My March Reading Goals

Spring is on the horizon.  I am dreaming of lovely Spring breezes, flowers blooming and reading outside in sunshine.  I normally do not set reading goals because I am a lady who likes to freely read what I want.  However, I realized that I was mentally planning out my future reading selections.  There are two reasons for this.  1.) I have been given advanced reader copies that I need to provide honest reviews for 2.) Library holds

Let me walk you through my plans with this ambitious stack.

Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes is the book that I need to provide an honest review for.  I won this copy via a Goodreads Giveaway.  I am familiar with Frances Mayes from Under the Tuscan Sun.  That book was adapted into a movie starring Diane Lane.  I loved the movie and immediately entered the drawing when I saw her name.  Women in Sunlight comes out in April so I will be starting it in the next few days.

Kit Raine, an American writer living in Tuscany, is working on a biography of her close friend, a complex woman who continues to cast a shadow on Kit’s own life. Her work is waylaid by the arrival of three women–Julia, Camille, and Susan–all of whom have launched a recent and spontaneous friendship that will uproot them completely and redirect their lives. Susan, the most adventurous of the three, has enticed them to subvert expectations of staid retirement by taking a lease on a big, beautiful house in Tuscany. Though novices in a foreign culture, their renewed sense of adventure imbues each of them with a bright sense of bravery, a gusto for life, and a fierce determination to thrive. But how? With Kit’s friendship and guidance, the three friends launch themselves into Italian life, pursuing passions long-forgotten–and with drastic and unforeseeable results.

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert is a novel that has been getting tons of chatter and praise.  I am incredibly intrigued by the premise and I am always trying to slowly expose myself to “light fantasy” novels.  This novel seems like a safe foray into the fantasy world because it revolves around fairy tales.  I am very excited to read this one.  It is the first in a series.  It was released January 30th so I have been PATIENTLY waiting on the hold list at my library.  I will be reading this one as I read Women in Sunlight.  I have a feeling I will most likely binge read this one and get it done in a few days.

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

I have been slowly making headway in my Female Voices Reading Challenge.  I previously wrote that I gave up on Joan Didion’s collection of The White Album.  If you missed that post here is the LINK

I decided to swap that one for her newest collection of essays South and West.  I am hopeful that I will make it through this one.  It is pretty short so I will finish this one no matter what!

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann was a hugely hyped and praised true crime book from 2017.  Being a true crime fan I knew that I was going to read it.  I decided to save it for 2018 because I really thought it was going to make the top five lists of someone in my reading group but then it did not make their top five so it is not going to count toward my reading group requirements.  C’est la vie!  The copy in the picture is actually my personal copy.  One of my top thrift store finds was this copy for $3…on half-off day so I got for $1.50.  It is in pristine condition so that was a no brainer purchase.  I believe I hugged it for the remainder of my browsing with a smile on my face! Book Description

The final two fiction books in the picture are Hannah Who Fell from the Sky and The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living.  City Baker’s Guide is one I started in mid February but I had another reading commitment for a book I needed to review so it has fallen to the wayside. It is still sitting in my living room waiting for me to pick it back up.  I was enjoying it but now I feel the pressure to read other books now but I still hope to finish it.   Hannah is one that I remembered reading a description of.  It has been on my Goodreads to read shelf before it was released.  I was browsing my library’s new fiction shelf and came across it.  I want to read this one this month because I am trying to maintain a balance with my reading stack.  I don’t want everything to be something I have promised to review, part of my Female Voices Reading Challenge or a requirement of my reading group.  I still want to have some semblance of reading freedom!

Lastly is the enormous black book at the bottom of the stack! My required reading for my book group is a graphic novel.  Mind you I have already read…I think three graphic novels this year…however this is normal for me.  I love graphic novels!  So I needed to make it a challenge for myself.  I found Alone by Chaboute on the new graphic novel shelf at my library.  This is a translation which is not something I normally read so I think that this is the perfect fit for my challenge!

On a tiny lighthouse island far from the rest of the world, a hermit lives out his existence. Every week a supply boat leaves provisions, yet the fishermen never leave their boat, and never meet him.
Years spent on this deserted rock, with imagination his sole companion, has made the lighthouse keeper something more than alone, something else entirely. For him, what lies beyond the horizon might be… nothing. And so, why would you ever want to leave? But, one day, as curiosity gets the better of him, a new boatman steps onto the island.
Intertwining tenderness, despair, and humour, Alone captures how someone can be an everyman, and every man is someone.

Phew so there is my reading goals for the month of March!  Of course this is all open to interpretation and could easily change at the drop of a hat. I am a stubborn and mood driven reader so….who knows what I may read next!