Book Plan Update - May

Yes, it's yet another month of my 2015 book plan and update.  Lucky you!  Back in January, I  made a plan to try to read through books I owned, and not buy new books until I'd made a substantial reduction in the (unread) books I owned. Here's the scoop

• In January I didn't gain any books, but also didn't remove many titles from my list as I read a lot of library books and had some re-reads. (2 titles removed, 0 added; net result -2)
• In February, I made bigger inroads in my owned titles (7 titles removed, 1 added; net result -6)
• In March, well, you win some, you lose some (4 titles removed, 10 titles added; net result +6)
• In April, better, but not perfect (6 titles removed, 7 added; net result +1)

and in May? 

• I managed to read 4 titles from my list (Memento Mori by Muriel Spark, Once Upon Stilettos by Shanna Swendson, Straight Man by Richard Russo, Music and Silence by Rose Tremain). 
• I bought 0 books from charity shops and 1 from a charity display table at the Wetland Centre
• I bought three books (used) from AbeBooks (three in the Enchanted Inc series by Shanna Swendson)
• I bought two books from WH Smith on the sale display (Amy Snow by Tracy Rees, The Illusionists by Rosie Thomas)
• I read 3 (and a bit) library books this month (Lila by Marilynne Robinson, Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris, Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo by Julia Stuart (just a little), Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris)
• I re-read a few books we own (The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente, The Ivy Tree  and This Rough Magic  by Mary Stewart and two Mary Jo Putney books) including Alex's bedtime book
  
• I got rid of one book which I decided I was never going to read (One Summer: 1927 by Bill Bryson)

May's tally is therefore...  

books read: 12 (and a bit)

 titles removed: 5,  titles added: 6; net result +1

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2015.  There are now 57 books on the list, with 7 months to go.

1. Isabel Allende, City of Beasts (charity shop, March 2015)
2. Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (charity shop, March 2015)
3. Gerhand Bakker, The Twin 
4. Charlotte Betts, The Apothecary's Daughter (Waterstones, March 2015)
5. Jessie Burton, The Miniaturist (Mother's Day 2015)
6. Michael Collins, The Resurrectionists
7. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone (this one would be a re-read)
8. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
9. Jim Crace, Harvest
10. Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (Waterstones, March 2015)
11. Barbara Ewing, Circus of Ghosts  (charity shop, April 2015)
12. Jim Fergus, One Thousand White Women (Summer 2013)
13. Anne Fine, All Bones and Lies
14. Fannie Flagg, Can't Wait to get to Heaven (Feb 2015, charity shop)
15. Ford Maddox Ford, Parade's End (Nov 2012 - birthday present - bought after the BBC adaptation - but I knew I wouldn't read it straight away as I wanted to let time pass from the adaptation.  Enough time has probably passed now...)
16. E M Forster, Howards End (late 2014)
17. Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Christmas 2014)
18. Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career
19. Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm (Waterstones, March 2015)
20. Patrick Gale, The Whole Day Through 
21. Patrick Gale, Tree Surgery for Beginners (charity shop, April 2015)
22. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (would be a re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it and I didn't seem to own a copy - think my old one fell apart, probably...)
23. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
24. Rumer Godden, Kingfishers Catch Fire
25. Graham Greene, Brighton Rock
26. Nicholas Griffin, The House of Sight and Shadow
27. Jane Haddam, Glass Houses
28. Laurell K Hamilton, Bloody Bones
29. Anjali Joseph, Sarasawati Park
30. Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (charity shop, April 2015)
31. Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide
32. W Somerset Maugham, The Magician
33. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (charity table, Wetland Centre, May 2015)
34. John McGregor, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (charity shop, April 2015 - will be a re-read as have read it in (apparently) October 2004 for a book group)
35. Tom McNeal, Goodnight, Nebraska (AbeBooks, March 2015)
36. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran
37. Patrick Ness, The Crane Wife (charity shop, April 2015)
38. Kate O'Brien, The Land of Spices
39. Tracy Rees, Amy Snow (WH Smith, May 2015)
40. Kathy Reichs, Spider Bones
41. Kathy Reichs, Virals (charity shop, March 2015)
42. Anuradha Roy, An Atlas of Impossible Longing (Winter 2013, bought in a cheap shop in Oxford)
43. Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Watcher in the Shadows (Christmas 2014)
44. Simon Sebag Montefiore, One Night in Winter (Waterstones Piccadilly, not sure of date)
45. Mark Slouka, The Visible World
46. Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Summer 2013 - a re-read, as I read it when a teen)
47. Shanna Swendson, Damsel Under Stress (Abe Books, May 2015)
48. Shanna Swendson,  Don't Hex with Texas (Abe Books, May 2015)
49. Magda Szabo, The Door
50. Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
51. Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts (passed on from Geoff, April 2015)
52. Laini Taylor, Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Waterstones, March 2015)
53. Rosie Thomas, The Illusionists (WH Smith, May 2015)
54. Rose Tremaine, Merivel (Birthdy, 2014)
55. Barry Unsworth, The Ruby in her Navel 
56. Ayelet Waldman, Love and Treasure (new in December 2014)
57. December, Elizabeth Winthrop