In a data analysis project with Excel files larger than 50Mb, I had great difficulty using Pandas.

For this reason, I decided to create an extension (C++) that reads Excel spreadsheets directly into Pandas dataframes. With it, I achieved good performance gains in this process.

If you are interested, the project for this extension (dll/so) is available here.

Important notice: This project was entirely created by me and is completely free. I'm not trying to self-promote, I'm just trying to help.