BOOKMARK March 2025 Book recommendations
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March Titles
All books are available from Adventure Into Books in Blairgowrie.
Mindful of Spring’s ability to tease, with its promises of summer and remnant blasts of winter, it feels apt to start off with Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June and The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry is out in hardback but the paperback edition will be published in April 2025, ISBN: 9781837260799). Anne Tyler captures the human character and the art of tension, subtle or otherwise, like few others. Setting a different pace altogether is Gail Wylie’s recommendation of The Heart in Winter. A second recommendation from Gail is The Time of the Child by Niall Williams. You know that thing about no buses, and then two come at once…. Well, the same can happen with books - The Boy From the Sea by Garrett Carr.Next, a thriller: The Silent House of Sleep by Allan Gaw followed by some lightness to counter the dark: Persuasion by Jane Austen: I don’t think I need to say more. Enjoy.
And finally, March sees BOOKMARK’s first ‘meet the author’ event of the year, when Natalie Russell continues her conversation with Gail about the wealth of wonderful illustrators we enjoy. We’re invited to bring along pictures of our own favourites, which is going to be difficult as I could bring Adventure into Books’ entire children’s section and still not be done! Natalie’s own books are bright and fun, and feature the adorable, scruffy, and occasionally sticky, Hamish: Hamish the Highland Cow and Home Sweet Hamish. A couple of more fabulously illustrated books to round off. The first is The Squirrel and the Lost Treasure by Coralie Bickford-Smith followed by The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer and Mariachiara Di Giorgio. Labelled ‘children’s books’, these will delight all book lovers.
I hope you enjoy these recommendations. Let me know if you have any you would like to share.
Kate
BOOKMARK member
PS: The Adventure into Books Book Blether group meets at 7pm on the first Wednesday of each month. On 5th March, we’ll be meeting to chat about the International Booker Winner 2024, Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (ISBN: 9781783786138, paperback, Granta Books, 2024).
We are also hosting an interactive and intriguing Trial by Jury entertainment with Mark Bridgeman on 19th March at 7pm; tickets £5 from the bookshop. All are welcome.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
(Random House, 2025)
Fiction
Anne Tyler captures the human character and the art of tension, subtle or otherwise, like few others. A daughter’s wedding provides the backdrop to Three Days in June, a time of heightened joy and angst, sweeping commitments and fussing about detail; most of all, it’s about family and love, old and new – all beautifully observed.
The Time of the Child by Niall Williams
(Bloomsbury, 2026)
Fiction
The Time of the Child by Niall Williams (ISBN: 9781526675163). Set in the small Irish town of Faha, the story charts the life of Doctor Jack Troy, treated as an outsider despite being born and raised in the town, and his daughter, Ronnie. Their lives are transformed as 1962 comes to a close and a baby is left on their doorstep. A warm story of love and community, beautifully told.
The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr
(Picador, 2025)
Fiction
The Boy From the Sea by Garrett Carr (ISBN: 9781035044535) is also a story of a baby, abandoned on the beach of a small, hardy fishing community on the west coast of Ireland, in 1973. Adopted by Ambrose Bonnar, the fisherman who finds him, Brendan’s arrival stokes rivalries and fractures in a family facing a changing world.
The Silent House of Sleep by Allan Gaw
(Birlinn, 2030)
Fiction
The Silent House of Sleep by Allan Gaw (ISBN: 9781846977206), which won Bloody Scotland’s Scottish Crime Debut of the Year award in 2024. Set in the interwar years, the shadow of the trenches haunts pathologist Dr Jack Cuthbert. The discovery of two bodies in a London park guarantee that he will face more horror ahead as he works to uncover the reason for their deaths.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
(Pan Macmillan, 2016)
Classics
Persuasion by Jane Austen (ISBN: 9781909621701) a classic of wit and love and hope. It’s one of my favourite Austen novels, and what better excuse than her 250th anniversary to prompt a spot of indulgent re-reading.
Hamish the Highland Cow by Natalie Russell
(Bloomsbury, 2006)
Children
Natalie’s books are bright and fun, and feature the adorable, scruffy, and occasionally sticky, Hamish: Hamish the Highland Cow and Home Sweet Hamish (ISBN: 9780747564867 and ISBN: 9780747583196, 2007).
The Squirrel and the Lost Treasure by Coralie Bickford-Smith
(Penguin, 2031)
Children
The Squirrel and the Lost Treasure by Coralie Bickford-Smith (ISBN: 9780241541975): the story is simple and delightful, of a young squirrel, who inadvertently plants a wood, and the woodcut art work is colourful and striking.
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer and Mariachiara Di Giorgio
(Walker Books, 2022)
Children
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer and Mariachiara Di Giorgio (ISBN: 9781406394658), is a beautifully painted tale of woodland animals enjoying a fun fair after the humans have gone to bed…. But as the story has no words, you also have the joy of adding your own magic.