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Is your gown ready?  Will the Virtual Book Club ton approve?  We do so hope to find out on Friday, June 10, at 7:30pm CST when we meet to discuss Julia Quinn’s The Duke and I.  What do we mean by “gown”?  Your call to interpret it, but your hosts will likely be living that comfy chic life with a side of bookish fun and whatever beverages feel appropriate around 7pm, like we do, and we invite you to join us in all of the above.  Please note, we will likely have questions if you show up in a corset, but please live your best life. Be sure you répondez s’il vous plaît ici so you get the meeting link the day of!

Darling readers, summer is a time for relaxation, the setting down of heavy burdens, the continued recovery from too much YA (just Ashley?  Ok, but still), and the digging into beaucoup de beach reads.  Let’s review before going further:  What is a beach read?  That’s right, a book one wants to read on the beach or generally outside during summer!  This might be our favorite you do you boo season.  Love exciting thrillers?  Beach Read!  Want gripping family dramas?  Beach Read!  Dying to finish that YA fantasy you started last year at the beach so you can finally watch the show?  Beach Read!  (maybe just for Nikki, but it doesn’t change the answer if that’s what you want!)

So, what do you imagine we’re reading to support our habit of a lemonade summer?  Beach reads, that’s right!  How do we define beach reads this summer?  Books. We. Want. To. Read.  Nothing more, and nothing less.  We are planning to continue with our goal of ensuring we don’t just read white women, so we’ll be purposefully reading some male authors and some authors who are Black, Indigeous, or other People of Color. Plus, we’ll be reading some nonfiction with our romance binge usual fiction fare.  Do remember that if diversity matters to you that June is Pride month, so it’s a great month to include books by LGBTQIA+ authors, and conveniently Goodreads has a list of suggestions compiled.  (And we do suggest revisiting one of our favorite trans celebrities, Eddie Izzard, in book or video format if you like her humor or are interested in her life.) And not to be trite with all the things going on in our world, but to acknowledge that reading is a form of self care, so please care for yourself when selecting your titles this summer, just as we have done the same.

Along with our selection of beach reads, we’re having some summer changes here at Heart.Wants.Books.  We’ll be limiting our posts to Thursdays only unless something magical happens, which does include today’s introduction that will cover June and July as well as our monthly Reading Life Reviews.  Summer may or may not extend to August, so if you want to make sure you don’t miss a post, the best way is to sign up for email in the box at the top right of the page (and don’t forget to look for the confirmation email or WordPress won’t let us email you each post).  We are trying to make the most of our reading life while also helping you make the most of yours, so without further delay, this summer we’ll be bringing you reviews on:  

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (don’t forget to sign up for Virtual Book Club!)

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

What part of summer reading are you most excited about this year?  

~Nikki & Ashley

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