A very happy March to you! I love March because it contains the spring equinox and, perhaps more importantly, my birthday (which also happens to be St. Patrick’s Day).

Even though it doesn’t usually get consistently warm in my corner of the world until mid-April or May, the world starts to come awake a bit in March, and I am here for it.

This year I am particularly looking forward to having a nice, reflective birthday with plenty of buffalo chicken calzone, cake, and reading. February was a pretty good reading month, and I felt a bit less slumpy than in January, though I didn’t quite stick to my original TBR as well. 

Now it’s time to set my sights to another month of reading and lay some plans that I will inevitably tweak as the month goes on. 

(Full disclosure: This post uses Bookshop.org affiliate links which earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. Book of the Month links are referral codes).

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Read Harder Task of the Month: Will I Ever Read Jane Austen: A Life?

If you’ve been following along, the biography Jane Austen: A Life has been on my TBR as part of the Read Harder challenge since the start of the year. The tiny font coupled with my eye floater issues means I haven’t made much headway — it’s a very annoying book to try and read for these reasons. 

I’m giving myself one more month to get back in the swings before I admit this one has gone the way of a DNF. 

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NetGalley/Review Copies of the Month

My feedback ratio is up to 65% and I have 10 books on my shelves, so NetGalley life feels pretty good right now. I’m excited to get to a lot of the titles hanging out there currently but am trying to go in order of release date so I can submit timely reviews. 

The League of Gentlewomen Witches by India Holton (out March 15th, 2022)

I really enjoyed Holton’s prior book in this series, The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels. It took me a while to settle in to the tone and the world, so I think I may like the second book even better now that I’m more primed for what to expect within its pages. 

Stone Broke Heiress by Danielle Owen-Jones (out March 21st, 2022)

This was a sort of spur-of-the-moment impulse request from me, and it’s got the heiress loses fortune and learns to live more normal life kind of premise, which is very hit or miss for me. 

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Spiritual/Self-Care Book of the Month

I failed miserably at reading Women Who Run with the Wolves last month, though I am going to keep limping along with that one as part of a now-extended buddy read. 

However, I’ve turned my personal betterment attentions for March to an ARC I received a bit ago, Heal from Within: A Guidebook For Intuitive Wellness by Katie Beecher, MS, LPC. I started it last week, so I’ll give a bit of context on how I’m finding it so far. 

Like many people raised here in the modern Western world, I am a bit skeptical of the notion of “intuitive” wellness and holistic techniques. But after becoming chronically ill and growing increasingly frustrated with the way our medical system focuses on symptom management, never root causes or true healing, I’m willing to read up a bit more on other ways to support my health. 

Beecher is a trained therapist and the book takes you through the steps of reflecting on your overall wellness in a way I’m enjoying so far. Even if I am giving it some side eye as I read, I’m enjoying taking a look at my overall picture of health and thinking about that mind-body connection. She takes a chakra lens on identifying root causes for ailments, which is interesting as I’m learning more about the chakras as well. 

Will applying the techniques in this book heal my floaters, stop my constant ear popping, or magically get rid of my occipital neuralgia? Probably not, but neither has modern medicine, so we’ll see how we go. 

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Physical TBR Books of the Month

My Book of the Month bookish bingo journey is over, but I’m still trying to keep on track with reading books from my physical TBR rather than acquiring so many new ones. 

This month, I’m working on The Bright Side Running Club (admittedly, I got this one in February so it’s not much of a backlog book) and hoping to pick up at least one book from my New Year’s Eve bookstore haul. 

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That’s my March in books, or at least, the plan as of today! 

Do you have any bookish plans or intentions for the month of March? Let me know! 

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