In August of 2013, I joined the Classics Club and made a list of 51 books to read in the next five years. On May 3, 2018, I finished the last book from the list! In honor of that occasion, I thought I would share some info about my Classics Club journey.

If you're interested in seeing my whole list of books, you can find it here.

First book I read: Xingu by Edith Wharton
Last book I read: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Technically, I finished Daniel Deronda three days later, but that one had been spread out over many months.)
Shortest book: I'm not sure how to count this one. Xingu by Edith Wharton was 48 pages, but I read it as part of a whole book of her short stories. And Howl by Allen Ginsberg is 56 pages, but I read the graphic novel version, so it was longer.
Longest book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1,361 pages)
Book that took the longest to read: Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (January 16 - May 3)
Percentage of books from the list that I owned: 75% (Yay!)
Book I liked best: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Books I liked least: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (mostly because of crudity or characters' immorality)
Hardest book to read: The Iliad by Homer (I read this one mostly while nursing my newborn, and I kept falling asleep!)
Book that surprised me with how much I liked it: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Oldest book on the list: The Iliad by Homer (about 762 B.C.)
Newest book on the list: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1985)
Genres read: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Play, and Short Stories
Number of books read in each year: 2013 (3 books); 2014 (7 books); 2015 (15 books); 2016 (5 books); 2017 (15 books);​ 2018 (6 books)

So there you have it - 51 books in 5 years! Some I loved, some I strongly disliked, but I'm glad I experienced every single one of them! And yes, I'm contemplating a second round, focused mainly on classic children's literature. . .​ Any suggestions for what I should put on my list?

The daffodils and tulips are blooming! The grass is green and filled with dandelions! We can play in the sandbox again! It's finally SPRING!

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (It was an okay book, but not one I loved. The writing style just never hooked me.)
Rebound by Kwame Alexander (I loved this one just as much as The Crossover!)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (That's right - I finished it! Which means my Classics Club list is officially done!! There's a wrap-up post about completing my Classics Club list coming on Thursday. And, by the way, I loved Daniel Deronda.)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (I read this book many times as a kid, but I haven't reread it since middle school. I'm happy to find that I still love it just as much!)

Can't Help Falling by Kara Isaac (This book has been on my TBR since before it was published in 2016. Last month, I found a copy at a used bookstore, and it's been sitting on my shelf tempting me since then. It's finally time to read it!)

Last weekend, my husband and I went on a little getaway up to Traverse City, Michigan. Besides finding the most delicious ice cream ever (Moomers - it's so good!), we spent a lot of time in bookstores (because I have an extremely patient husband). It was so nice to be able to browse for as long as I wanted without having to chase a toddler around!

One of the bookstores (Horizon Books) had an awesome bargain books section. It's surprising I didn't come home with all the picture books. Here are the books I found for my son (with a couple for my soon-to-be-arriving daughter).

• ​Happy Birthday, Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton
• Peek-a-Boo Sliders Farm by Nathalie Choux
• Anne of Green Gables by Jennifer Adams
• Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld
• Babar's ABC by Laurent de Brunhoff
• The ABC Animal Orchestra by Donald Saaf
• Hidden Michigan by Anne Margaret Lewis and Janis Campbell
• Hooray for Today! by Brian Won

And here's what I found for myself!

• His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (I've been wanting to start this series, but the library doesn't have it.)
• Ex-Libris by Ross King (A spontaneous find at the one used bookstore we went to. I don't often pick up books I've never heard of before, so I'm curious to see how this one is.)
• The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall (I finally own the whole series! At least for a couple more weeks, until the last book in the series comes out.)
• Spell It Out by David Crystal (For the English geek in me.)
• Meet Me in Atlantis by Mark Adams (I loved his other travel narrative, Turn Right at Machu Picchu, so I was really excited to see this one on the bargain book shelf!)

My husband and I had a lovely little getaway this weekend. My two-year-old stayed at his grandparents' as a trial run for baby's arrival in June, and we got some time to relax, visit bookstores, and eat yummy food (we found the most delicious ice cream!). Then Saturday was Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon, which I participated in only sparingly. The toddler was rather demanding of my attention. :​) But I did get almost three hours of reading in, which is more than I expected!

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser (Five star read, for sure! And the perfect book to take on vacation.)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (I'm enjoying this one so far.)
Rebound by Kwame Alexander (I started this one before our trip and haven't gotten back to it yet, but that's okay. It would be easy to zip through this one in an hour or two, but I'd rather savor it.)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 680 out of 710. I should finish it this week, and then my Classics Club list will be done!!)

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (This book has gotten a lot of love on the Books Between podcast, so I thought I'd give it a try.)

It's spring! It's finally spring! After an ice storm last weekend, the temperatures have been gradually rising. Today is 60 degrees, and our highs for the foreseeable future don't drop below 50. Finally! It's so nice to be out in the sunshine!

Edward Trencom's Nose by Giles Milton (This one was just meh, but now that I've read it, I can pass it along to someone else who may love it in my Little Free Library!)
Sounder by William Armstrong (It may be because I read this one in a disjointed fashion over several days while I put my son down for a nap, but it didn't particularly thrill me. It seemed kind of pointless and meandering, and like it could have been so much more.)

The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson (This series is amazing! This book suffers a little from second-book-in-a-trilogy syndrome, even though it's actually the third book of four. But I don't even care because I love the characters and I love the setting and I love the storytelling. You should read this series!)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 656 out of 710. The end is in sight!)

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Other than finishing Daniel Deronda, this is the last book on my Classics Club list!! I'm going to make it!)

My son turned two this month, and when I sat down to figure out what his birthday party theme should be, my mind naturally traveled to books. And then it was an obvious choice. His favorite book currently is Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. Sounded like a fun birthday party to me!

I'm really not a big party planner sort of person, so I was extremely thankful for Pinterest for providing lots of ideas. We decorated in green and orange, like the cover of the book. And I printed out pages from the book to go with some of the food.

Puppy Chow
"A blue dog on a red tree." (Blueberries & strawberries)
​"A green dog on a yellow tree." (Green grapes & pineapples)

And the absolutely amazing cake made by my mother-in-law!!

Here's the whole "cake" with my son who was being goofy and wouldn't let us take a good picture. Ah, two-year-olds!

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here, which is why no posts happened last week. We had a birthday party for my son (which was book-themed, so there will be a post coming about it!). Then my husband was out of town for three days. I have to tell you that single parenting a two-year-old while being seven months pregnant is exhausting! I pretty much collapsed on the couch as soon as my little guy was in bed. I've really enjoyed this past weekend of no plans and relaxing (and having my husband home again!). I was even able to get a fair amount of reading in! :​)

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (The pacing was on the slow side, but I still enjoyed this one. I keep thinking about the kids that were the main characters, so I'm sure I'll be reading the sequels soon.)
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn (Almost bailed 50 pages in, but I'm glad I kept going. The second half was good enough to stick with it for.)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (I loved revisiting this one. It's a Newbery winner that I read in childhood and taught as a sixth grade teacher. It was fun to read it just to read it.)

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost (This is for the country of Kiribati for the Litsy Passport Challenge. It's really better than the title suggests.)
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 610 out of 710. One hundred pages to go!!)

Edward Trencom's Nose by Giles Milton (I'm trying to balance library and owned books, so I grabbed this one off my shelf. It's on my TBR Bingo that I'm trying to finish this year and have made very little progress on. Time to do something about that!)

The first three months of the year are over already! That means it's time to take stock of my reading thus far and my reading challenge progress. Since I have a new baby arriving in June, I've been trying to really work on my reading challenges in the first part of this year. Let's see if I'm making as much progress as I think I am!

Favorite fiction book this quarter: The Lost Book of the Grail by Charlie Lovett
Favorite nonfiction book this quarter: Mail Obsession: A Journey Round Britain By Postcode by Mark Mason

Reading Challenge Progress
Mount TBR    10/36
Nonfiction     9/15
Litsy Passport    2/6 countries
Newbery      26/45 points
Picture Book   42/104 categories
Middle Grade     Well. . . I've read 16 middle grade books so far this year, but I haven't assigned them to categories yet. And since each book can count towards two categories, I guess you could say I have 32 out of 104 categories complete!

Personal Reading Goals
Finish Classics Club List     Just one and 1/3 books to go!
TBR Bingo       9/25 (This needs work.)
​Read My Own Books     46% (Goal is 50%)

Cue the never-ending chorus - I need to read more books I own! Only 46% of the books I've read this year have been books I've owned, and I really need to keep that percentage over 50%. I haven't dug the hole too deep yet, so here's my chance to swing the balance the other way!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, spending time with family and friends. But most importantly, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Where We Belong by Lynn Austin (This was a really enjoyable read.)
The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Another Newbery winner. I taught this one when I taught sixth grade, so it was interesting to revisit it just to read it.)

The Maiden's Bequest by George MacDonald (This is my yearly George MacDonald Holy Week read. It's a slow, savoring sort of read, so I didn't quite make it during Holy Week, but I should finish it up soon.)
​Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (I'm on page 504 out of 710.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (This is one I've been hearing lots of good things about - and I just recently bought books 2 and 3 - so I finally decided to read book one!)

I am a proud Michigander (or Michiganian, but I prefer the former), and I recently discovered even more reasons to be proud of my state and its residents. Over the past couple of weeks, I've found out that these three authors live in Michigan, which just makes me like them even more. I thought I would share my discoveries here on Smiling Shelves. Even if you don't live in Michigan, it's still fun to find out more about the lives of real-life authors.

Lynn Austin is one of my favorite Christian authors. She writes Biblical fiction and historical fiction. I love escaping into one of her books, while feeling refreshed in my spiritual life as well. Over the weekend, I had a conversation with a new friend on Litsy (@TheHeartlandBookFairy), who told me that Lynn Austin lives on the west side of Michigan by the city of Holland. I had already decided that I needed to read all of Austin's books, but now I think I have to own them all, too!

My son loves The Pout-Pout Fish. Last week, I decided to look up some information about the author, Deborah Diesen, just for fun. And surprise! She lives in Michigan, outside of Lansing. She also has an amazing blog where she highlights other authors from Michigan. What's better than spreading author love?

And Deborah Diesen's website that I just mentioned is how I found the third author I'm highlighting today - Annie Spence, who just published Dear Fahrenheit 451. I haven't read that book yet, but I've been hearing lots of good things about it in the blogosphere. It was already on my TBR, but discovering that Spence lives in Michigan bumped it to the top of my list!