Required Reading 2014: March

February couldn't have flown fast enough if I wanted it to - I was too busy with the online discussion and in the preparation for the offline discussion of the book club's book of the month, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories by Raymond Carver. And while it is always fun to be discussion moderator for my favorite bunch of bookish people, I can’t say that I didn’t feel just a teeny weeny bit relieved when it was done.

Apart from Carver’s book, which I had to reread for the discussion, I was able to finally (!) finish Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, which is long overdue anyway. The lone title I picked for my February reading list, The Tudors by G.J. Meyer, will be carried over to this month, as I am still reading it and currently at page 154 (23%) of the book. This is going to be another long haul, the book having 600+ pages. Another tome, I know, after Wolf Hall, but I need to follow up on this Tudor history obsession. Besides, it isn’t often that I actually pick up non-fiction, so I need to get this obsession out of my system.

On to March!

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I picked only two books for this month’s reading list:

•  A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li – From the I Dare You To Read activity over at the book club, I was dared by my good friend Benny to read this. This collection of short stories is one of his best reads for 2013, and I picked it because I figured I could use one short story or two whenever I feel saturated by the royal intrigues and such. Also, I figured I could get started on the Dare, too.

•  The Alienist by Caleb Carr – The book club’s book of the month. My sister Maria is discussion moderator, and the theme is psychological thriller.

I know I probably overshot this month’s reading list again but that’s okay. Why rush, right? :)