April 1, 2019

March 2019 Wrap Up

March started off strong and slowed way down in the second half, as far as reading goes. Also, I think I read exactly 1 book from my TBR. Let's review.

The first book I had on my TBR was the Book Club Book: Celine by Peter Heller - I read a couple paragraphs of it and realized I didn't have the brain power for it. So I didn't read it. The girls who did read it enjoyed it, mostly.

The next book on the list was Home and Away by Candice Montgomery which my boss handed to me to read. It was pretty good. I liked that the main character was a female football player.

After that, I had Policing the Paranormal by Paul Hope. I can't even find this book. I'm sure it's on my shelves somewhere, but I just couldn't find it. My shelves are in pretty bad order, so who knows where I stuck it. It's also a small book, so it can hide.

Next up is Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. I did actually read this. It satisfied a Read Harder Challenge to read a book by an author of color set in space. It was pretty good, and also quite slim.

I put The Cerulan by Amy Ewing on the list. I was just guessing what I would get read in March. That one was a missed guess. I will read it eventually.

Lastly, I added A Curse So Dark and Lovely by Brigid Kimmerer. I loved this books so much. It was a Beauty and the Beast retelling with disability representation and a great slow romance.

So I guess I actually read 3 books from my TBR. Better than I thought!

Here's what else I read when I wasn't reading the books on my TBR.

The Girl King by Mimi Yu - I started this in February and finished it March 2. It was about a girl who was expecting to be announced to be the successor to her father the emperor, but he announced her cruel cousin instead and also announced her engagement to him. The story is about her quest to gain back her throne. It was really good.

Heroine by Mindy McGinnis - This is the author I met at the OLA conference. This book really messed with my head. It's told from the perspective of a teen girl who gets addicted to Oxycontin which is basically a pill for of heroine. She then transfers that addiction to actual heroine. It is intense.

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus - This is the next book from McManus after One of Us Is Lying that I read in December. It's a thriller/mystery about a girl and her twin brother who move to a little town to live with their grandmother while their mother goes through rehab. The town has a 20 year history with girls being murdered. The first one being her mother's sister.

Giant Days: Early Registration by John Allison - This is a spin-off graphic novel from one of my favorite series. This one looks at the main characters and how they met at the beginning of college.

Runaways: Battleworld by Noelle Stevenson - This is a graphic novel about some kids who find out their school is planning to kill them, so they run away. Of course the school sends someone after them, and the have to fight for their lives. This one met the Read Harder Challenge to read a comic by an LGBTQ+ author.

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan - It took me two forevers to finish this book. The main character is the daughter of Bengali parents in Seattle who gets caught kissing her girlfriend. Her parents freak out and take her to Bangladesh to marry her off to a nice Bengali boy before anyone finds out. Her parents are insufferable through the whole thing, and it was really hard to get through.

Thank You, Omu by Oge Mora - This is a children's picture book. I read it to fulfill the challenge to read a children's book that won a diversity award in 2018. This book won the Coretta Scott King award. It's about a woman cooking red stew that entices the entire neighborhood.

That is a total of 10 books for March. Not terrible. Of course, 3 of them were either graphic novels or picture books, which take very little time to read, but I'll take whatever I can get. I thought I hadn't read that much at the end of the month, but I read 5 books in the first half and 5 books in the second half. Oh. The second half was when I read those 3 fast books. Oh well.

What did you read in March?