What did you read in ~~ March 2022

[Alias Reader]

Here is the Folder to tell us what your monthly reads for March 2022 were. What books did you start the new year with?

Please provide:
~ A GoodReads link
~ A few sentences telling us how you felt about the book.
~ How would you rate the book

[madrano]

While i am listing 8 books for March, none were as challenging as the two i am reading presently and hope to complete in April. Following are the ones i finished in March:

Clotel: or, The President's Daughter--William Wells Brown. Novel published in 1853 about a daughter of Thomas Jefferson by one of his slaves. Names were changed, as were what happened.  I felt he was much less didactic than others written in that century about slavery, while still making solid points.

Crying in H Mart--Michelle Zauner. Somehow i missed that this was a memoir by a celebrity. The celebrity part i understand missing but i thought it was a novel. I liked the story and how she shares the relationship she had with her mother.

Moon of the Crusted Snow--Waubgeshig Rice. Something has happened in the outside world and tribal members in northern Canada do not know what, only that fresh supplies will not be arriving any longer. Some are quite prepared, while others have not learned the tribal ways. Enter some non-tribal citizens and problems with food develop.

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics--Bruce Goldfarb. This biography begins with the enchanted life of Frances, heir to International Harvester founders. At age 40, she learns about post mortem findings in relations to solving crime. She then makes it her life's mission to find and expand forensics. Using skills honed earlier in her life as hostess, she created miniature crime scenes for classes in such studies. Fascinating story, in many ways.

Long Division--Kiese Laymon. A 12 year-old teen, Citoyen Coldson, is led to an entry into two other time periods--1965 and 1985. Coupled with his own 2013 time period, he grows in understanding of civil rights, consequences and sacrifices. While i admit to some confusion because brand names with which i am unfamiliar are used, i liked the book and growth of "City"s character.

The Golden Child--Penelope Fitzgerald. Having read and been intrigued by her The Bookshop, i wanted to read further. This is her first novel and is as much about how museums were run in the 1970s, as it is about the death of a wealthy patron. I'll be reading more by her.

Turtle Diary--Russell Hoban. Another novel, like the Fitzgerald, set in '70s London, this one is about two lonely people who plot to free three sea turtles from an aquarium. The depiction of the two, William (bookstore clerk) and Neaera (illustrator and author of children's books) meet and develop a plan with the help of one of the caretakers, George. Thanks to Rachel for drawing my attention to this unusual novel and the characters.

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good--Helene Tursten. Five stories about an 88 year old woman who lives alone in her Gothenburg, Sweden, apartment. While there are 5 stories, the final two cover the same death from two vantage points. Thanks to Barbara for this book, as well as informing us of a sequel.

[Alias Reader]

Nice eclectic month, deb.

I am passing two titles on to a friend of mine that I think she will enjoy. An Elderly lady and 18 Tiny Deaths. Thanks !

[Alias Reader]

My March Reads. 📚


The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Rate 3/5 Good but did not exceed expectations
Fiction

This is a simple story of an English butler, Stevens, whose whole life revolves around his quest to be a perfect butler. He's taken the notion of being a perfect butler to such an extreme, that life has sort passed him by. It also makes him treat others harshly as his only concern is for his employers needs. His blind devotion to his employer also makes him unable to see his employers Nazi leanings. I found him a bit pathetic and sad. The story was too plodding for me. The movie is probably better.

The Seven Rules of Elvira Carr by Frances Maynard
Rate 3/5 - Good but did not exceed my expectations
Fiction

This debut novel was about a 27 year old young lady with Asperger. Her mother has a sudden severe stroke that forces her to be put into a nursing home. Therefore, Elvira is on her own for the first time. The novel is about her journey to become independent.

The author is a part-time teacher of adults with learning difficulties, including Asperger's and dyslexia. I think the author succeeded in her stated goal to give voice to a marginalize character.

While I enjoyed the novel, I think it could have been edited down from 400 pages to 300 as it became repetitive and dragged.

Elevation by Stephen King
Rate 4/5 exceeded by expectations
Fiction

I haven't read King in years and this month I read two of his books.

I really enjoyed this quick read. It's the story of Scott who somehow is losing weight at a rapid pace but his body shows no sign of it. He is becoming weightless.

This isn't a typical horror story with killer clowns, cars and dogs that one might expect from King. Yes, Scott's condition is supernatural but if you can suspend belief for a few hours you will be rewarded. This poignant simple tale is about intolerance, bigotry, love, and acceptance of others. I will admit it left me with a few tears in my eyes.

Later by Stephen King
Rate 3/5 good but did not exceed expectations
Fiction

This was a horror thriller tale. The story is told by twenty-two year old Jamie as he looks back to when he was a young child. That's when he first learns that he has the ability to see dead people, just as they were before they died, for a few days after their passing. They also have to answer his questions truthfully.

This story did keep me turning the pages.

The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin
Rate 4/5 exceeded my expectations.
Non fiction

I selected this book for our 2022 Reading 100 Challenge. Task #42. Read a book you had DNF.

I am a fan of the author's popular podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Her sister Liz Craft is also on the podcast. Liz is a TV writer and producer. Liz has her own podcast called, Happier in Hollywood. Her current project is the remake of Fantasy Island.

The book is Gretchen's year long challenge to make her life happier. Each month she sets out a few resolutions to reach her goal.

While our lives couldn't be more different. She is a wealthy, Yale law school grad, writer and lives on Manhattan's upper east side with her husband and two kids, I still think her journey and tips would help many.

I know I certainly underlined a lot from the book and will have pages of notes to write up.

[madrano]

Alias, i hope your friend enjoys the books as much as i did.

Alias Reader wrote: "The story was too plodding for me. The movie is probably better. ..."

You had a pretty good month yourself. I've quoted the end of your comments about Remains of the Day. The movie seemed plodding to me but still very well done. Music and cinematography made all the difference. It helped that much of what was on screen wasn't something i was familiar seeing, so that, too, helped. The film should have been boring, yet wasn't.

[Alias Reader]

madrano wrote: "Alias, i hope your friend enjoys the books as much as i did.

She emailed me that she put a library hold on both. :)

[madrano]

Cool. Cool that you do this for her & that she got on it right away.

[Alias Reader]

madrano wrote: "Cool. Cool that you do this for her & that she got on it right away."

She love to read. She's reading all the time. :)

[madrano]

She's lucky to have you in her life, then. We here KNOW how helpful you are in loading down our TBRs.

[John]

madrano wrote: "While i am listing 8 books for March, none were as challenging as the two i am reading presently and hope to complete in April. Following are the ones i finished in March:

[book:Clotel: or, The Pr..."

Nice list - 18 Tiny Deaths and Turtle Diary look like TBR material for me; H Mart, perhaps not so much. I plan on getting to Elderly Lady soon.

[John]

Alias Reader wrote: "My March Reads. 📚


The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Rate 3/5 Good but did not exceed expectations
Fiction

This is a simp..."

Solid month for you! I had troubles with 600 Hours of Edward, so will skip Elvira. Remains of the Day would likely test my patience as well.

[Petra]

Deb, that's a varied list of books.
Crying in H Mart is on my list to read, too. It's currently quite popular and always signed out at the library. H Mart is a store I like to drop in and shop. (I've never cried while there)

Long Division sounds interesting. I've sometimes mused at what we might find about what really happened & consequences over the years if we could travel back in time. (my musings can be odd.

[Petra]

Alias, I read The Remains of the Day a few years ago. I recall thinking that he wasn't living a life, but a job. It struck me as very sad.

Two books by Stephen King! That must have been fun. I haven't read a book by him in years.

Nice month of reading!

[Petra]

I had a decent month of reading.

They Were Divided (4-star) - this is the end of a trilogy. I enjoyed all three books and describe them as "War & Peace lite". There's a family story and a story of the politics of the times happening side by side. They blend well.
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Salt Path (4star; audio) - a true story of a couple who lost everything, then had to find a way to cope. They decided to walk a long, shoreline trail as they had nowhere to live. Along the way they find kind people, others not so kind. They find strength within themselves as they search for their future.
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Snow Creek (3-star) - a murder mystery. There's a lot of story here. The initial investigation blooms into a larger and larger story. The story can be a bit slow but it was always intriguing enough to keep reading and enjoying it.
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Last Way Station: Hitler's Final Journey (2-star) - an intriguing premise: what would Hitler's afterlife be like? But not a good execution. This little book has been on my ereader for a decade, so I thought I'd read it. It's very simply written, starts out interesting enough but dull. The middle part doesn't convey the situation at the time well. The ending is interesting. All in all, these few pages don't come together well.
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Circe (3-star; audio) - an interesting story told from Circe's perspective. She spends so many years in exile that the story can drag a bit but overall this a good story.
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

As well, I've read a number of George Orwell essays. These are short (a few pages each). I haven't written reviews for them, but each one was really good. It's surprising how much of what he says resonates in our times today.

Why I Write
how the poor die
his entry for his newspaper column, As I Please: 1943-1945, from December 20, 1946
A Nice Cup Of Tea
Nonsense Poetry
Bookshop Memories
Some Thoughts on the Common Toad (a wonderful Spring read)
In Defence of English Cooking (a nostalgic look at how meals can make special memories)

[Alias Reader]

madrano wrote: "She's lucky to have you in her life, then. We here KNOW how helpful you are in loading down our TBRs."

lol It seems to be my destiny to give everyone book suggestions. Whether they want them or not ! LOL

[Alias Reader]

Petra wrote:
The Salt Path (4star; audio) - a true story of a couple who lost everything, then had to find a way to cope. They decided to walk a long, shoreline trail as they had nowhere to live. Along the way they find kind people, others not so kind. They find strength within themselves as they search for their future."

Nice month, Petra !

I'm putting Salt path on my TBR list. Thanks !
I love the cover.

Also the Orwell essays sound interesting. I enjoy reading essays.

[Alias Reader]

Petra, I just checked and my library as the eBook for
A Collection of Essays by George Orwell
One of the most thought-provoking and vivid essayists of the twentieth century, George Orwell fought the injustices of his time with singular vigor through pen and paper. In this selection of essays, he ranges from reflections on his boyhood schooling and the profession of writing to his views on the Spanish Civil War and British imperialism. The pieces collected here include the relatively unfamiliar and the more celebrated, making it an ideal compilation for both new and dedicated readers of Orwell's work.


I've put it on my TBR list. Thanks !

[Petra]

Alias, the cover of The Salt Path is what attracted me to it, too. It's a lovely cover.

I hope you enjoy the essays as much as I do. I'm picking and choosing by title (whatever catches my fancy) and finding the essays quite delightful (and only a few pages in length). It's surprising how timely they are to today's world, too. I guess "the human condition" doesn't change much with the generations.

[Alias Reader]

I am sure I will enjoy the essays, Petra.

[madrano]

Petra wrote: "Deb, that's a varied list of books.
Crying in H Mart is on my list to read, too. It's currently quite popular and always signed out at the library. H Mart is a store I like to drop..."

Petra, what initially drew me to the H Mart book was the i have, in fact, been in one. It was quite an adventure. So much produce we'd never seen previously. There are little "restaurants" off on one side, which i learned from the book is standard. We were tempted to try some but needed more time to figure it all out.

I agree about time travel. For me, those sort of ideas are why i read science fiction. When a book doesn't do that for me, i'm less inclined to tell others about it.

[madrano]

John wrote: "Nice list - 18 Tiny Deaths and Turtle Diary look like TBR material for me; H Mart, perhaps not so much. I plan on getting to Elderly Lady soon...."

I was surprised by the Hoban book. My familiarity with his work was his children's books. Turtle was full of fine observations.

[madrano]

Petra, what a tempting vase of books for us to consider. I immediately put Salt Path on hold at my library. It sounds perfect for me. I've been seeking the Banff trilogy because your comments last month were tempting. No luck thus far...i may need to resort to Internet shopping.

I was almost sold on the Olsen mystery but i am boycotting cliff hanging books when i am aware of them. I think it's cheap writing.

The cover for Circe is one i've long been drawn toward, let alone the story. It's on the TBR but not on hold, unlike the also-lovely cover from Salt Path. While i don't think i judge a book by its cover, i do decide whether or not to read one by same. :-)

I like the titles of the Orwell essays you listed. Tempting topics all around. Same with Last Way Station. Great idea for a short book.

Thanks for sharing about your fine reading month. Slow or not, some books call to us.

[John]

Only three from me this time...

On Foot to Canterbury: A Son's Pilgrimage by Ken Haigh

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


Who is Mr Satoshi? by Jonathan Lee

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


Hot Countries by Alec Waugh

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Petra]

John, I'm putting On Foot to Canterbury: A Son's Pilgrimage on my TBR list. I enjoy a good audio book while out jogging and like to muse on Faith & Belief.

Who is Mr Satoshi? sounds intriguing. I may have to check this one out, too.

Thanks for the honest review of Hot Countries.

[Florian]

Nice lists that you have. @Petra: Circe is also on my list. I like the idea of the story (as I like the Ancient Greek), but I also heard of the other book by Madeleine Miller, The Song of Achilles, that is isn´t perfectly good, maybe similar to what you described.

Now to my books: After the lasts month dragged a bit, this month I´ve read the same amount of books as in january and february
together (although, to say, this month were some smaller books among)

Quality Land and QualityLand 2.0 A humurous, German written dystopy. The main character is Peter "Unemployed" who owns a robot-scrapping shop. The society is a technocratical one, where finding a partner, shopping etc. is automated by companies and algorithms. With the time, Peter notices that he isn´t comfortable in this society and by some really weird but funny coincidences he gets to meet the most famous, most rich and most influencal human of the country and overthrows some old ideologies without even wanting to do it. It was quite funny.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation: I haven´t really ever watched star wars movies, but a friend said to me that star wars is quite cool, and as I didn´t get around to get the movie I read this graphic novel from the library. It was a nice read and summarized the plot well, althopugh it - of course - didn´t go into the details.

PUPPENMUTTER [German, "dollmother"] A thriller. A man commits suicide and everyone is asking why. Som secrets come out (he had an affair with his wife´s best friend, there is some "dirty money" from the company of him an dhis brother, and the wife of his brother loves his wife. It sounds complicated, but the book was nice. Except of the ending, that was completely bad.

Angry Weather: Heat Waves, Floods, Storms, and the New Science of Climate Change A book about the new attribution science where a weather event is looked at and it is calculated if it happened because of climate change or not. A nice read, but not exactly what I expected.

Kann weg! : Frau Fröhlich räumt auf [German Throw away! Miss Fröhlich tidies up] I got it cheap from an online book shop. The cover says that it is a self help book that helps you "tidying up your life", but from the content it was just completely weird. On one side, the author said you should stop with prejudices, just to tell them in the next sentence. It was my first 1 star rating on goodreads.

[madrano]

John, would you believe that my library has NONE of the three books you reviewed in eBook form? The Waugh i understand and i really was just checking on its status there. The other two confound me, as they seem right up my library's alley. Nonetheless, i at last found Satoshi. Hurrah!

Thanks for your reviews. I particularly like knowing what a reviewer feels is not-so-good in a book. You do that well.

[madrano]

I could find a link in English for the first book from Marc-Uwe Kling (no English listing for him), which interested me,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Apparently the second book in the series isn't available in English...or GR doesn't have it listed.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and titles, Florian. It's always fascinating to learn what others are reading.

[Alias Reader]

John wrote: "Only three from me this time...
."

Well, you have two that interest me.

Who is Mr Satoshi? and On Foot to Canterbury: A Son's Pilgrimage.

Also since you mentioned Bill Bryson in the review, I am also passing on the title to a friend.

Thanks !

[Alias Reader]

Florian wrote: "Nice lists that you have. @Petra: Circe is also on my list. I like the idea of the story (as I like the Ancient Greek), but I also heard of the other book by Madeleine Miller, [book..."

It was a mixed month for you, Florian. Really only one clunker.

I enjoyed reading your reviews. Thanks !

[Marie]

I didn't read much in March - just a few books.

The Window by Glenn Rolfe - 4 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Kill Hill Carnage by Tim Meyer - 5 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff - 0 stars. "DNF"
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Fall of Man by Jeff DeGordick - 5 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Blood Lanes by Brian G. Berry - 5 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Gross Out by Duncan Ralston - 4 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Ravenous Dead by Darcy Coates - 5 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Carnivore by Justin Boote - 5 stars.
My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That is my wrap up for March. :)

[Alias Reader]

A very nice month, Marie. All top rated books and only one DNF. Well done !

[madrano]

Thanks for sharing these reviews with us, Marie. The DeGordick zombie book sounds appealing--i like seeing family units addressing survival in such disasters. It's also neat to see that author Duncan Ralston isn't afraid to add some real life authors to his convention. That sounds good.

Having only one DNF sounds good, given the number of books you read, mostly terrific ones. How you manage to review scary books yet make me smile is a marvel. It's those gore suits, i'm certain.

[Marie]

Alias Reader wrote: "A very nice month, Marie. All top rated books and only one DNF. Well done !"

Thank you, Alias! :)

[Marie]

madrano wrote: "Thanks for sharing these reviews with us, Marie. The DeGordick zombie book sounds appealing--i like seeing family units addressing survival in such disasters. It's also neat to see that author Dunc..."

Thank you, Madrano! Yes - the gore suits come in handy. (lol) The DeGordick book was really good and I plan on reading the rest of the series to see what happens next. Normally the author writes ghost stories but he went into the zombie zone this time and the book pace was great.

[madrano]

Neat, Marie. I hope the subsequent books are as exciting.