The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts want books.

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Oh readers, I know we’ve talked about how Ashley and I tend to prefer e-books to dead tree (physical) books AND I know we have talked about how I need deadlines, like some things in my life DO. NOT. HAPPEN. without deadlines.  My boss is aware, Ashley is aware, and Adam knows too.  My struggle is very real.  So, when I received an Advanced Review Copy of The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi from a Goodreads Giveaway courtesy of Wednesday Books, I was so very excited. And then it sat.  It sat on my TBR stack from November 2019 until August 2020.  That’s nine months, NINE MONTHS that I glanced longingly at this gorgeous cover (which is different than the final cover, which I adore even more), that held the constitution of one of my favorite titles of 2019.  And let’s be real, I am SUPER picky about the print copies of giveaways I request because I have three in my possession and I have now read one.  To be fair, I have two Kindle giveaways on my tablet and I have read zero (I did get one of them this month, so I want some credit for that) because they have no deadlines.  

Now that I’ve finally read it, and it’s finally being published on September 22, I am thrilled to tell you about The Silvered Serpents and I’m going to do it out of my normal order because I’m writing this out of my normal order, and early, because I’m passing off the print copy of this book to Ashley tomorrow (as of the initial drafting), and I think we’ve already discussed that I have to write quickly or Ashley has a lot more editing to do.  I’m also going to try to minimize spoilers for both The Silvered Serpents and the previous book in the trilogy, The Gilded Wolves, but there’s only so much I can do.  Last things first, I will 100% be rereading this five star book, and I am very likely to purchase it on Kindle.  I don’t love it as much as The Gilded Wolves, but I still love it enough for five stars.  I think my diminished love is because it’s the second book in a dramatic trilogy and it’s not set in Paris.  Most of the things I loved about The Gilded Wolves I also love about The Silvered Serpents, including the ensemble cast, the deep characters, and the way this diverse group demonstrates found family.  The writing is also solid with gorgeous descriptions and dialogues full of sass, feeling, or sometimes both.  It was ALL I could do not to send some of these quotes to Ashley as I was reading (my three favorites had sticky tabs on the pages because I do so adore them).  I was trying so hard to be respectful of her enneagram 1 and let her experience the book as intended, without any spoilers.  

If you’ve read The Gilded Wolves, (spoiler alert) then you know we leave our cast shortly after a tragedy strikes.  The Silvered Serpents picks up right where we left them, still trying to process and figure out how to move forward as individuals and as a group.  You also know that The Silvered Serpents has our group traveling to Russia for the Winter Conclave of the Order of Babel and some adventure, so we lose our beloved Paris as our setting in this book.  Perhaps this was part of the reason I didn’t feel the sense of place as deeply as compared to the last book, because the setting is so different, both on the page and in my lived experience.  With the grief that our ensemble is feeling, we also see how love works in the group, how it works when other characters are introduced into the mix, (because we are in a different country with different houses of the Order of Babel in control), and we learn a bit more about some of the back stories of our group.  Oh yes, and there’s adventure and mystery as well.  Enrique enlightens me (but probably refreshes Ashley) on some Greco-Roman iconography along the way, and we get to visit another mansion of one of the great Houses of the Order, and it has more iconography with amazing imagery (both of the descriptive and thematic kinds).  

I do want to mention one more reason this book sat for so long on my TBR stack, because I was scared of it. I’m scared of the middle book in a dramatic trilogy, as I mentioned when we discussed The Gilded Wolves.  I can’t say I’m pleased at the ending of this book, but I can say that I’m not sad or disappointed, and I didn’t want to throw it.  There is a bit of a cliffhanger, but, as one expects from this group, there’s a semblance of a plan, which has been enough for them in the past, and afterall, isn’t the formula that our group will conquer their foe in the third installment.  Here’s hoping they will, because I do love a happy ending, and that it will come out earlier in 2021, rather than later.  

~Nikki

I finished The Silvered Serpents with a semblance of respect for my responsibilities the next day. I found it difficult to read the Advanced Reader Copy of the book, it was missing all of the required symbols that would make the logic of treasure hunting easier for me to decipher before the characters did. I had done so with some of the drawings of symbols in The Gilded Wolves, but I’m not going to show you what they are for fear of spoiling anything for you. The funniest part about this read was that it took me almost 7 instances of seeing “IMAGE TO COME” and trying to figure out what that meant in the context of the story. Y’all it’s embarrassing and I had to interrupt Nikki’s conference call with a google hangout warning to not read my text message I sent to her phone with the attached picture. (I was still in scenic Sumner County at the time and the interwebz was super slow.) I was afraid that she would lolz fo’realz and disturb the other participants. She read it anyway because she was on mute, but ‘I’ didn’t know that and was trying to be considerate. She adores me, y’all, and there is text-tual proof!

Because this is a dead-tree ARC of a book that is being released on September 22nd, Nikki read it first and I went to her house to pick it up. There are several penciled highlights and post-it notes that I was informed about and subsequently required to text her about when I reached those moments. It became apparent, unsurprisingly, that we have highlighted many of the same quotations and examples of sass throughout the entire book. This is why it’s great to have a book buddy with the same taste, you love the same things. However, before I left her house with the book in my greedy little paws, I started flipping through the book and hardcore belly laughed in front of her Adam as regards the dedication page:

And so ensued a solid 10 minute discussion about Nicolas Cage movies. It. Was. Glorious. I love the National Treasure franchise because I am a giant history/art history scholar nerd and the fact that the first movie my Adam ever took me to see in theatres was National Treasure 2. Yeah, the first movie date my not-yet-husband took me on was to a Nicolas Cage film at a theatre in Canada with a plot about American history and mythology. The irony is not lost on me, y’all.

None of my words above have anything to say about the book’s plot or characters but OH SO MUCH to point out how many interesting things readers can miss out on if we avoid pages that aren’t integral to the story telling. The acknowledgements in this ARC also states: 

“To Mom and Dad, thanks for bragging about me on Facebook and randomly telling strangers about your daughter who sits around in pajamas for a living.”

My mother would probably be embarrassed to know I, too, admit that I work in my pajamas, but not remotely surprised that it actually occurs. 

Nikki’s covered all the things we both love about the plot, setting, and characters, but I do want to talk about the ending of this second book in a dramatic trilogy. The ‘cliffhanger’ bit is part of what I love about an ensemble cast. In this instance we as readers know exactly what and why something has happened, but some of the other characters are in the dark and then that character DOES SOMETHING DUMB that could explain the whole scenario to them and we just want to smack them upside the head because they weren’t thinking with their head but with their emotions. And now we have to wait MONTHS and MONTHS for them to find out the details and for us to be able to finish the story, something we really don’t like having to wait for, but that’s where we are. I’ll be re-reading this five star book before the third installment, and who knows, I’ll probably just re-read The Gilded Wolves as well to cover all my bases

Do you prefer books that end with cliffhangers where neither the characters NOR the readers know what is going on? ::cough:: Empire of Storms ::cough:: or books where at least the readers have an inkling of the plan but some of the characters do not? Obviously you know which side of that coin we prefer! And if you’d like to join us in discussing a book that is the first in a series, conveniently, that’s coming up on Friday, September 18 at 7:30 p.m. CST when we discuss the book Nikki confused with The Gilded Wolves for a ridiculous amount of time, Shelby Mahurin’s debut Serpent & Dove (and the follow up to this came out Tuesday 1 Sept).  Please at her, because I know I will, even though they’re both magic + Francophone + YA.  Also please register here so we can send you the link to Virtual Book club!  

~Ashley

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Today, let’s start by mentioning a title you won’t see in our Reading Life Review until September’s edition.  In an effort to keep it fresh on our brains, we have not yet started to (re)read Shelby Mahurin’s debut Serpent & Dove, but it’s on the reading schedule, and soon.  We know some of our dear readers have started it already, and we are so delighted (and you’re welcome to slide into Nikki’s DMs with commentary, but not Ashley’s, not yet at least).  If you haven’t started yet, you have until Friday, September 18 at 7:30 p.m. CST to complete this YA fantasy novel, so you can join us in conversation about it.  Fall beverages suggested, registration is open here.  

Ashley IN MEDIAS RES

• The Revelation of Louisa May by Michaela MacColl
• Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat; The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple by David Greene
• Ninja Selling: Subtle Skills. Big Results by Larry Kendall
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine  by Mike Michalowicz
• Louisa Alcott Collection: 39 Works by Louisa May Alcott
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Nikki IN MEDIAS RES

• The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran
• Sanditon, Lady Susan, & The History of England by Jane Austen
• Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Ashley FIN

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling*
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling*
• The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Bromance Book Club (#1) by Lyssa Kay Adams
• The Gilded Wolves (#1) by Roshani Chokshi
• Undercover Bromance (#2) by Lyssa Kay Adams
• Becoming Us: Using the Enneagram to Create a Thriving Gospel-Centered Marriage by Beth McCord and Jeff McCord
• One Hot Scot by Donna Alam
• Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz
• Badd Ass (#2) by Jasinda Wilder
• Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women #1) by Evie Dunmore
• The Silvered Serpents (#2) by Roshani Chokshi

*Completed in July

Nikki FIN

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
• The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech Obsessed World by Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
• The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
• Undercover Bromance (#2) by Lyssa Kay Adams
• The Gilded Wolves (#1) by Roshani Chokshi
• One Hot Scot by Donna Alam
• The Silvered Serpents (#2) by Roshani Chokshi
• The Hidden Flame (#2) by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
• The Damascus Way (#3) by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
• The Betrothed (#1) by Kiera Cass
• The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

I listened to a podcast yesterday that has struck me as I’m looking at my list of books for this month.  The interviewee was saying she struggled to get into Jane Austen’s books because of the style of speaking which is so different than the one we use 200 years later.  As we recently discussed, I adore the way Zora Neale Hurston writes dialogue for her characters in Their Eyes Were Watching God.  While there is a hundred years (give or take) between Austen and Hurston, and Hurston and the present, I find a lot of similarity in my personal reading experience of the two.  I have to be in the frame of mind for reading the unfamiliar phrasing in a way I don’t when I read more recently published works (as most of my other books are).  If readers enjoy Hurston’s other works, I highly suggest Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick.  I’m only about half way through, but as it’s a book of short stories, I feel very confident in the recommendation.  Don’t skip the editor’s note or the introduction by Tayari Jones.

My Facebook friends know I was on the launch team for The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi because I kept talking about it, #sorrynotsorry.  If you’re looking for a new outlook on your out of control to do list, this might just be the book you’re looking for!  I have read a few books on systems to organize or inspire me to get more done, be more efficient, etc. (and am in progress with one right now), but this is actually the book (and the podcast) that I needed, especially during the season of the virus that shall not be named.  Adachi outlines 13 principles that you can pick from to frame different aspects of your life.  “Name what matters” is a recurring theme on The Lazy Genius Podcast, which I’ve been listening to for about a year, and y’all, it’s been a game changer for me and got me through five months of having two working adults and two elementary age children at home.  And that’s only one of the 13 principles.  I read it once, via the electronic ARC, and I wasn’t finished before I pre-ordered the case bound-hardback from my local indie (because a dust jacket is not conducive to being a Lazy Genius according to Adachi – see, she’s brilliant).  If you want to learn more, check out the introduction, first chapter, or my two most favorite recent episodes on school and morning routine.  In case you haven’t noticed, I’m 100% into this kool-aid and I’d love for you to join me.  One note I do want to make for readers, Adachi is a Christian, she’s worked in vocational ministry.  This book isn’t churchy or preachy, but there are references to Christianity interspersed (mostly in the “you are enough” category).    

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how my back to school reading has gone.  The children are mostly settled into a rhythm (and now that I’ve typed that Monday morning will be a struggle bus) and I’m working on finding mine.  I’m trying to figure out how to make working out a priority when I don’t have a class to make (see, I need systems and routine, and to decide once – another Lazy Genius principle).  I’ve also gotten to read five books from my holds list, so that’s another win, despite 77 that remain.  The struggle is real!  

How are you feeling about your reading this month as summer is winding down?

~Nikki 

I never realized how much I truly need a schedule and a system until these strange pandemic times, and even though I have said multiple times to Nikki that I’m not ready to read The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi I should probably move that up on my TBR because today and this past week in general has been a struggle bus for me, too.  I was feeling really good about my reading life until I finished The Silvered Serpents (#2) by Roshani Chokshi on Thursday night with a tolerable respect for Friday’s needs as I was done by approximately 11:30pm. But I haven’t done much reading since then.  Remember how I just said I don’t have a schedule? Bedtime is an adventure every night; I figure if I’m in bed by 11ish and asleep by 12 I’m doing well so that 7am doesn’t feel like it has arrived too soon. 

There aren’t many books this month that I have read that aren’t blog titles! You’ve read our review on The Gilded Wolves and I know you are waiting with much anticipation for us to discuss The Silvered Serpents on Thursday. And then you’re familiar with The Bromance Book Club and Undercover Bromance. One Hot Scot and Badd Ass are two titles from the Heart.Wants.Books. weekend of Romance habit. Jo & Laurie will have to wait until December’s Alcott extravaganza, and well, Bringing Down the Duke is also a contender for a review.  That just leaves me with Becoming Us a book about the enneagram and how we can use it to grow in a Christian marriage. I’m just going to leave my discussion about that to state it didn’t meet expectations but I am not sad I read it. If you’re interested on how the enneagram can bring you and your spouse closer to a fulfilled life together and in Christ, then move this up your TBR. If you’re just looking for information about your enneagram type and how to function in relationship with your spouse’s type, read the second half of the book first as that is the reference information you are looking for.

I’m really looking forward to September’s theme and I hope everyone is ready for virtual book club on Friday the 18th! We are keeping an eye on amazon to see if the kindle version of Serpent and Dove  goes on sale during this week, as Blood and Honey releases on Tuesday and you can preorder for $9.99, however, as of this post our book club title is still holding steady at $10.99. Watch our socials for updates on kindle book price changes!  Y’welcome.

~Ashley

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Sometimes I feel as though this blog is actually just for my readerly therapy, so I do hope you’re getting something out of it too!  Confession time – I read Inspection because it got a ton of hype and I felt like they were telling me to.  I approached this book with a lot of side eye.  I read it while also reading nonfiction (which I don’t read much of), and it came off hold as a total accident (if you’re going to suspend, you need to be careful of when titles come unsuspended, although less so now that we can resuspend on Overdrive within the three day time period), and it got extra side eye because of it.  

I’ll sum up my reaction to this book for you – I am SO MAD there is no sequel expected.  I know this is my usual, but I HAVE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS.  This does not end on a cliffhanger, the ending is solid, but the characters are not settled, not yet.  

What is Inspection even about you ask.  Great question.  Take a group of 26 boys as infants, put them in a tower with a staff of males to take care of them.  Cook, clean, teach, etc.  Doesn’t sound that intriguing?  Wait for it – there are no women.  They don’t know women exist.  At all.  It’s a super creative set up and I was intrigued from the start.  I want to say it sort of feels like The Giver but that’s not it.  It does make you think in similar ways though.  If you want more, the marketing copy has more, but really, this is what you need to know.  

The story is divided up in four sections and the chapters change perspective between J, one of the alphabet boys, and D.A.D., who’s in charge of the boys and the staff.  Slowly you learn about the world of the boys and you learn about D.A.D., and you also meet some of the other boys and staff as well.  I don’t want to say too much about this book, but it’s so well-written and creative.  I will say two things: this would be fabulous for book clubs of either or mixed gender, and there will be a spoilery section later on.  

DO NOT skip the acknowledgements!  Malerman mentions a 150-page idea his wife asked if he’d considered when he was about a week away from finishing a rewrite of the book.  He considered it, called his manager with the idea, and added it.  I am SO curious as to what that idea is (and I 100% have a theory)!  

Now for the spoilers- 

I have so many issues and thoughts about the set up.  If the argument is that the opposite gender distracts, that shouldn’t be a thing until the “delicate years” when they are teenagers, right?  Marilyn and Richard are convinced the experiment is a success because the alphabet boys are working at a collegiate level and the letter girls are working at a post-grad level, but I’m not sure that has anything to do with it (yet at least).  If you take 26 children and put them into an environment together with a staff dedicated to nothing but seeing to their needs and education, will they not generally excel beyond their peers who are living in homes with busy families and attending large schools?  They have a lower child to adult ratio and the adults have little to do besides tend to the children (there is no other work, no social life, and there appears to be little opportunity for anything else) and the children have limited distractions as well beyond their studies and very specifically designed and selected hobbies and leisure activities.  

I was originally amused that the girls were more advanced than the boys, but if you take a group of female adults who were (generally) raised to be nurturing and facilitate the growth and success of others, will they not raise children, of either gender, who are more advanced than those raised by a group of male adults who were raised to succeed in culture and in work, but not necessarily to nurture and raise tiny humans?  I am very aware that I am making broad generalities about the upbringing of largely unknown characters, however, there is a lot to look at with the way genders do (and do not) relate to each other in this book.  

Here’s my issue with the ending and why I desperately want a sequel – what happens when Warren walks into Milwaukee with a large group of 12-year-olds.  Children who will be amazed and awed by so many things they see because their world was so small.  I’m mystified by this.  I’m hopeful, but not very, that if Bird Box can get a sequel six years later, there is potential for Inspection to get one, eventually.

I give Inspection an excited four stars.  I might reread this, and definitely will if a sequel is gifted to the world, and I would LOVE to chat with any readers who have feelings about this book.  I’m also very interested in Malerman’s backlist, and will be paying attention to what else he writes too.  

~Nikki 

I’m going to admit to the universe that I haven’t watched “Bird Box” on Netflix yet, but maybe after I am done writing all about Josh Malerman and his myriad projects, including Inspection, I will settle into watching it in the dark, out in the middle of the scenic Sumner County, with no protection but two very cuddly Belgian Malinois, 4 cats, myriad wild turkeys, and several herd of deer who love corn. Bird Box was his debut novel publication, but, according to his biography on joshmalerman.com, he had written 14 other novels and not shopped one of them to publishers. He did the majority of his novel writing freehand in the passenger seat of a car while touring the country for the Detroit rock band The High Strung, for which he is a singer/songwriter/guitarist. Inspection was published in March of 2019 and it had been on our holds list for quite a while until we were able to pull it off in January of this year. For a little context Bird Box was published in 2014 and released by Netflix in December 2018, so Inspection was his first published work after “Bird Box” became an almost overnight sensation and the book was also a 2019 nominee for the Bram Stoker Award.

It’s a little ironic that during our back to school themed month this title is truly our first (and only) book with an actual school setting. The title for Inspection comes from the daily ‘inspection’ that the boys must endure in order to be sure that they aren’t figuring out the existence of the other gender or biological reproduction in pre-pubescent boys. Near the beginning of the book there is talk about what the boys like to find out in the Orchard, and J admits to keeping the secret of the Fighting Bugs: 

It was one of the many things the Alphabet Boys hoped to see in the Orchard. Rarely was a bug found inside the tower and never two at once. Certainly no two like the two small red ones they observed up close, one mounted upon the back of the other. … But the boys knew better. Nobody had ever seen a Fighting Bug win its fight. Rather, these two, like all the others, would simply go their separate ways when it was over.

How difficult it must be to keep the knowledge of all reproductive biology away from young, precocious, genius-level-educated eleven-year-old humans? It’s insects that are literally teaching these youngsters the birds and the bees, but they don’t know what it’s for because they have no concept for anything except ‘male.’ I questioned as I was reading what happens with the probability that one of these boys starts realizing he is not coded the same way the other boys are? That he begins to have intense ‘feeling’ towards one of the other boys or if he starts realizing that ‘boy’ isn’t the thing that makes him feel complete inside. Without some reference for gay or transgendered, how could the Parenthood take care of the very real needs of their child? These are only SOME of the questions that need answered by the end of Inspection, and I hope you’re intrigued enough by the premise that you decide to read it and then dip into Malerman’s backlist, I know I intend to (probably in the dead of winter and when everything is scary in a pandemic). Nikki covered a lot of my same points in her spoilery section above, so read the book, check out the spoilers, and come at us with your theories, cause I’m ready to deep dive this four star book with everyone, not just my buddy.

What’s a titles you’re ready to deep dive with more than just your buddy?  We’re excited to deep dive with you every six weeks!  Our next Virtual Book Club is Friday, September 18th at 7:30 p.m. CST to discuss  Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin.  Registration is open HERE.  You can also drop a note in the comments or slide into our DMs with a book you want to deep dive.  We need 2021 book club titles, and we’ve been known to schedule a bookish conversation with a limited number of readers from time to time as well. 

~Ashley