March 2023 Reading Round-Up
The best and worst of my reading month
Welcome to the March 2023 Reading Round-Up. Each month I write about the books I've read and rank them from worst to best.
This post marks the two year anniversary of The Book House Blog. While I was already recording the books that I was reading, I decided on a whim in March of 2021 to start writing about them as well. My hope at the time was that some people would find it interesting, it would be an enjoyable creative project, and that I could become more involved in the literary and publishing world. Two years later, I have written over 200 reviews (and counting!) in an exercise that has made me think critically about my reading and allowed me to turn a hobby into something slightly more. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog since its beginning and to everyone who has joined along the way!
March 2023 Reading Statistics
Pulitzer Winners Read: 1
Number of Books Read: 12
Genre Breakdown: 17% non-fiction (2 books), 83% fiction (10 books)
Average Rating: 8.5/10
All of the books written about below are available on my March 2023 Reading Round-Up Bookshop page, or you can click on the title of the book itself to be routed to the shop. All of the books I’ve ever recommended, sorted by post, are also available on the general shop page. And, if you buy through this link, you can purchase a gift card through Bookshop.org for the readers in your life.
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12. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
Fiction, 314 pages
Set in the remote countryside of mid-19th century Iceland, Burial Rites reimagines the final months of the life of Agnes, a woman in her early-30s who has been sentenced to death for her role as an accessory to the murder of two men. As the District Commissioner works out the details of her death with his superiors in Denmark - Iceland is a Danish colony at the time - Agnes is sent to live on the farm of a local government figure with his family. Seen as an extra set of hands to contribute to the tasks of surviving within the harsh realities of rural Iceland, Agnes slowly proves her character to the skeptical members of the family. At the same time, a young reverend is sent to be her spiritual guide as she prepares to die, and it is with him that she recounts the story of her life that led her to this point. Burial Rites is told in alternating perspectives between Agnes, the reverend, and the family matriarch. There is nothing abjectly wrong with this book, I just did not find it as moving, well-written, or interesting as it could have been. I certainly learned a lot about the culture of 19th century Iceland and the dynamic interplay between the themes of faith, justice and toil.
Rating: 7/10
11. The Virgins - Pamela Erens
Fiction, 282 pages
In 1979, Aviva Rossner enrolls at Auburn Academy, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire. Running from the mess of her parent’s divorce, Aviva is hoping to simultaneously reinvent and discover herself in the new space. In her first week, Aviva meets Seung, a Korean American student a year ahead of her. They quickly start dating, and become known around campus as a visible and intimate couple. Although the jacket description of the book paints their relationship as unlikely due to their minority identity status at a tony East Coast boarding school, these factors are not really discussed in depth, which I saw as a lost opportunity. This critique falls in line with my larger problem with the book - it’s fairly rare to find a novel like this that is well-written on a sentence-level but not at an overarching plot-level. I didn’t feel invested in any of the characters or their journeys even though I thought that Erens was able to write well. In addition, I thought that Erens missed the mark by telling the story through the perspective of a third party - introducing the element of an unreliable narrator. What could have added an interesting layer to the novel fell flat, and by the end I was unsure what the narrative choice added to the larger story.
Rating: 7.5/10
10. Dirt Creek - Hayley Scrivenor
Fiction/Mystery, 336 pages
Twelve-year-old Ronnie and Esther are best friends. With limited options in their small, rural, and dusty Australian town, the pair spends nearly every day together in school and out. When Esther disappears on her way home from school and is eventually found dead, a shock-wave ripples through the community as everyone tries to understand what happened. Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels and her partner are sent to investigate and, in the process, uncover the many secrets and interpersonal drama hiding just beneath the town’s surface. Told through the different perspectives of the Detective Sergeant, Ronnie, Esther’s mother, and a few other townspeople, I was impressed with Scrivenor’s ability to breath life into so many different people in a believable way. While I did not guess who the killer was or see the choice coming, I was somewhat underwhelmed and then ultimately a little disappointed in the lack of discussion about the rippling effects. Overall, Scrivenor has written a well-done police procedural mystery, going to great lengths to emphasize the different elements of the Australian criminal justice system and their connections to this case.
Rating: 8/10
9. Night of the Living Rez - Morgan Talty
Fiction/Short Stories, 285 pages
Night of the Living Rez is a debut collection of twelve stories set in current times on the Penobscot reservation in Maine. Although each story is distinct, many of the characters repeatedly appear throughout the book building like layers on top of one another. In one story, two friends attempt to rob a tribal museum and while one gets caught, the other hides in a nearby sweat lodge to avoid the authorities. In another, a boy is left to watch his teenage sister’s baby when tragedy ensues. Each of the stories grapple with issues of family, community, poverty and grief while attempting to give life to modern issues facing one indigenous community. Talty himself grew up on the Penobscot reservation and it is clear that his sharply observed stories are influenced by his life and childhood.
Rating: 8/10
8. Mother in the Dark - Kayla Maiuri
Fiction, 304 pages
Anna is a young woman in her twenties living in New York City with her childhood best friend, Vera. Originally from Boston, Anna moved to New York to escape her family and the uncomfortable realities of her childhood. As the oldest of three sisters, Anna had a direct view into her mother’s long and untreated struggles with mental health issues. When their father, who is a non-violent alcoholic, relocates the family from the neighborhood Anna’s mother grew up in to a bigger, newer house, Anna’s mother becomes almost nonfunctional, certainly unable to care for her three daughters. Many years later as an adult, Anna receives an urgent call from her sister, forcing her to consider why she is so hesitant to confront her past. Told in alternating timelines between past and present, readers are exposed to the totality of her life and the forces that have led her to her present. This is a quietly devastating story about the toll of untreated mental illness on an individual and their family. Maiuri writes well but sparsely, and although I really enjoyed what she did I am not confident that the book will stick with me in the long term.
Rating: 8/10
7. The Storm is Here - Luke Mogelson
Non-Fiction/Politics/Domestic Extremism, 368 pages
In the days following January 6, when the only thing that people could talk about was the riot and insurrection, I remember being drawn to a video taken by Luke Mogelson, a reporter for the New Yorker, who had filmed and followed a group of people into the Capitol as they walked around the Senate. This was one of the first videos that I had seen that clearly pieced together not just the movement of the rioters but also the espousal of their beliefs. Mogelson, who before the pandemic covered the wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan as an embedded journalist with American battalions on the frontlines, uses his experience to take a broader view of American extremism. Having lived abroad for most of his adult life, Mogelson returns to the United States somewhat disturbed by the state of American discourse. Beginning with Covid-lockdown protests in Michigan, anti-Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis, and Proud Boys marches in Portland Oregon, Mogelson sets the stage for an attack on January 6 that feels, if not inevitable, then unsurprising. Drawing comparisons between the fervency of QAnon supporters and ISIS disciples, Mogelson attempts to emphasize the danger of blind devotion and extremism while reminding readers that political violence is not a phenomenon that only takes place abroad.
Where this book fell short for me was not in the quality of its reporting but in its scope. The Storm is Here feels at times like a fancified series of long-form articles that you might find in a publication like the New Yorker, rather than a book positing a uniform theory with deep contextual bases. Nonetheless, Mogelson has written a clear and important account of 2020 (and its bleed-over into 2021) as a witness to dangerous contemporary history.
Rating: 8.5/10
6. Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson
Fiction, 305 pages
If ever there was a buzzy book this season, it is Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson, a current vice-president and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf publishing. Set in a wealthy area of Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn on the fruit streets (Pineapple, Cranberry, and Orange Streets - hence, the title of the book), Jackson writes about a super-wealthy family and their problems. Pineapple Street alternates between three perspectives: sisters Georgiana and Darley and their sister-in-law Sasha. Sasha and Cord (brother to Georgiana and Darley) have recently moved into Cord’s parents fancy brownstone on Pineapple Street, which is still stuffed to the brim with every relic from their elite upbringing that the parents can’t bear to part with as they move to a modern high-rise blocks away. Sasha, who grew up middle-class in Rhode Island, doesn’t quite fit in with the family, which is apparent based on the “gold-digger” comments made not so quietly behind her back. Darley, who has given up her job and her inheritance in order to marry her husband without a prenup, discovers the stress of unemployment with two small children when her husband unexpectedly loses his job. And Georgiana, a spoiled twenty-something secretly falls in love with a married man, isolating herself from her support system. This is a messy family story that I absolutely devoured. You know what you are getting yourself into when you pick up this book - a well-written, drama filled story with interesting characters and a quickly paced plot. It might not be the sharpest critique of generational wealth or the privileged lives of the elite, but it is sure to entertain, which I enjoyed immensely.
Rating: 8.5/10
5. Stay True - Hua Hsu
Memoir, 208 pages
Named one of The New York Times Top 10 Books of 2022, Stay True is Hua Hsu’s memoir. As a first-generation 18-year-old Taiwanese American in the early 1990s, Hua Hsu arrived at Berkeley with a very specific understanding of himself as an individual; his likes and dislikes, his music preferences, his style choices. His first impression of Ken, a Japanese American student whose family has been in the United States for generations, is warped. Ken seems mainstream, a member of a fraternity with a simplistic view of the world. But as the two spend more time together, Hsu and Ken grow close, developing the tight bond so easily developed as college students. One night, almost three years after they met, Ken is unexpectedly murdered in a carjacking, throwing Hsu’s life into disarray. Hsu struggles to understand how this happened and what, if any, role he could have had in preventing it.
Stay True is Hsu’s attempt to reckon with the loss of his friend in the thirty-years since his death. It is important to note that this book is not the story of Ken’s life. Although there are elements of eulogy, it is more a reflection on friendship and adolescence and the ability to grow amidst tragedy. Hsu, now a writer for the New Yorker, writes with grace and beauty, effortlessly weaving together his past with current reflections. I have no idea how out of all the books published in 2022 the New York Times whittles down their list to the ten best, but even if this book wouldn’t have necessarily been on my top 10 list, it is certainly a worthy contender.
Rating: 9/10
4. The Sweet Spot - Amy Poeppel
Fiction, 392 pages
The three women at the heart of this story are all united by one common thread: a baby who they unexpectedly find themselves responsible for. Lauren and her family have just moved to a brownstone in Greenwich Village gifted to them by her husband’s biological father. A ceramicist who has recently landed a large contract at Felicity’s, a fancy boutique store, Lauren is bogged down by work, her three kids, and one rambunctious dog. Olivia is a buyer at Felicity’s until she gets fired over an unfortunate interaction with a customer. Looking for work to hold her over, she gets connected with Lauren’s family as a short-term babysitter. Finally, there’s Melinda, whose husband of thirty-years has not only just left her for another woman (Felicity) much younger than him, but has also just announced that he and Felicity are having a baby. After Felicity leaves to film a television show in California and Melinda’s ex has a mental breakdown, she is suddenly stuck caring for the baby and is forced to enlist the help of a group of newfound friends.
The Sweet Spot is a fun story filled with quirky characters and a strong sense of place. Of the two previous books that I have read by Amy Poeppel - Small Admissions and Musical Chairs - this one is for sure my favorite. There’s a lot of people to keep track of and lots of connections to be made, but Poeppel pulls it off, resulting in a heartwarming story of found family, community, and connection.
Rating: 9/10
3. Mecca - Susan Straight
Fiction, 367 pages
Mecca, set in the inland towns and canyons of Southern California, is a love letter of sorts to the communities that make up this portion of the American West. The book opens with Johnny Frías, a highway patrolmen and the child of California’s Indigenous people and Mexican settlers. His love of the hot and dry road, which he experiences on his patrol motorcycle, reflects a version of California often placed in the shadow of its more famous beaches and celebrities. While his job has had an appropriate amount of excitement, nothing will compare to his rookie year when he killed a man assaulting a young woman in the hills near his parents’ home. The plot of the book is difficult to comprehensively describe because Straight quickly veers away from Johnny to tell the story of the community around him, including the family of the young woman who was assaulted and the undocumented maid who works for them. What unites each of the threads are the deep roots that each character has connecting them to their homes and the racism, injustice, and struggle that comes with this birthright. The book’s divergent paths all come together with the onset of COVID and Johnny’s discovery of the woman’s family, making for a dramatic conclusion. Straight writes with such clarity and purpose that I couldn’t help but be drawn in from the very start.
Rating: 9/10
2. Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner
Fiction, 327 pages
Wallace Stegner won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1972 for Angle of Repose, which I discovered with joy after searching for what more I could read by the author when I finished this book. Crossing to Safety, published in 1987, is loosely based on Stegner’s own life. Indeed, the main couple, Larry and Sally Morgan, are modeled on Stegner and his wife Mary, while their counterpart couple, Sid and Charity Lang, is based on their friends. Crossing to Safety is a quintessential character-focused book. The story is almost exclusively about marriage, adult friendship, and their evolution over the course of nearly fifty years. There is neither drama nor betrayal. The story’s intrigue comes from the intimately detailed depictions of the ordinary lives of two couples making their way out of the Depression in the world of literature and academia.
The Langs come from money and remain fairly insulated from the economic catastrophe of the 1930s. Despite this, Charity is desperate for Sid to achieve tenure as a professor at the University of Wisconsin even though Sid would rather spend his days writing poetry. On the flip side, Larry and Sally Morgan have little family and even less money when they arrive in Madison. They are forever indebted to the generosity of the Langs who usher them into their world, becoming nearly inseparable in the process. As the years continue their paths inevitably diverge - through the birth of children, a polio diagnosis, and tenure denial - and yet the couples remain like family.
Did I have issues with the depiction of Charity as too controlling, manipulative, and uptight as a central conflict in the book? Absolutely. Wallace Stegner, born in 1909, was not a man known for espousing ideas beyond his time. However, this depiction was also an unfiltered view into the mind of a major contributor to the American literary scene in the 20th century and the world that he represented. His technical writing abilities are unimpeachably stellar and his ability to make me care so deeply about characters make this a great work of literature.
Rating: 10/10
1. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
Fiction, 270 pages
Although I have enjoyed practically every Pulitzer winner that I have read to date, Olive Kitteridge, the 2009 winner, felt particularly exceptional. Already a big fan of Elizabeth Strout and her Lucy Barton books, I was blown away by the world of Olive Kitteridge, who might just be one of my favorite literary characters. Olive, a retired schoolteacher, is married to a retired pharmacist named Henry, who is kind to a fault until a traumatic event exposes their marriage’s flaws. The two struggle with the growing distance between themselves and their son, particularly after Henry’s debilitating stroke. A cast of characters who live in the Kitteridge’s Maine hometown exist on the periphery of Olive’s life, and readers are introduced to them through a series of interlocking stories. Although most, if not all, of the stories deal with the tragedies of aging, Strout is able to insert wit and depth into each interaction. Olive is brash, opinionated, and not afraid to let others know it. I fell in love with her from the minute she appeared on the page and am thrilled to know that I will meet her again in Strout’s follow-up work, Olive, Again. Strout’s ability to craft people in such intimate detail, shedding light on the most basic of human conditions, is truly a feat to be admired and appreciated.
Rating: 10/10
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Want to see last month’s round up? You can find that here.