Hello Everyone!
My March wrap-up is a little later this month because I thought it would be prudent to tell you all about the O.W.L.S Readathon I’m taking part in this month first, but better late than never right? If you haven’t seen my O.W.L.S readathon announcement, then you can check it out here and subscribe for my YouTube channel (Samantha Drage) to see the vlog at the end of the month! That’s a few weeks away yet though, so for now let’s talk about the books I read last month:
How To Be Autistic by Charlotte Amelia Poe 
I started the month with a very emotional read for me. I’m autistic if you didn’t know and I’ve been wanting to read this books for months since I bought it back in the autumn last year, but I felt like I had to wait for the right time you know? I tried to read it several times and ended up crying over the first two pages because it starts with a poem by the author, which so perfectly sums up my life I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I eventually got around to it though because the state of the world at the moment forced me to take some time off (due to the fact that everything is close) to reflect over the last few years of my life, which put me in a better place to read this long anticipated book.
I loved every word of it and cried an awful lot because I’ve never related to something more in my life. The book is a memoir of her life about living with Autism and I highly recommend it to everyone either to relate to themselves or to get a better understanding of what living with it is like.
5/5
Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett
After such an emotionally draining read, I wasn’t really ready to move onto a fantasy or even a simple contemporary and all I really wanted to do was re-read Harry Potter, but I was saving my re-read for the O.W.L.S Readathon, so I turned to non-fiction instead. I’ve had ‘Feminist Fight Club’ for about 3 years now and I’ve only just now got around to reading it. It was one of the first pieces of feminist literature I bought and never read it because it is specifically about how to fight sexism in the work place. Being only 14 at the time, it wasn’t exactly relevant to me then, but I’m going to be 18 before 2020 ends, which means it’s time to start thinking about my career and thought this would be a good place to start.
I only ended up giving it a 3/5 because it wasn’t hugely entertaining and I felt like it wasn’t structured in a very intuitive way. I did find a lot of what Bennett had to say useful and I will keep in mind what she taught me for the future, but there was just something about the layout that didn’t click for me.
3/5
Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton
I bought this book from a museum on my last trip to Oxford. I was a little worried at first that it was going to be a bit cliche and airy fairy like a lot of self-help books can be, but after a few chapters I realised that that wasn’t going to be the case. I can’t quite describe this books, which is kind of the point of ‘Wabi Sabi’ – no one can really explain it, they just feel it – but I loved it all the same and I found it very useful. I love Japanese culture, so it was fascinating to learn a little more about it in this book and to hear about their way of life.
4.5/5
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K.Rowling
As you know from my last post: https://books.samanthadrage.co.uk/2020/03/31/o-w-l-s-readatho…careers-and-more/ I am taking part in the O.W.L.S Readathon and I’m using Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban for two of the prompts, so I needed to read Philosopher’s Stone before the O.W.L.S started. I had a whole week left before the end of March when I started reading it, so I was trying to ration it to make it last because I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to start another book before the O.W.L.S started. It was pretty difficult because all I wanted was to sit down and devour it in one sitting, but I restrained myself and managed to make it last!
5/5
Those are the four books I managed to read this month! I have definitely managed to pick up the pace with my reading this month and taking a bit of time off Fantasy to read some non-fiction was a good call because I’m now super excited to start the O.W.L.S and get back to reading like I always used to!
In place of my April wrap-up I’ll be doing an O.W.L.S wrap up since the readathon lasts the whole month, so make sure you subscribe to my blog to make sure you don’t miss it! I’m also vlogging the whole readathon and might do a video version of the wrap-up over on my YouTube, so make sure to check that you too! My channel name is Samantha Drage.
What did you read in March?
Goodbye for now!
Over and Out
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3 Comments
It’s a great read, although it was rather emotional for me!
I am so totally going to have to read ‘How To Be Autistic’ – I really want to read more own-voices accounts of people’s lives that I don’t experience, and so I’m going to put that on my TBR!
It’s a great read, although it was rather emotional for me!