Booked Out March

How was your month in books? We’ve been needing some escapism in our lives, but sometimes it’s been hard to concentrate … but there’s nothing like getting into a good book!

♦ KIM ♦

• No. of books read in March: 9
• Overall Favorite: Lock In, John Scalzi and The Bear and The Nightingale, Katherine Arden
• Also enjoyed: Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson and Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee
• Also read:
  • Lock Every Door, Riley Sager
  • Roller Girl, Victoria Jamieson
  • Zero G, Dan Wells
  • The Strangers, Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Artemis Fowl Graphic Novel, Eion Colfer
• Currently Reading: The Sun Down Motel, Simone St. James (just started the audiobook)
• Up Next: Not sure yet

The above stats were kind of hard to put together this month because overall I enjoyed everything I read. It’s interesting when I put these things together and consult Goodreads. This month I found that although I rated Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee 3 stars on Goodreads, I still consider it one of my most enjoyed books of the month. I’ve realized that I rate books as if I was a teacher grading them- so my rating is based on how strong I think they are in regards to character development, overall structure, plot intricacies and so on and doesn’t have a lot to do with whether I personally loved the book or not. I enjoyed Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson but think I would have liked it even more had it not been written in verse. I do see the appeal though and understand why its an award winner.I was supposed to read Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo for the Monthly Book Awards Reading Challenge. I started the audio but was really not enjoying it. I finally abandoned it after reading some negative reviews for it (something I really try hard not to do.) Because I let the negative reviews sway me this time, I may pick this one up again in the future and give it another try.Lock Every Key, Riley Sager was an ebook I picked up months ago after seeing it raved about on #bookstagram. I tried and tried to get into it but it was so boring! I put it away for a couple of months and finally decided to finish it this month. It finished well and the story ended up being interesting enough that I don’t feel like I wasted my time on it, but I don’t consider it the amazing book that everyone is saying it is.

I read a lot of middle grade for #MiddleGradeMarch and all of it was really good. The Strangers, Margaret Peterson Haddix would have hit higher for me had it been a little shorter. It dragged out a bit too much for a middle grade book in my opinion. Zero G, Dan Wells was a pleasant surprise as an Audible free audiobook download. I have since passed it on to my 6 yr old thinking he’ll enjoy it too. Roller Girl, Victoria Jamieson was quite cute and I always love Artemis Fowl. Overall a great reading month! I’ll have to talk more about Lock in, John Scalzi and The Bear and The Nightingale, Katherine Arden later on because I have more to say about these two favorites.

🍀 TANYA 🍀

• No. of books read in February: 6
• Overall Favorite: Pet, Akwaeke Emezi
  
• Also loved reading: all the books – Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds; The Girl in the Tower (Winternight #2), Katherine Arden; Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries #3), Martha Wells; Watchers, Dean Koontz; Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2), Justina Ireland
• Up Next: Finish off the Winternight Trilogy with The Winter of the Witch, Katherine Arden and then move on to the stack of Kate Quinn books I have.

This month started off really slowly for reading – I just could not stop watching CNN and I couldn’t concentrate on reading anything after I finished reading Pet and Rogue Protocol. But I really want to complete our reading challenges every month, so I immersed myself in The Girl in the Tower, Katherine Arden – which I chose for the March Monthly Keyword Reading Challenge. For the March Monthly Motif, which was about sub-genres., I read Deathless Divide, the 2nd book in the Dread Nation series (horror > zombies). And to finish off reading for our trio of challenges, I listened to the audiobook of Watchers, Dean Koontz which won a 2019 Audie Award for Best male Narrator. I can totally see why – Edoardo Ballerini is masterful at bringing out the emotions, the suspense and the nuances of the characters – whether male, female, human, dog or … monster.

What was your favorite book read this month? Have you done more or less reading than the previous month?