The Best Grown-Up Reads of March 2018
by Jennie Yabroff
March is a tricky month — the calendar says it should be the start of spring, but the thermostat often tells a different story, one involving blankets, cocoa, and hoping your snow boots will hold out one more month. Rest assured, spring will arrive one of these days (come on, April!). Meantime, take advantage of the last few guilt-free weeks of hibernation with these great March reads.
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Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure
Buy from:If the words “rose ceremony” mean nothing to you, you’re either desperately culturally clueless or remarkably lucky — or possibly both. For the rest of us, those words conjure the reality TV show “The Bachelor,” which for 15 years and 35 seasons has turned romance into a contest of will, manipulation, and alcohol-fueled bad decisions. In this book, TV reporter Kaufman goes behind the scenes at the show some of us love, some of us love to hate, but most everyone has an opinion about.
(On Sale: 3/6/18)Buy from: -
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet
Buy from:The story of computing can sound like roll call at a Cub Scout meeting: Bill, Steve, Mark, Larry, Sergey. But just because their names aren’t as often mentioned, that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of women paving the way for the digital revolution. From Victorian-era programmer Ada Lovelace to social networking pioneer Stacy Horn, reporter Evans corrects the gender imbalance in our thinking about how the internet came to rule our lives.
(On Sale: 3/6/18)Buy from: -
The Little Book of Feminist Saints
Buy from:In this beautiful, inspiring, and delightful book, writer Julia Pierpont teams up with illustrator Manjitt Thapp to commemorate 100 women who achieved a sort of secular sainthood through their actions and words. Learn more about the lives of great women from Billie Jean King to Mae West, from the well-known to the under-celebrated. It will make you appreciate the saintly women in your own life a little more.
(On Sale: 3/6/18)Buy from: -
The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
Buy from:Of all the controversies of the 20th century, the idea that women should have the right to vote seems pretty low-drama: It’s hard to come up with a convincing argument that the democratic process only applies to half the population. But, as Weiss writes in this fascinating and gripping history, the ratification of the 19th Amendment was anything but a foregone conclusion, with the state of Tennessee hanging in the balance as the suffragettes pressed the final battle of their 70-year-long fight for political franchise. Read this, and never skip an election day again.
(On Sale: 3/6/18)Buy from: -
Anatomy of a Miracle: A Novel*
Buy from:A paraplegic man rises from his wheelchair and walks. Miracle? Medical breakthrough? Hoax? Or something else? In this novel of faith and science, Miles explores the aftermath of answered prayers, as the questions start flying about what just happened, why it happened, and what it means. Offering no easy answers, this book uses one complicated character to probe the condition of being human we all share.
(On Sale: 3/13/18)Buy from: -
His Perfect Wife
Buy from:How well do you know your spouse? How well do you know yourself? Alexandra has plenty of time to ponder these questions, along with the more pressing question of whether she will live to see the next morning, after she is kidnapped and held in a room against her will. Meanwhile, her husband Marc is frantic to find his wife — but will he recognize her when he does? In this literary thriller, Bell keeps us turning pages while pondering deep questions of identity and trust.
(On Sale: 3/13/18)Buy from: -
Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World
Buy from:When Pablo Picasso exhibited his painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, even his friends thought he’d lost his mind. In fact, he’d found a new language for paint — one Picasso and his friend George Braque would term Cubism, as they tore apart old assumptions about art and ushered in the Modernist century. In this biography, Unger traces Picasso from the impoverished artist who arrived in Paris at the turn of the century to the creator of the famous painting that changed art history, and the world, forever.
(On Sale: 3/13/18)Buy from: -
Alternate Side
Buy from:When you read about the protagonist of a novel having a “charmed life,” you can rest assured that charm is going to be tarnished before the final page. Quindlen’s new novel doesn’t disappoint: A shocking incident reveals the cracks in the seemingly picture-perfect neighborhood where Nora has made her life and raised a family. By novel’s end, Nora will realize truths about herself, her neighbors, and the dangers of lives too charming to be true.
(On Sale: 3/20/18)Buy from: -
The Italian Teacher
Buy from:History suggests that great artists don’t always make great parents — which seems a fair enough trade-off, unless your father happens to be one of those great artists, and all you really want is a good dad. This is the situation the protagonist of Rachman’s novel finds himself in, as he comically and heartbreakingly tries to redeem his relationship with his famous painter father, Bear.
(On Sale: 3/20/18)Buy from: -
My Dead Parents: A Memoir
Buy from:Anya Yurchyshyn’s parents were glamorous, international travelers — before she was born. By the time the writer came on the scene, her mother and father were bitter with disappointments and unable to offer much love to their daughter. Only after their deaths, and the discovery of a trove of letters and photographs, was the writer able to discover who her parents had once been — and the tragedies that had caused them so much sorrow along the way.
(On Sale: 3/27/18)Buy from:
What books are you looking forward to reading in March? Let us know in the comments below!