Hello Loves!
I know, I know..this post is beyond late. I don't even know what happened, I read such amazing books in March and I was dyinggg to talk about them. But..well. Here we are. Almost at the end of April and talking about my March reads!
I guess better late than never.
Chalo, let's just jump into my March books.
I read 16 books in March and all written by women in honour of International Women's Day and Women's History Month. It's the easiest reading goal/theme/challenge because I end up reading a ton of women's writing in any case. So this month is a month of easy, breezy and happy reading for me.
I read some incredible books and let's just jump right into it.
Let's go.
BOOKS OF MARCH 2023:
1. Daughters of Madurai by Rajashree Variyar: Loved this book about a mother and daughter and deep seated family secrets. Did a full review for this this, which you can read here.
4/5
2. I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai: I loved this book, it reminded me ever so slightly of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, since it's set in a post boarding school, but this one has a murder mystery and so much pitch perfect conversation about rape culture and the post me-too world. Read if you enjoy reading about boarding schools, how women (especially young women) are treated in our world and read about the world after we've started having some conversations about consent and agency.
So good.
4/5
3. Beguiled by Ruchika Soni: A memoir..of sorts. I read this because it'a true life account of a woman's experience with marrying a conman and narcissist. I was OK. Of course, this is someone's lived experience and I am not going to comment on her life and what she has lived through and survived...but..I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing and how this 'story' was told.
2.5/5
4. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff: This one has been long listed for this year's Women's Prize and from the outset did sound quite lovely and just the thing I'd enjoy. Set in rural Gujarat, it's about a woman who everyone thinks killed her husband. She didn't but there is nothing she can do to dispel people's opinion of her. So she lives with it, the infamy and side eye and she thrives. Sets up a little business and really enjoys living an independent life. Trouble starts when other women in the village, especially those with abusive husbands seek out her expertise in doing away with their husbands too.
I really thought I was going to love it. The women helping women, rural lives and women fighting against society and social norms and asserting themselves.
Well..something about this felt so off. The way these women spoke to each other seemed so inauthentic and God, could the writer just shut up about how dirty this village was? Like really, just SHUT UP. Rural doesn't automatically mean dirty. A ton of rural folks work very hard and are very house proud. They might have small homes but they have clean homes. This book was so painfully and obviously written for a western reader and it just went hard on how dirty the streets are. I am not being hyper sensitive and I am well aware that poverty doesn't look pretty or neat, but to go on and on and on about dirty Indian homes and villages..come on. Have you even been to an Indian village? Have you?
I am so done with writers, vaguely Indian or otherwise not stepping foot in the country and writing a book perpetuating stereotypes.
Ugh.
Nope.
1/5
5. Blue Women by Anukrti Upadhyay: A collection of short stories mostly about women- strong women, odd women, clingy women, mums and daughters and wives and peculiar women, I love everything I've read by the author and this was no different. I love how she writes women and how she writes about situations and relationships and longing. So good.
4/5
6. True Biz by Sara Novic: I loved this book, sooooo much. I love books that take me into a world and a lives I know next to nothing about. This amazing book took me into deaf culture and how they live and feel about the hearing world and the certain extraordinary measures and treatments used on deaf kids. I knew so little about this and this book gave me so much to think about and sit with. Set in a Deaf school, this book shows us this world through the eyes of several characters, the head of school who's a hearing child of deaf parents, a young teenager who's deaf but has had next to no training in ASL and lives with her hearing parents who don't quite know how to deal with her and several others in this community.
I loved it so much and I highly recommend you pick it up and maybe watch CODA after.
4/5
7. Paati Vs. Uncle by Meera Ganapathi: This book was such a joy to read. Perfect summer reading, for kids and adults and I am such a sucker for any book centered around a Grandma.
4/5
8. Salt Houses by Hala Alyan: I tried to keep my reading as diverse as possible, in general and when I was reading women's writing. This book had been on my radar for so long. And it was worth the wait and worth the praise it's garnered. Set in Palestine and outside, this is a family saga told from multiple perspectives. A tale of family, identity and displacement. I loved it. Please pick it up, literature is often such an incredible way to learn about people's history and lived experience and trauma.
4.5/5
9. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf: A perfect book for Women's History Month and to celebrate women's writing. A classic and still relevant piece of writing and thought.
3/5
10. The Blind Matriarch by Namita Gokhale: A book that took me straight out of March 2023 and right back to those blurry and confusing days of March 2020 (shudder!).
Did a full review for this one too.
4.5/5
11. A Likely Story by Leigh McMullen: I love books about books and writers and publishing and I have a special spot for books set in New York. This book has all of these combined. A super famous writer Dad and his daughter who's struggling to find her own voice and become a writer and a found manuscript and the ins and out of a society marriage. Ufff. So good and layered and messy and infuriating in bits but so real. I loved this book and it's very flawed people and I flew through it.
4/5
12. Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole: A book told in verse about a survivor of sexual abuse and a world that is way better at slut shaming girls than believing them. Read with caution. TWs for SA and Bullying.
3/5
13. Up All Night, Edited by Laura Silverman: I then read an anthology of short stories, all based on a common theme of shenanigans that happen in the middle of the night. This has a mix of genres, some stories were romantic, some were slice of life and some were a little murdery and thrillery. This was such a mixed bag, not all stories were great. Some were very skipable, while others very enjoyable.
3/5
Then I read some smut.
:D
14. The Deal Dilemma by Megan Brandy: This was so OK and even the steamy scenes weren't exactly hot.
2/5
15. What Was Meant to Be by Q.B. Tyler: An age-gap romance and it was OK. Steamy enough.
3/5
16. In Nightfall by Suzanne Young: A YA vampire book. God, it's been so long since I had read a vampire book! This one is a good, light and easy summer read. Two siblings find themselves spending the summer with their reclusive grandmother in her peculiar small town where things are not quite as they seem. This was fun enough. Slightly unbelievable and far fetched but entertaining enough.
3/5
💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
A good reading month.
A mix of things---
Literary fiction.
Thrillers.
YA.
Smut.
Kid Lit.
World Lit.
All good things.
March was really a fun reading month.
:)
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