Thanks to four days in Mexico with no plans but to read, swim, and relax, I managed to finish a whopping 11 books in March! And on the whole, I found them pretty satisfying, and am happy that I also managed to write reviews of the ones I had strong feelings about. Here’s what I read this month:
- The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (fiction – review)
- The Rocks by Peter Nichols (fiction – review)
- Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai (fiction – review)
- You Don’t Know My Name by Kristen Orlando (fiction – review)
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (fiction)
- Educated by Tara Westover (memoir – review)
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle (YA fiction)
- This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (essays – review)
- Wires and Nerve: Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer and Stephen Gilpin (fiction, comic)
- The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt (nonfiction – review)
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (YA fiction – review)
Of the fiction I read, I think The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley and Children of Blood and Bone were my favorites. Both grabbed my attention right away, and didn’t let it go until I finished.
I also loved all of the nonfiction I read this month. Educated was a stellar memoir – it’s probably going to be among my top books of the year. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a warm, funny collection of essays that I was sad when I finished. And The Dragon Behind the Glass is just the sort of odd, well-reported nonfiction that I love. I’d recommend them all.
A Look to April
The Readathon is coming! April 28 is the annual spring edition of Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, and I’m already getting a little excited. Is there anything better than sitting down for a full day to read with no other responsibilities? I think not. In addition to read Readathon, April is a pretty stellar month for new books. Here are a few I’m excited about possibly picking up this month:
The Recovering by Leslie Jamison – This memoir is probably my most anticipated book of the year. I loved Jamison’s previous book, a collection of essays called The Empathy Exams, and can’t wait to dig into a more personal book about addiction and recovering.
The Opposite of Hate by Sally Kohn – This book pulls together recent research from psychology, sociology, and neuroscience to explore the evolutionary and cultural roots of hate. I’m intrigued by this one mostly because of the blurbs – both Sean Hannity and Elizabeth Gilbert are quoted on the jacket.
The Library by Stuart Kells – Now that I work doing communications for a public library, I’m even more interested to learn about the history of the institution and the role that libraries play around the world. In this book, Kells becomes a library tourist to explore these stories. I am excited!
The Displaced, edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen – This book is a collection of essays by 17 refugee writers from around the world, all writing about their experiences and “what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.”
And that’s a wrap for March! What books were your favorites last month? What books are most looking forward to in a few weeks? What’s at the top of your Readathon pile?
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Wasn’t Educated something? Westover’s story blew me away. I think I’d like The Dragon Behind the Glass too.
It was so good! One of the best memoirs I’ve ever read, for sure.
What a great month! I have made note of some of the books you really liked. I need to catch up on some non-fiction reading.
I’ve read some good nonfiction this year, definitely several that I will be recommending to other people.
I think you’re the second blogger I’ve seen that has mentioned loving Children of Blood and Bone. I’ll have to seek that one out, I think. I also have heard good things about Educated. Me? I just finished a reread of The Lord of the Rings and enjoyed it for the most part, especially The Two Towers, which still is my favorite of the trilogy. Now I’ll get back to reading All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot.
I miss re-reading! I know it’s just a choice I need to make, but there are so many new things!
Boooooo, I’m so excited for all the readathons, and I’m going to have to miss this one out. My family’s doing a crawfish boil that same day, which is thrilling in its own right but will ALAS prevent me from readathoning.
Ugh, I hate when there are too many awesome things all happening at the same time. Crawfish sounds really fun!
I loved Educated. What a sad life she lived as a young girl. Her Picking herself from the bootstraps and helped herself. That was just amazing. The hard part was she wasn’t educated culturally. She was isolated in life. What people should have learned she had to learn on her own. It was a great read. It was sad though that her family distanced themselves from her. But, I think she was better off with out them. But, that is hard when it is still your family. I suggest you watch the documentary from PBS about Ruby Ridge it gives you so what of an idea.