The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES:

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine  by Mike Michalowicz
• The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES:

• Circe by Madeline Miller
• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
• The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
• I Ain’t Doin’ It: Unfiltered Thoughts From a Sarcastic Southern Sweetheart by Heather Land

Ashley FIN:

• Wheeler by Samantha Whiskey*
• Defender by Samantha Whiskey*
• A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
• After His Banana by Penelope Bloom
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
• Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
• Circe by Madeline Miller

Nikki FIN:

• A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas*
• Wild in Winter by Scarlett Scott*
• After His Banana by Penelope Bloom
• House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
• Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh
• Someone to Remember by Mary Balogh

*Finished in February after Reading Life Review Post.

Nikki:  Oh dear readers, this month has been heavy.  In our corner of the world, in the first week we had tornados, our first local case of COVID-19, and the last day of school for…who knows how long.  I hope we’ve been able to bring you some light in this heavy time and that you’ve found some titles to help you through, whether they help you improve the way you approach the world or they’ve helped you to escape it for a while.  

As you can see above, I have read some titles tackling serious issues this month (yes, even After His Banana), but only two titles have contemporary settings, which does help.  If you missed our commentary on Sarah J. Maas’s latest release, House of Earth and Blood, please check that out here.  It’s a fabulous New Adult title and we have SO many feelings on it.  I’m looking forward to my first reread of A Court of Frost and Starlight, hopefully with buddies, coming soon!  It’s a nice extended epilogue (if you skip the teaser for the next book which might come out in 2021). 

One title I do want to highlight is The Centurion’s Wife.  My Goodreads friends may note this is not actually on my reading shelf, rather the anthology is.  I own the first in the trilogy and wanted to reread all three during Lent this year, but #2 and #3 are on hold, so Amazon Prime Reading to the rescue with the set!  This book is set in the Judea Province in AD 33 and opens six days before Passover.  Yes, THE Passover with THE Last Supper. We have a young woman who serves Pilate’s wife and the centurion in charge of a garrison near Capernaum (yes, the one whose faith Jesus praises) and the story revolves around them as they each search for answers for Pilate about Jesus and his followers.  While there is a bit of romance (chaste or closed door), the book is really about their search for answers and how those answers heal and transform them. Really, this describes all three books, which follow each other as the early Church develops.  These books highlight the culture and customs of the day and tell stories of what might have been.  They do not include Jesus as a character, except as others recount events from Palm Sunday through Pentecost, but they do include disciples and other prominent followers and leaders of the city.  I first read this trilogy years ago and have reread it during Lent a couple of times. If you’re looking for a book or books to read to provide some additional cultural context or just a historical escape with a seasonal connection, I highly recommend them!  

~Nikki 

P.S. if you missed the memo that all of Maas’s books are well loved here, well, here it is.  Although I wouldn’t call Catwoman well loved, it is a fun read I suggest.   

Ashley: I, of course, have to second Nikki’s statement about this month being heavy. I went from my RE/MAX office being closed for over a week because the electricity was out from tornado damage. (Literally one block over from our office, historic East Nashville homes and buildings are destroyed, and the fence around our office building is still down in the parking lot. Many agents, friends, and clients have been affected by the destruction, and my heartfelt prayers continually go out to them, especially those who don’t have their own home in which to ‘Shelter in Place.’)   Then being on a girls’ trip to Charleston/Folly Beach during the beginning of the COVID-19 breaking news cycle, which we all agreed to cut short so that we could get home to our families. Though the house we were renting on the beach would have been a most excellent place to get quarantined in… here we are, trying to make the most of a situation that will likely take longer to figure out than anyone anticipated. I hope all of you and your people, dear readers, are safe, sound, and hunkered down. For those of you in essential services, I appreciate your hard work and resiliency during these times.

Now, with as much as I have been home, not able to go gallivanting off in the Jeep, destroying the ozone layer with my terrible gas mileage (there was a bachelorette trip miracle of 17.1 MPG!), I haven’t been able to finish as many books as I expected. It is my smallest books per month this year, though we are just now finishing up a rough month 3. I have finished 6 books so far this month. I anticipate one more, but regardless, 7 would still be less than January’s 9. Yes, yes, I know, the reading life isn’t a competition… except with yourself! And I want GoodReads to keep telling me that I am X–books ahead of schedule! Sometimes I need to feel like a winner! I know it’s only 6 books, but it’s also 3,088 pages. THREE. THOUSAND. EIGHTY. EIGHT. PAGES.  That is an average of approximately 100 pages a day, 515 pages per book, so not too shabby for all that, now, eh?

I read American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins for this month’s Barnes & Noble Book Club on March 10th. I know there was a lot of negative press about the book, even after Oprah had chosen it for her Book Club pick as well. We didn’t talk about it during our book discussion, and to be honest, I haven’t in-depth researched what all the critics complained about. If you want to do that, it’s an easy Google search, but regardless, I do highly recommend this book. It’s about a Mexican woman and her son who are running from a cartel and the dangerous journey they undergo to the United States interspersed with the backstory of who they were before and the events that led up to them running for their lives. This is such a powerful, modern story based on situations that can and do happen everyday. Jeanine Cummins talked about her experience serving the migrants in Mexico in the interview she gave for the Barnes and Noble Podcast, and it broke my heart all over again. You can listen to the podcast without worrying about spoilers, but if you read the book I highly recommend listening as well. The book is filled with violence, so if you’re not ready for something heavy, put it on your TBR for later. I’m ready to discuss it when you’re ready.

I am so bummed that book clubs have been put on hiatus because of the COVID-19 threat, so Nikki and I have decided to coordinate a Virtual Book Club for our readers. We are going to post about it on Social Media this week, before Thursday’s post, so be sure to follow us there, and we’ll give you more details after I talk about one of the other tomes I read this month!

~Ashley