End of April reading update

I must do a reading update before we get too far into May. Reading was more of a pleasure in April and I managed to read nine books, so we are still on track to read 100 by year's end. Here is the list:

27. Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. Recommended by my sister Barbara, this was a very mystical sort of novel, which is Phillips' style. It takes place in the heat and humidity of summer, and in some ways it drags, just like summer. But here and there it's both heartbreaking and overwhelming. I've already recommended it to someone else.
28. Death's Half Acre by Margaret Maron. Another mystery.
29. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Recommended by our cleaning lady, this is a juvenile adventure story, first in a series, where the teenage main character is the son of a mortal woman and a Greek god. Percy Jackson is no Harry Potter, but his story is very entertaining.
30. The Everything Potty Training Book by Linda Sonna. Read for obvious reasons (sigh). A good explanation of the various methods.
31. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. Another Thursday Next mystery. I enjoyed it much more than the previous book in the series. The next one is already in my bedside pile.
32. Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity by Rebecca Goldstein. Someone told me I should read Spinoza in order to understand my own belief system better, so I looked around for a good analysis of his philosophy and found this book. Goldstein was raised in Orthodox Judaism, became a philosophy professor, then a novelist, won a MacArthur "genius" award... she's quite amazing and I trust her to explain things to me. This was a fascinating book, but I still don't understand Spinoza very well. I'm thinking in a few months I should read the whole thing all over again; maybe then I'd get it.
33. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Another mystery (sort of) featuring an 11-year-old girl in 1950 England who likes to cook up poisons in her chemistry lab. Quite amusing -- I have the second book in the series on my library "request" list.
34. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich. My sister Nancy warned me this was depressing, and it was. A really bleak, frightening book about a marriage falling apart, but ultimately redemptive as well. Fascinating, because Erdrich is clearly playing around with the story of her own life and marriage. I can't get it out of my head. She's never been my favorite author, but now I have her previous novel in my bedside pile too.
35. Last Lessons of Summer by Margaret Maron. A really stupid mystery!

I've already finished my first May book, so onward we go.