Read:
No More Nice Girls – Lauren McKeon (Anansi, 2020)
The Regrets – Amy Bonnaffons (Little, Brown and Company, 2020)
Ducks, Newburyport – Lucy Ellmann (Biblioasis, 2019)
Apeirogon – Colum McCann (Harper Collins, 2020)
If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha (Ballantine Books, 2020)
We Two Alone – Jack Wang (Astoria, 2020)
Currently Reading:
Hold on to Your Kids – Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Mate
The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave
2020 Goals:
Books Read: 25/100
Books Reviewed: 22/75
Current TBR: 176 (previously 161)
For now, I’m suspending my self-set challenges. Mostly because I don’t really feel like I want any added pressure in my life currently. But also because I rely heavily on the library for my reading and until that re-opens, I won’t have access to books that aren’t currently in my house. (Barring buying new books of course and I definitely advocate for supporting your local independent bookstore right now, if you can. I will when I need to but we’re also in a time of some financial uncertainty so I’m not rushing to buy a lot.)
What’s Next:
Like many others, since our world went into lockdown in mid-March I’ve found myself with less inclination to read. Theoretically, we have more time than before in which to finally catch up on our TBRs but it’s hard to lose yourself in a book right now and that’s ok. As we all adjust, I hope to find that I’m reading more.
At the beginning of March I finally began Hold on to Your Kids, since Pearl recently turned 5 and was preparing for kindergarten. I loved it and was reading eagerly along with a friend when COVID-19 hit our lives. Now it seems sort of strange to read a book about keeping your kids parent-oriented when our kids won’t be seeing their peers for the foreseeable future. Yes, it’s still an important topic. Yes, one day Pearl will return to swim class and playdates and start kindergarten. I’ll keep at this one but it probably won’t be as fast.
When we were stocking up on flour and eggs and children’s Tylenol, I had the thought that I am so glad our house is full of books. While we can’t go to the library, I have a stack of ARCs to work my way through and piles of unread books I’ve thrifted over the years. We could be in quarantine for the rest of the year and I won’t run out of reading material.
Here are 5 books from my TBR that I plan to read in April:
ARCS: Littles Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, The Moment of Tenderness by Madeleine L’Engle, and Lost Boy Found by Kirsten Alexander.
From my shelves: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner
And so that was March in books. Definitely a strange month but there were some good books in there. My reading highlight was Ducks, Newburyport. What was yours? Are you able to block out the news and enjoy a good book these days? What are you excited to read in April?
Karissa Reads Books 
I was telling my husband the other day that having more time to read and being unable to is like that old Twilight Zone episode (based off a short story) in which a man who works in a bank just wants to be left alone so he can read. One day, he heads down to the bank vault to get in a little reading time in peace and quiet when the whole world is blown up in a nuclear explosion. He discovers there are books all over the place, having been blasted out of the library. He’s so happy — SO HAPPY — but he accidentally drops his reading glasses and they break. NOOOOOOO!
Hahaha! That sounds like a nightmare! Though couldn’t he just find the closest drug store and get a new pair? It does rather capture the feeling right now though.
Well, according to the story, everything was blown up. Just an utter wasteland. Why the books survived (albeit scattered all over the ground) is a mystery to me!
Books are magic!
Yay for Ducks as the standout of the month! 🙂 I am also very excited about your plans for April! I’m so curious about Little Eyes and would love to hear your thoughts on that one, and I absolutely loved Homegoing. I hope you’ll enjoy The Mercies as you continue reading it as well! No pressure though, of course. It is definitely important these days to read at your own pace, so much has been disrupted and books can provide an escape only as long as they feel like an escape rather than a chore. I’ve been using the Women’s Prize list to stay motivated and keep some structure in my life, but when that ends I have no idea what I’ll turn to next and how I’ll manage without a “deadline,” even though like you I could last the year on unread books in my house. It is certainly a strange time, and the important thing is to get through it in whatever way works, even though that will surely look different for everyone.
Just finished The Mercies last night and review to come (spoiler: it will be a positive review!)
Yes, there’s really no wrong way to be reading books these days (or ever). I may return to my challenges; I just realized they were making me sad and anxious thinking about the future so it was better to release them for now. I do really want to support some bookstores I love though so I am putting together a list of books to order in the next few weeks, I hope.
Ooh, yes! 🙂
The great thing about challenges/goals is that they’re meant to help us, not hinder- it’s good to adapt them as needed. I hope freeing your reading a bit will help you feel better!
I am also planning to be more careful and intentional about my book purchases in the coming months, to support businesses that need the help. A win-win really, new books and the chance to extend a helping hand! 🙂
It’s actually kind of exciting to be forced to work through my backlog of books I already own!