March was a bit of a mess work wise but at least I had a week off to get out and enjoy the sunshine! This month was the month of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist announcement, and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist so it was a big month for the prize lists. I mostly forgot about the other themes for this month, I mostly tried to focus on what books were available to me from the Women’s Prize.
Here is the Women’s Prize website which have the longlists/shortlists available.
Books I Read
- The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking
- Until I Meet My Husband
- Dance of the Gods (Circle Trilogy #2)
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde #1)
- The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke
- To Exist As I Am: A Doctor’s Notes on Recovery and Radical Acceptance
- Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
- The Waterfront Journals
- Letter From Japan
- 77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists
- Mystery in the Channel (Inspector French #7)
- Granta 137 (Granta #137)
- Death of an Ordinary Man
- Death of a Busybody (Chief Inspector Littlejohn #3)
- Dante’s Inferno: a Graphic Novel Adaptation
- Daughters of the Bamboo Grove
- Game Changer (Game Changers #1)
- To Be Young, Gifted and Black
- The Price of Honey (Deadly Ambition #1)
- The Dream Hotel
- Otherwordly
- Leave It Up to Love
- The Enchanted Wood (The Magic Faraway Tree #1)
- Wild Dark Shore
- Murder at Mt. Fuji
- Bargaining With the Beastwitch (Foolish Girls and Witches #1)
- Crimson Chains
- A Three Dog Problem (Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #2)
- Murder Most Royal (Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #3)
- The Beetle’s Heart
- Right as Raine (Aster Valley #1)
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- Moon Bound: An FFM Monster Romance
Favourite Book of the Month
Many of the books from the Women’s Prize were very enjoyable and there were a couple that I have been meaning to get to for a while that I really enjoyed (77 Days of Febrary and The Dream Hotel) but I have to say the one I would wholeheartedly recommend (even if it didn’t make the shortlist) was Death of an Ordinary Man. This book was exactly what it says in the description, the death of Sarah Perry’s father-in-law and how she and her husband coped with the emotions but also the paperwork and the calls they had to make in the very short time between diagnosis and death. This is a book dedicated to David Perry, the ordinary man that he was, and how important he was all the same. You can tell Sarah Perry is an author with how she structures and writes this novel. I have it on audio and it’s probably the one I want to listen to again.
Least Favourite Book of the Month
This was a difficult decision because there were a few books which I really didn’t particularly enjoy or regard as particularly memorable. But there was a book which actually aggravated me. In Game Changer, many areas of conflict arise in Scott and Kip’s relationship but the book merrily skirts them all to have more bland sex scenes and all their conflict is magically solved by Scott coming out, instead of addressing Scott being gone a lot of the time, or Kip’s discomfort with their different salaries, or the fact that Kip regards coming out as an all or nothing thing (seriously, why did Kip not just tell his friends that he was dating someone but they were closeted and so they couldn’t meet him??). None of this get communicated between them, except in the fight, but don’t worry everything is solved by Scott coming out. Address your issues! Especially you Kip! It took so long to finish this book (thankfully the rest of the series is proving far more enjoyable so far).
Reading Updates
I wanted to focus on the Women’s Prize this month and I think I did a pretty good job with that! I read five books that were from this year’s longlist (Fiction and Non-Fiction) and I finished one book from last year’s longlist. I could have definitely done more (I have Flashlight from the library) but I am pleased with how things went so far.
I read 15 books I already owned and added 21 books to my owned books TBR so not completely balanced but could definitely be worse. I am glad to be getting through some of the Kindle books I own (thanks to where I’m working most of this month), but I’m hoping I can get through more that I actually enjoy.
Don’t get me started on my ARCs!
How did your March go?
