State Of The ARC #61

By Leah's Books on April 1, 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

State of the ARC is a monthly meme temporarily hosted by Sarah at All The Book Blog Names Are Taken meant to motivate you to finish up your long overdue ARCs (Advanced or Early Reader Copies). This is its original intention, while some bloggers have tweaked it a bit for their own purposes, such as just keeping ARCs in order by due dates. Or you can just be a hot mess like me who sometimes misses publishing dates (or ignores them altogether) and needs a way to stay organized on what has been read, reviewed, or is still begging for attention. Thank you to Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books for coming up with this super helpful monthly meme.

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I finished February with 25 ARCs left to be read.

Spring is springing! The weather is still a bit up and down, but the temps are warming up and I don’t have to bundle up to go outside anymore, which makes me really happy. We got more snow in March, which I haven’t seen in a long time in this part of New York, and while I love winter and snow, single digit temps aren’t my favorite thing. I just realized that I have been doing these posts for more than 5 years, although it certainly doesn’t feel like it has been that long.

Mom and I finished seasons 4-7 of The Rookie, and only started the current season a few days ago, so I have a feeling it might be time to figure out some other shows I can watch with my mother—if you have any suggestions for the kind of show that pulls you into the story but doesn’t get too complex, since she’s starting to have some cognitive slowing because of her age and sometimes gets mixed up about who is who and what is happening.

Holidays are coming up for many of us, mine starts tonight. We have been cooking a bit each day for the last week, and froze the chicken soup and entrees, and anything else we could. It’s a lot of work, but since I have taken over the majority of the cooking (Mom still made the chicken soup and gefilte fish) I needed to adjust how I prepared for the holiday. Anyone who has struggled with pain, chronic illness, and/or fatigue will get it. Passover is a really busy holiday, and everything has to be cooked from scratch to avoid chametz (food that isn’t allowed to be eaten on Passover), and we had to switch everything over in our kitchen. Now that my father isn’t around to help, we switched the pots and pans but not the cutlery or plates to make things easier.

As the war with Iran drags on, I have stayed in close contact with my family in Israel. Fortunately, they have a shelter that they can and do run to day or night, with no more than 90 seconds to 3 minutes to get there. It’s been really hard on them, understandably. Classes are cancelled and there isn’t any sort of routine to their days and nights, outside of racing to shelters since Iran and their proxies target civilians and civilian infrastructure.The whole situation has me worried about more than just my Israeli family—I’m also concerned that Iran’s targeted bombing of Persian Gulf countries and their ports/airports/military bases is going to lead to a wider war. I’ve been praying that this doesn’t turn into WWIII, and that a compromise is reached soon.

I actually read quite a few ARCs this month, and I’m proud of myself. Reading and reviewing 8 NG ARCs is quite the accomplishment for me. While I’m still behind on a few books, a lot of my ARCs are being published this month, so I am preparing myself to enter May lagging a little behind as well, but will hopefully catch up and stay on top of these ARCs by the time summer starts. I also got approved for some really awesome books that I’m so excited to read—especially The Way It Haunted Him, Brimstone Hollow, and Dearest Beast. I think that work in my favor, since these are books I really wanted to get approved for. Two of the books are a second book in a series, and the other is a new book by an author whose work I adore. My ratio is holding steady at 95%, and I’m hoping to get through a bunch of these ARCs.

Here’s how this month went for my NG ARCs:

I got approved for 10 new books in March:

What Happened to Anabel Taylor by Jennifer Shay Carta
A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander
The Way It Haunted Him by Laura R. Samotin
Odessa by Gabrielle Sher
Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan
Natural Selection by Clare Edge
A Killer in the Family by Amin Ahmad
Honor and Heresy by Max Francis
The Anniversary by Alex Finlay
Dearest Beast by Felicia Grossman

These are the ARCs that I read and reviewed in March, with links to my reviews:

What Happened to Anabel Taylor by Jennifer Shay Carta — see my review here.
Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz — see my review here.
Deathly Fates by Tesia Tsai — see my review here.
Deathly Fates by Tesia Tsai (audiobook)
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque — see my review here.
A Killer in the Family by Amin Ahmad — see my review here.
Stakeouts and Strollers by Rob Phillips — see my review here.
The Anniversary by Alex Finlay — see my review here.