Reading Right Now: March 2023
Ahhh, Spring. The birds are chirping, the sun stays out longer, and everything is thawing out. It’s a beautiful time to read!
How has your month been? I’ve been planning and teaching classes, and I’ve entered a season where I will be reading less for a few months. (Sob!) In any case, here are the books I’d like to highlight this month:
1) Piense y Hágase Rico by Napoleon Hill. Translated, this is Think and Grow Rich. I’ve been on a kick to read in Spanish (my native language) and not lose familiarity with the language. Reading in another language is a great way to look at sentence structure, new words, and insight into conversational speaking. I’ve been doing preliminary research on mastermind groups, and this book has been credited for bringing this idea to the forefront for businesses.
2) Happier Hour by Cassie Holmes. Any book on time management, I’m there. This book focuses on how to beat distractions, expand your time, and focus on what matters most. Count me in for that happy hour!
3) The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. I was on hold for a loooong time by the library for this book - there were many people ahead of me who wanted to read it. Typically, I read for a few hours several days a week, usually at night. When it finally arrived in my hands, I thought it would be the same process. Nope! I read it in a day - it’s that engrossing. I loved everything about it, including the ending. (I’ve read reviews, and some don’t like the end. Pfft!) I paid it forward by returning it to the library early to get it in the hands of the person after me. I hope they enjoyed it, too!
4) The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. This is the March book selection for my online book group, Paging Creatives. It was a hard one to start, and I’ll explain. We are looking at the life of Lucrezia di Cosimo de’Medici, an Italian duchess. She is 15 years old and has not only been thrust into a marriage she doesn’t want, but she also starts to fear that her new husband will kill her. We are told that the duchess died less than a year after her marriage - this is not a spoiler as it’s in the Historical Note at the front of the book. The book is loosely based on actual historical figures. The author explained in one interview that she went to visit the burial site of the duchess, and she was told she was the first to ask to visit her. Heartbreaking. I eventually started the book with an impending sense of doom, and although full of wonder and history, it saddened me.
There are books I read that I don’t share here, but I am happy to feature the ones I think you’ll like. If you are on Goodreads, you can find me there as well. What books are you reading this month? I always love to discover more.
