March Reading
What I've been reading, doing, loving in March
This is my monthly wrap up where I talk about some of my favorite things from the last month. Things I’m reading, enjoying, looking forward to—sort of anything floating my boat.
I’ve never really cared about spring. It lacks fall’s fashion appeal, winter’s cozy comforts, and summer’s ability to make me feel like the Only Girl (In The World)1.
But in the last few weeks, every ray of sunshine peeking through a cloud and every damp minute spent regretting a layer have been delicious.
There’s a special kind of magic in the air right now. Are you feeling it too?
My personal goal for April is to reach out, grab hold, and do my best not to let go.
Here is an overview of how my month went:
Read 1.5 books as part of the Trans Rights Readathon
Went to two cottage weekends, which is SO Canadian
Found the most gorgeous vintage Harley Davidson leather jacket in a small town thrift store. It came with a story from the shop owner about a biker who retired his motorcycle and couldn’t stand to look at his “gear” anymore
Still have not joined my work’s book club… still feel good about that decision
My Survivor pool is going very poorly—justice for Bianca!
Found out about Saya Gray and exclusively listened to her in March
Oh, and Haim
What I Read
Below is a rundown of every book I read last month. I’ll be adding a star next to my standouts, like a starred review where a star isn’t a 1 to 5 scale, it just means good!
Before the written ramblings, here is a video version of my monthly wrap up if you’re more of a visual person:
In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin
I’m very interested in the duality of people—specifically animal vs human—and how that comes through in sex, relationships, violence, and the convergence of all these things. This book was a recommendation from someone because it explores that topic.
It tells the story of a French anthropologist who is studying in remote Russia and survives a gnarly bear attack. I was 50 pages into this when I realized it was a memoir/autofiction.
This doesn’t really deliver on the duality conversation, but it explores healing in a way I’ve never considered. I often think about healing as being sown back together, being made whole again etc. This is just how I’ve been conditioned to think about illness and injury as something to fix.
The author discusses the experience of feeling a growing distance between herself and a new self after the attack. This moment changes her forever, and healing her body doesn’t mean she’s going to return to a previous state but rather that she’s learning to live as this new version.
Really interesting book with stream of consciousness, nebulous vibes.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan ★
A novella about an Irish seaside town that follows a townsman going about his life. He's only ever known this town and the people in it, and this book discusses the small moments that make up his days.
I was shocked to find this book heavy and depressing… It is so profound, yet so simple. We explore the way his world has been shaped, and also the minute things that warp it over the course of the few days covered in the novel.
It’s about coming up for air. It’s about being too close to the trees to see the forest. It’s about a crack in the veneer.
What was it all for? Furlong wondered. The work and the constant worry. Getting up in the dark and going to the yard, making the deliveries, one after another, the whole day long, then coming home in the dark and trying to wash the black off himself and sitting into a dinner at the table and falling asleep before waking in the dark to meet a version of the same thing , yet again. Might things never change or develop into something else, or new? Lately he had begun to wonder what mattered, apart from Eileen and the girls. He was touching forty but didn’t feel himself to be getting anywhere or making any kind of headway and could not but sometimes wonder what the days were for.
p. 32, Small Things Like These
I was so affected by the main character’s wanting. He wants more from life now that he knows there can be more to life. I really loved this and flew through it in a day.
Ugliness by Moshtari Hilal (translated by Elisabeth Lauffer)★
This book blends essay, poetry and cultural criticism to explore the concept of beauty and ugliness. Who gets to decide what is ugly? Who gets to be ugly? What does all of it mean?
It ebbs and flows between a zoomed out cultural lens and a microscopic dissection of personal experience to paint a full picture. Noses, the Kardashians, hair, skin, bones, it really made me think about The Body in a fascinating way.
The author and I are the same age, and both grew up salivating over the glossy pages of fashion magazines at a time when that was the epitome of beauty. So many of the touch points in her stories felt very clear to me because of this shared experience.
She takes an axe and chops her nose in two.
One piece is buried,
the other placed in her mother’s calloused hands.
Mother, I am going into battle
with blade to cheek,
your daughter under my blade.p. 14, Ugliness
She discusses ugliness as a learned fixation on the self, and as the space between you and what you consider beautiful. There are so many passages I will want to return to over and over. I felt called to reread this book as soon as I put it down.
There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem
This is an International Booker Prize Longlist title from this year, and not my favourite out of the ones I’ve read.
It’s the coming-of-age story of a young girl growing up in Réunion. She is born into a complex family dynamic, with disappointment, violence, and anger at the forefront. The main character is spunky, questions everything and is trying to carve out a place for herself in the world.
While I liked this novel, I don’t think it does what it likely set out to do. There are instances where it meanders without a clear reason, and then there are moments that feel too frenetic to be grounded in the story. It was hard to connect to because of how extreme the peaks and valleys were.
I wanted an emotional through line to be in the driver’s seat, but never really got it. Still, I am glad I read this and am happy to see it recognized.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
What can I say about this brick of a novel that hasn’t already been said? It’s such a feat and I really liked it.
It’s the story of an Irish family, and the book splinters into four sections that dig really deeply into each of their lives. There’s teenage angst, a hunger for belonging, despair, regret, disappointment, so many things that make up these very real-feeling people.
I did find the middle 200 pages to be challenging in terms of keeping my attention. There’s a stylistic choice to remove periods from the mother’s POV section, and it doesn’t really pay off for me. It makes it harder to read, and took a bit away from the really compelling backstory that shaped this family.
But that is quickly made up for by the last 150 pages being a ping pong match of electric storytelling leading to a climax that left me breathless.
I’m very impressed by the author’s ability to pour so much into these characters and to make them all feel like the best one. There wasn’t a single person’s chapters I wasn’t excited to go back to.
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
This book is inspired by the tragic death of 28 migrants as they travelled through the English Channel. It reimagines that event from the perspective of a French Coast Guard Operator who did not send help to a sinking boat.
Her narration is apathetic, she is desensitized to humanity and death because of her job. We feel her having lost touch with responsibility and her part in this, despite getting her reactions to transcripts and recordings of the calls between her and the sinking boat.
This made the story very interesting and compelling, but I think had the novel been any longer I would’ve lost interest. It goes so far into compartmentalization without deviation, that at some point it could become uninteresting—it never gets there, but comes close.
Overall, this is a very specific kind of story that is done very well. It challenges morality and right/wrong with razor sharp writing.
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters ★
Sick, twisted, punk, and delicious. This is a collection comprised of three short stories and one novella. Some speculative, some horror, all perfectly kooky.
Torrey Peters publishing this is so cool to me. Her debut novel was so widely celebrated that there had to be some pressure about what would come next. I never thought it would be this, and that’s what makes it so great.
She talks about the trans experience in a way that isn’t meant to educate or coddle cis people. This collection talks about gender and sexuality in a bold and intricate way—latex masks, crossdressing lumberjacks, and a gender apocalypse.
It feels really fresh and different, like the kind of book that will make many people rethink what kinds of stories they can and should tell.
Torrey Peters writes in a way that feels effortless to read. At times it’s funny, at times it’s cutting, but it is always perfectly calibrated.
My favourite parts of this collection are the first two stories: Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones and The Chaser. I want a full novel of both of these on my desk by EOW.
On My Bedside Table
A dispatch from my bedside table and the books that litter it, hoping to be read soon.
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated by Polly Barton), a woman with a congenital muscle disorder grapples with illness, her body, and sex.
Martha did an interview with the author, and it made me plop this all the way to the top of my TBR.Little Weirds by Jenny Slate, an essay collection that’s funny and tender and full of softness.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, it’s a Hunger Games book and I want to read it for science/nostalgia. I’ve only heard great things!
On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer (translated by Lucy Scott), a queer classic from the 80s about chasing freedom and the past catching up to you.
Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter, a story of grief and loss and love in a queer community after the AIDS crisis.
Have you read any of these? Are any of these non-negotiables? Are any of them skippable?
What did you read and love last month?
Tell me what you think in the comments!
That’s been my month!
Until next time 🤠
Rihanna
Adding Stag Dance and Small Things Like These to my TBR!!
never ever ever join the work book club. & i cant wait to hear your thoughts on little weirds!!!