2023 Monthly Reading Wrap-Up: March

I know a lot of people feel like March is one of the longest months of the year just based on how it feels, but I honestly thought it flew by. And now we're in the early days of spring with flowers blooming and the air getting warmer, and I can't wait to be picnicking and reading in the sunshine soon.

I read 12 books in March. They weren't quite the ones I wanted, but a trip to the library and just a general lack of focus left me picking up books I hadn't intended on reading just yet. In addition, BookTok hosted a Trans Rights Readathon from March 20 to 27 to promote trans authors, issues, and characters as a response to all of the terrible and hurtful legislation being passed at state and local government levels. It was so encouraging to see a feed full of books by trans authors, stories about fictional and real trans characters, and to hear glowing reviews being given to people who hopefully will go pick up those books in the near future. I was able to donate $75 to Trans Maryland in solidarity, and I would encourage you to do some research into the laws and bills on your state's congressional floor right now. If there is something you don't agree with--especially if they're hurting innocent people--please give your representatives a call to let them know how you feel. It can make a huge difference in your community and your state.

With all of that said, let's get on to the reviews. Stats from my reading month are listed above. If there was a book that you read in March that stuck out to you, comment and let me know :)

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Shelves: LGBTQIA+, Modern Literature, Romance, SciFi

Review: The concept for This is How You Lose the Time War was pretty cool, and I enjoyed the overall story arc. I loved the prose. I loved that there are two beings jumping around in time and tweaking what happens in history (and all the little references of events in history) just enough to create some damage for each of the sides fighting in it. I loved that these two beings were the best in their fields, and they got bored with what they were doing and started writing letters to each other. Within those letters, vulnerability that we don't get often with characters is shared and written, and it's beautiful how their fondness for each other develops.

The reasons it didn't rate higher, then? I think it's important that there are a vast number of readers who leave this book having no idea what's going on or what they read. I think, if you hinge most of the focus on understanding the letters, the other bits (which seem to be purposely vague and flowery) will fall into place albeit I don't think they're ever supposed to make a ton of sense. It's totally possible to have a book written beautifully, but deceptively difficult to understand and I think that's what happened here. It was complicated for the sake of being complicated, and that's when the book kind of starts to feel pretentious in a way that detracts from the readers' enjoyment. Also, ya girl is not a romantic, so by the time our characters wrote their love for each other, it felt like a lot and then it got mushy and I cared a little less. Lol. It works for most people. It didn't work for me.

An overall cool concept, a fun little sci-fi work of prose. I'm glad I read it!

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Modern Lit, Romance, Young Adult

Review: This is a powerful, heavy read that one should be emotionally prepared for before diving in.

Our main characters are extremely well-developed and I ended up loving them from within the first couple of chapters. But Tahir puts them through a lot of pain and grief as we navigate their stories and it is heartbreaking on so many levels.

I loved the friends-to-lovers aspect of this. The moments of joy were really beautiful, and the way the story ended felt satisfying for me. However, I so feel like Tahir threw a lot on these characters that was borderline too much for this being young adult fiction. This didn't feel like an escape, but rather an emotional boxing match and I wish there had been more moments of happiness.

But, this wasn't my story to tell or write, so I respect the author's choices. Just be mentally prepared before going into this one. It is heartbreaking almost from start to finish.

In. by Will McPhail

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Shelves: Graphic Novels

Review: This graphic novel was about a guy searching to have more meaningful connections with people beyond the daily shallow conversations he normally has in day-to-day interactions. Since that's something that I also feel like I look for, this promised to be a story I could really relate to. For the most part, though, I thought the author spent a lot of gratuitous time talking about things that didn't fully contribute to the point of the story, and he allowed the colorful artwork (represented when the main character finally connected with someone) to say most of the important stuff without any words, leaving the interpretation up to the reader. Which I think worked, but not as powerfully as it could have with at least some dialogue.

The art in this was really beautiful, and at times powerful enough to make me pretty emotional. I enjoyed the style of it, and the coffee shop names in this were pretty funny and really clever. It was fun (but also sad), but I also felt like I missed a potentially more impactful experience had more been done or said during those "connected" moments. Still absolutely stunning artwork though, and overall a story I could relate to.

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Shelves: Favorites, Nonfiction, Psychology

Review: This was my first book by bell hooks, but it certainly won't be the last. Within such a short book, hooks manages to deliver 13 insightful, impactful chapters on love, and how it can change the world and our lives if we let it. She speaks eloquently on how damaging the concept of masculinity paired with the oppression of the patriarchy are, and how men and women feed into them.

While I thought she got a bit too deep into her own philosophies at times, and spent a good amount of time on arguments that could have been more concise/to the point, she still delivered a wonderful, hopeful guide on the transformative power that love can have on our society.

From my understanding, this topic was a life study for hooks, and it shows in her expertly delivered words on the subject. It's relevant to today, and will be relevant to the future. A good, solid work of nonfiction that's easy to follow and understand. (I annotated this book to within an inch of its life, lol.)

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Modern Literature, Magical Realism

Review: The Sentence started out as such a weird story that I was unsure if I could get into it, but I quickly fell in love with our main character, Tookie. A Native American ex-convict who works at a bookstore in Minneapolis, MN and trying to live a happy and fulfilling life. We follow her in this novel, which is a good mix of character and plot driven.

Erdrich's ability to write fully realized characters and capture the beautiful simplicities of everyday life was really gripping. I was quickly invested in this community of booksellers and their lives.

It was a little bizarre to read about the pandemic when we're still in it. Even though literally most novels insert fictional characters alongside tragic events (WWII, 9/11, etc.), it just felt a little too fresh to read about fictional characters living through COVID, suffering, and feeling anger over the murder of George Floyd and Philando Castile when real people have that are still alive (or real people who died during this time). Which I recognize is 100% me not having fully processed everything that's happened since March 2020.

That may be really cathartic for other readers to read, but it felt sort-of out-of-body for me. Outside of that, this book was incredibly funny and endearing, and a book for book people. I liked it a lot.

A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

Rating: ⭐️⭐️.75

Shelves: Beach Reads, Chick Lit, Romance, Young Adult

Review: I picked this up solely because I saw it was being made into a movie with Kit Connor from Heartstopper. It was a cute book, but it was one of those YA novels that felt YA. I didn't quite enjoy how often the author made Lila use Spanish while talking (it felt like a bit of overkill or feeding into a stereotypical Spanish character), or how borderline arrogant Lila came off at times. She showed up to her mom's best friend's inn and immediately went into the kitchen and told the person in charge what was wrong with her family recipes. Also, I saw another reviewer say that how the author wrote about Lila's friend, Stephanie, going to Ghana or Africa instead of using a specific place like the many times Lila referenced Miami and London was lazy. To pick a specific place wouldn't have been difficult to do, but instead it felt like another way that we continue to generalize one of the most diverse continents in the world.

Do I think the movie will be cute? Yeah, for sure. Kit's going to kill it as Orion. The book just didn't hit like I wanted to. It was a weird mix of kids speaking more like adults than was believable while acting younger than their ages, and the characters written in ways overall that didn't quite land. Cute though overall, and there was more than one time where I wished I could just reach into the book and taste the food that was deliciously described on the pages.

Luster by Raven Leilani

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Shelves: Modern Literature

Review: Just like most sad girl lit fic books, Luster is a character-driven novel told from the perspective of 23-year-old Edie as she navigates her life after getting involved with a man in an open marriage. She lives in New York City, where she is underpaid and the token black girl at a children's publishing company. Her view on life feels a bit apathetic, but we learn about her childhood, her relationships with her parents, and her relationships with the family she gets involved with.

This was a bit of a weird novel firstly because the main character and her family were Seventh-day Adventists, and it's talked about way more than I anticipated. As a (more liberal, less practicing) Adventist, this threw me a little bit. I expected the mention to be a Donna Tartt The Secret History one-liner, but the ways Adventism colored Edie's world views were pretty regular throughout the book. This makes sense after learning the author grew up SDA, and left the church when she was in college, but it just made my reading experience feel a little bizarre.

Also as tends to be the case with sad girl lit fic is a very distanced sort of narration style to what's happening. While I thought there were bits of genius writing in this (Kellogg, an Adventist, creating cornflakes to stop masturbation, lol or the giveaways table picks at her publishing company), I got pretty bored by her general lack of enthusiasm for pretty much anything. Edie was sort of wandering through life, describing the things that happened to her or the things she did (some of which were a little ~weird~) with a voice that felt disinterested, indifferent. But, I was engaged with this story overall, and it was one that I thought about in between the times I wasn't reading it. It will be a story that I think about in the future, and so I gave it the rating I did.

Not quite my favorite in this sub-genre, but still happy to have read it.

All the Things They Said We Couldn't Have: Stories of Trans Joy by Tash Oakes-Monger

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: LGBTQIA+, Memoir-Biography, Nonfiction, Short Stories/Essays

Review: I'm so glad I chose to read this book for the Trans Rights Readathon, which happened on TikTok and maybe Instagram from March 20-27. All the Things They Said We Couldn't Have: Stories of Trans Joy explores trans joy in the midst of a world that tries so hard to tear down the LGBTQIA+ community. It's broken down into seasons, and how the author's experiences tie into the seasons of change. The author's discussions of transformation, coming into who they are, and finding a community were lovely and helped me understand more of the dysphoria in particular that trans individuals experience.

This was a super short read at around 144 pages, and full of short stories/essays that brought a smile to my face. I would recommend this if you're looking for more happiness as it ties into this community. The exploration and discussion of trans joy is so needed in literature and nonfiction. I feel like queer stories are incorporating happiness more regularly, but there is always room for more especially in nonfiction. I recommend this one! :)

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Shelves: Favorites, SciFi

Review: This novella about space travel and exploration set in the near future was an interesting, character-driven story. For such a short book, it had a lot of heart. The descriptive writing was done superbly, and I was intrigued by the overall idea for the story. I also appreciated that the characters were diverse in both nationalities and sexualities. The imagination that Chambers put into each planet was pretty cool. I could vividly picture everything she wrote about clearly, and it was sweeping and beautiful.

I liked how expansive this felt. You had astronauts doing their mundane little missions some of the time--the same thing every day--but were then reminded that connection with home and other human beings takes so long. And so many things can happen in the span of one message to the next, which gave this story a weird low and high stakes feeling. I had moments where I was comfortable and happy, and then others where the unknown and catastrophic possibilities of space had me on edge.

It was overwhelming, but simple. It was a lot to digest, but also easy to follow along with. I'm still trying to unwrap my feelings on this little punch of a book, but I really loved it. It may be a 5-star read for me if I think about it longer. Thoroughly enjoyed.

I liked this better than the Robot and Monk books, but that's because this book was generally more my vibe. This is still sort of cozy, but definitely not on the same level as the Robot and Monk series.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Shelves: Fantasy, Modern Literature

Review: I loved the concept for this book, and I thought the inspiration being a song and the ancestral stories of these pregnant women taken into slavery and then thrown overboard to find an idyllic outcome of starting a community in the sea to be really beautiful. The messages of communal remembrance and survival as being a way to honor the sacrifices of your ancestors were touching. The concept of one merperson holding those memories because the knowledge of that history is too painful was also devastating in its own sense.

What this novella missed for me were a couple things. I think the vague ways it was written, while for some readers might leave room for mental creativity, made the world building feel a bit weak and wanting. Which then just made the whole novella feel like a copy of the song it was inspired by rather than taking the song and adding more detail to make it a richer world and a more immersive reading experience. Again, a beautiful concept but I went into it expecting more and finished it wishing it had given me more.

Until September by Harker Jones

Rating: ⭐️⭐️.75

Shelves: Beach Reads, Historical Fiction, LGBTQIA+, Romance

Review: Thank you to Harker Jones, the author, for reaching out and offering me a copy of his book in exchange for an honest review. It always feels so nice when an author gets in touch, and I appreciate it every time!

Until September follows Kyle and his friends the summer before they're all set to go to college. It's seen as kind of their last summer together before life splits them up.

I thought the overall story idea and romance aspects of this book were touching. But I think this book lost me in its length and writing style. I feel Until September could have benefitted from heavy editing in paring down the story, or breaking it up into two books because of the amount of time it covered. The majority of the book was spent on one summer, and we were taken through all the mundane details of how Kyle and his love interest, Jack, and their friends spent their days. And then we were swiftly taken through a whirlwind one or two years. There were moments where the writing felt rushed when we needed more detail in order to breath and flesh out the characters to make them feel more rounded. Then there were other times where we had extensive dialogue that didn't build the characters or the world. Then others where we were rushed through scenes. It was a lot.

So while I applaud writers, particularly self-published authors, for writing a book and putting it out into the world, and I appreciate Harker Jones for reaching out to me with a very meaningful story, this just didn't meet the expectations I had for it in the way I had hoped.

That being said, if you don't pay attention to the things I picked up on and you're looking for a beach read, I would suggest this. There are quite a few triggers to be aware of. But I think this is available on Kindle Unlimited and is out in the world for readers to pick up now!

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Shelves: Environmental, Favorites, Modern Literature, SciFi

Review: I was intrigued by this book but went into it relatively blind, thinking it was mostly about a scientist following the last Arctic terns on their last migration to Antarctica. However, that's not entirely what this book is about. Climate change isn't really at the forefront here, and there was a lot that was left unanswered in that regard. Apex predators, birds, fish, etc. are mostly extinct. How is the world able to function? Okay, so they're keeping insects/pollinators alive, but if there aren't any of their natural predators alive to keep the populations in check, what's happening??

Migrations reads sort of like a mystery, which I think is one aspect that kept me reading. The characters in Migrations are deeply flawed, and I was left questioning what was real and what was not for the majority of my reading experience. But it interested me and I got through this fairly quickly, especially considering it was a book I was annotating. It was one of those stories that I wished I were reading whenever I wasn't reading it. There are some pretty heart-wrenching and gruesome parts in it, with heavy topics relating to suicide and child abandonment, so I would make sure to be in a good headspace before diving in if those are known triggers for you. I appreciated how McConaghy wrote he characters, and how she managed to make the ones I thought were insane or dislikeable likeable for me by the end of the novel.

I liked it a lot, and if you're in the mood for a twisty, unreliable, "keeps you guessing" kind of book, I suggest this one!