Wow, I had fun this month. I stopped “worrying” about challenges and read what I wanted to read. And then I ended up with tons of things read in the end. At the same time, I have been negligent in leaving comments on your wonderful blogs: I still feel like I’m trying to catch up. I hope that April finds me commenting on your blogs far more often!

Note that some of the books in the lists below had many illustrations. I have also listed some books that I’ve been reading for a number of months. It’s really not that crazy around here.

Fiction and Nonfiction Reviews

In March, I reviewed a few things I read in February.

• Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales (630 pages; fiction/short stories) I read this in January and February.
• The Stranger by Albert Camus (140 pages; fiction)
• Stories by Tommaso Landolfi (180 pages; fiction/short stories)
• Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt (about 15 hours audio, equal to about 380 pages; nonfiction/biography)

I also reviewed the following in March.

• Golden Legacy by Leonard S. Marcus (230 pages, with a lot of illustration; nonfiction)
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov (300 pages; science fiction)
• Christ and the New Covenant by Jeffrey R. Holland (370 pages; nonfiction/religious). Read aloud with my husband over the past six months.
• Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (150 pages; children’s nonfiction)
• The Odyssey by Homer, trans. by Robert Fagles (485 pages; epic poetry). Read in February and March.
• Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (215 pages; fiction).
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein (290 pages; children’s fiction). Read aloud to my son in February and March.
• Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau (200 pages; fiction).
• A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal by Leonard Marcus (45 pages, with illustration; nonfiction).
• Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dogs by Kitty Burns Florey (150 pages; nonfiction/memoir).
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (200 pages; fiction).
• Moments: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographs by Hal Buell (240 pages; nonfiction/coffee table book)

Children’s Projects

I reviewed just one children’s picture book (although I mentioned a few more on that post).

• Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt

Challenge Update

• For my personal Newbery project, I read Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
• For the U.S. Presidential Reading Project, I read Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
• For the Really Old Classics Challenge, I read The Odyssey by Homer, trans. Robert Fagles.
• For the Dewey’s Books Mini-Challenge, I read Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
• For the 9 for 09 challenge (“Used”), I read Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov.

1^st Quarter Ended Challenges

I failed to complete any of my chosen books for the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. I began reading The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters in January, and I’m still reading it, little by little. It’s a cookbook, so I’m enjoying cooking some of the recipes. For the challenge, I also chose The Flavor Bible (a cooking help book that I’ve already browsed through) and The Art of Eating, which is a collection of essays about food by M.F.K. Fischer. I have a great list of other cooking and eating books that I want to read, so I’m still eager to get to them in the future, challenge or not!

I did finish the Martel-Harper Challenge for 1^st quarter. I read Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges and Animal Farm by George Orwell.

2^nd Quarter Challenges

I’m joining my own Martel-Harper Challenge for 2^nd quarter as well. I will probably read Julius Caesar and Short and Sweet: 101 very short poems, edited by Simon Armitage, but I have others in a pool on my current challenges post. To join the Martel-Harper Challenge for 2^nd quarter, see this post.

I’ve also joined the Once Upon a Time III challenge for The Journey. This means I’ll be reading one book of fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, or mythology during the second quarter. I’m intending to read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That doesn’t mean I don’t have dozens I want to read. In fact, I’ve already started a different book that will count. I’ve added some more books I’d really like to read to my current challenges post. I also may share some stories on Mondays for the Short Story Weekends portion of the challenge.

I’m also going to join (attempt) a one-month reading challenge. Myrthe alerted me to the Global Voices Book Challenge: Read Your Way Around the World challenge. The idea is that people around the world read a book about a country that you have never read about before by April 23 (UNESCO day). I want to read about Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Although I’ve read some books about that region, my reading has been limited to half of a novel (The Kite Runner) and a memoir about an American (Three Cups of Tea). Technically, those count as “having read about the region,” but I don’t think they should. For this project, one book I’d like to read is Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography. She was the first woman prime minister of Pakistan and that sounds like it will be an interesting twist on the region. (Does anyone know if Daughter of Destiny is the same as Daughter of the East? I can’t tell if they are the same book in a different package or two different biographies.)

I may not get this book read by April 23 (I’m still waiting for it via ILL from the library), but I’m still grateful for the challenge to get me thinking of this book. I’ll try to get it read this quarter. (If you want to join, include the keyword gvbook09 as a tag on your post so they can find you in the blogosphere.) Does anyone have any other suggestions for good nonfiction books about Afghanistan or Pakistan?

New on Rebecca Reads

I’ve added a few pages to my site. First, thanks to Rose City Reader, I added a listing of “101 Books Recommended for the College Bound.” This is a very comprehensive list of classics that I feel I should read. While I am certainly beyond college, there are a number I have yet to read!

I also worked on my Reviews by Title Archive: I added a list of reviews with the picture books and then a list with only picture books. I think that may make it easier for you to find book you are interested in. Note that the non-picture book list still has children’s literature on it, just not the picture books.

I’m considering doing weekly “Sunday Salon” posts; it would be nice to reflect each week on my reading. However, I rarely have time to post on the weekend, so I may make it a mid-week “Reading Journal” instead.