The following post includes affiliate links. More details here.  As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!  (And for June to share the bookish love with Claire Kingsley and her children.)

Our next Virtual Book Club title feels, to me, like our list of books you’re about to see – well-considered, but still raw, real, only slightly filtered, and utterly gorgeous.  This title isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely for us (and you’re welcome to slide into our DMs if you have questions, as we’re both plotting a reread), and if it’s for you (or if you just want to talk about it), we need to discuss and dig in, and decide how we feel about that epilogue and which of our beloved Court of Dreams will be the focus of the next book.  If you’re interested in these loquacious pursuits, SIGN UP HERE to join us on Friday, July 16 at 7:30 pm CST to talk all things A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4)  by Sarah J. Maas.  

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES

• The Electric Heir (Feverwake #2) by Victoria Lee
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES

• Fumbled (Playbook #2) by Alexa Martin
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

Ashley FIN

• Fumbled (Playbook #2) by Alexa Martin
• The Paris Hours by Alex George
• Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan
• Beach Read by Emily Henry
• Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard
• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
• Intercepted by Alexa Martin

Nikki FIN

• Never and Forever (The Wizards of Once #4) by Cressida Cowell
• The Paris Hours by Alex George
• Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan
• Beach Read by Emily Henry
• Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard
• Intercepted by Alexa Martin
• Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
• This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig

Oh readers, I feel like I’ve read so many books this summer (which is half over and I. CANNOT. with that!), but then I look at the list and realize I have only read a few that haven’t hit the pages of the blog.  Be that as it may, summer reading is in full swing at my house, and I feel like the feel of month’s titles are collectively fairly reflective of my reading life (the titles are heavy on memoir to be generally reflective).  Also, my little people are loving summer reading!  Our local library has great programs going on, and different engagement opportunities for children and it is glorious!  And it involves prizes, for all ages!  [Excuse me while I go log my reading time to ensure the continuation of said prizes.]

I did a bit of a sneaky thing with my little people during summer reading.  I know I’ve shared our family’s love for all things Cressida Cowell and sheer adoration for titles narrated by David Tennant (hint: all of Cressida Cowell’s novels, and they’re FANTASTIC and they’re similarly fabulous when she reads them too).  So, when my little found and adored Wizards of Once and I knew Never and Forever was at our local branch, I just kept him going through the quartet at a book a week, not rushing him, just being sure he got the next checked out after consuming the last one.  And then Never and Forever found its way home and into the little’s hands, before the big got a chance to read it.  As a little, he doesn’t get to be the first very often, and he was so pumped to be the first in the family (yes, ahead of me even) to find out the identity of the unnamed narrator.  (Cowell makes a big deal of readers not knowing who the narrator is in book one, and it’s revealed in the epilogue of book 4.  How she did it brought me so, SO much joy!).  Fast forward like three days, and the big is in the final chapters of the book and trying to read bits of it to me at bedtime.  That’s two bad things in one sentence – mom hates spoilers and we don’t talk during our bedtime reading time.  I *may* have threatened that he’d have to wait on me to read any book I was interested in before he was allowed to read it if he ruined who the unnamed narrator is before I got to read it for myself (and this child waited for 10 months on me to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince so he knows this is no idle threat).  He realized this was a big hairy deal to me and stopped.  He then asked me daily when I was going to start reading Never and Forever, and then asked daily what part I was in so he could keep up with my progress.  Did he care that I finished it last night?  Not. One. Bit. because now he’s at sleep away camp.  But you know what dear readers?  My little cared, and we had a fun conversation about the narrator.  You can’t win them all, but I am getting a free book already from summer reading, so I’m taking all those wins and focusing on those!

Middle grade chapter books not your thing?  I know, they’re not for everyone, and that’s fine.  As my other, non blog read this month read, I adored This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig!  If you like memoir or tales of the west, or just amazing prose, please check out this work!  It’s the story of Doig’s family, including his parents moving to Montana with their families, meeting and courting (in the 1930s), and of Doig’s life too (as a journalist and eventually a professor, but sadly the book doesn’t dig into his career as a published author other than how this book came to be).  I learned so much about Montana, sheep farming, and just life in the West during what feels like times past.  The story is stark and gorgeous, and real and I’m only sad I left it on my holds list for so long, and that my library doesn’t have more of his titles available for me to consume.  

What’s bringing you joy this summer reading season?

~Nikki 

Truly, it doesn’t seem like it’s the end of June, but it is and here we are, our Reading Life Review. I’ve read enough books this month to keep me at 12 books ahead of my goal per Good Reads and at a total of 60 books read for the year. I expect to finish at least one other book before the end of the month, but I haven’t decided which book that will be quite yet. You’ve gotten to read about the majority of our titles I’ve read this month, talked about one at Virtual Book Club, or about to read the review about another book we finished this coming Thursday.

This month has been a fun summery time, busy with real estate, and now this week I get to visit my family, including the only littles that will ever share my DNA. I wish I had more and better things to say about my summer reading habits, but it’s been a bit of a struggle bus this month, and I’m just looking forward to some actual vacation days. Does reading 1000 children’s books to those under three count as summer reading? I sure hope so, cause that’s happening the first few days of July and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

You know what else happened last week? Prime Day. I bought a few Kindle books on the cheap, including a Prime Day title of The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi, that Nikki’s been recommending since she read the book for the launch team. [Nikki here: That’s about a year if you’re keeping up at home.] I’m definitely excited about finally getting around to reading about how to name what matters to get more stuff done, but Nikki’s been helping me with that without reading the book, so it’s a double bonus? I also got inexpensive copies of Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday and  The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins …AND THREE FREE MONTHS OF KINDLE UNLIMITED. ::insert maniacal laugh here:: Things are going to get nice and schexy on the weekends with me and my Kindle and I’m not sad about it either.

What are your plans for the Independence Day Weekend?

~Ashley

PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW: