I’m going to keep this month’s TBR brief. I didn’t do well with last month’s I think largely because I’m a mood reader and when something doesn’t fit at that moment, I just drag through it or procrastinate picking it up. Secondly, classes are starting back up tomorrow! My coursework will be heavy in literature, so I don’t want to overcommit myself and burnout before the semester even gets started.
That said, March’s TBR list is going to consist mostly of ARCs and book club reads. For the Spooky Book Club, we’re reading Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda; and for the Garden District Book Shop book club we’re reading The Futilitarians by local author Anne Gisleson! I also have a stack of eArc’s courtesy of Netgally that I can’t wait to share with y’all!
I have gotten so many excellent book recommendations lately that I might have gone slightly overboard with my TBR for February. I picked books covering several genres, fiction and nonfiction, adult and YA. Many are books written by Black authors and feature Black protagonists in observation of Black History Month.
I have two book club meetings this month, one discussing Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and one discussing Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics by Eleanor Herman. In addition to book clubs, I’m also trying to get more involved with buddy reads on bookstagram, so this month I will be reading The Confession by Jessie Burton with a couple readers from the UK. I’m so looking forward to being able to discuss the book with friends as we read, rather than trying to fit everything into one meeting as we do with book clubs.
I received several recommendations via booktube and bookstagram for Legendborn by Tracy Deonn and Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones, both of which are retellings of fantastic storylines. Legendborn is an urban Arthurian story centered around a high school student. One of the highest praises I’ve heard for Legendborn is the effortless inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters and characters of color. I’m so excited to delve further into this and see what the hype is about. Characters of color and LGBTQ+ characters often feel forced or like token characters, so this sounds like a new standard to be achieved and Deonn just raised the bar! Wintersong was described to me as a retelling of Labyrinth, one of my favorite movies from my childhood. I am greatly looking forward to revisiting the Goblin King!
My husband recently bought me the selection wheel featured in the video and it was so fun putting it to use this month to select some Black History Month picks! For fantasy, I will be reading The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, first in The Broken Earth trilogy. Though it came out six years ago, it is still one that comes up frequently in conversations about favorite fantasy reads. For the non-fiction selection, I will be reading The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson is the author of the highly praised Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which I would also like to read this year. The Warmth of Other Suns tells the untold story of nearly six million black citizens who left southern states to move north between 1915 and 1970 and how this migration altered our country. For social justice, I will be reading Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. This is one that has crossed my path many times, but I just don’t prioritize non-fiction the way I would like to. Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative through which he served as the lawyer for Walter McMillian who was sentenced to death for a murder he didn’t commit. Through Just Mercy, Stevenson presents his findings of the broken system behind the American death penalty.
This month I’m also hoping to finish some books started last month and last year including Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris, Atomic Habits by James Clear, and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
Since we’re already well into the month, my January TBR isn’t going to be massive; I’ll save that for next month.
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice: This read is for a local book club meeting at the end of the month. After Covid dug its hooks in, I took the rest of 2020 off from book clubs even though they were meeting online because I just wasn’t feeling it. I miss it so much. I miss the community, the discussions, and just interacting with other readers. One of the groups I was most active in has resumed meeting in local parks as a sort of socially distanced picnic and I can’t wait to see them all again! I’ve already started Interview with the Vampire and am hooked! This will be my first completed Anne Rice book, but definitely not the last.
Intelligent Design Uncensored by William A. Dembski and Jonathan Witt: Let me preface this one by saying I know next to nothing about intelligent design. This book is also for a book club, online through a discussion group at my university. I’m committed to finishing the book and attending the weekly discussions for a couple months, but I have no idea what I’m getting into with this group or the book or if it’s something I will continue to participate in beyond this pick.
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris: I’m nearly done with the Sookie Stackhouse series; expect a series review once I’m finished. I plan on definitely finishing Dead Reckoning in January and would like to finish the entire series this month, but it will depend on wait lengths for the audiobooks through Libby.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon and Kira Breed-Wrisley: To be entirely honest, I don’t have high hopes for this one and it’s not one I would have ever found if it wasn’t for my nephew’s obsession with the games. But I’m hoping to be surprised.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: My husband continuously reminds me of lessons he learned from Atomic Habits, but it’s not one I’ve prioritized. Since November, I’ve been largely committed to being intentional and trying to form intentional habits, so I think it’s time to move this one to the top of the list.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: This is also a book club book. I started it back in November and have been dragging through it despite enjoying all the nods to familiar locations in New Orleans. The meeting to discuss it has been postponed for months for various reasons, meaning I haven’t had much motivation to fly through it as I normally would.
If you’d like to see different available versions of these books while supporting local bookstores, check out my reading list at https://bookshop.org/shop/lelyreads!
