Reading Plans :: May AND June Wrap-Up and What’s Coming in July

I’m playing catch-up here with two reading plan posts wrapping into one due to my June blogging break! (It was fun, and needed, and hopefully I can squeeze in a few minutes here for catching up now and again.) I had blogged my May goals, but never reported back on them so this will include May and June and some plans for July. I have missed blogging my reading goals! And wouldn’t you know it … without blogging it, I didn’t make a list for June OR get much read.

My goals and predictions for May were as follows:

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the May selection for the Reading to Know bookclub. Read, but never blogged. Shame on me. I did enjoy revisiting this story that I had loved as a child, and found that I had forgotten most of it!
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time, and it seems appropriate now that summer produce season is in full swing (or about to be.) : ) Forgot about this one…
• Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption by Katie Davis. Read and LOVED.

I also managed to read:

• Gregor the Overlander and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
• Aunt Lucy’s Kitchen by Cynthia Ryland, read-aloud with N2
• Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
• Gregor and the Marks of Secret
• The Cricket in Times Square by George Seldon, read aloud with the girls and blogged here
• Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss, a re-read
• Meet the Austins by Madeline L’Engle, another re-read
• The Moon by Night by Madeline L’Engle, Austin Family Chronicles book 2, another re-read
• An Acceptable Time by Madeline L’Engle. This is a story that involves Polly, daughter of Meg Wallace from A Wrinkle in Time. A new read for me and I really enjoyed it! : )

Sorry for the lack o’ links … trying to finish this post between laundry loads and during rest time. : )

A lot of fun, lighter reading in May as well as revisiting some favorites. That’s what happens when my brain is overloaded!

June reading was been a total bust for me for the first three weeks. A lot of running around this month between ballet camp for little girls, a Classical Conversations three-day training/practicum, VBS, and other assorted summery activities. My goals were to try and tackle:

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (again)
• more Madeline L’Engle – we hit a local used bookstore recently and I bought almost the entire Wrinkle in Time series, as well as more Austin Family Chronicle books.
• the sequel to The Fiddler's Gun, Fiddler's Green (Fin's Revolution) , by A.S. Peterson

As of today, I managed to read:

• Gregor and the Code of Claw (the last book in the Gregor the Overlander series)
• Helper by Design: God's Perfect Plan for Women in Marriage by Elyse Fitzpatrick. I needed this marital kick in the pants. : ) Good reminders for me as we are reaching the 10 year mark in our marriage this summer and I enjoyed this book much better than I did Give Them Grace. It has made me consider going back and giving her parenting book (and writing style) a second shot.

…and that’s it. Nothing else was really finished, much less attempted. June was just that busy. Thank goodness I didn’t wait until June to read The Girl of the Limberlost! I hosted the Reading to Know blogclub in June and enjoyed sharing a few beginning thoughts here and the wrap-up here on Carrie’s blog. (Thanks again, Carrie, for inviting me to host!)

Moving forward. : )

I’m hoping to rebound on my reading plans for July. : ) My goals are:

• to participate in Carrie’s Narnia reading challenge this month. I’m planning on reading one of the Narnia books out loud to the girls. I had to go back and look at old blog post, but apparently we started The Magician's Nephew last summer, but didn’t finish it. Must rectify this. (This is also the book selection/theme for July in the Reading to Know bookclub, fyi).
• I’m considering picking up The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis, and reading it for myself. We shall see.
• I started Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book I on our way home from vacation on Saturday and have been dying for a pocket of time to get back to it. The cover artwork on this book drew me in when I spotted it at the library (and I think I remember a mention of this title on Melissa Wiley’s blog months ago.)
• I’ve also been slowly reading through The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had (top photo) and want to keep plugging away at it. I’m getting inspired to read all sorts of classics.

This is all I’m going to commit to at this point. Of course, there is a STACK of books on my nightstand, in baskets, and piled on my desk that are calling my name as well, but I’m not listing any more for now. We shall see where we end up in a month!

Happy reading!

Past 2012 Monthly Reading Goals:
January
February
March
April
May