How has your reading in March? What are you reading now? The strongest thread in my reading for March was place – four books, four very different settings, and each one distinct enough that I still feel immersed in the memory of them now.
What I Read In March
I finished reading 4 books in March which is about standard for me. It started with Someone Birthed Them Broken, Ama Asantewa Diaka, a book of interconnected short stories set in Ghana, followed by a new release in 2026, Kin, Tayari Jones, set in the US South.
Next came the 2025 National Book Award Winner for Fiction, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother), Rabih Alameddine, set in Lebanon. And I closed out the month by finally picking up an unread book from my shelves, The Death of Vivek Oji, Akwaeke Emezi, set in Nigeria.
I rated all the books I read 5 stars – rare enough that it made March feel especially satisfying.
Favorite Book of March
Even though I rated everything 5 stars, if I had to choose one favorite, by the narrowest margin it would be The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother).
This is one of those books where the voice does so much of the work. Raja, a 63-year-old philosophy teacher, tells the story of his life in a way that is sharp, funny, and often unexpectedly moving. He lives closely intertwined with his mother, and their relationship becomes one of the emotional anchors of the novel.
What I loved most was how snarky and observant he is – convinced that many people around him exist only at the edges of his life, only to slowly realize how deeply he is known by them. The humor is brilliant, but so is the seriousness underneath it. The novel also carries the weight of modern Lebanese history, and the author handles that history with care, never flattening it into background.
What I loved most was how snarky and observant he is – convinced that many people around him exist only at the edges of his life, only to slowly realize how deeply he is known by them. The humor is brilliant, but so is the seriousness underneath it. The novel also carries the weight of modern Lebanese history, and the author handles that history with care, never flattening it into background. It felt both intimate and expansive at once.
Reading Challenges Update
The March prompts for the 2 reading challenges we host were:
- 2026 Key Word Reading Challenge (February word: favorite, orange, picture, broken, sister, look, forget, fortune)
- 2026 Motif Reading Challenge (theme: books on the brain)
This month I completed only the Key Word Reading Challenge, using “broken” with Someone Birthed Them Broken. I didn’t manage to complete the Monthly Motif prompt.
From my personal reading challenges (Reading 5 4 3 2 … 1 in 2026) – which I’m tracking on our FREE 2026 Reading Challenge Tracker Spreadsheet – I added 2 books towards my goal of reading more books by African authors: The Death of Vivek Oji and Someone Birthed Them Broken.
Another small reading win: three of the four books I read this month were physical copies, which keeps me on track with my goal of reading more from my own shelves. There’s something deeply comforting about sitting with a book and doing nothing else. Audiobooks usually happen while I’m multitasking, and I didn’t realize this difference in reading experiences, or how significant it is to me.
March on Chapter Adventure
In case you missed it, we published posts on
And of course, I continued the weekly Bookmarked series, sharing notes about what I’ve read, going analog, book adaptations, signed books and my dopamine menu (weeks 11, 12 and 13).
April Reading Plans
Genre Reading. I’ve been deep in contemporary fiction lately, and I’m starting to miss the strange, imaginative pull of other genres, so in April I want to make room for fantasy or horror.
Reading Experiences. I also miss browsing bookshops and lingering with a book in a coffee shop. Since I’ll be traveling this month I’m hoping to discover a few new reading spots along the way.
Must Read for the Month: One of the books I meant to read in March but didn’t get to is The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn, so that moves straight onto April’s must-read list.
March ended up being one of those quietly satisfying reading months — not huge in quantity, but memorable in how consistently strong every book felt. I always like noticing what a month reveals beyond numbers: where my reading traveled, what formats I reached for, and what I seem to be craving next.
April already feels different, with travel ahead and a mood leaning toward the strange and atmospheric, so I’m curious to see where that takes my reading. If you’re doing any reading challenges this year, or if you had a standout book in March, I’d love to hear what made your month memorable 📚✨
