March’s reading took me to some new places (literally – Phillip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy is a trip!), introduced a few new-to-me authors that I’ll be following (Caleb Azumah Nelson, Eva Ibbotson, Alice Munro), and confirmed my commitment to Maggie O’Farrell, Katherine May, Louise Erdrich, Kate Clayborn, and Ann Patchett. I continued to read more with my eyes (14 books) than my ears (6) and I think that trend will stick. Audiobooks encourage me to multi-task (The Amber Spyglass got me through that epic ironing session last week) and some books are just better without that. So it’s interesting that two of my favorite books of the month – Hamnet (a re-read) and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry were both audiobooks.

Connection continued to be a strong point; I had conversations about 12 of those 20 books. Diversity continued to lag with only five (ugh. I’m disappointed about this). Five books (25%) didn’t tick any of my Intention boxes ; one of those was Enchantment, so clearly those Intentions aren’t everything.

I loved reading about memory, stories and the power of storytelling, place, and art from so many different perspectives.

I also loved the storytelling itself, “creative structure” in literary fiction-speak:

• The Bingo Palace alternates between first and third person narration, and those third person chapters are narrated by the indigenous community. Those peeks into the narrators’ “we” were so good!
• In Taft, the first person narrator imagines his way into a third person story. Patchett does it seamlessly and it totally took me by surprise. (this book is likely to gain another star as I reflect more on it)
• The Twyford Code relies on the reader reading a transcript of a voice recording (not really a spoiler) … genius!
• Open Water alternates between a second and third person narrator. I don’t often love second person narration, but it felt almost necessary here because the “you” is a young Black artist living in London … something “I” can’t actually be, and even a close “he” is simply too distant.

Here are the short reviews I shared on Instagram for those three 5-star books:

🎧Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell – first read (5⭐️) on paper in January 2021. Since then, I’ve read/re-read ALL of O’Farrell’s book and knew I was ready to re-read for a bookclub discussion. I loved the audio; it really brought O’Farrell’s stunning prose to life. and I’m glad my first experience was on the page. It was easier for me to follow the back & forth timeline, and I definitely appreciated the structure more in that format. One of our members teaches AP English and gave us his Intro to Shakespeare to start 😊.

📖Enchantment, by Katherine May – In 17 personal essays (4 each grouped around Earth, Water, Fire, and Air, with a final one for Aether), May explores wonder, time, memory, place, and how our everyday encounters with the world around us can be a place of enchantment. Wintering is a book I’ll be revisiting to remind me how to winter, and that seasons are cyclical. Enchantment is one I’ll revisit to remind me how to live “More often than not, I find that I already hold all the ideas from which my enchantment is made. The deliberate pursuit of attention, ritual, or reflection does not mystically draw in anything external to me. Instead, it creates experience that rearrange what I know to find the insights I need today.”

🎧Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor – for Novel Pairings Classics Club. This book was published in 1976 (and won the Newbery Medal in 1977), so I missed it as a kid. This audio recording – for the book’s 40th anniversary – includes an introduction written and narrated by Jacqueline Woodson. Hearing her talk about how this book made her feel seen was a perfect opening. Taylor’s novel (based on her family’s stories) – about a Black family living in rural Mississippi during the Depression, centers on 9-year-old Cassie. Seeing the racism, violence, injustice, poverty, and also the strength and love of Cassie’s family, through a child’s eyes is powerful. And the lessons are so important; I would love to see this book in a middle-school curriculum.

My TBR continues to be a good way to decide what to read next – here’s March’s done … and not.

Those two X’s are books I intentionally Did Not Finish (DNF). I often pick up a book, read a few chapters, decide it’s not for me (or not for me right now), and simply move on. These two DNFs I want to record:

The Need to Be Whole is Wendell Berry’s new non-fiction book about “Patriotism and the History of Prejudice” (the book’s subtitle). I didn’t even know about it until Nick Offerman talked about narrating it on his recent On Being podcast with Krista Tippett (in late February). I listened to the first five chapters and was uncomfortable … with Berry’s portrayal of slavery, his family’s history with slavery, and some white people’s experience living in Kentucky during the Civil War. I wondered why I hadn’t heard more about the book. I google’d reviews and found one (on Slate) that put into words exactly what I was feeling … of course I only read five chapters, not the whole book. I’m linking it here in case you’re curious, too. I’m disappointed on so many fronts. First that Wendell Berry wrote the book (I will continue to read his poetry, but I’m done with his other books), second that it was published, and third, that Nick Offerman read it out loud and then talked about it (to Krista Tippett – I can only think she hasn’t read/listened to it because I’m not ready to be disappointed with her, too).

Tinkers is a Pulitzer Prize winner (admittedly, I have a complicated relationship with that prize – topic for another post) and it was on my TBR because the author says Housekeeping (a favorite from January) was an influence. I wanted to love this. I spent a day with it – nearly halfway done! and then couldn’t make myself pick it up again. Some of the prose was stunning, but it wasn’t enough to keep me reading. maybe because it was written by a man about men? y’all know how I feel about white men writing about white men … even if they do write beautifully 🙂 I wish the Pulitzer committee felt the same!

and here’s April

The top row are my personal reading plans for the Carol Shields (first two) and Women’s Prize long lists. Since I took this photo, the short list for the Carol Shields was announced and both books are on it! I finished The Sleeping Car Porter this morning and cannot recommend it highly enough. Thank you, Margene, for recommending it! The rest are buddy reads, bookclub selections, hopefuls, and year-long reads. After last month, I’m loving that only three of these books are written by men.

How about you – what are you looking forward to reading this month?