April Reflections

As today is the last day of the month and I don't have any book reviews to write, I thought I'd take a look at the month in review. This month I felt like I've read and read but have only read 16 books in total and some of those are kids' books! This is the first month this year that I have less than 20 books total and I cannot find a reason for it. But when I think about it, we were overly busy with appointments this month and all the extra days of church over Easter so I guess a lot of my reading time was taken up otherwise. (Speaking of Easter, we are still celebrating that, many people may do not know this but the Easter celebration lasts for 5o days. It is not a one day religious celebration, as it is a one day secular holiday.) Anyway, I'm hoping to finish two more books today, The Forest of Hands and Teeth which I am more than half finished and then The Wonderful O which is a long picture book or novelette for children. I won't get them reviewed today but I go by finish dates as to which month they are included in and that will get me up to 18, a number I feel more comfortable with. But then we do have an appointment for speech therapy for the 8yo this afternoon, so who knows!

Here's the list of books I've read this month minus the two I'm hoping to add today (the books marked xx are not counted towards my final total as they are either picture books or mainly read to me by the 8yo):
xx. Goalkeeper Goof by Cari Meister (5*****)
xx. The End Zone by Lori Mortensen (5*****)
70. The Talking Cat and other stories of French Canada by Natalie Savage Carlson (4****)
71. Graphic Classics: Arthur Conan Doyle edited by Tom Pomplun (4****)
72. The Side-Yard Superhero by Rick D. Niece (3.5 ***)
73. Wanting by Richard Flanagan (3***)
74. Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison (5*****)
75. The Revolutionary John Adams by Cheryl Harness (3***)
76. The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo (4.5 ****)
77. Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli (4****)
78. The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by e.l. konigsburg (3.5***)
79. The Glister by John Burnside (3***)
80. Watchmen by Alan Moore (5*****) (FAVOURITE of the month)
81. Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd (3.5***)
82. Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (4****)
83. If You Lived With the Iroquois by Ellen Levine (3.5***)
84. Tree in the Trail by Holling Clancy Holling (4.5****)
xx. The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide (nr)
85. Hand of Isis by Jo Graham (2.5**)
+ 2 more hopefully = 18

Now movies/DVD watching on the other hand was even worse! We only watched one DVD the entire month. I guess everyone was so darned tired at the end of the day no one wanted to even watch a movie or TV episode. I, who am addicted to TV on DVD, do not even have a show on the go at the moment! So what was this one movie we watched you ask. Well, it was a re-watch actually. Here you go:

22. (#) King King (2003) (re-watch) (own) - First saw this in the theatre when it first came out and enjoyed it very much; this is the first time I've re-watched it. This time, though, we let the 8yo watch it and only had to have him close his eyes a couple of times when people were getting killed, otherwise the violence was monster movie violence and nothing worse than cartoon violence. Anyway, I am what you would call a King Kong aficionado. I've seen every King Kong movie at least twice and yes that includes (Godzilla vs. King Kong), the original King Kong many times and even Mighty Joe Young, and I think they did a very good job with making it and keeping it essentially as a love story. I only think they made a very bad choice in choosing Jack Black as the lead. I like Jack Black but he can't do drama and he played the part way over the top. A much more serious take on the part would have put the movie up another notch onto a much more serious playing field. But other than that the casting was good and I enjoy the movie and will watch it again.

Back to reading, I had a huge stack of arcs to read this month and pretty much read nothing but to try and make my way through them but sadly did not finish them all. Again, if, I get the two read today, I am left over with just 5 I should have read this month. These are my first arcs that put me behind this year. May is another big month for arcs, though not as big as this month has been. So the plan is to get May's books read and catch up with a couple left over from April. My whole goal this year is to not be behind on any arcs by the end of the year, except of course books I receive in December. Wouldn't that be lovely if I could accomplish it!

Keep a goal in your head, hope in your heart and a smile on your face and if one should waver the other two will pull you through.