All The Things I Read In March
Alt. title: Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown
Happy early April! The abundance of reading continues, as does the slippery slope our collective psyches are slipping and sliding on in 2025. In March, my reading patterns were a direct result of what seemingly happens at the start of every year: I decide to use the library more, then over-enthusiastically add 30+ books to my hold list, and then they all become available at exactly the same time. The fact that they mostly involved women losing their minds (slowly, surely, rapidly, definitely) is a thematic coincidence.
Shall we dive in?
The Thrillers (all with houses on covers, not on purpose):
The Note - Alafair Burke - Burke is maybe one of the most reliable thriller authors out there (I think I’ve read 5 of her books before this one) and this story of a girls weekend (caveat: the girls are all in a “Canceled Club” due to various misdeeds in their past) in Hamptons that goes terribly wrong because of a seemingly innocent prank looked to continue the streak. But something didn’t quite click - Burke shines when it comes to complex female relationships, procedurals and very logical deduction (she is a former prosecutor), and this kind of felt like a twist upon a twist upon a twist too many - almost like she’s trying to fit into a different category than the one she is so good at. But, for those looking for a more fitting entre into her work, the excellent “The Better Sister” gets a streaming adaptation starring (drumroll please) Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel (May 29th on Prime)
Stranger Diaries - Elly Griffiths - This book came with so much pedigree: Best Novel winner at the Edgars, Sunday Times Thriller of The Year In The UK…. Was it that good? Maybe not, and primarily because of a little bit of a sleeper start, but once it got cooking, it kind of had it all: a Gothic-y backdrop (murders keep happening around a literature professor that oddly reflect a little known short story she regularly teaches in her creative writing class), many, many suspects, general Britishness (which I appreciate, always), a cool, Sikh, queer female lead detective, and a pretty breathless race to the end. Kind of old fashioned, but thoroughly enjoyable.
The Overnight Guest - Heather Gudenkauf - March felt like the last possible month to read about a snowed in murder, and right on cue “The Overnight Guest” came off hold at the library. I thoroughly enjoyed 7/8th of this book - it was kind of “In Cold Blood” meets “Strange Sally Diamond”/”The Room” meets whatever Stephen King book you want to choose in which a writer is trying to finish a book and a snow storm happens and…. Anyway, it felt like a thriller written for avid thriller readers (these are few and far between), but then it kind of made some “gimme” decisions in the finale and I felt a little cheated out of my journey. Having said that, if you’re not a super jaded consumer of plot twists - this one is fun.
The “Day In The Life” Fan Fictions (I say this with all the love in my heart)
The Coin - Yasmin Zaher - So, if you’re a woman of a certain age (millennial to elder millennial) living in a major city and fancying yourself a literary reader, you’ve seen “The Coin” pop up a lot - maybe not with the “Safekeep” frequency quite yet but enough to feel morally and aesthetically obligated to give it a try. And reader, while I maybe didn’t enjoy it at all points - I loved it. It is sort of a OCD companion to “My Year of Rest And Relaxation” (the book that brought all of the aforementioned demographic, alongside “Bunny”, together) and written in a very original, shameless, extremely superficial manner that (of course) hides all manner of trauma. Our protagonist is a Palestinian immigrant of the Birkin-toting variety, in New York City teaching middle-school boys things they will never unlearn (she sees herself as “Their general, of sorts”) and meticulously keeping an eye on her worldly posessions (all designer), the cleanliness of her surroundings (all minimal, but still in the way of full control), and spiralling slowly but surely into the final chapters of unavoidable insanity. Side characters are colorful and almost as deeply problematic as the lead, the descriptions of the mundane activities (inventorying your clothes, the proper way to wash them…) positively hypnotic (imagine “A Day In the Life” , the humor is so black it is almost blue and while, again, this book is NOT what I’d call enjoyable, I cannot wait to see what Zaher does next.
Trust and Safety - Laura Blackett & Eve Gleichman- Ok, I hope the description of “The Coin” didn’t make you want to give up on this newsletter because this next one is A CORKER. Remember that movie “Ingrid Goes West” and how very on point/off the rails it was? Remember how you thought “Big Swiss” and “Our Country Friends” were hilarious and you texted/DMed me to thank me for recommending them? (you know who you are). Well, here is your next read. In it, a newly married Brooklyn couple (he’s a lawyer tech bro, she’s pretty and kind of aimless but well meaning) uproot their lives in search of that elusive instagram vibe in Upstate New York. The house they bought turns out to have been owned by a obscure-ish lesbian icon, and is in need of SO MANY REPAIRS. Plus, he lost his job and now they have to rent out the outbuildings to a queer polycule that may or may not be what they seem. Anyway, it keeps going, but Blackett & Gleichman nail every landing, tie every knot in the constantly moving plot just so, and the level of funny & almost-on-the-nose-but-way-better observations is extremely high. Prepare to take photos of bits and bobs of this and text it to your friends. I would like to shout out
’s “Frump Feelings” end of 2024 round-up for this recommendation (Which also resulted in me reading and loving “Beautyland” so…. 2 for 2 here)
British Escapism (of literary and fantasy variety)
The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn
Now, this was my neighborhood book club’s pick for the month (spoiler alert: I PICKED IT) and it was great. I need emotional/peer support to read anything over 450 pages, so I’d like to use this opportunity to say “Thank You!” to everyone in Braehead Woods for embarking on this journey with me. Now, I loved it because it is a book custom made for women who were raised on Enid Blyton and Nancy Mitford and Dodie Smith. If this is not you, it may be a slightly harder sell to make you commit to almost 600 pages of some rag tag sort of siblings growing up on an estate on the British coast with WWII looming and a giant whale carcass serving as a backdrop for their childhood plays (we then get to actual war - this is a long book). But, in the immortal words of Ray in that season finale of Girls when he’s reading “I Capture The Castle”: “This book is so fucking incredible. Anything by a British woman is just…fuck.”
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - Sanu Magdala - Someone recommended this to me on a recent shoot and because I really liked the person (hi Kristi Brunner!), I (wait for it!) put it on hold at the library. It is an extremely adorable, Harry Potter vibes adjacent story about a young witch who is hired ot coach three little witches who live on a compound with some very colorful characters (in my mind I am already casting George Takei and Ian McKellan as the gay granpas). A little romance, a little magic, a little madness, some high-ish stakes. Cozzzzzzzzy and sweet and charming and a totally new category of reading for me. Who am I after this?
The Unclassifiable Ones:
Victorian Psycho - Virginia Feito - It has been weeks since I finished this and I still can’t quite wrap my head around all the things that it was: a holiday set dark fairytale, a clear homage to Bret Easton Ellis, a horror, a dark comedy, an exercise in both gore and restraint. It is 150% not for everyone, but if you like your heroines with a pitch black disposition, and think Lizzie-Borden-meets-Patrick-Bateman would make for amusing company, I highly recommend it.
Wild, Dark Shore - Charlotte McConaghy - On an isolated island somewhere between Australia and Antartica, a strom brings an unconscious woman into the hands of the caretaking family: Dominic Salt, and his kids Raf, Fen & Orly - all coping with grief and trauma and awaiting to be taken off the island themselves in the next month or so. The interloper is clearly looking for something (someone?), and as the group establishes a tenuous connection that starts resembling trust, more and more darkness and infinite loss comes to the surface, and the clock on the time they have on this island keeps ticking. The set up is pure thriller, but the execution is something much deeper. This was beautifully written, but so filled with sadness that I had a hard time with it. I guess, just be careful?
The one I didn’t finish:
The Lifecycle of The Common Octopus - Emma Knight - I was extremely excited for this because it did seem like “The Whalebone Theatre” it was made for Nancy Mitford/Dodie Smith fans like myself (and both were “Read With Jenna” picks, who clearly has a similar reading tendency). But, it kind of felt fake? Like, I didn’t want this language to involve a contemporary setting, and felt the double POV distracting, and just couldn’t get into the groove with the whole thing. I do think it would make a cool TV show.
BONUS: Everything I read in March last year, because why not? Books don’t expire.
