March TBR
Every single time I've set one of these TBRs, I've always put more books on it than I know I can physically get through in one month. Have I learned to stop doing that yet? No.
Anyway. Another bit of a mixed bag, this month - lots of new releases that I'm excited about (remember when I said in January that I wouldn't be doing that this year? Lol at me) and pretty evenly split between history and contemporary fiction. Most of the new releases are books I heard about on one of my three reading podcasts, so they come pre-recommended by sources I trust, meaning I will be excessively disappointed if they are not great.
Of the historical fictions, a lot of them seem to centre around the same general time: early under James I's rule, either at his court or in the countryside (A Net for Small Fishes; The Manningtree Witches); and one of my to-be-reads also brings in some nice little magical fantasy elements (The Lost Apothecary). Another one of the historical fictions is a historical murder mystery (Blood & Sugar), which is a subgenre that sounds like it should absolutely appeal to me and yet I never read very much of.
My contemporary-set fictions range a bit further, although I do have two thrillers on here (Blacktop Wasteland; Plain Bad Heroines) and I want to read The Echo Wife (which is a roll-over from last month's TBR that SOMEHOW was backordered on the day it was supposed to release...). There's a couple French award-winners on here, 2020's Goncourt winner (L'Anomalie) and Emmanuel Carrère's first big bestseller from the early 2000s. I'm also reading a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew for FictionMatters's March book club, and two nonfictions (one on white supremacy on the Internet, which will depress the shit out of me; so I'll cheer myself up by reading a historical analysis of England's Crusader queens). And in easy, fun reads, to wrap up my month, I'll read a pulp-crime thriller about a woman who decides to become an assassin; Talia Hibbert's last Brown Sisters book (boo! BOOOOOOOO!); and another Georgette Heyer.
In other reads, I will be carrying on with my buddy read of King Hereafter (things are starting to happen over in High Middle Ages northern Scotland!) and dipping in and out of Kink, a fairly interesting (if a bit uneven) short story collection, and Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment for Every Day of the Year (which is the perfect nerdy way for me start my every day). I've never had so many books on the go at once and I'm pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable a reading experience that has actually been for me so far.
Here is my full TBR of 17 books (with highlights of books I'm planning on reviewing):
Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy, by Talia Levin
Act Your Age, Eve Brown, by Talia Hibbert
Transcendent Kingdom, by Yaa Gyasi
The Manningtree Witches, by A.K. Blakemore
Plain Bad Heroines, by Emily M. Danforth
The Lost Apothecary, by Sarah Penner
Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Crosby
Le Royaume, by Emmanuel Carrère
L'Anomalie, by Hervé le Tellier
Blood & Sugar, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Queens of the Crusades: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Successors, by Alison Weir
False Colours, by Georgette Heyer
A Net for Small Fishes, by Lucy Jago
Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, by Elle Cosimano
The Pursuit of Love, by Nancy Mitford
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, by George Maguire
As always - let me know which of these you've read, which you fancy, what you want to see reviewed, which you think I should let languish at the bottom of the pile, etc. etc.
Happy reading,
Amélie
