Hi all, we’ve made it to March. Yay it won’t be too long now before spring is on the way. We had such warm weather this past week that our snow melted away as you can see from this shot at the end of the road.
We need to get going on planting the vegetable seeds in our indoor pots. We usually can’t put them in the ground here till mid-May, so we have time to sprout these things for a while.
Meanwhile there’s plenty going on this month (besides all the bad news): the Academy Awards are on tomorrow night (with Conan O’Brien hosting); the Indian Wells pro-tennis tournament starts this week (yay!); the time change happens on the 9th; March Madness basketball begins on the 16th; then St. Patrick’s Day; and later spring break for many school kiddies across the land. Whoosh, I’d like to swing a golf club at some point. Lately I’ve been playing tennis doubles twice a week indoors, which is fun. I drive back to the city for that — crazy!
There’s many new releases to discuss, so let’s dive in. Novels by such well-known authors as: Laila Lalami, Susanna Kearsley, Karen Russell, Lawrence Wright, Emma Donoghue, and Kristen Arnett have new ones coming out this month … along with there’s Chris Bohjalian’s Civil War novel The Jackal’s Mistress (out March 11) and Colum McCann’s cable-repair ship novel Twist (out March 25), which I read early copies of last year. I won’t be spotlighting them here now, but I liked and recommend them both. See what you think.
Others I hope to get to include Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s new novel Dream Count (due out March 4), which Publishers Weekly says is about “the fleeting joys and abiding disappointments of four African women on both sides of the Atlantic.”
I remember reading Adichie’s last (adult) 2013 novel Americanah for a book club that dissolved just last year, so now 12 years later we are getting the new one. She had written some nonfiction and a children’s book during that time, but for whatever reason her next novel took a while. So yay, she’s back! And a slew are on order at the library.
I’m also keyed up to read Australian author Charlotte McConaghy’s new thriller-ish novel Wild Dark Shore (due out March 4) about a family and a stranger trapped on a research station’s island with no communication. I gather there are storms arising and apparently they must be able to trust one another to protect precious seeds they have in their care. Whoa.
I have read McConaghy’s two other novels: Once There Were Wolves and Migrations … and the natural world and climate change seem to figure prominently in all. She’s an eco-writer you could say and has a large following now.
Next up is British author Natasha Brown’s novel Universality (due out March 4) about a journalist who sets out to uncover the truth about a brutal attack at an illegal rave event on a Yorkshire farm. Apparently the journalist solves the mystery, but her viral exposé ends up raising more questions than it answers.
Natasha Brown writes short, whip-smart novels that skip around a bit and you have to be on your toes. I liked her 2021 debut novel Assembly, which received a lot of recognition, so I’m back now for more. She was only 31 when she published her first novel.
I’m also thinking about adding Emma Pattee’s debut Tilt (due out March 25) about a pregnant woman who comes to navigate through the aftermath of a major earthquake in Portland, Ore. It sounds scary. Lesley at the blog Coastal Horizons reviewed an early copy last fall and said it was intense but an impressive debut.
If I lose courage with that, then I might check out Nathaniel Ian Miller’s novel Red Dog Farm, which apparently is an atmospheric novel about a young man who tries to find purpose on a struggling Icelandic cattle farm …and must choose between home and the wider world. I don’t know this author, but it’s gotten some good reviews and I like it’s farming theme.
In screen releases, there’s quite a few adaptations to check out this month, including the eight-part TV series Long Bright River (due out on Peacock March 13), based on the novel by Liz Moore. It’s about a female Philadelphia police officer (played by Amanda Seyfried) who works in a neighborhood with high drug use where a series of murders take place, and she has a druggy sister who goes missing. Uh-oh. The book was good but quite gritty, which this looks to be too.
Next up is the six-part TV series: Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (out on PBS, March 23), which along with Part I that aired in 2015 are adapted from the novels by Hilary Mantel that follow Thomas Cromwell, the chief minister in King Henry VIII’s court. It is so sad that Mantel died of a stroke at age 70 in 2022, but her works live on. I read one of the books Bring Up the Bodies, so I’m interested in seeing the series but need to find Season 1 in a set first. Have you watched it?
Also coming out is the third and final season of Bosch Legacy (out on Prime Video March 27) that is based on the police procedural novels by Michael Connelly. Yeah we’ve watched all the episodes and seasons of Bosch and now Bosch Legacy. They’re good and I wish they’d keep going. They’re addicting and one could get through an entire winter on a box set alone, lol. There’s been some good characters with Bosch along the way, including his daughter, his partner Hector, the chief, and the defense attorney “Money” Chandler, lol. Let’s give the series a big sendoff goodbye. Could there be more Connelly works in the hopper?
Lastly I’ll just mention a movie that looks a bit cute. It’s The Friend (out March 28), starring Naomi Watts, which follows a story about a writer in NYC who adopts a Great Dane that belonged to a late friend and mentor. It turns out the dog and the writer are both grieving over the loss of the friend and they help each other to heal over time.
It’s based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez, which I reviewed here in 2018. The book has various meandering thoughts and tangents in it that I don’t think the movie can match. Still I’ll likely see it. It reminds me that I need to get to more of Nunez’s novels.
In new music for March, there’s a plethora of notable albums coming out, including those by such artists as: Lady Gaga, Jason Isbell, Charley Crockett, My Morning Jacket, Mumford & Sons, and Alison Krauss & Union Station. These are all excellent artists to check out and are hard to choose from, but I’ll pick Jason Isbell’s album Foxes in the Snow (due out March 7) as my choice this month. It’s his first solo acoustic album without his 400 Unit band.
That’s all for now. What about you — which new releases are you looking forward to? Happy March!
I’ve put Universality and Wild Dark Shore on reserve at the library; thank you. I think Kearsley’s book, The King’s Messenger, will appeal to readers who like straight historical fiction, rather than her usual dual time lines. She is a Canadian author and I am always surprised that Canadian bookstores don’t do more to promote her books. When I was in Ontario last May, I was disappointed overall in my ability to find Canadian authors. I did find one book with a sappy title that I bought anyway but have not read yet.
Like you, I enjoyed Long Bright River more than her second book. I would watch it if I still have access to Peacock. My cable/internet/phone bill went up so much that I think I have to do something about it. I did get rid of Amazon Prime because I could not bear to enrich Bezos by a penny.
Looking forward to Wolf Hall! He has the most expressive face – I love watching him, although I know it will be very sad.
Happy March! I like this month because there are more days with blue skies and sunshine and all the early flowers start to bloom, though I hate the upcoming time change. The Friend does look like it could be a really cute movie. And I’ve got Tilt on my TBR list because the premise intrigues me. 😀
Wow! Such a lot to look forward to there. I’m particularly anticipating getting the Adichie and McConaghy books and to watching “Wolf Hall” and “Bosch.” It promises to be an interesting spring.