but it is the one we need for June 2020

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June plans, take #47.  Ok, so 47 is an exaggeration, but we’ve planned and replanned June a couple of times.  We started reading June books and one was such. a. slog. for both of us to get through (I still haven’t finished it).  So, we didn’t want to bring you a suggestion of what not to read (but we may bring you that as an example of why DNFing books isn’t a bad thing), so we replanned.  Then life happened.  I think we’re all on the same page that 2020 is a giant struggle.  Coronavirus hit and we have been struggling, and as of this past weekend, protests and riots are happening all over our country.  

The plan that didn’t change: virtual book club!  We’re still gathering at 7:30pm Central Time on Friday 26 June to discuss Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 1). If you’re ready to sign up, you can do so here.  Also, if you have suggestions of what we should read next for book club, bring them!  We want to hear from those who participate what they’d like to read and discuss!  

Friends, I am tired, my heart hurts, and I want to put my head in the sand via a lengthy list of escapist reads.  I have friends who can’t escape the tired and the hurt because that is their daily life, their constant experience, and I want to be present for them, be better for them, and to stand up beside them, even for them especially when they need to sit down.  As I type that I’m not sure it’s the right thing, but it’s an honest description of how I feel.  I am so grateful to my friends who have answered my awkward, uninformed questions, who have offered guidance and direction, and who have openly shared their painful truths with me.  It is because of those friends, because of the relationships we have, the life we’ve shared, and the ways they’ve opened my eyes, that I cannot and will not ignore what is going on in our world.  

This month, we’ll be reading titles to help us learn and process.  Now, let’s be clear, among the heavy and challenging titles, which will be both fiction and nonfiction, there will also be some escapist titles as well (Hello Harry Potter, which last night I was asked by my eight-year-old to start NOW, so we can read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix together sooner).  As life continues to feel harder, we all need to remember to practice self-care and reading is one of our avenues to do so.  So friends, we had a clear plan of our books this month, then another, and now we just have a list of potential titles below, and a list of potential topics we’re still mulling over, but you’ll still see Monday bookish posts, and maybe even a readerly poll, but maybe not.  If you’d like to read with us, you’re welcome to follow us on Goodreads or just check out our currently reading shelves (Ashley or Nikki).  

~Nikki

Books we might bring to you, and already recommend:

• A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
• The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
• The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Books on this month’s TBR short list:

• A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• How to Fix a Broken Record by Amena Brown
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World by Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips
• The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask

Other titles you might see around here:

• The Lioness of Morocco by Juila Drosten
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
• The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

My heart is broken and hurting and in order for me to make sure my oxygen mask is on and secure before I can help other people, I feel like I have to distance myself from the online/social media conversation in which the majority of my people are participating. It is not for lack of feeling, but an overabundance of it. Because what my body and anxiety is telling me to do is get some feel good vibes after the emotional roller coaster 2020 has sent us upon. So maybe that would normally involve naps and romance novels. But, my heart is also telling me that I need to diversify my reading life with titles relevant to the national and global conversation about race so that I can know and do better to help others.

Nikki and I discuss our desire to diversify our reading life and TBRs not only with the settings and character type, but also the background of the authors. We tend to read a lot of books by white women because they seem to dominate the genres of  romance and young adult – our main picks for pleasure and escapist reads. We do make a point to read nonfiction and books in translation. We had planned on The Lioness of Morocco for a June post for this very reason, but we’ll see how that lands with our current plans.

Currently our plan is to see where the above list takes us. Instead of having the books and posts scheduled out at the beginning of the month, with the majority of the reading having taken place at least the month prior, we are asking for some grace so that we can read as our hearts are led to go during the coming month. Many of the titles on the list of books we have read and recommend were slated for posts later this year because we were waiting for one of us to read the title so we could post from both of our perspectives. That might be less likely to happen this month so that we can bring you the titles we feel have helped us grow and understand the national conversation about race. We are trying to live by Maya Angelou’s words: Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

This is our attempt to know better so that we can do better. Or, how we’re making lemonade out of lemons for the summer.

~Ashley