March 2021 Reading Wrap Up
I’m a little late sharing my March reading wrap up, but life has been a little crazy lately! March was a very busy reading month. I ended the month by reading 20 books! I participated in a reading challenge during the first week of the month and also enjoyed participating in Middle Grade March. A lot of the books I enjoyed this month were middle grade or YA books, which is why I was able to get so much reading in.
On my YouTube channel, I review every single book that I’ve been reading (as opposed to here, where I just give the highlights). If you’re interested in more details, you can check out my mid-month wrap up here and end of month wrap up here.
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What I've Been Reading Lately
This was the first of only two five star reads this month. In February, I read another of Brian Selnick’s books, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I was so impressed at how Selnick combined illustrations with text, but wasn’t wowed by the story overall. Wonderstruck was far better! It alternately follows a young boy (via the text in the story) and a young girl (via the beautiful pencil illustrations). Eventually their stories converge. Because there are so many pictures, this is a relatively quick read, but the storyline is beautiful in its exploration of grief, found family and disability (specifically deafness). If you haven’t picked this one up, you definitely need to!
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Earlier this year, I made a video talking about the classics I wanted to read in 2021. Both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn made the list. Somehow, I never got around to reading them in high school.
My feelings about Huckleberry Finn are complicated at best. There are so many aspects to the story that I really enjoyed. Twain’s writing is immersive and clever. I can see why this book has been labeled the first great American novel. However, the racism in this book is intense. When Huck runs away, he’s joined by a runaway slave. While Huck’s view of Jim is likely pretty accurate of the time period, it still made me very uncomfortable. I kept pressing through the book, hoping there would be some sort of redemption where Huck would realize that all he’d ever thought about black slaves was wrong. While there are some redemptive themes, it wasn’t as strong of a message as I would’ve liked to see. I vlogged while reading this book and have much more in-depth (and spoilery) thoughts there. Check out the video here and skip to timestamp 26:44 for my thoughts.
Just Ella is, as you might have guessed from the title, a Cinderella retelling. It takes place after Prince Charming has found Ella and whisked her away to her happily ever after in his castle. There she has begun princess training in earnest and is beginning to realize the royal life might not be the happily ever after she bargained for.
I absolutely loved this book! Ella was plucky, intelligent and very logical. She was an immensely relatable and enjoyable character. My favorite part of this story is her realization that infatuation and love are two very different things.
A little disclaimer – while this book is intended for a middle grade audience, I wouldn’t give this book to my 3rd (almost 4th) grader, because there are some brief (non-explicit) references to rape that I feel are inappropriate for her age range. I’m of the opinion that sexual references of any kind are not necessary in a middle grade book. Your opinion for your children may be totally different and that’s okay. I just like to put disclaimers for content that some parents may find objectionable.
A Vow So Bold and Deadly (The Cursebreaker Series)
At long last, we get the conclusion to the Cursebreakers Trilogy! I read book 1 last October and absolutely loved it! It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling that I wasn’t expecting to love as much as I did. I read book 2 in November and was pretty disappointed by it, although it was still entertaining. I was hopeful that book 3 would redeem the series and be as good as the first one. Alas, it was not to be. I can’t get into the plot without giving away major spoilers from the first two books, but if you’re interested in more in-depth thoughts, you can check out my goodreads review here. Overall, there were parts of the book I enjoyed, but I found myself wishing the book had been a standalone, rather than a trilogy.
House of Salt and Sorrows is a retelling of the fairy tale The 12 Dancing Princesses. This wasn’t a fairy tale I was familiar with going into the book. The story follows Annaleigh, the 6th of 12 daughters. Her mother died after giving birth to the 12th daughter. Shortly after that, one of Annaleigh’s sisters passes away. And then another. And then another. At the start of the book, Annaleigh is attending the funeral of the 4th sister. She’s starting to suspect that her last sister’s death was no accident, but all the villagers believe that the family is cursed.
This book was so much fun! It’s actually classified as a horror, so if you hate all things spooky, you might not enjoy it. I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to horror, so I was surprised by how much I loved it. For most of the book, I was second-guessing everything and wondering if Annaleigh was crazy or if everyone else was.
The Language of Flowers is a beautiful book about Victoria, a girl who has grown up in foster care and group homes. The book opens on Victoria’s 18th birthday, when she has aged out of the system and flashes back to her last foster home before she was deemed “unadoptable.”
This book was hard to read at times, but I felt like it did well in showing how rejection shaped Victoria’s perception and all of her relationships. It didn’t have a neatly packaged ending and some of Victoria’s choices and sentiments didn’t make sense to me in terms of my experiences, but I felt like all of her actions made sense in light of what she had experienced. There’s a beautiful arc of growth in Victoria and the book ends on a hopeful note. I’m really glad I read this one.
March was the month of fairy tale retellings, apparently. I’ve recently discovered that that’s one of my favorite things to read! This book follows Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters after Cinderella has been whisked away by the prince.
Stepsister was so much deeper than just a fairy tale retelling! It had beautiful messages about the expectations society places on women (particularly how beautiful women are valued over intelligent women), love and forgiveness, and whether you are able to change yourself and the path you are fated to follow. This book was my second five star book for the month. I loved it so very much!
Gerta lives in Berlin. There is much tension after World War 2 and there is pressure from Russia. One morning, Gerta awakens to realize that the Soviets have constructed a wall overnight, separating East Berlin from West Berlin. Shortly before, Gerta’s father and brother had travelled to West Berlin, so now her family is separated. She, her mother and older brother are prisoners in East Berlin.
I had never read a book that takes place in this time period, so it was fascinating! I really enjoyed the book, although I had some trouble connecting with the protagonist. It’s a very well-loved book within middle grade, so I think the issue was with me, not with the book.
When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God–and Joy
In my 32 Birthday Goals post, I mentioned I wanted to read one spiritual book per month. This was the book I read in March. It’s a very short book about depression. I have always had issues with depression, but I was struggling with a particularly tough season of it, so I was excited to pick up this book. I liked how John Piper mentions that medication may be useful or even necessary for many people, but if we simply medicate depression without also seeking to see if there are unlaying spiritual causes, we may just be treating the symptom, rather than the root cause.
There are many applications to help and even a chapter at the end on how to help those you love who are suffering with depression. However, I wanted more from this book. I loved all that I read and was truly helped by it, but I just wish he had gone a bit deeper. It’s a very short book, so therein lies the problem. I think it is beneficial that the book is so short, though. It makes for a far less intimidating read for someone who doesn’t have the mental capacity to read a long book, because they are so overwhelmed by depression. I still absolutely loved this book and recommend it to all Christians suffering from depression and also for people who have loved ones who suffer from depression.
What Claire's Been Reading Lately
Claire has moved on from Keeper of the Lost Cities to a brand new series! And she says that the Warriors Saga is now her favorite series. It’s the story of cats who form different clans that are warring against each other. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but that’s the gist of it. She has been loving these books and has even made up her own clan! She’s flown through the first series (which has 6 books). I think there are at least 5 subsequent spin off series, so she’ll probably read the next one in April.
The Long Winter seemed like an odd book to be reading in a springy month, but Claire enjoyed reading this one last month. This is book 6 of Laura Ingalls Wildler’s Little House series. In it, we follow the Ingalls as they survive a very bitter winter.
The moment they saw each other, Bean and Ivy knew they wouldn’t be friends. But when Bean plays a joke on her sister, Nancy, and has to hide quickly, Ivy comes to the rescue, proving that sometimes the best of friends are people never meant to like each other. Our library recently got a bunch of books in from this series and Claire enjoyed reading quite a few of them.
Sea Monster! (The Kingdom of Wrenly)
Claire has enjoyed this series quite a bit! It follows a young prince who befriends the daughter of seamstress. Together they go on adventures throughout the kingdom. It’s an adorable fantasy beginner chapter book series.
What We've Been Reading Aloud Lately
If I had to choose one book that was my all time favorite in childhood, I would probably choose The Secret Garden. I absolutely loved this book! I finally shared it with Claire in March and it was just as beautiful and wonderful as I remember. We really loved watching the transformation of both the garden and Mary as they both blossom into beauty and growth. This is the perfect springtime book!
For more springtime recommendations for both kids and adults, check out my video here
Matt and his father have travelled from Massachusetts to Maine to build a homestead. Once they have completed it, Matt’s father returns to Massachusetts to fetch Matt’s mother and sister. While Matt awaits his return, he encounters some Native Americans and learns to confront his own bias against them. While this book has its issues (it was written in the 80s, so it’s definitely not perfect), I was really impressed at how the book handled racial tensions between white settlers and Native Americans. We listened to this book on audio while driving to visit family and absolutely loved it!
Well, that’s it for this month’s reading wrap up! I’d love to hear from you. What books have you been enjoying lately? Let’s chat in the comments!
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