The Reading Lounge: March New Books
A curated list of 6 buzzy and 18 under the radar March releases- the ones I've read and those I want to read
Hello! The spring (and maybe even summer?) reading frenzy has begun and as you may have already heard, this year is going to be chock full of new books releasing and March seems to be the time when we really start to see tons of new titles coming our way. Admittedly, I love browsing every new release list I can find and then curating my own smaller would like to read list of new release possibilities. Like you, I’ve seen many titles repeatedly being talked about with a level of excitement that puts them in the buzzy category. I’ve already read one of these that I’ll mention below.
I’ve curated a list of the books I feel would fall into that buzzy category and are solely the ones I personally want to read. As I’ve mentioned in the past, one of my reading priorities this year is reading and spotlighting under the radar books, so I’ve spent a couple hours doing what I love to do (book research) and I’ve curated a much bigger list of under the radar new March books that I would love to read (including one I’ve already read). Admittedly, I won’t be able to read all of these books, but I plan on having a lot of fun trying many of these titles and I hope my list curation leads you to finding your next great read! PS… for your added reading convenience I’ve included a 1-2 sentence sneak peek of what each book is about so you don’t have to keep flipping back and forth for each title.
Buzzy March Releases
Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall Bookshop - (3/4) - I already read and loved this one!
A love triangle unearths dangerous, deadly secrets from the past
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for my advanced copy. Something I will always be drawn to in my reading is a love triangle! I prefer them to fall into the bittersweet, messy, or complicated areas and this story delivered and then some. The main characters are Beth and her husband Frank and Gabriel, her first love who crosses their paths in the opening scenes in a tragic way that perhaps signifies what’s to come. I don’t always love alternating timelines and at first I felt impatient when the author took us back to the past when Beth and Gabriel first met, but those parts are shorter than the present and once I got into the flow of the story I was invested in every timeline. There’s another aspect of the story which is very much a mystery and made the story all that more propulsive, but I’ll let you find out about that for yourself:)
Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven - out now -
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets This is How You Lose The Time War in this fantastical love story that defies death as two souls reincarnate through the centuries
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami - out now
A riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy - out now
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon. A story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears
Universality by Natasha Brown - out now
An ambitious young journalist sets out to uncover the truth surrounding the attack of a young man nearly bludgeoned to death with a solid gold bar. Connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic newspaper columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm she attempts to solve the mystery, but her viral exposé raises more questions than it answers.
Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky - March 18 - I enjoyed Very Nice and this one is getting good buzz
A joyfully unhinged story of money, marriage, sex, and revenge unspools when a billionaire crashes his hot-air balloon into the middle of a post-pandemic first date
Shop on Bookshop.org here
Today is the last day to get this anniversary special! Besides this post and past paywalled posts and audio, you’d get access to the second episode (coming this month) of Books & Beyond in which I chat with a guest about their literary life. It’s a great deal and one that may not come around again this year