My March Monthly Reading Objectives

At the beginning of the year, I made my "top 10" reading goals for this year.

Number 7 was the following:

7. Plan ahead! One of my biggest hang ups is not thinking in advance about what I want to read -- I'm always being swayed by what's on the shelf at the library or what I see on other blogs (simply known as reading ADD). In order to take control of my shelves, I plan on a personal monthly reading list that I can check off when I'm done. It will include my required reading (all book club books/challenge books) and the titles I WANT to read.

So for the month of February I made a list of the following that I either needed to read or wanted to read:

Planting Dandelions by Kyran Pittman (ARC received from the author) -- DONE!

Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott (required monthly book club selection) -- DONE!

Washington City is Burning by Harriet Gillem Robinet (required mother/daughter book club selection) -- DONE!

Please Don't Eat the Daises by Jean Kerr (personal elective) -- DONE!

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (juvenile fiction choice for Black History Month) -- DONE!

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (elective for Black History Month) Did not start

Down The Nile by Rosemary Mahoney (personal elective) still working on

I'm not the most ambitious reader, most bloggers can read that many in a week...but I do have to cook dinner for my family occasionally!

As for March, this is what I have planned -- and I'm taking into consideration that A) I have a 500+page book I'm reading for book club and B) Next week is the final week before our PTA fundraiser, so I doubt I will accomplish much reading -- so 5 books will be more than I can handle:

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (required book club selection)

Candy Bomber by Michael O. Tunnell (required mother/daughter book club selection -- I've already read this -- whew!)

 
Electives:  This month is Women's History Month -- so my electives will fall into that category:
 
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (juvenile historical fiction; on my shelf)

Summary from Amazon: Set in New York City at the beginning of the American Revolution, Chains addresses the price of freedom both for a nation and for individuals. Isabel tells the story of her life as a slave. She was sold with her five-year-old sister to a cruel Loyalist family even though the girls were to be free upon the death of their former owner. She has hopes of finding a way to freedom and becomes a spy for the rebels, but soon realizes that it is difficult to trust anyone. She chooses to find someone to help her no matter which side he or she is on.

 

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y Lee (adult historical fiction; on my shelf)

Summary from Amazon: Former Elle editor Lee delivers a standout debut dealing with the rigors of love and survival during a time of war, and the consequences of choices made under duress. Claire Pendleton, newly married and arrived in Hong Kong in 1952, finds work giving piano lessons to the daughter of Melody and Victor Chen, a wealthy Chinese couple. While the girl is less than interested in music, the Chens' flinty British expat driver, Will Truesdale, is certainly interested in Claire, and vice versa. Their fast-blossoming affair is juxtaposed against a plot line beginning in 1941 when Will gets swept up by the beautiful and tempestuous Trudy Liang, and then follows through his life during the Japanese occupation. As Claire and Will's affair becomes common knowledge, so do the specifics of Will's murky past, Trudy's motivations and Victor's role in past events. The rippling of past actions through to the present lends the narrative layers of intrigue and more than a few unexpected twists. Lee covers a little-known time in Chinese history without melodrama, and deconstructs without judgment the choices people make in order to live one more day under torturous circumstances.

 

Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the WWII Front by Ellen Hampton (non fiction WWII; library copy)

Summary from Amazon:  Women of Valor tells the extraordinary story of the Rochambelles, the only women's unit to serve on the front lines of World War II. Some of them had been proper young ladies stranded abroad by the German invasion of France; others had scaled the Pyrenees by night to escape the Nazi occupation. All of them had a deep desire to help liberate their nation, and if they couldn't fight, driving an ambulance would have to do. Organized in New York by a wealthy American widow determined to create an all-female ambulance corps, they served with unflinching courage--saving soldiers from burning camps, dodging bombs, bullets, and mines, and even talking their way out of German hands. With colorful, brave characters and fierce battle scenes, Women of Valor is both a gripping and delightful read.

 

Hope to finish from February: 

Down The Nile by Rosemary Mahoney (personal elective -- still working on)

Wish Me Luck!