Read With Keri: Books I Read in March

Another month, another book recap!

March was a slow book month, I have to admit. Since I started grad school, a lot of my free time was (rightfully so) spent studying, writing papers, and reading textbooks. I decided to go easy on myself and accept that powering through a stack of books wouldn’t happen in March, and that is okay.

Surprisingly enough, I somehow squeezed in four books, so I’ll count it as a win! My 2021 goal is to read at least 75 books. As of March 31, I have read 19, so I’d say we’re still on track. Here are the books I read in March.

To All The Boys I Loved Before — Jenny Han (3/5 stars)

I admit, I haven’t watching the Netflix movies yet. I’m a “book before the movie” gal, if you couldn’t tell. This is the first in the series, and it really is a cute story. Definitely a light, rom-com, teenage-love type book. Nothing crazy, but it was an enjoyable read. Now I give myself permission to watch the movie!

The Lightning Thief — Rick Riordan (2.5/5 stars)

When it comes to books, as you’ve probably noticed, I’m not a fantasy fan by any means. I like to stick to mystery, historical fiction, and suspense whenever possible. Throw in an occasional biography or love story, sure. Fantasy? Not usually.

But my sisters-in-law wanted to read the Percy Jackson series together so I decided to give this a shot. The Lightning Thief is the first book in the series. To be honest, it was okay but it never grabbed my attention and made me want to keep reading. If you’re a fan of Greek mythology and/or fantasy, you’d probably like this though! My brother Josh read these and he liked it so definitely don’t just take my word for it. I haven’t decided if I’m going to continue reading the series — we shall see.

Mary Poppins — P.L. Travers (4/5 stars)

After reading Julie Andrews’ memoir recently, I was inspired to read the original Mary Poppins book. This is the first in the series, but I probably won’t read the rest to be honest. If you’ve never read it before, let me tell you. This is not like the movie AT ALL. There are definitely some parts that overlap, but I was surprised how different it ended up being from the movie. (This is the one case where I actually saw the movie first, no judging.) I now understand why P.L. Travers didn’t want Disney to take creative freedom! I’m glad he did, though. The movie is a classic.

Holy Grounds — Tim Schenck (5/5 stars)

A very on-brand book for me. It’s a book all about coffee and faith. It read more like an academic research paper on the history and origins of coffee and how it connects with religion, but I still enjoyed it. I learned a lot and it made me really miss hanging out in coffee shops! Shout out to my friend Dave for recommending it to me!