March was the first month I really slowed down my “reading.” I feel like now is the time when people are starting to read more but it’s been the opposite for me! I’m used to listening to audiobooks as I’m out and about running errands-which I’m doing very very little of these days. When I’m home, I find myself turning the TV on more than picking up a book (something I want to work on!) Never the less, I managed to read three books this month!
Here’s what I read in March:
Such a Fun Age by Kelly Reid
We chose this book for my March Book Club and no surprise it’s a Reese Witherspoon’s book club pick. It’s about a black woman who is wrongly accused of kidnapping a child she’s babysitting while shopping at a supermarket. The story explores two main points of view that of Emira Tucker and Alix Chamberlain a blogger and Emira’s employer. It covers privilege, interracial relationships, anxiety, bullying, sex, postpartum motherhood and more. I really enjoyed it! It felt like a pretty easy read with just the right amount of twists and turns. I love books that tell the same story from different angles and perspectives. It really highlights that reality is perception. How I perceive something is vastly different than how you may perceive the exact same thing. Neither of us are entirely correct and neither of us are entirely wrong. There’s a lot of that in this book.
8/10
The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
Ok, I enjoyed the Night Tiger but I’m also still very confused by it. As I was reading, I felt like I needed to see this in movie form as a way to help me understand exactly what was going on. Set in 1930’s Malaysia it centers on a young Chinese girl Ji Lin who works in a Dancehall (a dishonorable profession at the time.) She discovers a severed finger (yes, really) in her dance partners pocket. She knows this finger is bad luck and the remainder of the book unfolds a series of insane events as she tries to get this finger back to its owner. As this is occurring a tiger is wreaking havoc and murdering people in town. I really enjoy period pieces and this book explores colonialism, superstition and folklore in 1930’s Asia beautifully. Like I said, I finished the book a little confused (maybe it was just me) but I really loved the ride!
7/10
The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin
Dubbed as a romance-disaster novel (who knew that was a genre?!) it centers on Dr. Ben Payne and Ashley Knox and their battle to survive in the unforgiving wilderness after a plane crash. This book is a page turner. It’s adventerous, heartwarming, harrowing, physical, brutal and evokes all sorts of emotions in the reader. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a book that keeps you on your toes. You may already be familiar with the story as it was made into a movie starting Kate Winslet and Idris Elba. I haven’t seen the movie so can’t comment on how true to the novel the film is.
8/10
If you end up reading any of these – let me know! I love talking books 🙂
Britt Heller 