Well, March has been wonderful: I’ve gone through it in a daze of feeding and diapers and naps. Last night, for the first time since before Strawberry was born, I slept for more than three hours at one time! It was almost four hours, long enough that I even started to dream. I have been feeling rather sleep deprived, of course, so this was wonderful.

I’ve been in such a daze that I accidentally titled this post “March plans” before I realized that March is over and this post is to be about my “plans” or “ideas” for April reading. March was a bit of a loss reading-wise, but I expected that. I’m just enjoying my newborn.

Reviewed in March/Read Earlier

• Quicksand by Nella Larsen
• The Mormon People by Matthew Bowman

Read in March

• Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (1807 summaries of the plays for children)
• A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levinson
• Erewhon by Samuel Butler (Victorian satire of society)

I’m feeling like reading again, but my reading is becoming more focused.I have lots of ideas for what I may read in the coming weeks, but I’m not pressuring myself: this isn’t a “plan” and if it all falls through, so be it. I won’t beat myself up.

Because I’m beginning my homeschooling journey with my oldest child, I’ll be reading far more books about teaching/parent psychology. I’m currently rereading Awakening Children’s Minds, and I have a few others checked out: Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child and Raising Your Spirited Child. I also have a review book via Netgalley by Leonard Marcus that contains interviews with picture book illustrators. So far it’s really good.

For school this month, Raisin and I are learning about Australia, which is where he was born and my husband and I (obviously) lived for a time. My interest has been peaked and I have checked out Wise Women of the Dreamtime, a collection of folklore originally collected in the late 1800s. I also might read some Australian fiction if I can find it: I just downloaded For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke (a novel about transported gentleman written in the 1870s) from project gutenberg and another one that caught my eye is The Secret River by Kate Grenville (which Eva recently reviewed). I could maybe read some other Australian historical fiction. Do you have any suggestions? (Peter Carey and I did not get along, for the record, but then I only attempted The True History of the Kelly Gang.)

I still intend to read plenty of classics, and I’m hoping to always be reading a Victorian thus year. Right now, I’ve begun Vanity Fair, and I think I’m going to enjoy it! My book club is reading Moby Dick in May, so I hope to start that early so I won’t be rushed.

And then we have the fact that April is poetry month. I want to read poetry with my son: he’s always been resistant to poetry, but maybe he just doesn’t understand what it is. We’ve been writing stories and he makes up songs all the time and I told him today that his song was a “poem.” He got excited about that; so maybe I have a way in with him!

I want to post on poetry a few times this month. I have requested If Not, Winter, Anne Carlson’s translation of Sappho, and I have Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke on my shelf. That later is not poetry, of course, but at least it’s written by a poet. I’d love to finally get to The Aeneid at some point this month, but it probably won’t happen. Other than that, I have many volumes of poetry to love: I just need to make a point of reading it!

Other possibilities for reading this month: The Great Arab Conquests (maybe a few chapters), short stories by Bessie Head, maybe a light novel from my “read or get rid of” box.

Anyway, as I said, I feel like reading again, but my kids, gardening, cleaning the house, and getting sleep will probably continue to be priority for the most part this month. I hope to stop by the blog a little more often, but we’ll see how it goes!

How was your March? What are you planning (or not planning) for April?