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Oh readers, if there’s anything I need after a week of canceled everything, freezing weather, and cooking every. single. meal, it is a book like Don’t Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy To Your Life by Anne Bogel. Too cold to go out, don’t over think your next move.  So over cooking, just grab something and make it.  Is this accurately reflecting the book?  Maybe, maybe not, but it’s the advice I’ve heeded for the past week.  Sign up here to join us Friday, March 26th at 7:30 p.m. CST to chat about what was actually in the book, what we think about it, and how we can make easier decisions and have more books, I mean joy!

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES

• A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4 / 5) by Sarah J. Maas
• Sign and Thrive: How to Make Six Figure As a Mobile Notary and Loan Signing Agent by Bill Soroka
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES

• A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4 / 5) 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

• Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
• Sold: Every Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Building a Profitable Business by David Greene
• A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4 / 5) by Sarah J. Maas
•  Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• In the Clear (Codex #3) by Kathryn Nolan
• The Mogul and the Muscle (Bluewater Billionaires #2) by Claire Kingsley
• A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1 / 4) by Sarah J. Maas
• A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J. Maas
• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid*
• A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas*
• A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas*

 Nikki FIN

• Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
• A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3.1 / 4) by Sarah J. Maas
•  Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• In the Clear (Codex #3) by Kathryn Nolan
• A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J. Maas
• A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas
• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas

**Finished in January

It probably surprises no one that Ashley and I sometimes challenge each other (see also our post on You Should See Me in a Crown).  It may surprise some of you that I adore a spreadsheet and sometimes find them very soothing.  If memory serves me, it was April or so when I first needed a reading schedule spreadsheet.  We were just a few months into the blog, and had some ambitious reading goals, and then there was the whole virus that shall not be named thing and it was just generally wreaking havoc on all the things.  So, I made a spreadsheet with the book, number of pages, and estimated start and end date for each of us, with notes about library due dates and post dates.  (Yes, we know our average pages read per day, and yes it does increase on the weekends and change depending on the genre of book we’re reading.  Just us?  It’s fine, FINE.)  It made me feel better as I could see the incremental goals and how we were progressing through the month’s reading plan, and that it was actually going to come together, even if we needed a little weekend push to make it happen.  Fast forward to December when we decided to read not one, but four books for virtual book club.  I want to confess now, I was hesitant, but also, I knew we were both going to read them all again before reading A Court of Silver Flames so why not read them for book club, and not add one more book to the already full list.  The issue comes in when I did not plan for FOUR books, totalling about 2,000 pages, to be added to my reading schedule, and my job was in a busy season, and also life things.  So here we are, and readers, I am delighted to say, I am only one day behind schedule!  I feel like I’ve done the reading version of a marathon this last month, at least a marathon when one also has a full time job, two kids in online school, and relatively keeps up with household things.  

What does one day behind my reading schedule really mean?  Well, I’m glad you asked!  For me, a week day averages out to be about 100 pages.  So, it means I still had about 100 pages left in A Court of Frost and Starlight at Virtual Book Club, which was just fine because it was a reread.  It also means that I had about that much left in  Caste when we wrote the post about that book.  And it means that I started A Court of Silver Flames on Saturday, not on Friday as planned.  Is it a big deal?  Not really (especially as I’m about 40% through this 758 page book already).  I do want to follow up on Caste and say that some of the most enlightening pieces to me as a political science major came in those pages I hadn’t read yet when we posted.  And they were powerful!  I don’t often consider purchasing books I don’t plan to reread again and again (like A Court of Thorns and Roses) but I’m considering purchasing Caste in dead tree format because there are pieces that I’m thinking I need a second dose of, pieces I need to sit with a bit more to fully understand, maybe spend some time deep diving the associated scholarship even.  

I want to highlight, being a day behind in my reading schedule isn’t a woe is me thing.  It isn’t a big deal in the scheme of things, but also it is.  It is a big deal because it’s a big win honestly, that I mostly kept up through the nearly 4,000 pages we read this month (3,919 – yes, I counted)!  We did sneak in In the Clear (yes, an extra 382 pages that wasn’t planned) and it was a joy, and a bit of a brain break, to spend a few hundred pages with Kathryn Nolan’s Abe Royal and his Codex crew!  

Oh, and another big win is that the last week of snow made a great time for me to catch up on PBS Masterpiece!  I finished The Long Song (which I highly suggest, especially if you want to follow up on Jane in January and spend a few hours in 1830s Jamaica), caught up on Miss Scarlett & The Duke (which is my first mystery show and I’m enjoying so far), and got to immerse myself in the Dales with All Creatures Great and Small which is SUCH a joy!  It’s marginally different than the book so far (and will be more so with their Christmas episode that is the season finale), and I’m very much looking forward to their second season which already has the green light!  

What’s a win you’ve had this month?  What reward or brain break have you given yourself as either a reward or selfcare (hopefully both)?

~Nikki 

I am insanely proud of the wins we have accomplished this month, the shortest month!, in our reading lives. According to Good Reads, Nikki and I are both ahead of schedule for the year, Nikki by three and myself by six. (sheepish look) I have read two nonfiction titles this month, and am In Medias Res with another. I’m exceptionally thrilled about the fact that as of yesterday I [we] finished ALL THE TITLES for posts this month so I have the ability to read whatever I damn well please until March begins. 

Which brings me to the thing that I damn well please, A Court of Silver Flames. Yes, I am unashamedly re-reading the newest Sarah J. Maas book less than a week after its release which is why you see it on both my lists above. I am sure that I will have it completed in the next week, as I read it, with a minimal amount of sleep, over the course of 28 hours. I. Need. More. Why? I don’t know how to answer that except to say that Nesta and Cassian have always been my favorites and this is now my new favorite Maas title. We will, of course, be scheduling a discussion time, outside of our regular Virtual Book Club dates, when more of our friends of the blog finish their reading so stay tuned if you’re dying to discuss.

As Nikki stated above, Caste was a serious, well-written and -researched book that both of us are finding hard to stop thinking about in myriad ways. On Friday, the day after our post went live, I received a notification from Good Reads stating that Isabel Wilkerson has shared highlights and notes on Caste. Even before completing my daily caffeination ritual I was reading the notes the author shared about her process in writing the book. You can find them here on Good Reads. I am not surprised that I highlighted many of the passages Wilkerson highlighted because they spoke to me as either being important or were more viscerally reactive. I’m delighted to share them with you in case you don’t have Good Reads and want a deeper dive into the author’s thought process.

As for the rest of my reading life, I’m thankfully done with Sold: Every Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Building a Profitable Business by David Greene before I have my first business coaching session on Tuesday. Have I figured out my accountability plan? Not yet. But, I have most of the day tomorrow to get that written down from the jumble in my head. I wasn’t surprised by any of the suggestions in the book, but I did glean some more best practices and am formulating ways to incorporate them in my real estate sales business. It’s going to be a reference book I touch on a monthly basis for a while, see how it sits by my planner,  but I’m not going to read it straight through again, probably for a while…  unlike a certain sexy faerie book I mentioned above.

I know Nikki asked what were your wins and rewards for this month, but I want to know what else WE can do to help you consistently achieve your reading life wins?

~Ashley

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