March ended up being a really good reading month for me. I was reading along with the 2025 Tournament of Books list as much as possible and found two really good ones right at the end.
Here’s the best of the best from March:
5 Star Reads
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - I went into this buddy read with a bad attitude, but it ended up being amazing. The characters in this one stole the show.
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino - I absolutely adored this book. A coming of age story about a possible alien born right around the same year I was? Yes, please. It was the second audiobook in a row that I listened to where I wanted to buy a paper copy so I can underline all of the parts I loved.
The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck - This audiobook hit just right. It’s a set of interconnected short stories each read by a different narrator. Next I want to read the paper version and take notes on how they all relate. I loved the New England settings and the pace of the stories. Really good.
4 Star Reads
Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor - I enjoyed this book even though I think I‘m going to have to read it again to fully understand what happened.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach - I assumed this would be total fluff (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but it was pretty deep albeit in a fluffy way. I liked what it had to say about taking care of yourself, finding the true you as you get older, loneliness, and grief. I loved how the author handled the pandemic. It made me laugh too.
Untamed by Will Harlan - We visited Cumberland Island last Easter without knowing much about it. Between the beaches, the abandoned mansions, and the wild horses it was like stepping into a novel. I’m now on a mission to learn as much as I can about it. This nonfiction book was a good starting place to learn about some of the history, gossip, and scandals.
Love and Death in Kathmandu by Amy Willesse - It took me a while to get through this book about the massacre of Nepal’s Royal family in 2001, but I ended up liking it. I still have a lot of questions about what happened, but the authors did a good job of setting the scene as best they could. I read a lot of mountaineering books so it was good to get a different sense of the country’s recent history.
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