How is it March already?! The last weekend of February flew by with a trip to Exeter to visit friends. Between Saturday and Sunday we spotted: a humpback whale off the Devon coast at Slapton (occasioning many cries of “Thar she blows!”), a giant pug painted on an underpass, a mighty fine cream tea, and far too many secondhand books at Book-Cycle.
For me the month of March holds an alarming number of deadlines for book reviews: 15, to be precise. Yipes! Luckily I’ve already managed to submit two of these reviews, and I plan to write a third this afternoon. Most of those are as part of my paid work, but I’ll also be participating in two blog tours for nonfiction books on adoption and foxes, respectively, and contributing a review of Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn to Shiny New Books.
As to other planned blog posts for the month…
- Thanks to your comments I’ve started The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as my monthly classic (27 pages in and I’m loving it already).
- I’m doing some thematic reading for World Kidney Day on the 9th.
- I’m thinking of getting my first Haruki Murakami book, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, out from the library as my doorstopper of the month.
- I’ll be reviewing Narcissism for Beginners by Martine McDonagh (terrific) and The Family Gene by Joselin Linder (haven’t started yet).
- A couple more books may turn up from publishers if I’m lucky.
Some other themed reading challenges are underway but will probably roll over to future months.
Today I’m picking up three library holds: The Good People by Hannah Kent, The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion and Days Without End by Sebastian Barry (this one’s for a BookBrowse review due in April). All are likely to be requested after me, so somehow I have to fit them in during the next three weeks. I do hope they’re quick reads!
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
having made Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts my book group choice for February, a decision was made to not read a book for March so everyone could finish my choice… so a bit in reading limbo just now. April will be His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet, which i have not heard from, so may get started on that!
Asides from reading, life is looking busy for March
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Oh wow, Shantaram is an enormous book, is it not?
His Bloody Project is wonderful — enjoy!
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Oh dear. I’ve been put off Here Comes the Sun, seeing that Marlon James recommended it. I’ve rarely struggled with a book as much as I did with The Book of Night Women. I’m afraid I abandoned it ….
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I think he was the go-to commenter given that her book is set in Jamaica and uses some dialect. A Brief History of Seven Killings is impressive but a very long slog, and certainly could have been much shorter. I am unlikely to try any of his other books.
I’m literally only 5 pages into the Dennis-Benn so far, so can’t really say what I think, but I’ve heard such high praise from America.
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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was my favourite discovery of my Bronte reading year (also really enjoyed the Gaskell bio of Charlotte, which I thought would be rather dull – perhaps mainly because my copy had the tiniest print ever): hope you continue to enjoy it!
My big read for the month is Kate O’Brien’s Without My Cloak. I’ve not read her before, but I’ve done a fine job of collecting her works all the same (and then discovered she was unkind about Elizabeth Taylor’s writing, and promptly abandoned my plans to read all of her stuff, but I figured I would try one after all -thought perhaps this will result in a roomier ‘O’ shelf in the end). GL with the Murakami!
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We read the Gaskell bio on my MA year and I remember enjoying it.
I hadn’t heard of Without My Cloak. Hmm, it’s a long one. I’ll wait and see what you think.
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Sounds like you have a busy month ahead of you. Mine’s getting busy too. Lots of pre easter socialising. But, I have a great tbr List for this month, including how to survive a plague and Christodora. Have a great reading month. 📚
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I love the photo of you next to the pug!
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The tea and scones look scrumptious
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Good plans. I’m going to be re-watching Shaun of the Dead (a fave film anyway) after just finishing Narcissism for Beginners, and on Wed and Thurs I get to see and then ‘meet’ (squee!) my literary hero in Oxford and London. We’re also hosting my daughter’s Italian exchange at the end of the month, so I ought to learn some basic Italian to welcome her. Busy month ahead for me too.
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I’ve never seen Shaun of the Dead, but thought the main character’s obsession was amusing anyway. Happy for you to get to see Auster!
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I love that giant pug! 🙂 Good luck reading all of those wonderful books you have planned for March. I’m not a big fan of the Bronte sisters, but I liked The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It was way ahead of its time.
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March does seem to be a busy month for reading, and for reading themes. For me, there’s Canada Reads at the end of March, which I like to read for. Cathy has Reading Ireland Month going, and Katie at Doing Dewey has the Women in Science History challenge. Both of those are ones that interest me, but I don’t always fit everything in.
I have to say, I’m very curious to hear about what you’re reading for World Kidney Day (which is a day I didn’t know existed until now)!
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I’ll have to see if I’ve got any Irish books on the pile for Cathy’s challenge. (I’ll be reading the new Sebastian Barry this month, but my review is for BookBrowse.)
I’m reading one memoir and one novel in which kidney disease/dialysis/transplantation is a major element, and I’d already read one of each a year or so ago. I thought of extending the topic to organ donation in general via two novels I’ve read recently with heart transplants, but I should probably just keep it simple 🙂
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Oh, that makes sense. If you’re looking again next year, one of the stories in The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux involves a kidney transplant!
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Oh neat, I’ll have to see if that’s available over here.
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I’ve got no themes for the month, except READ REVIEW BOOKS so I’m with you there. I’ve just started a Furrowed Middlebrow one and am taking part in a blog tour on Monday with some links to post alongside my review – not something I do often but they’re just for people to win a free copy or sign up to a newsletter, nothing that pushy. Happy reading month!
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Have you done blog tours before? I’m doing my third and fourth this month. I like doing them, though I perhaps had unrealistic expectations that they would bring in more followers…
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I’m not sure I’ve ever done one. I have links to post – I asked the woman who sent them if she wants the link to the post but she said no – I assume they can monitor who posts what from pingbacks and will round it all up somewhere, but who really knows!
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Well interestingly I had lower stats and much less engagement for my book tour one! But then I had no links in from the publisher so I’m not sure they did a round-up or anything ….
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Are you on Twitter? That’s often how blog tours gain momentum. And the few times I’ve done one the publicist has sent a banner image to use that lists which blogs are taking part on which days. I managed to connect with a few new-to-me bloggers that way.
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Yes, I’m on Twitter but I was given no hashtags to use etc. And the publisher’s PR told me she didn’t want the links sent in to her, and I assumed she would pick them up from the linkbacks – so I think it was just a slight lack of organisation!
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