March reading recap
A romantasy rabbit hole, a favorite essay collection, dark corporate surrealism, etc
I used to list recent reading at the end of larger monthly recaps and share annotated passages in my “Books” story highlights on Instagram. Both those places started to feel cramped (plus I’m trying to barely be on social media beyond Substack these days) so last month I decided to build reading recaps into their own posts.
Here’s March!
(I am not on Goodreads or StoryGraph. If you’re curious how I’ve tracked my reading since 2023, this is my homemade spreadsheet—in part because I am a control freak but also because it’s so easy to update without internet access.)
Nonfiction reads
The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays by CJ Hauser ★5 (reread)
Finished 3/9 in my all-time favorite coffee shop on Florida’s space coast. I inhaled this book last January. Thirteen months later I craved it again—and each piece was as amazing as I remembered. The first night of my reread I lay awake, needing to pee, saying “after this essay I’m done for the night!” … for four essays straight. If I can ever make a reader feel half (hell, a quarter) of what Hauser incites in me, my writing will be a roaring success.
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger ★4 (audiobook)
Finished 3/10 on our first stretch of driving north from our winter in Florida. Sean and I started this audiobook last summer, which is the longest it’s taken me to finish a book in my life. We almost exclusively listened to it while on slow jogs or in quiet campsites, though, and I enjoyed stretching it out. (Schlanger’s narration is also very soothing.) I’ve never felt more interested in plants.
A Body Made of Glass: A Cultural History of Hypochondria by Caroline Crampton ★4
Finished 3/31 while traveling through Indiana. I am hesitant to claim a label with which I have not been officially diagnosed, but anxiety about health has been part of life since I started bawling at a routine physical in the fifth grade because I’d convinced myself I had cancer (after reading Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper, which was very creative of me). Anyway: I was excited to put Crampton’s book on hold after hearing about it in John and Hank Green’s We’re Here newsletter. And I was not disappointed!
Fiction reads
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty ★4
Finished 3/5 parked on the side of a street but cozy in bed with Sean and Scout. I continue to enjoy Liane Moriarty’s work. This one went quickly and made me a lil’ emotional.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros ★3
Finished 3/8 in the sun at our old favorite Florida park. I went a year and a half between Fourth Wing and Iron Flame (I’d initially decided not to read past the first book) but decided to try again after the Onyx Storm hype earlier this year. My ambivalence about this series continues. I find the prose itself clunky and many of the characters one-dimensional… and yet I am surprisingly invested in the overall story?
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros ★3 (reread)
Finished 3/13 on the road between Mammoth Cave National Park and Indianapolis. After realizing how much I’d forgotten to set the stage for Iron Flame, I reread the series’ first installment before Onyx Storm.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros ★3
Finished 3/16 at my parents’ house in central Wisconsin. I stayed up very, very, very late reading while having a sleepover with my niece (after she was soundly asleep) only to experience a terrible book hangover thanks to yet another cliffhanger ending. My newfound interest in these books inspired a playlist and some lengthy journaling about taste.
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter ★3
Finished 3/29 in our van at peak cozy—hiding from rain—with Scout’s chin pressed against my legs. I wanted to like Ripe more than I did. But even though I never fully lost myself in it, I thought the writing was beautiful and the themes (scarily) relatable and the definition deep dives delightfully nerdy.