April has been my quietest reading month yet, but it has held some fantastic reading, so I’m not complaining. And I was able to join in Dewey’s Read-a-Thon at the last minute too.

Challenge Reading/Reading Projects:
Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child (2012)
Manda Scott’s Hen’s Teeth (1997)
Elizabeth Jolley’s Miss Peabody’s Inheritance (1983)

Classic Reading:
Homer’s The Odyssey and Gareth Hinds’ The Odyssey (2010)
Sterling North’s Rascal (1963)
Astrid Lindgren’s The Brothers Lionheart (1973; Trans. J Tate Illus. Ilon Wikland, 1984)
Kate Wilhelm’s Where the Sweet Birds Sang (1976)

Orange Prize 2012 Reading:
Karin Altenberg’s The Island of Wings (2011)
Roopa Farooki’s The Flying Man (2011)

I Am a Serial Reader:
Ian Hamilton’s The Water Rat of Wanchai (2011)
Ian Hamilton’s The Disciple of Las Vegas (2011)
Ian Hamilton’s The Wild Beasts of Wuhan (2012)

Posts long overdue, from my 2011 Must-Reads:
Alexandra Harris’ Romantic Moderns (2010)
Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country (1912)
Chitra Divakaruni’s One Amazing Thing (2009)

Favourite Reads for April: 
Pamela Porter’s I’ll Be Watching (2011)
Katie Ward’s Girl Reading (2012) 

Heading into April, I wanted to catch up visiting challenge sites, updating and exploring other participants posts; I only managed about half this month, so here’s to more in May.

In March, less than 20% of my reading came from my own shelves, but more than half of my April books were my own…so I celebrated by going to the library and borrowing an absurd number of books.

April was good.

Coming in May, I’ll be hosting the next read in the Elizabeth Taylor Centenary Celebration, A Game of Hide and Seek. (Next month, Laura will be hosting with The Sleeping Beauty.) The introductory post will appear tomorrow, and I’ll start the discussion on May 7th.

And I’m already engaged in a handful of great reads looking ahead to May:
Charles deLint’s Dreams Underfoot (I am smitten),
Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief (such fun: the rest of the family was right),
the most excellent stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise by Magan Mayhew Bergman,
another of Catherine Asaro’s Skolian Saga,
Jane Harris’ Gillespie and I (in my Orange stack),
and G.R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones (reading along with Vasilly).

And, I’m shifting into Alice Munro territory again, starting May3, with “Royal Beatings” from Who Do You Think You Are? (also titled The Beggar Maid, outside of Munro’s Canada). Feel free to read along; I’d love the company. These stories interweave more than many of Munro’s tales, so for those who are a bit shy of her stories, this might be a good collection to start with.

And, what about you? Have you read any of these?
How was your April? How was your May?
Have you been reading fiercely or lackadaisically?