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As we look back at the titles we read in April, would you like to know what’s not on the list?  That would be Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, which is the pick for the next Virtual Book Club on Friday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. CST.  Oops.  We have plans to start it soon, after we finish our current reads, and the title for our May 6 post, (which we are both VERY excited about, and comes highly recommended by one of my local librarians – check back next week to find out what it is), but we plan to finish Gaiman’s book too, and even if we don’t, we’ll be chatting with those who sign up here.

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES

• We Free the Stars (Sands of Arawiya #2) by Hafsah Faizel
• First-Time Home Buyer: The Complete Playbook to Avoiding Rookie Mistakes by Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES

• We Free the Stars (Sands of Arawiya #2) by Hafsah Faizel
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6) by J.K. Rowling
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Ashley FIN

• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya #1) by Hafsah Faizal
• Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston
• The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Patakai
• The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One by Amanda Lovelace
• All Things Reconsidered: How Rethinking What We Know Helps Us Know What We Believe by Knox McCoy
• Hendrix (Raleigh Raptors #3) by Samantha Whiskey
• Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
• Roman (Raleigh Raptors #2) by Samantha Whiskey*
• All this Could be Yours by Jami Attenberg*

*Finished in March

Nikki FIN

• We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya #1) by Hafsah Faizal
• Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston
• The Blackstone She-Dragon (Blackstone Mountain #8) by Alicia Montgomery
• The Queen’s Fortune by Allison Patakai
• All Things Reconsidered: How Rethinking What We Know Helps Us Know What We Believe by Knox McCoy
• Sexual Intelligence: What We Really Want from Sex–and How to Get it by Marty Klein
• The Blackstone She-Bear (Blackstone Mountain #7) by Alicia Montgomery
• The Blackstone She-Wolf (Blackstone Mountain #6) by Alicia Montgomery
• The Blackstone Lion (Blackstone #5) by Alicia Montgomery
• Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

Before I dig in, I have an ask dear readers.  In honor of Ashley’s reading of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein, as you come across titles of forgotten (or purposefully hidden, whichever) history, please share them with us, be they fictional or not.  We are both very interested in learning what we don’t know and realizing what we didn’t before because of our privilege.  It is each of our responsibilities to educate ourselves, and we appreciate the sharing of any resources you come across, no further comment needed, but always invited and welcome.

Now, about my reading life during the month of April.  It’s been mostly blog titles and shifter romance novels.  If you’ve read a shifter romance, then the Blackstone Mountain series is pretty much what you expect, except it’s about different types of shifters living together in a town, and out in the open, which is different from titles I’ve read in the past.  There are all the alpha male issues I’ve come to expect, and all the females fighting against those and proving that partnerships are the best way to operate a relationship.  I definitely have issues with the titles for the books about females from Blackstone.  We are all people, and if we don’t have “He-Bears” then I’m not interested in using the term “She-Bear” and the same goes for other animals.  (See also what in the world is there a genre called “women’s fiction”?! Riddikulus!)  I’ve been trying to consider these titles and if there are other pieces that are demeaning to women about them, and I haven’t come up with anything.  I hope it’s just a titling issue, but it’s an issue for me none the less, and perhaps more so because it feels lazy considering the way the females in the titles fight to prove their strength, and demonstrate they’re usually more capable than the males.  

The only other book I read this month that wasn’t for posting purposes was Sexual Intelligence: What We Really Want from Sex–and How to Get it by Marty Klein, which Ashley recommended to me way back in Feburary 2019.  Just as it says in the marketing copy, this is not tricks and techniques, but it’s about how we think about sex.  This book tackles issues like normalcy, which have come up recently in an author fan group I’m a part of on social media. (Aside: Dear readers, if you are not following your favorite authors on social media and in their – hopefully official – fan groups, please consider it.  The fan groups of the Bluewater Billionaires authors might be the shining light to my social media stream, other than you of course.)  It also talks about the different aspects of sexual intelligence – mind, heart, and body, as well as why and how to reset expectations.  The author is a sex therapist and it reads like that.  If you’re interested in digging into the mindsets of sex, I highly suggest this title!  It’s short, at 261 pages, interesting, and very accessible.  

What fun titles did you read this month that surprised you in some way?

~Nikki 

I make no secret that my day job is a badass Realtor, and the month of April is Fair Housing Month for National Association of Realtors. I took a course on Friday called “At Home With Diversity” and of course I read The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein to double up with my education. Seeing the way neighborhoods are currently segregated and knowing that both federal and local governments caused these inequities to BIPOC is important to know so that we can, as Rothstein says, find remedies for this terrible, systemic issue. So, I second Nikki’s ask to receive all the titles and educational resources.

In addition to my diversity education, I am in the middle of reading a very thorough and easy to digest book about the home buying process. I will probably be recommending First-Time Home Buyer: The Complete Playbook to Avoiding Rookie Mistakes by Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen to all of my first-time buyer clients in the future so that we may have the same vocabulary to discuss their needs, wants, and the home buying process. It is proving to be an excellent resource to corroborate my specific market knowledge. 

This month is going to end up having an equal number of titles as February, 10, which is the smallest number of titles I have completed in a month this year. It still means I’m 13 books ahead of schedule for the year and I’m not even a little sad about that. Because some of my nonfiction reading has been dense and I’ve done multiple online classes this month, I’ve been enjoying some TV and movie time in the evenings rather than more reading on a screen. I’ve started watching binging Schitt’s Creek on Netflix and let’s just say that I am Here.For.It. I’m still in season one so don’t spoil things, but it’s funny and I love it. Should have listened to my in-laws sooner, eh?

How do you balance your media consumption between books, movies, and TV?

~Ashley

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