March Monthly Recap

Time for our March 2017 monthly recap. Find out which books were favorites and which were duds. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out this month and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading in April and the rest of 2017.

Jen: I read 9 books in March although two were graphic novels and one was a novella. I’ve been consumed by Infinite Jest (almost halfway done currently) and my other reading has suffered a little. I didn’t do too well in terms of diverse reading this month. Only three books were by women, 3 were written by racial or ethnic minority authors, and all 9 books were written by authors from either the US or UK. None featured any LGBTQ characters although one book was written by an openly gay author and another by a bisexual author.

Favorite book read in March: My favorite book of the month was a tie between Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Honorable Mention goes to Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín.

Least favorite book read in March: I liked, or appreciated, every book I read in March so it’s hard to pick a least favorite. My least enjoyable read was Difficult Women by Roxane Gay but it is also a book that I found thought provoking and worthwhile to read.

Future Goals: I would like to make it past the half-way mark of Infinite Jest and hope to clear out one of my TBR shelves in preparation for BookExpo at the end of May.

Book Worm:  I have not been very productive in terms of reading this month. I have only managed to read 6 books, which is an all time low for me. Although to be fair, I am working my way through some hefty tomes at the moment.

Favorite book read in March: I have a tie for my favorite book this month I really loved The Lonely Hearts Hotel (review here) and I also loved The Invisible Man (review to appear soon) in a totally different way.

Least favorite book read in March: The Golden Ass. I did enjoy this, just not as much as the others I read.

Future Goals: To keep clearing the TBR pile here is how I managed in March:
-DTB (“Dead Tree Books”) bought: 2 (I know I know but there was a library sale and I couldn’t resist)  DTB books read from the TBR 0 net count + 2 (not good)
-Kindle books bought: 1 bought and read. Kindle books read from the TBR 0 net count 0.

Year to date DTB read from TBR: -1

Kindle books read from TBR:  -3

What can you look forward to on our blog in April? We’ll be continuing our March Madness challenge through the end of April. We also have plans for our featured posts including Love it or Hate it, Read Around the World, and Terrible Reviews of Great Books. I (Jen) have been sick for a good portion of this month but hopefully will be back on track with regular posting in the month of April.

April 2017 book releases. Here are a few books coming out in April:
Marlena by Julie Buntin
American War by Omar El Akkad
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yunavitch
Void Star by Zachary Mason
The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron

We want to hear from you. So what are your plans for April? Which books were your favorites and least favorites in March? Will you be attending book expo in May-June?