Although I haven't reached my entire goal for April (okay, I barely scratched the surface), I was able to read some of the more important books, those for various groups and challenges. I had failed to realize how complex the first two were and how much time was needed to read them with any sort of understanding.  I know most people could read them without breaking a sweat but since my illness my concentration and comprehension ability has truly suffered. Then too, I hadn't taken into account my growing addiction to Candy Crush (oh, the shame!).  Hopefully I'll do better in May.

Accomplished

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ~ 5 out of 5
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad ~ 3.5 out of 5
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy ~ 4 out of 5
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs ~ 3 out of 5
Carrie by Stephen King ~ 3 of 5
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford ~ 4 out of 5

Still Slowing Reading 

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis ~ I have to decide whether or not to continue with the C.S. Lewis Project after I finish reading this.

Never Even Got To

Summer by Edith Wharton
Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Goals for May

This month I'm going to be a little easier on myself and set more realistic goals that I know I can attain, then if I can polish off more it will be a happy bonus.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
for DWS Buddy Reads

Goodreads Synopsis: This epic tale about the effects of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath on a bourgeois family was not published in the Soviet Union until 1987. One of the results of its publication in the West was Pasternak's complete rejection by Soviet authorities; when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 he was compelled to decline it. The book quickly became an international best-seller

Dr. Yury Zhivago, Pasternak's alter ego, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose life is disrupted by the war and by his love for Lara, the wife of a revolutionary. His artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the brutality and harshness of the Bolsheviks. The poems he writes constitute some of the most beautiful writing in the novel."

Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
for ATW & 1001 Challenges

Goodreads Synopsis: "When it was first published in 1917, Growth of the Soil was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. Ninety years later it remains a transporting literary experience. In the story of Isak, who leaves his village to clear a homestead and raise a family amid the untilled tracts of the Norwegian back country, Knut Hamsun evokes the elemental bond between humans and the land. Newly translated by the acclaimed Hamsun scholar Sverre Lyngstad, Hamsun's novel is a work of preternatural calm, stern beauty, and biblical power-and the crowning achievement of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century."
 

 If There's Time

Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
for 1001 Challenge

Goodreads Synopsis: "Is Sophie Fevvers, toast of Europe's capitals, part swan...or all fake?
Courted by the Prince of Wales and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire and star of Colonel Kearney's circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia."

If there is still time, I hope to read some of the books that were on my April list and I never cracked open. There is some terrific reading to look forward to in May!

Originally published on www.chapterofdreams.com