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Do you ever wonder what it would be like to go straight from winter to summer, skipping spring?  As I eat ice cream my Adam lovingly brought me and look out on the trees that let me know quite clearly that winter is here, I wonder what if one day we went from the bleakest of winter days, straight into a fine spring day?  Feyre knows what that’s like.  It’s full of wonder and also a bit strange, because wouldn’t you eventually get sick of endless spring days, especially if you were immortal and easily bored?  I’d take endless spring over being stuck under a mountain any day though, and I think Feyre would too.  If this doesn’t make sense to you and you’re joining us for Virtual Book Club on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. CST, please stop reading this post, and go read Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series right now!  There will be spoilers, and we will not try to minimize them as I’m trying here.  If you’re interested in digging into A Court of Silver Flames with us, let us know in the comments or when you sign up here!  

Don’t forget we’ve announced March’s Virtual Book Club title, Don’t Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy To Your Life by Anne Bogel. As of this posting, it’s available stinking inexpensively, $1.59 on kindle, so support us and Anne by clicking above.  We’ll have a sign up for those who can join in the discussion that will take place on Friday, March 26th at 7:30 p.m. CST after February’s book club!

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas
• Batman: Nightwalker (DC Icons #2) by Marie Lu
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
• Sold: Every Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Building a Profitable Business by David Greene *available for pre-order from amazon, or click here to purchase a copy from the publisher today

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Ashley FIN

• The Protector (Men of the North #1) by Elin Peer
• Re Jane by Patricia Park
• Healing PCOS: A 21-Day Plan for Reclaiming Your Health and Life with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome by Amy Medling
• Badass Habits: Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make them Stick by Jen Sincero
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• Miracle Morning Millionaires: What the Wealthy Do Before 8am That WIll Make You Rich (The Miracle Morning Book 11) by Hal Elrod and David Osborn
• Sterling (Carolina Reapers #6) by Samantha Whiskey
• Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott *Finished in December 2020

Nikki FIN

• The Protector (Men of the North #1) by Elin Peer
• Re Jane by Patricia Park
• 500 Miles from You (Scottish Bookshop #3) by Jenny Colgan
• Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• Becoming Us: Using the Enneagram to Create a Thriving Gospel-Centered Marriage by Beth McCord and Jeff McCord
• Winter’s Whispers (The Wicked Winters #10) by Scarlett Scott
• All Creatures Great and Small (All Creatures Great and Small #1) by James Herriot
• Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Winter’s Woman (The Wicked Winters #9) by Scarlett Scott

We are starting off our reading year with a bang!  Between getting a good start out of the gate and selecting not one, but 3.5 books for Virtual Book Club, it’s going to be a great bookish year!  

In the interest of starting how we plan to continue, I have a confession dear readers, one that likely won’t surprise.  Ashley loves Halloween (or is it just witches?), many people love Christmas, but I love Masterpiece Classic (which is usually the January – April ish line up) and happen to think it’s one of the best, most magical times of year!  I need a deadline to get things accomplished, and Masterpiece delivers, giving me two weeks to watch episodes online before they’re gone (or I pay $60 a year – at least for my local station – which is fine, but then I won’t have a deadline, so it’s very much not fine).  I’m a couple of episodes into this season and am enjoying it, while looking forward to the episodes and shows to come including one that, from the marketing copy, reminds me of Veronica Speedwell and Enola Holmes, and another set in early 1800s Jamaica!

In addition to a helpful deadline, Masterpiece also gives me fun content, and this season is no different!  Normally, I would not be interested in a tale about a vet, unless it’s a romance, but when Masterpiece is adapting a book, I’m very likely to read it.  Combine that with it being available on Kindle Unlimited, and y’all, I read and adored All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot!  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was just a delightful insight into life, and veterinary practice, in northern England in the 1930s.  I don’t usually appreciate anything gory (high school biology was beyond my limit), so I was nervous, but this was really fine.  It’s descriptive, but not too thorough with the animal biology pieces (aside from the deliveries, which I found comical), and paints a gorgeous picture of the Yorkshire Dales.  It was a light in contrast to the gothic Jane Eyre, just 100 years later and in a similar setting.  Oh, I should also mention that James Herriot is a nom de plume, but the author was really a vet and the stories are taken from his experiences.  

I didn’t plan to spend most of my reading time in England and Scotland, but it was a fun ride and I’m excited to see how next month plays out.  Just guessing, I’m going to say the US and Prythian will be my most popular settings next month!  

Where is your book helping you travel this week?

~Nikki 

I’m having this odd sense of being ahead and being behind both at the same time. Perhaps it’s because I have 3.75 books to finish reading in 3 weeks for virtual book club, plus blog titles, plus other books I’ve had on that never-ending TBR for my entire life that I really just want to get around to reading RIGHT NOW. But, Goodreads is telling me that I’m 2 books ahead of schedule for my annual reading goal, and I’m not remotely sad about that. Maybe, also, it’s because I turned 36 on Saturday and now that I’m officially on the downward hump of my thirties I just don’t have as many effs to give? Bring on forty and beyond because I’m a badass who crushes goals. Not gonna lie, video chatting with the nephew always brings me the most joy out of life, and when his sister can have an actual conversation I feel like my life will be so filled with joy I might actually burst – so forgive this Best Aunt Ever who refuses to come off the high of not one, but TWO video chats with her favorite boy this weekend.

Speaking of goals, you’ll notice that both Nikki and I are In Medias Res with The Daily Stoic. Get prepared to see that EVERY MONTH of 2021 because it’s a 366 day (yes, that’s an extra day for leap years!) guided reading to the thoughts and life-philosophies of the stoics. I found a great kindle book deal, so I got us each a copy for $2. As of this writing, it’s still inexpensively listed at $6.99 on kindle if you’d like to join along with us. Let me share this gem from my birthday reading: “Money only marginally changes life. It doesn’t solve the problems that people without it seem to think it will. In fact, no material possession will. External things can’t fix internal issues.” And if you’re not struck by the truth of this statement, I highly suggest you go back and read it again, and consider how you can apply it to your own life. Additionally, I am jumping back into my Life S.A.V.E.R.S. habits with The Miracle Morning, and to re-instill the necessity of these habits I read Miracle Morning Millionaires. I talked about the original version of the book back in April 2020 in the Books for Grads post. Still an excellent read and even-better-than-excellent daily habits to take your life to the next level. Currently, I’m reading about the stoics during the ‘Reading’ part of my S.A.V.E.R.S. habits.

What do you want to have more of in your life this year, are you on track to do it, and how can we help you get to where you want to be?

~Ashley

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