Ashley

It’s all my mother’s fault, and she will 100% take the credit for it, too. My favorite thing ever was my mom reading to me and going on library trips with her, and how every year in school I HAD to be the top reader (probably where I keep equating my reading life to a competition against myself and others). Even now we still enjoy the bookstore together when we can. By fifth grade I was reading adult fiction of the probably inappropriate variety -John Jakes’s North and South is definitely adult in its content. By middle school, my co-ed friends group was passing around a notebook and taking on the personalities of our favorite Anne McCaffrey PERN characters.( I will neither confirm nor deny the continued existence of said notebook, but if it exists it would not be in my possession.) High school was much of the same, but we passed around books like Outlander, started a Bible Study and Shakespeare club, and thought we coined the term TRN (Trashy Romance Novel)- who knows, we might have, it was 1999 and before the internet went BOOM. My bachelor of arts in History involved me reading a lot of books and writing a lot of papers, but my summers were all about reading for pleasure! Especially the summers with a new Harry Potter novel, where I would re-read them all from Sorcerer’s Stone! I have spent a lot of my adult reading life focused on personal and business development, a possibly unhealthy amount of young adult series, and most recently back to that TRN life.

I left Nashville last year and my career in real estate to move to Los Angeles for a job opportunity my husband just couldn’t refuse, but after a year and a half we decided to move back. Now that we’re back and working on getting settled, I’m a Realtor again and excited to help clients navigate this hot market. Otherwise, you can usually find me reading on my Kindle, cuddling with the cats, or planning our life around our gym training schedule.

Nikki

I don’t remember a time before I could read.  For most of my life, there was always a book in my hands.  I remember only a few things about my early reading life – conversations with the school librarian about titles I might like based on my recent loves, being grounded and surviving only after a trip to the library, and reading my first book with smut scenes with mortification because my mother handed me the title and knew what I was reading (hi mom!).  I also remember struggling to read anything for pleasure in college (while I do love the liberal arts model, it does not leave time for self-selected titles), picking up some classics in graduate school at the suggestion of a trusted advisor (who has told me on several occasions I should have been and English major – and was right), and fighting converting to e-books only to realize ebooks and my Kindle help me live my best bookish life.  I enjoy reading a wide variety of genres, but my favorites are usually historical fiction, young adult, and romance. I’m new to memoir and thrillers and still need to be properly introduced to mystery and suspense. I’m a library reader more than a bookstore reader because I need deadlines, otherwise books sit unread on my shelf/e-reader. 

Outside of my bookish life, I live in the suburbs of Nashville with my husband, two boys, and sweet dog.  You’ll find me chasing my kids, dreaming of home improvement projects, or working in the local nonprofit sector.  Family time and book time are my favorites, and cooking with a podcast in the background is a close third!