough for me to want to try a book, even if I won't always love it myself. Unfortunately the library has no copies, which only happens rarely with books I search for, so perhaps it's not as popular here. I'll keep it on my tbr list for later.

Cathie wrote: "Planned reads for May:

...well, I am changing my reading list because I got some library books that have a turnaround time...

Revised:

All Things Cease to Appear
The Widow
The Versions of Us - can't wait to discuss this!
Shelter

Will be reading the below towards the end of May and into the month of June...
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Norwegian Wood
The God of Small Things
Kokoro
In the Time of the Butterflies..."

I have decided to read these too:

Gift from the Sea 4 stars read (by Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
All That Is 3 stars read (by James Salter )

(I tried The Volcano Lover: A Romance but quickly decided it was not for me!)

See messages 12, 23, 31 and 32 and 43 or all books read this month.

I am also adding these:

Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia 2 stars
The Ballroom 4 stars
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World 3 stars read
The Summer Guest: A Novel 2 stars


See messages 12, 23, 31 and 32 and 43 or all books read this month.

Now back to my regularly scheduled reading for the month:

Cathie wrote: "Planned reads for May:

One Hundred Years of Solitude
Norwegian Wood
The God of Small Things
Kokoro
In the Time of the Butterflies..."

{see message 30}

I've updated message 3. I've returned a couple of library books without reading and didn't finish The Green Road. I read the first couple of chapters, which were well written and enjoyable, but it's a slow paced family drama and I just wasn't in the mood for it right now.

Good to know, Pink. Thanks for telling us. You know I was curious about that one.

Chrissie, yes that's why I commented :) It's the sort of book I enjoy reading in the winter, slow and absorbing, but right now I'm juggling too many other books to give it the time.

Late to the party - I'll be finishing up The Unfortunates and reading (and finishing??) The War that Saved My Life.

I may get one more from my list done (Elmer Gantry) before the end of the month but it looks like I will be having quite a few left undone this month. Ah well.

Me too Leslie, but it's still nice to have a plan of books to choose from. It keeps me a little more focused.

I'm intending on finishing The War of the Worlds and The Right Stuff before the end of the month, both of which I'm enjoying.

I'd like to squeeze in either Tales from Ovid or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but they're both big books so I think they'll have to carry over to June.

I have fun making my list even when I don't stick to it! How are you liking The War of the Worlds?

I'm liking it quite a lot, I'm halfway through and think it's my favourite of his so far.

Petra wrote: "For May, I hope to read:

Ulysses (Group read; continuing until June)
Pavilion of Women: A Novel of Life in the Women's Quarters (Group read in another group)
Within a Budding Grove (a bit ambitious for May but we'll see)
Delicious Foods..."

That was the prediction in Post 22.

In reality, my May went like this:
Ulysses (AAB Read-along; ongoing)
Pavilion of Women: A Novel of Life in the Women's Quarters
Moral Disorder and Other Stories
Mister Pip

I am currently reading The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire but won't think I'll be able to finish it by the end of May. I might surprise myself, though.

I need MORE books:

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies 3 stars
A Death in the Family (finished in June)



See messages 12, 23, 31 and 32 and 43 or all books read this month.

Been helping some move all bloody month (drama, Drama, DRAMA!) so I've fallen behind. I'm about 1.5 books behind which isn't totally horrible, but I really would've liked to have finished those 1.5 books and be further along on WiW.