Winter is officially over! March was a great month, filled with fantastic weather, good books, and The Hunger Games movie. I started the month off with a review of Sula (terrific novel) and then read a collection of essays, Sugar in My Bowl, that was all-around uninspiring (skip it). I finally picked up Love in the Time of Cholera and really enjoyed that one. The experience of reading Marquez is tedious, but worth the effort. After that I turned to The Nobodies Album for a fast-paced, literary mystery. It was okay, but it felt like something was missing. The week before the Hunger Games movie came out I was so eager to see it, I picked up Catching Fire to satiate my Hunger Games craving. I was planning on picking it up after I watched the first movie, but I couldn't wait. It was good, but I thought the first one was better. More likely than not I'll read the third novel in the series this month. Then I picked up Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch since I really liked Sejie's his first novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. It was an interesting novel, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I also read How To Make Friends and Influence People for a work assignment. I'm sure there are many people who find this book helpful, namely introverts, but I felt like it was repetitive and a bit obvious. Not to mention 70% of it is anecdotes, which gets old. I won't be posting a review on that one.
Books read in March: 6
Most popular post: I'd Buy These Books Based on Cover Art Alone
I started How To Read The Air near the end of the month and will be finished with it soon. It's the first Dinaw Mengestu I've read and I like him so much I bought his first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, over the weekend at Half Price Books.
Even though I reduced the size of my TBR this month, I didn't read one single challenge book in March. I'm going to work on that in April and try to read at least one, maybe two if I get ambitious. There is talk of an Alias Grace readalong with Beth and Zeteticat in the month of May (a Smooth Criminals challenge book). Hopefully we will get a post together soon!
I'm super excited for a few on the new releases in May (Bechdel and Irving!) and there is one new release in April that I am curious about: Paris I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down. (Has anyone confirmed that title was taken from LCD Soundsystem?) Anyway, it's released April 24th and follows the American family in Paris. From Amazon: "It is an expedition into the Paris of Sarkozy, smoking bans, and a McDonald’s beneath the Louvre—the story of an American who loves Paris all out of proportion, who loves every beret and baguette cliché, but who finds life there to be very different from what he expected." Sounds promising.
February in Wisconsin is usually brutal. It's typically the coldest month of the year and filled with snow storms. This year, however, it felt more like early spring. We don't have any snow on the ground and temperatures have been the in 40's consistently. It's kind of a disappointment because I do enjoy a snow-filled winter, but I am looking forward to spring. Books read this month: 6I started this month off with a review of Stephen King's 11/22/63 (AH-mazing book you guys) and then read Domestic Violets which was quite funny, satirizing corporate America and highlighting the oddities of modern life. From there I turned to something completely different; Night by Elie Wiesel. It is a first person account of Wiesel's experiences in WWII concentration camps. This is a book I won't soon forget. Following Night, I picked up the much advertised debut novel The Snow Child and was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a lovely, whimsical read that was a perfect choice for the month of February. I also read a selection for the Smooth Criminals reading challenge - The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain. I really didn't know what to expect because I'm still pretty new to the noir genre. In the end it was a good time all around; thrilling and well-paced, with just enough violence to keep it interesting. After Postman I gave in to reading peer pressure and finally picked up The Hunger Games and you know what? I liked it quite a bit. Super fun and entertaining. (Yes I will be seeing the movie as well.) Lastly, I revisited the works of Toni Morrison with Sula. I haven't read Morrison since college and hot damn is she stellar. I almost forgot. (review coming soon)At the very end of the month I started a collection of essays entitled Sugar in My Bowl: Real Women Write about Real Sex, which so far is just kind of meh. Since I usually read essays along with a novel so I cant alternate when I get tired of the essays I also began Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera which is beautiful written, though a bit tedious, and quite good so far. I plan on tackling 100 Years of Solitude this year and I was told that reading Memories of My Melancholy Whores (I did in 2010) and then Love in the Time of Cholera before 100 Years was a good path to take.There aren't any new releases in March that I am particularly excited about, which is kind of good because I don't need to buy any more books right now. image via Nose in a Book
For me, January is usually reserved for reading larger books and the novels I was excited to get on Christmas morning. (And those I bought with the B&N gift cards I recieved.) There is something about the cold weather and early dark nights that makes staying home and reading so enjoyable.
In January I reviewed a short story collection, Love Begins in Winter by Simon van Booy. I actually finished up reading it at the end of December and despite the title that is pretty spot on for the season in which I read it, the collection overall fell short for me. Then I picked up a lovely book by bookstore owner and blogger Michael Popek entitled Forgotten Bookmarks. Similar to his blog where he details the array of treasures he finds in used books, this was a unique and fun read. Then I moved on to something a little a lot heavier, Native Son, which turned out to be AHmazing. I finished this weeks ago and I still find myself thinking about it. If you haven't read this one yet I suggest you add it to your TBR. For real. Following that fantastic classic I hit Q: A Novel, which was not awesome. My sister got it for me for Christmas and I felt aweful that I didn't like it. But I was the one who asked for it in the first place, so I was the only one to blame. But then I picked up the other book she got me, 11/22/63 and fell head over heels obsessed with it. This book is Impressive with a capital I. (review coming soon) I also read The Western Lit Survival Kit, which proved to be a nice refresher of all those classics I studied back in college. I'll be keeping that one around to reference for sure.
Books read this month: 5
Page numbers read this month: 2,165
So there you have it. In February I hope to read another novel for the classics challenge (Native Son was my first) and get started on something for the Smooth Criminals challenge. I bought The Post Man Always Rings Twice a few weeks ago, so I'll probably start with that. I'm also really excited about the book The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which was released in the US today. I first heard about it when Dog Ear Disks reviewed it, and I just might use what's left of my last B&N gift card from Christmas to pick it up.
image via Pretty Books