Since people seem to enjoy my posts about anticipated books, I thought I’d start doing them more regularly - which also allows me to tell you about even more books. Speaking of which, how am I ever supposed to catch up on the books I want to read when more books keep getting published that sound so good? Here’s a round up of some of the books coming out in March that I’m excited about.
In the Quick by Kate Hope Day (3/2/21) - I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this one, so I already read it and enjoyed it. First, I’ve got to say - ignore the publisher’s blurb on this one because I’ve possibly never seen a more inaccurate description of a book! When this novel starts, it's an unspecified time in the future, and June is a 12 year old who lives with her aunt and uncle, socially awkward but brilliant at engineering. As June's uncle is dying, a spaceship launches nearby with some of the specs designed by June's uncle and his students. Communication is lost with the spaceship and they are presumed dead, but June never stops believing they're still out there, through her time at a special academy for training teenagers for the space program to becoming an astronaut herself at a young age. So it’s a kind of literary science fiction but in a realistic way, quiet but interesting. For the vibe, think a mix of The Light From Other Stars by Erika Swyler, The Martian by Andy Weir, The Wanderers by Meg Howrey, and a dash of the movie Interstellar. 4 stars.
Forget Me Not by Alexandra Oliva (3/2/21) - This is another book where I was lucky enough to have gotten an ARC and already read it, and another one where you should ignore the inaccurate publisher’s blurb. When this novel begins, it’s the not-too-distant future, and main character Linda is a 24 year old woman who barely leaves her apartment and has never really integrated into society after escaping the isolated and messed up childhood she escaped from 12 years before. But a friendly new neighbor, and a fire at the home she grew up in, cause her to slowly come out of her shell and revisit her childhood home and memories both literally and metaphorically. It’s a little hard to characterize this book - it’s set in the future but not really science fiction, and it has some mystery/thriller aspects but isn’t really so much those either - I guess I’d call it a character novel with some psychological suspense. It was not as much a wow for me as Oliva’s amazing debut The Last One (which was a 5 star book for me and one of my top 10 of 2016) , but was nonetheless a very unique, absorbing, and enjoyable book. 4 stars.
Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig (3/2/21) - I’ve been a fan of Lauren Willig for 15 years now, since I first read the first book of her Pink Carnation series. I read all 12 books of the series as they were published, and have been working my way through her standalone books as well. Her latest, based on a true story, follows a group of graduates from Smith College who volunteer to help in France during World War I.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (3/2/21) - From the publisher’s description: “A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.” I love a good multi-time period historical novel, so sounds right up my alley. Plus it has a gorgeous cover and great pre-release buzz.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (3/2/21) - I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go many years ago, and it was one of my top 10 books of 2006 and really stayed with me. His new book is about an “Artificial Friend” (aka robot) observing the world and trying to figure out what it means to love.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (3/9/21) - I love World War II historical fiction, and I loved Kate Quinn’s The Alice Network and The Huntress so can’t wait to read this one. It’s set both during and after World War II, about three female code-breakers.
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue (3/9/21) - I thought Imbolo Mbue’s debut novel Behold the Dreamers was great, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she does on her sophomore outing. This one is set in a fictional African village in a corrupt country where an American oil company is destroying the environment. We actually read her first book in my book club; this one sounds like it could make a good book club pick as well.
The Dating Plan by Sara Desai (3/16/21) - This is a chick lit novel is about an Indian-American woman being pressured by her family to marry, and her brother’s friend who needs to get married to get his inheritance, who decide to enter into a marriage of convenience. This is getting really good buzz from people who have gotten advanced copies. Plus with all of the heavy sounding historical fiction on this list, I'm going to need something cute and light to break things up!
Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly (3/30/21) - I loved Martha Hall Kelly’s first two historical novels Lilac Girls (one of my top ten favorites of 2019) and Lost Roses. Her new book goes further back in history, set during the Civil War from the perspectives of a Union nurse, an enslaved girl, and a plantation wife. Note that Goodreads characterizes these as a series because there are members from different generations of the same family in each book, but you can totally read her books as standalones as they are generations apart, and she’s been going chronologically backwards (first WWII, then WWI, and now the Civil War.)
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton (3/30/21) - This debut novel is a fictional oral history of a fictional Afro-punk duo in the 1970s. I loved Taylor Jenkins Reid’s fictional music oral history Daisy Jones & the Six, so interested to check out another author’s use of the same literary device - and lest you think she ripped off the format, apparently she’s been working on this since before Daisy Jones was published.
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Believe it or not, there are even more books being published in March that sound interesting to me, but I decided to limit myself to ten. Will I read all of them before the month is out? Probably not. š But hopefully I'll get to them sooner rather than later, especially since I had a head start by already reading two of them. Any of these already on your TBR list or being added to your TBR list based on my summaries? Any other books you're looking forward to in March?
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