Books I Read in March

Hi friends! Below are the books I read in March - a record five books, not including my first "did not finish" book I've had in a while (I think I've only ever started two or three books that I've not had a desire to finish). As always, I'll let you know if a review contains spoilers!

Flux by Orion Carloto

Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5

Shelves: Poetry

Review: Not as deep or full-circle as I had hoped it would be, although there were a few beautiful lines and some pages with great descriptive writing. Overall, I found more fulfillment out of reading Rupi Kaur and other poets. But I'm still glad I read it.

My Life in France by Julia Child

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Memoir/Biography, Favorites, Travel

Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this as it gave me such a huge respect for her work on her two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's an encouraging memoir - she discusses finding her passion for life in her late 30s/early 40s. It's sad in its summation. It's heart-warming, frank, and made me smile, laugh, and cry. It really showcased Julia Child's passion and genius for cooking (learning multiple languages, meticulously creating and testing recipes, etc.). It was relatable when she talked about the strained relationship with her father due to political differences and other issues.

Some parts I counted the pages to get through, but this was, for the most part, an engaging, interesting read. I feel like my life was enhanced by this book. Now, to go traveling through France to try all the dishes she talked about in her book!

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Children's Lit, Classic Lit

Review: ***SPOILERS***

I'll start with the positives:

1. Spring - the seasons, and being out of doors, overall - is celebrated in a beautiful, truly magical way in this book. I enjoyed those descriptive portions of the book that made it feel like you were witnessing the earth coming alive after a long, dark chapter.

2. I loved Dickon and his relationship with animals. When Mary describes him as wood fairy, I thought it was so cute and endearing.

3. The overall innocence of this book is really beautiful. Taken from mostly children's perspective, the change in them from living and learning was nice to read.

4. The emphasis on Mary and Dickon working really hard to make this garden a beautiful sanctuary. Also, is it okay to say the robin is one of my favorite characters?? lol

The negatives:

1. Some things don't translate well, and I don't think I'll read this to my children when they're young. When they're older, obviously they can read what they want, and will have enough sense to pick up on these things. I studied English in college, and I understand this book was written in a different time (I don't need anyone coming for me in the comments, calling me a snowflake, etc., etc. I'm just noting what stood out to me that hasn't really aged well in the text). This includes the underlying narrative that India is a land where people are unhealthy, and the countryside of England is a place where people are healthy. The way Indians were talked about also wasn't the greatest, although I appreciated Martha saying she didn't think any less of them, she had just "never seen them before."

2. There are a few parts where Colin says that people will do whatever he wants, and that especially throwing tantrums is a way to get them to bend to his will. Also, his arrogance (even as his character grows throughout the book) was annoying to read.

3. There is also a part where Colin mentions a woman in town getting drunk and acting out, which forces her husband to beat her. This language is very damaging. Obviously, I think we're past that mostly as a society now - anyone reading that anyway should realize how ridiculous that is. Adults reading this book will notice these things. But, children won't. (This is supposed to be a children's book, right?)

4. Mr. Craven was a shitty dad? Like, he literally didn't want to deal with his son because he reminded him of his dead wife? So he never disciplined him, traveled for months at a time, and gave the responsibility of raising him to the house keepers and doctor. Literally the worst.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to, but I'm glad I've read it.

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Classic Lit, Travel

Review: I felt like I was living with Ernest Hemingway during these years. Honest and straightforward with some moments of great writing mixed in. I don't know that I would suggest this book to anyone unless you were really obsessed and wanting to know everything about his life. But it was an alright read, and there were bits of it that I really enjoyed.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Memoir/Biography, Sports, Sports Writing, History

Review: I overall enjoyed this book - the climactic race for the Gold was, of course, my favorite chapter. This story did have a lot of heart, but I did have a few points of contention with it.

1. The writer is said to have modeled his style from Laura Hillenbrand. As a fan of Hillenbrand, I was excited by this. But, after reading the first third of the book, I started to become annoyed. Let her style be her style, and have a style of your own. His references to Seabiscuit and Louis Zamperini also made the book feel like he was trying too hard to write like her.

2. The way he wrote about some of the men, especially George Pocock, was with a reverence that became stifling toward the middle/last third of the book. I understand coming to deeply respect the people you're researching and writing about, but it became boring and didn't add any additional depth to his subjects.

3. While I love a good detailed, descriptive book, I found that I was worn out on the descriptive writing by the time I got to the part of the book when the descriptions mattered the most. I feel like a good 3/4 of the book could have been shortened significantly and it would have still held its own as a great story.

The last quarter of the book was my favorite. I studied history in college, and the stories of individuals were always my favorite, so I appreciated what the author tried to do by telling the stories of the people central to this team's successes. However, despite the book having its enjoyable moments, it was overall bogged down with too many details for me and I found myself skimming through a lot of it. Per usual, though, I'm glad I read it. I'm also glad to be done with it.

DID NOT FINISH

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman (translator)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Shelves: History, Modern Lit, Did Not Finish

Review: I didn't finish this book. I got around 100 pages in, and found it hard to follow, which could be due to the translation. Because of that, it was hard to engage with it and keep interest in it for longer periods of time. The characters weren't well developed, and the dialogue/overall writing style was mediocre.

I am also aware of how brutal and gross the Trujillo era was, but I found that, on top of the things I've already mentioned, the vulgar terms and the way women were discussed was an extra reason for me to abandon ship. I'm past the point in my life where I'm going to push through a book that doesn't interest or intrigue me just to say I finished it. So, for those reasons this has been moved to my "did not finish" shelf where it will stay.