Recent Reads: March 2014


"I get by with a little help from my friends" should be the lyrics of March's recent reads theme song.  Thanks to blogging friends as well as friends IRL, I've spent the last two months eating books.  TV, you no longer have any hold over me.

I've already expounded ad nauseam on the genius that is Raymond Carver this month but it's also worth sharing the gold mines that Chuck introduced me to with recommendations of Etgar Keret and Patrick Ness.  If you're familiar with the Selected Shorts podcast, chances are you've already heard some of Etgar Keret's short stories before.  Each one is a little quirkier than the last and highly entertaining - he writes them as I would love to be able to do so myself.  Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy falls into the YA dystopian category but really isn't anything like The Hunger Games.  It's brutally fast paced, honest, and entertaining enough that I've finished off the trilogy already.

I've written about Lisey's Story and Get Jiro here on Amy's book blog so feel free to pop on over there to read about those but I think hands down, my favourite book of March would have to be The Snow Child.  Simply speaking, it's lyrical and beautiful.  I put the book down half a dozen times because I expected it to be snowing outside.  If Alaska is anything like what Eowyn Ivey (you've got to love that name) makes it out to be, move me there in a heartbeat.  The book is about family and living and the very elementary happiness and heartache that they bring us.  Pick it up, read it, regift it, you won't regret it.

Others that I recommend from this month include: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (which I swallowed whole in one evening) and Jar of Fools.


Comments

  1. oh, snow child has been on my reading list for ages. i may have to bump it up a little :)

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  2. I've been reading a lot more recently but my selections haven't gotten any better. :) I'll have to take a look for one or two of the books above.

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  3. Are Nimrods psychotic? Or just that one?

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  4. Hmmmmm.... I need to try this Snow Child of which you speak. I love winter and snow and dream of Alaska... Even our current 40 degree temp drop (in one hour) can't dissuade me.

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  5. Yay more book recommendations! :) I can always count on you! Will check those out!

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  6. Hooray books! I am bringing Beautiful Ruins with me to Paris and am hoping I still have time to read there. I would love to read as much as you do! I've read as many books this year so far as you have in a month! xo

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  7. I really need to get back to reading. I go through these waves where I read a ton, then practically nothing at all.

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  8. i had to read about get jiro. i was almost afraid it was an attack on the sushi chef jiro from jiro dreams of sushi documentary! i am not familiar with anthony bourdain so i didn't know what to expect. but i did hear some really cool things about him - someone i know works at a nonprofit that raises awareness about bombs in laos leftover from the war days and he did an episode on laos and talked about that very issue. also someone else i knew actually worked on an episode introducing kurdish food! i was glad that he worked with her because she's really tied and rooted in her community.

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  9. The Jess Walters book has been on my TBR forever...must really get cracking on my reading. And The Snow Child sounds really good.

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  10. i really loved beautiful ruins. i think it was one of my favorites from last year. really i haven't read anything like it - anything with hollywood themes i tend to shy away from. and i loved the setting.

    i have the snow child but i haven't read it yet. i did loan it to a friend and she said she liked it, didn't love it. i need to read it but i feel like it needs to be snowing!

    and i have been wondering about that etgar keret book. how did you like that one? xo

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  11. Kinda ironic that we find book recs off our blogging (computer) friends, I know I do :). Thanks for the recs. The first one you mentioned intrigues me.

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  12. As if my list of books to read isn't big enough already...

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  13. Snow Child is in my list for a while now. Reading this blog entry makes me reallllly wanna get a copy!

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