Best Reads of 2011: March

It is that time again. What were your best reads for March?

Since all I read during March was fiction, Treachery in Death is my best for the month. I liked it so much a day after reading it the first time, I turned around and read it again.

My favorite read in March was Black Ships by Jo Graham, followed by the audio versions of Stardust and Graveyard Book.

March turned out to be a month with a lot of good books for me! Three of the novels were so outstanding that I have to list them all.

Fiction:
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
3. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

Non-Fiction:
All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

Fiction: In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar

Nonfiction: I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey by Izzeldin Abuelaish

I read nothing but mysteries in Mystery March. I think the best of them for me was Dissolution by C J Sansom, a historical novel set at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. Very interesting portrayal of a way of life in disintegration amid big political, religious and social changes.

My vote for best book of March is for:

Fiction: The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

Only one this month (I'm reading a bunch of doorstoppers which hopefully I'll finish in April.)

Justin Spring's Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade

Nonfiction: The Baseball Codes (Note, I gave this one three stars because it's of less interest to those not baseball fans.)

Fiction: Leviathan

No non-fiction for me this month, which is the first time in ages. Best fiction: February by Lisa Moore.

>6 SqueakyChu: Oh, it is time for a quarter thread already!

My best fiction of March was the YA I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You and its sequel as well.

Best non-fiction is a tie between two completely different books: I Shall Not Hate and Euclid's Elements Books I-IV. The second isn't exactly page-turner, but it's a hugely impressive achievement.

The Vet's Daughter and Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns

The Red Riding Quartet by David Peace: Nineteen Seventy-Four, Nineteen Seventy-Seven, Nineteen Eighty, and Nineteen Eighty-Three

Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial by Janet Malcolm

Best Reads of March 2011:

Cookbook of the Month:
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg

Mystery:
Scones and Bones by Laura Childs
Murder on Bank Street by Victoria Thompson

Other Fiction:
A Cup of Friendship by Deborah Rodriguez

History:
Natchez Before 1830 by Noel Polk

I found a copy of Arianna Franklin's first book, City of Shadows, on Amazon and splurged. It was longer than any of her other books but magnificent! She had a fabulous way of inserting a mystery story into a historical novel. This one took place in Berlin between WWI and WWII and revolves around a woman believed to be Anastasia.

I had an outstanding March. I can't possibly come up with just one book so I'll "cheat" and pick out my favorites in various categories:

Classics: (tie)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Portrait of a Lady

Historical Fiction:
The Invisible Bridge

Mystery:
The Shadow of the Wind

I seem to have rated 13 of the 31 books I read last month 4.5* or above - some were better than others. I'm going for categories too:

Classic: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Best 21st century literary fiction:
Kalinda Ashton, The Danger Game
Sarah Winman, When God Was a Rabbit

Best children's
Joan Aiken, The Serial Garden - the stories are 5*, I've given the book as a whole a 4.5* rating because I miss the illustrations from the books where I've read many of them before

Best chicklit: Sarra Manning, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

Best nonfiction: Amy Chua, The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Contrary to the image it has, this is not a parenting manual advocating her methods to other parents, it's a memoir of how well they worked (or otherwise) in her own family. Her other book, World on Fire on globalisation causing conflict, is much more readable than I expected.

Top fiction in March were Summers in Auburn Castle by Sharon Shinn, Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb and Where Shadows Dance by C.S. Harris.

For non-fiction, I enjoyed Spook: Science Tackes the Afterlife by Mary Roach, though I didn't rate it as highly as Stiff, which was amazing.

Hmm, touchstones seem a tad reluctant to load tonight. May have to come back later and fix.

Lots of good reads for me (in no particular order):

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

I think it will be hard to top in April!
--BJ

It was a good March for me too.
Best non-fiction:
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael Hecht
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
best fiction
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

I've started a best of the quarter thread too. I can't believe we're so far into the year already!

I also had a very good March (in terms of reading anyway).

Top fiction reads were:
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Remember, Remember!:The Selected Stories of Winifred Holtby by Winifred Holtby

Top children's/YA reads were:
Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Top non-fiction reads were:
God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science by James Hannam

I started March with no reading goals at all, and it worked out pretty well for me. My best of March:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Other Contenders:
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
The Cailiffs of Baghdad Georgia by Mary Helen Stefaniak
The Girls by Lori Lansens
Paper Towns by John Green

My best of March:

Fiction:
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

Non-Fiction:
I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey by Izzeldin Abuelaish

Children's/Young Adult:
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Little House on the Prairie (reread)

Hands down it was The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter van Tilburg Clark.

And for what it is, The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie deserves an honorable mention. Not the second best book of the month, but the best Christie I've read in my on-going attempt to slog through all of her books.

My favourite books this month were all re-reads:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

My best reads of March:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Miss Timmins School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy

My favorite new-to-me read was Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine, and Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr. certainly should get a mention.

For rereads, I really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows again. :)