Hurry Up and Wait
All the books I read in March
Wow we truly have reached peak reading recap timing - right after the month ended? Impeccable.
This is also code for: I am procrastinating on everything else I have to write so this is easiest to do. You win some, you lose some.
In an odd turn of events, I have a desire to read Dune now? This is a question because I’m really not sure where this is coming from. I have owned the book about sandworms for years at this point, but I guess YouTube decided my algorithm needed the 2021 Dune video clips and so now I am intrigued? It’s all very confusing. Especially because when the movies did first come out, my reaction was: giant worm? No thank you. I am not a worm gal: those fantasy evil ones in the 2005 adaptation of King Kong eating Andy Serkis’s head did it for me please and thank you. So I can’t explain how we’ve ended up here, but I would not be the Chaotic Reader if not for a little chaos.
Anyways I read 9 books in March, none of which were Dune, 2 of which were audiobooks (big for me) and 3 of which either finished or continued series. Unless otherwise mentioned, all books are physical.
The Age of the Deer by Erika Howsare
If you’re asking quite literally, how old are deer, in the wild the answer is about 4-6 years. But the question here is less ‘how old are deer’ and ‘how has humanity’s relationship with deer changed?’ I have a soft spot for deer, as most people do. It was the first report I had to do in first grade: white tailed deer. We often had deer wander through my childhood backyard. Given that there have literally been bobcats and bears that have walk through there (and one errant goose)1, deer are not too high up on the list of concerns.Narrated by Howsare herself, this book covers America’s changing relationship to deer from the time of the colonial settlers to today. There’s a lot to take in here - hunting and ecological protection and deer as pests and roadkill. I came away with so much more understanding of deer, and still thinking they are cute. I listened to this on Everand.2
Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent
Another month, another Carissa Broadbent book. April might be the first time I don’t read a book by Broadbent in a long time. But the month is still young. This is the conclusion to the Daughter of No Worlds trilogy, and I do have to say that it was done pretty well. One of my favorite bits was one of the characters just not being able to hang with magic. This one man literally wanted to jump off a cliff every time he saw big displays of magic, which to be clear, was quite frequently. It was so funny. Most fantasy works have characters being all in on magic, so having a character wanting to crawl out of his skin every time he saw it was a good change of pace.This book will be reprinted later this year/next year, as the Daughter of No Worlds trilogy was originally self published by Broadbent. I have both the paperback edition, and the original hardcovers because I am a problem child. This does mean I have finished one series and can add that to my tally of reading goals for the year.
On the Other Side: Letters to my Children from Germany 1940-1946 by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg
On the Other Side was my first Persephone Book. I own multiple, this is just the first one I read. Persephone Books is a UK publisher that publishes out of print women from the 20th Century. Persephone Books are all gray on the outside, and this one in particular is #75 on their list. Only one place near me sells them (Beacon Hill Books in Boston), and I’m not about to pay for over Atlantic shipping, so I grab these babies when I can. In this instance, it was when I was in the UK back in November.
Other Persephone Books I own. They are all gray so as to not create a ranking amongst the authors. Anyways, On the Other Side is a published collection of Mathilde Wolff-Monckeberg’s letters to her children during World War II. What was unique about this, and something I hadn’t read before, was Wolff-Monckeberg was in her 60s during the war, and was living in Germany. All of her children lived abroad, and she wasn’t sure she’d see them again, so she started writing them letters that she never sent. When the war ended (and she did see her children again), she promptly forgot about them and they remained undiscovered in an ottoman until years after her death, when one of her daughters found them. It was a fascinating read, and to read a first person recounting of the deprivations of wartime living was startling. As someone who has consumed a lot of WW2 literature, I can’t say that I’ve ever read something like this. Wolff-Monckeberg’s descriptions of the bombings of Hamburg and its aftermath were later used in academic papers as evidence of the impacts of bombings on civilians.
Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler
I owe you a much longer post on this. I have no fewer than 10 different pieces of media related to this and the treatment of truth in memoir, especially truth relating to public figures. I will say this cover is stunning, and is a photograph that Tendler took herself. I read this on my iPad on Libby.Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
The final book in Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series, we follow Emily to Faerie, where she helps Wendell reclaim his throne. If you have never read this series that will mean absolutely nothing to you, so I’m not that concerned about spoilers. There is something to be said about waiting until a series is finished and then reading everything straight through, as though I have kept up with the series as it was published and consider myself to have a good memory, man on man did I forget some stuff between books 2 and 3.
There are fun critters, faeries, fantastical creatures being ridiculous, and cameos from other characters we’ve met throughout the series. I think what I’ve enjoyed most about this series is Fawcett’s resistance to a traditional narrative. One of her main themes is that Faeries (and Faerie stories) follow a certain logic that is illogical to humans, and there’s no way to understand it. So the majority of these books are about undermining what we’d consider traditional narrative structures, and I respect that. There’s still enough here to not leave you feeling frustrated, but I like that nothing was tied up in a neat little bow. Plus there’s animal sidekicks.all about love: New Visions by bell hooks
I planned to read this in February during both Short Book Short Month month, and Black History month, but I apparently cannot be contained and or follow a schedule so here we are.
The first in hooks’s Love Trilogy, all about love looks at the different ways love intersects with our lives, and how love needs to be a verb as much as a noun. hooks’s work is inter and multidisciplinary, and she examines how racism and sexism can get in the way of someone’s ability to love (and receive love.) Originally published in 2000, there is still so much about the book that is timeless. Even though some of the political references are of the era, the connotations remain. I had this on my shelf for a while, and now I guess I have to go read the other two books (Salvation: Black People and Love and Communion: The Female Search for Love.) To be clear: these are all nonfiction books, though they do form a trilogy.Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
I have two special editions of this book and I made them battle it out. I wrote more about it here, so I’ll spare you more details.Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
The prequel? companion? to Legends and Lattes, Bookshops and Bonedust follows our orc protagonist Viv at the beginning of her swashbuckling career. After being stabbed by a necromancer’s wight, Viv is laid up in the town of Murk (lol) for the summer while she heals up. Small town antics ensue like: going to the local bakery! Revitalizing the local bookstore! Slaying a necromancer! You know, vacation stuff. Like Legends and Lattes, this is very much in the realm of cozy fantasy, and while there are a lot of fantastical elements, this is less ‘grand fantasy adventure’ and more ‘small town murder mystery.’ Still utterly delightful, and reminded me the importance of pastries and books in one’s life. I wrote more about cozy fantasy if you want to read more about it here.Stories I’d Tell in Bars by Jen Lancaster
Directly proportional to the amount of audiobooks I listened to this month is the amount of driving I did. Which was a lot. Anyways, I cannot remember how I happened upon this audiobook on Everand, but I did, and it was funny. Mostly a memoir about a specific point in Jen Lancaster’s life (~2017), there were some cultural moments revisited that I completely forgot about, namely the Target x Lilly Pulitzer collaboration and fiasco. A perfectly fine book, but not one that bowled me over. Lancaster did narrate this herself, and she is a great narrator I will give her that.
I am also in the middle of a French book I started in March, and will finish in April. I am once again, to no one’s surprise, slacking on my French reading. I had such a good start by *checks notes* reading one French book in January. Though - reading a book in French will definitely take me less time than Dune so - things to consider.
I could also say that I finished two series (Legends and Lattes and Emily Wilde) but I envision that reading goal being ‘reading completed series I already own.’ And I still have a lot of them, so I shall make myself work harder to complete that reading goal.
No New Books ™️ Challenge
As I threatened last week, I bought more books. The Owlcrate Emily Wilde special edition set, to be specific. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the dustjackets, as I think the original covers are beautiful in and of themselves, but the special edition hardcover illustrations won me over. I was getting close to my original record from earlier this year, but the siren song of immediate dopamine was too much to resist.
Longest streak: 38 days (January 1st - February 6th)
Last streak: 28 days (March 5th - April 1st)
Current streak: 7 days (April 2nd - Present)
Mug Moment of the Week
Today’s Mug Moment of the Week is entirely in service of the accessories. Behold, DnTea:
DnD is the widespread abbreviation for Dungeons and Dragons. DnTea is Dungeons and Dragons themed tea merch, which obviously I would love. This is a looseleaf tea holder with a bunch of D20s3 on it, and a matching rainbow mermaid spoon. These were gifts from on of my fellow writing group/DnD group members. Anyways please enjoy the color coordination I have going on right here. I am very proud of it.
In the continued spirit of me being a chaotic reader here, who knows what the following weeks will bring writing wise as I try to catch up on everything, but I promise it’ll be fun, book related and chaotic.
What did you read in March? Anything good? Any reading plans for April?
His name was Larry and our theory was we think he got lost while migrating. He lived in a box in our backyard for about two weeks before moving on.
Who we should excessively shame for not having a way to turn off their AI Assistant. It just…doesn’t exist. I already paid for this month and I know this means I have to get rid of it but…*foot stomp*.
D20s are the ‘main’ dice in DnD, it’s the one most often used when a player needs to make some kind of ability check or attack.