the year in books: march

I covered some good books in February. I really enjoyed them all, although they were all very different too. First up was The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. I thought it was a great book, and found the academic context really interesting too. I found Don a likeable character, well written, and will be interested to read the sequel at some point in the future.

"Restaurants are minefields for the socially inept, and I was nervous as always in these situations. But we got off to an excellent start when we both arrived at exactly 7:00 PM as arranged. Poor synchronization is a huge waste of time."

The next book was the first non-fiction I have read in a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a really fascinating read, although perhaps not the best one to read on a commute, as I alternated between vigorous nodding in agreement, and snivelling into the pages. I thought this was a brilliant book about a subject that I am very interested in, and Atul Gawande expressed incredibly eloquently some difficult and challenging ideas.

“our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and the aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer; that the chance to shape one’s story is essential to sustaining meaning in life; that we have the opportunity to refashion our institutions, our culture, and our conversations in ways that transform the possibilities for the last chapters of everyone’s lives.” 

The final book in February was another tear jerker, although only at the very end, but goodness me did I bawl! I adored The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and looking back on the year, it remained one of my favourite reads . I wondered if this would be a let down but it absolutely wasn't, though it has made me want to go back to the first book and read it all over again. I cannot recommend these books enough!

"When I looked at the sun and saw it glow on my hands. When a rosebud appeared where there had not been one before. It was in the people who stopped and talked of this and that over the garden wall. And just when I thought my life was done, it came time and time again at the hospice. It has been everywhere, my happiness – when my mother sang for me to dance, when my father took my hand to keep me safe – but it was such a small, plain thing that I mistook it for something ordinary and failed to see. We expect our happiness to come with a sign and bells, but it doesn’t."

My first book for March is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I'm intrigued to see how I fare with this, as it sounds similar to concept as Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which I didn't love as much as everyone else seemed to. I found the plot difficult to engage with, although the writing was incredible, so I wonder if this will be the same.

Linking up with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees.