Reading Wrap Up / March 2025

In March I read lots of award nominated books including from the Women's Prize, International Booker and Dylan Thomas Prize. Click ‘Show More’ for info.

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Books discussed & purchase links:

Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst

The Edges by Angelo Tijssens (translated by Michele Hutchison)

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji

Good Girl by Aria Aber

I Will Crash by Rebecca Watson

The Artist by Lucy Steeds

By the Fire We Carry – Rebecca Nagle

What the Wild Sea Can Be – Helen Scales

A Thousand Threads – Neneh Cherry

Somewhere Else by Jenni Daiches

Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated by Polly Barton)

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Asa Yoneda)

The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem (translated by Sinan Antoon)

My full reviews of some of these books:

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:58 Nero Book Awards ceremony
2:09 Angelo Tijssens event
3:30 The Persians
8:42 Good Girl
13:41 I Will Crash
17:50 The Artist
22:30 By the Fire We Carry
26:04 What the Wild Sea Can Be
30:02 A Thousand Threads
33:28 Somewhere Else
36:48 Nesting
37:58 Dream Count
40:07 Hunchback
41:15 Under the Eye of the Big Bird
42:36 The Book of Disappearance
43:51 Conclusion

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Get in touch

[cindyhaiken]

What a great reading month and month of fun bookish events! Prize longlists are a gift that keeps on giving!

[IAmFJ]

I liked Notes on Grief, it was very moving but I couldn't finish Dream Count and now I don't know if I should read her other books or not because I don't know what it was.
Maybe it was just the COVID and how in that period we were all collectively both in the middle of a world crisis and present in every scary moment of constantly thinking about the virus and what you should and shouldn't do every second of every day to avoid it. I don't know.
So I stopped listening to that and instead started and finished Wild Dark Shore in one go and loved it. It was about another ongoing crisis and the possible course it will take, but it was also lovely, heartbreaking, and deep, and in my humble opinion, the main Goodreads genres written for it are plain wrong. It's neither a mystery-thriller nor exactly contemporary. Glad I didn't see the "thriller" before listening to the book because I wouldn't have. I would describe it as speculative literary fiction.

[emmavd]

Thank you, Eric!🌷I’m currently reading Somewhere Else and liking it very much. From the WP I’ve also enjoyed reading Tell Me Everything and Fundamentally. Raising Hare and The Artist are going to be next. From the International Booker longlist I’ve read On the Calculation of Volume and Perfection (actually before they were longlisted) and loved them both. Recently, I’ve read Eurotrash (not really enthusiastic about it) and I’m going to read The Book of Disappearance.

[Rosiemayj]

I finished reading Under the Eye of the Big Bird yesterday, I thought it was fascinating weird and beautiful 😊Looking forward to The Book of Disappearance, I really liked Hunchback as well, and loved Nesting

[tonyjensen]

Loved Good Girl. I assume that must be the UK cover, and I like that quite a bit more than the US cover.

[davidde]

Thank you, Eric. Great shirt! Please let me know which book by Joyce Carol Oates I should read first. I'd like to try to become a fan.

[travelers]

Great picks. I will crash sounds great ro me. I finished reading The Silence In Between by J. Ferguson in March. I loved the story and the vibe of the book.

[fallingwickets]

maurice and maralyn want to be queued but powers that be are in fu amerika mode and it isnt available ebook or audio. p.s. feel free to drop a tshirt link :)

[chambersstevens]

Eric! Your video comes with language options. How did that happen?