Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua book cover
March has been a pretty busy month in my personal life, so my ramblings have been in short supply over the past few weeks; I do hope no one has felt too deprived. One of the most exciting things that I've been involved in during March was a series of events that a colleague and I put together to celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth. Some of you have already expressed an interest in these, and wished me well, so for those that have taken an interest, I will try to write a post this month describing how we organised our events, and throw a few photo-snaps out there for you to enjoy. Back in the blogosphere, I've been neglecting poor old Charley D. a bit and, whilst I've now read Great Expectations, I haven't got around to writing a review for it yet; expect this in the next couple of weeks. To atone for my wandering reading habits, I will also start working my way through Bleak House this month. I can't promise to get it done by the end of April, but I'll give it a shot.

Also exciting in my everyday life is the fact that I have joined my first ever book group. Hopefully this will help me broaden my reading horizons and, if nothing else, will give me the opportunity to pinch other people's ideas and pass them off as my own; a very good plan. The first book we'll be reading is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - a memoir about raising your children the 'Chinese way' - I'm not sure I'm the target demographic, but I'm ready to jump in and see if I can develop my inner Chinese mother. In honour of my first book group read, I'm making this my book of the month.

With the film having been released worldwide March, I'm planning to polish off The Hunger Games trilogy this month, with Mockingjay. I'm still very split about the series and I'm hoping the final book is going to give me some closure one way or another. 

To read Ulysses has been a long-term reading ambition and, once I've finished Bleak House, I should have a clear run at the book over the summer months. As a warm up I'll read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man this month. Portrait was the winner in my informal Twitter poll, when I asked for advice on where to start with Joyce; so if it stinks, I'm blaming you guys - you know who you are.

Let's see, I've also been meaning to re-read Nineteen Eighty-Four and write a review for that, so I think I might try and squeeze that in sometime this month. 

So there we go, another hectic reading month planned. Any thoughts on my selections, am I going to love Mockingjay, will Joyce defeat me? Let me know below.

Notable Posts from March
Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Book 2, The Hunger Games)
Review: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Review: Time's Arrow by Martin Amis