What is the best book you read in March 2022 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. We just want to share some great reading material.
Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.
And don’t forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.
As always, one commenter with a U.S. mailing address will choose a book from our stacks. If you’re outside the U.S., we’ll send you a $5 Amazon gift card.
My favorite book from last month was a mystery, Fatal Floss by ACF Bookens. It was a cold case and I enjoyed how they had to do genealogical and historical research to solve it.
The Ember Blade (The Darkwater Legacy, #1) by Chris Wooding
Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley. Soviet Union Atomic Age thriller and alternate (maybe?) history. Interesting to read in these times!
“Once and Forever: The Tales Of Kenji Miyazawa.” I found this by accident looking at the local public library Website for books about Tokyo, etc. The author is a classic Japanese author, and the stories are fables and folklore-infused odd little tales. Maybe the best is “The First Deer Dance,” about the different reactions of various deer in a group that come across something left behind by a peasant on a pilgrimage to a temple. Their words and actions and movements are very true to those of deer, but also very true to those of humans.
“A Gathering of Shadows” by V E Schwab. The second in the Shades of Magic series, this was a really fun mixture of adventure, romance, intrigue and of course magic, magic, magic!
I re-read Bone Shard Daughter and I think I loved it even more the second time. (Spoiler: Bone Shard Emperor may or may not be my choice for April! :-D )
It’s a re-read (because I’m planning to read all the published Malazan books):
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jennifer Zhang. It was an arc and I really enjoyed it, but it was so sad. I feel like the author was just banking on emotions, putting the character in every horrible situation.
The Demolished Man. First time reading it, I wasn’t prepared for that psychological themed ending. Great novel. Bester really wrote his butt off on that one.
In genre, best was Honey and Pepper by AJ Demas. Her stories are set in an alternative Greek/Roman era Mediterranean world. Nikias is a cook at a foodstall and recently from the countryside, freed from slavery after his master’s death. He’s pining after a law clerk (also a freed man) from next door who often stops for a snack. Kallion is trying to help his former master’s son straighten out the books and make some restitution because the former master was essentially a mob boss.
Beyond that, I reread a bunch of romances and read a ton of hockey-related books. The best of the bunch were the 2 graphic novels in the Check, please! series about a sunshine ex-figure skater who gets a college scholarship for hockey.
I also read almost all of Alice Oseman’s books. I think I have 2 or 3 left but needed a break because her characters often struggle with mental health issues. Heartstopper (4 volumes) is now being adapted by Netflix with the first season starting soon. The books start off with UK teenagers dealing with school and then college (A-levels) and while Nick and Charlie are the focus, we also spend time with a larger friends group.
I’d never heard of Honey and Pepper, thanks for mentioning it! It looks very much like my cup of tea.
Yay! A possible convert! I love her Sword Dance trilogy.
“Dark Genesis – The Rise of the Psi-Corps” tells a very gritty and necessary backstory in the Babylon 5 universe for the fascist thought police organization we love to hate. The generations of fleshed out characters almost remind me of Anne McCaffrey’s “To Ride Pegasus” and “Pegasus in Flight” prequels to her “Tower and the Hive” series, but the outcome here is much grimmer.
Isaac Asimov is one of my all-time favorite writers. Not only is “The Stars, Like Dust”, the first book in his Galactic Empire trilogy, top-notch science fiction, but the grammar and prose are excellent. I’ve even started re-reading his Foundation series as well.
As simple as it sounds, Charles Duff and Dmitri Makaroff’s Russian for Beginners has been very helpful. The different alphabet makes Russian particularly tricky to learn in one’s twilight years.
The comment notifications are working now; yay!
Thanks for letting me know the notifications are working, Noneofyourbusiness. When we tried to fix them at the old server (removed an outdated comment plugin and added a new one), it seemed to be the thing that kept crashing the site. We were planning a move to a new host anyway, but the notification issue made it more urgent.
Welcome!
I knew I couldn’t wait until the release of the print edition this coming fall, so I listened to the audiobook edition of “The River of Silver” by S.A. Chakraborty, narrated by Soneela Nankani.
Fans of “The Daevabad Trilogy” will love this collection of short stories. They range from events that happened before the trilogy to after the epilogue in the trilogy.
This book was supposed to be an audiobook only, but the publisher decided to release a print (and ebook) edition later this year. I’m still getting the book, but the audiobook was an excellent listening experience!
I need to pick that one up, though I definitely want the printed version, too.
Didn’t know about this one! On my TBR now.
Ludomir,if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks. If your address is outside of the USA, you will get a $5 Amazon gift card.
Amazing! I live in the EU so that would mean its the second option for me. Do I need to get in touch with someone or? Thanks!