'Tis the Damn Readathon - March TBR 2021
- Mar 8, 2021
- 7 min read
Happy Women’s History month! And welcome to this new month of March, hopefully one that is better than last year.
With a new month starting, I was of course inclined to make a TBR with everything that I hopefully would like to read soon, and while this is a really ambitious TBR, I am hoping that I will manage to read as many of these books as I can.
Coincidentally, I have also decided to join the ‘Tis the Damn Readathon that will run through the whole month of March. As you may have guessed, it is a readathon inspired by Taylor Swift, and to be honest, what better way to spend Women’s History Month than to join a Taylor Swift readathon? There are different challenges, three per Taylor Swift album – at least two of them being reading different kinds of books and the third being a more personal challenge – and while I know that I will not be able to read a book for each challenge, I will try my best to check each category! And I will also be participating in the Instagram challenges, so be sure to check it out on my Instagram! You can find the website for the Readathon here if you want more information, and maybe join in on the fun.
With that being said, here are the books that I have picked for the month.
Taylor Swift
For this first album, the challenge is to read some sort of memoir. Unfortunately, I do not own any memoir, so I have decided to look at similar genres, and read a non-fiction book instead. I have decided to read Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given, as I have been wanting to read it for a long time now, and I think that it is a perfect read for Women’s History Month. In this book, Florence Given explores intersectional feminism, and questions of body image and self-esteem for women in the 21st century. I am very excited to pick it up and will dive into it as soon as I have it.
Fearless
There are only two books written by men in this list, and the only reason why they are featured here is because they are books that I need to read for university (though it does not mean that I did not want to read them). I decided to include them in the challenge so that I could complete as many prompts as possible. For the first one, to read an intimidating book, I have therefore decided to go with The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh. It is another non-fiction book, and it deals with climate change. It is divided into 3 parts, Stories, History and Politics, reflecting on how climate change is linked to those three notions.
The second prompt is to read a YA book, and if I am being honest, I had quite a few books to choose from for this. I have decided to go with Lore by Alexandra Bracken, which was one of my anticipated reads for 2021. I am very passionate about Greek Mythology – which is why I am writing my dissertation on retellings of Greek myths – so this novel seemed to be right up my alley. In this story, every seven years, nine gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals while being hunted by descendants of important bloodlines. Lore is one of those descendants, but she refuses to participate to the hunt. The premise of this sounds incredible, and I am sure that my Greek mythology-loving heart is going to really enjoy this.
Speak Now
There are three novels to be read for this challenge, and hopefully I will be able to complete all three. The first one is to read a book in a trilogy, and this prompt fits perfectly as I am currently re-reading the Grisha trilogy to prepare for the TV show – which, by the way, I am very excited about, have you seen that trailer? Amazing – and I still need to read Ruin and Rising to finish my re-read.
The second book is another university read, though I am very excited to read it, and that is Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx. I will admit that I have not seen the movie, nor read the book before, but I have heard some great things about it, and I will definitely watch the movie after having read the book. I was very surprised to learn that it is not a novel, but a short story in a collection, but that only means that I will be able to read it quickly, which is always helpful during a reading challenge.
The third challenge is to listen to an audiobook, and for this I will admit that I am cheating a little bit. I have started listening to Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare – the third book in The Infernal Devices series – for a few months now and still haven’t finished it. Since I still have about 6 hours left on it, I have decided to use the challenge as a push to finally listen to the rest of it and count it towards this challenge. Cassandra Clare lovers will be extremely mad at me, as this trilogy is a huge fan favourite, and a lot of Booktubers/Bookstagramers absolutely love this series. Hopefully, I will manage to listen to the rest of it before the end of the month. It is also one of my goals to read all of the Shadowhunters books before the end of 2021. I have read The Mortal Instruments series, and am almost done with The Infernal Devices, meaning that I should be able to read the other books before December.
Red
Funny enough, I realized that I did not own that many books with red on the cover. The only one that came to mind (and that I could find on my shelf) was We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan. The story takes place on two different continents and timelines; one in Uganda in the 1960s and the other in present day London. It deals with questions of racial tension and belonging. The art cover for this novel is beautiful, and I have been wanting to read more books by BIPOC authors as I have noticed that I have not been reading as diversely as I want to – and should! Overall, I am beyond excited to read this novel.
1989
Back to my love of Greek mythology and retellings, to fit the prompt “Read a book with a number in the title”, I have decided to read A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. This is a retelling of the Trojan War, told from the perspective of the many women who were present and often overlooked during the war. Of course, we get accounts from Thetis, Achilles mother, Helen and Briseis, but also from servants, the Fates, and many other women. I do plan on writing a post about Greek myths retellings once I am done with the few books that I plan on reading this month, and will keep you updated on my thoughts on it, but needless to say, I am sure that I will love it.
Reputation
The prompt “Read a book that was recommended to you” is such a broad one, especially since almost every book that I read were recommended to me one way or another, but I have deicide to go with a book that was not just recommended to me, but that I HAVE to read – a university read. For this, I will read a play by Tony Kushner, Angels in America. I am not a huge fan of reading plays, and for the most part I would rather watch them live, but it does look really interesting (and the trailer for the play features Andrew Garfield as one of the main characters, meaning that I will be looking for a filmed version of the play). It deals with the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, and the story of Roy Cohn, a conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in 1986.
Lover
I have a few five-star predictions that are already on this list, but for the sake of trying to read a new book for each prompt, I have decided to add Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens to this TBR. I bought the novel when I moved to London in September but still haven’t read it, as I am really expecting a lot, and probably am a bit scared to read it and not enjoy it. However, I still think that once I do read it I will really like it and probably give it 5 stars. There are a lot of praises for this novel, so I am really excited to give it a try and dive into the story.
Folklore
With a prompt asking to read a book based on mythology, I am of course reading yet another Greek myth retelling. For this one, I have decided to finally pick up another book that I have been wanting to read for a very long time but haven’t found the time to really dive into it, and that book is Circe by Madeline Miller. I am a huge fan of Madeline Miller, and The Song of Achilles is one of my all-time favourite books. Not only are her books retellings of Greek myths, but they are also so well-written, and Madeline Miller has a certain way with words that just make me want to keep on reading and never stop while also wanting it to last forever. In this novel, she tells the story of Circe, a witch that is best known for turning men into animals, and her famous encounter with Odysseus (or Ulysses) in the Odyssey. You can find my full review of this novel here.
Evermore
The last book on this list is a thriller, which is a genre that I do not read enough of, even though I absolutely love it. I will be reading another new release, Girl A by Abigail Dean. The story deals with a Lex, who must deal with the abuse and trauma she lived in her childhood home at the hand of her parents after inheriting said house. It seems to be a very heavy read, and I would recommend checking trigger warnings before reading it, but it also seems to draw on a few hopeful notions, as the authors said that she was trying to focus on other things such as sibling dynamic and the idea of making it out alive. In any case, I really want to pick it up and read it this month.
There you have it! I do realise that 12 books in a month is extremely ambitious, and I probably won’t have enough time to read them all, but I will try my best to read as many of them as I can. I will check back in at the end of the month to see how well (or how terrible) I’ve done, so be sure to look out for this! You can also check out my Instagram where I will be posting some updates and will participate in the challenges for the month.
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