am reading // march 2025
Bite-sized reviews for every (English) book I read this month.
I started March in the north of Portugal with one of my best friends…and then, I stayed. What was to be a week-long trip doubled overnight, and my first concern was, what will I read? I’d only brought a seven-day supply of texts. The next morning, I woke up to a selected stack of books, more than I could consume during my extended sojourn.
This is a love language.
Thus, books this month are courtesy of the American Library of Paris and the Partially-Unpacked Library of Pedro.
My Heavenly Favorite, Lucas Rijneveld
I can feel the memory of reading this book, a discomfiting, shirking sort of sensation that I imagine will linger within in me for a long, long time. Like Lolita or My Absolute Darling (that’s a content warning), this is a novel that is just as beautiful in its prose (and, in moments of reprieve, humourous) as it is disturbing in its story. An intense, dark read that is exquisite on the page, putting you into the rotting, depraved mind of a monster. If you have the capacity, it is an unforgettable and necessarily complex experience.
Choice, Neel Mukherjee
A gorgeous triad of tales by a master of human observation. Mukherjee fucks with the idea of a moral compass by creating piercing modern dilemmas, forcing his characters and readers alike to face a series of ethnopolitical questions. Bleakly hilarious and astute, it’s a thrilling read on power, progressive politics, and identity.
Blue Light Hours, Bruna Dantas Lobato
Lobato lovingly portrays a mother-daughter relationship separated by borders and constrained within the cold screen of video calls. The daughter leaves Brazil for Vermont, and her new college life unfolds between Skype sessions with her mother, whose life we only see in snippets. Longing, loneliness, and the simultaneous limitations and opportunities afforded by digital intimacy; this poignant little book catches so much of what our increasingly online lives look and feel like.
The Hypocrite, Jo Hamya
A young writer turns her father’s decades-old transgressions into an acclaimed play, and he doesn’t realize she’s done this until he’s sitting, alone, in the audience. Hopping between London and Sicily, the past and the present, the story takes you in and out of a family’s private tiffs and major misgivings in biting diction. Dysfunctional, cruel, witty—you’ll cringe, you’ll cackle, you’ll keep turning the page.
Constant Reader, Dorothy Parker
Could you write like Dorothy Parker? I asked myself (I was writing my first long-form book review for publication). No. But I can try. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t get close, but I did write a good piece; coming soon to a subscriber inbox near you 😉)
“Constant Reader” houses Parker’s complete weekly 1927-28 New Yorker book review column—though that rote definition doesn’t give the first lady of satire her due. This woman defines the term “wisecrack” with every tap on her typewriter. I can only imagine what it would be like to spend years writing a book, even more time perfecting and publishing it, and then finding out Mrs. Parker was going to give her two, often acerbic cents on your work. Reading this collection was such a pleasure, a throwback to a type of wit and observational humour that remains, a century later, timeless.
Death with Interruptions, José Saramago
My first foray into the Nobel Prize winner’s work, and I did it in his home country, Portugal. This is a more recent book, and, as I was told, not considered one of the best. However, it was a clear introduction to Saramago’s idiosyncratic writing style (he uses punctuation sparingly and paragraphs can be pages long without a break; you get used to it quickly!) and point of view on class and political systems. In “Death with Interruptions,” death is both a phenomenon and a character—a slightly exasperated woman, to be exact. This is a funny, strange tale and as much commentary on dying as it is on life.
Real Americans, Rachel Khong
A modern family saga that incorporates the immigrant experience, the greed economy, and bioethics in one fantastic, pulsating narrative. This is a terrific piece of fiction. Khong writes believably flawed, always sympathetic people; in particular, she really nails the energy of a golden retriever boyfriend, if said boyfriend was also at the centre of a decades-long genetic experiment and also kind of lonely. This book will have you gasping, fretting, and jeering alongside its well-meaning but tragic characters. Stellar.
Piglet, Lottie Hazell
This is a rueful, riotous bit of sardonic mastery. At the start, this is a story about ambition and perfectionism, but boiling just below is a takedown of class, which necessitates a skewering of patriarchy, the institution of marriage, and the jail that is late-stage capitalism. A pitiful, hilarious read that also feels deeply personal, and thus, incredibly real.
Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino
I loved this book. I loved reading this so much that I was nervous about which book I would pick next, because I would have a come down. I mostly read it laying down on my couch, drifting in and out of the paragraphs, closing my eyes at the sparkling asterisks in between. This is such a tender, introspective, clever, unique representation of empathy, otherness, and resilience, and if it isn’t clear, I recommend it with my whole chest. Don’t read the synopsis, ignore the back of the book, and just crack open that front cover.
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If the books are written as well as their reviews, I’ll read all of them. - 👹
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