Hi and welcome to another monthly overview!
I ended January on a bit of a low note, feeling tired and under the weather, and February turned out even worse, so I started March hoping that things would pick up and fortunately, they did! Nothing exciting to report but I did have more energy in March and I hope that will continue in April cos there’ll be quite a lot of socialising this month 😬
I prepped this post beforehand, mercifully oblivious to the fact we’d end March on a major low… On Easter, a fox got our two bantam Wyandotte chickens and our cockerel, and hubby and I are heart-broken. We also feel terribly guilty, cos we’d forgotten to close the door to the hen house. I woke up around 4 AM, the sound of our cockerel ringing in my ears. I went to check it out and found only two chickens in the hen house, instead of five. Camera footage shows that the fox hopped over the fence and into the hen house, stealing first one bantam, then the other, then poor Dieudonné tried to fight him, ran off and got caught too, alerting me and saving the lives of his two other hens, cos we have no doubt the fox would have come back for them as well if I hadn’t disturbed him by going outside. It was a devastating end to a good month and I spent most of Easter crying, to be honest.
Up until Easter, I had a fabulous bookish month. I don’t know if I’ve ever had this many 4.5 and 5-star reads! The few duds I had were easily forgotten among the fantastic books I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve officially become a Kim Stone fan and I love that I’ve found a series to enjoy in Spanish.
At the end of February, Audible.com (which I hadn’t used in years) offered me a free three-month trial period and I’ve been enjoying the Audible Plus catalogue (with thanks to Jonetta for the recommendations, do check out her Blue Mood Café book blog for all the best (audio)book recs!). I decided to listen to an Edgar Allan Poe collection, which was a daunting thirty-something hours, but after watching The Fall of the House of Usher last year, I thought that audio might be the best way for me to enjoy Poe, and I was right, the poems especially are wonderful in this collection: I loved The Raven so much more on audio than when I read it a few years ago, I’ve listened to it twice already, and I’ve listened to Annabel Lee four times so far. I didn’t enjoy every story in the collection, but I’m really happy I decided to try it, I’ve been wanting to read more Poe for ages.
Meanwhile, Audible UK offered me a three-month subscription for 99p, Audible must really love me, and of course I graciously accepted 😂 The only problem is there aren’t enough hours in the day to listen to all the books I want to listen to!
Honourable mentions to The Redemption of Morgan Bright, What Cats Want, The Life We Bury, The Gentleman Vanishes, The Egg and Other Stories and A Streetcar Named Desire but these were my favourite reads of the month:
In figures March looks like this:
March
Novels: 5433 pages across 16 books and one short story
Audiobooks: 78 hours across 11 books
And here’s what I did in March and some of what I’ll be posting in April:
What I read:
A Botanical Daughter, Noah Medlock
The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond, Louise Davidson
The Clinic, Cate Quinn
The Redemption of Morgan Bright, Chris Panatier (review to follow)
You Have Arrived at Your Destination, Amor Towles
Curfew, Jayne Cowie
The Trial, Jo Spain (review to follow)
No. 23 Burlington Square, Jenni Keer
What Cats Want, Yuki Hattori
Juegos del mal (Evil Games), Ángela Marsons
The Kitchen, Simone Buchholz (review to follow)
Birds of Prey, Tom Jackson (review to follow)
The Knowing, Emma Hinds
Hidden Places, Claudia Martin (review to follow)
Killing Jericho, William Hussey
The Family Experiment, John Marrs (review to follow)
Toxic, Helga Flatland (review to follow)
What I listened to:
The Roommate, Dervla McTiernan
The Life We Bury, Allen Eskens
One of Us is Dead, Jeneva Rose
The Woman on the Ledge, Ruth Mancini
The Women, Kristin Hannah
Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Audio Collection, Vol. 1, Edgar Allan Poe
West Virginia, Joe Halstead
The Gentleman Vanishes, Matthew Costello & Neil Richards
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
The Egg and Other Stories, Andy Weir
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
What I read earlier but reviewed in March:
Lie or Die, A.J. Clack
The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, C.L. Miller
The Escape Room, L.D. Smithson
I also shared an extract from The Collapsing Wave by Doug Johnstone and Crow Moon by Suzy Aspley.
Let’s have a look at the books that landed on my lap in March:
Two paperbacks I loved when I read the digital review copies and just had to have on my shelves, and yes, cover love was part of that:
Two audiobooks (one included in the Audible.com trial and one for 99p on Audible UK):
One eBook that had been on the wishlist for a while, five 99p deals, four NetGalley DRCs and three DCRs from Orenda Books:
I hope you had a good month and that you are safe and well! Thanks for joining me today and happy reading xxx
How awful about your chickens and cockerel I’m not surprised you spent Easter crying!! On a happier note I’m so glad you enjoyed No 23 Burlington Square, The Women and that Birds of Prey book from Amber Books. Lucky you getting those audible trials I’ve been waiting for one for ages but they don’t send them to me. 😂 BTW which audiobook was 99p?
Thanks Nicki, it was horrible. Maybe you can sign up for a trial on the Audible site? It’s what I do with Kindle Unlimited, I keep checking and eventually I get another trial period, or a heavily discounted one 😂 The 99p one was the new Anna Mazzola, I went to check it out, and Amazon offered the audiobook for 99p, including 2 extra Audible months, I have no idea where that came from 🤷🏼♀️
I’ve Kindle Unlimited at the moment and got a gift subscription last month for Mother’s Day, so maybe when it runs out they might offer me something when I cancel? 🤷♀️
They do do that sometimes, here’s hoping they will do again 🤞
Oh no, Kelly, your poor chickens!! It’s so tough looking after animals, you never know what’s going to happen next. I hope when you have recovered from the upset that you can go out and get some more chickens and find a way to protect them from Mister Fox. Those wyandottes were so beautiful!!
They were the cutest, and so funny, we miss them so much, and our poor boy, too. We’re definitely going to expand the family again but we’re not sure yet how and when.
What a nightmare! I’m so sorry to hear this. You were very brave to run outside and save the two left with your presence (I’m not hearing anything about the other half being heroic 😉). I hope you have a good month and I look forward to your review of The Family Experiment. Also, I didn’t know about Boys Who Hurt, exciting as I really loved her previous books!
It was truly horrible, Inge! It didn’t feel like a brave act, I didn’t even think twice or consider it might be dangerous. Thank you, I hope so. Wishing you a good month, too!
I’m so sorry to hear about your Easter, that’s a horrible thing to happen. I hope April will be a better month xx
I hope so too, Rae, thank you x
What an awful thing to deal with over Easter, your poor chickens.
Looks as though you’ve had a fabulous reading month – I loved The Women by Kristin Hannah – I too have had a very good March in terms of books, they’ve all been excellent reads!
It really was. Happy to hear you had a great bookish month too!
Oh no I’m so sorry about your chickens and cockerel! Those poor things; what a horrible way to end the month. I did love your bookish month though! Looks like I will have some titles to look forward to in the future… I love Kim Stone, so it’s great to hear the books work in Spanish as well. Fingers crossed April will treat you well! xx
Thanks Yvonne 💜