Whatcha reading?

Summer demands distraction.

Do you ever get embarrassed…

When someone asks you what you are reading? Not because you are actually embarrassed about what you are reading, or perhaps that you aren’t presently reading at all? Even if you are NOT like actually embarrassed because you KNOW that the book at your bedside is fine enough, and that reading at all is a fine practice. Or, on the flip side, that reading is a relationship like any other relationship - romantic, professional, friendship - all of which can benefit from a break now and again.

But that is NOT how it feels, is it? It feels like the person asking has a certain set of ‘reading values’ we are either to match with or fall short against. Well, not that this matters should that be an experience you relate to, don’t. Books, like Paris or Bangkok, are there for visiting whenever we are up for it.

For me, I am always reading like, ALWAYS, so that is not the part where I feel marginally shameful. Instead the ‘what’ of that is where I get wispy and feet shuffling for, this decade's pandemic I took up a particular reading venture: Romance.

So, what is the big deal? Well, there isn’t any kind of “deal” whatsoever, right? I mean why am I not Romance-Reading proud? Or, only secretly so?

Well, I think, and I have thought a good deal about this, is that for a damn-long time I had a pretty strict idea of what kind of reader I ‘could’ be. That there were books that were to be admired and that are, like, more ‘literary' (a/k/a better and or higher value or seriousness) than others. The “others” were silly. Not serious. And, you guessed it, for ‘ladies’.  That is interesting, huh? That the none-masculine nature, for men do not value romance nor have emotions, demarcated books that are ‘feminine’ and thereby - lesser.

You see, I am terribly smart. And I have an MFA (two!), I was raised by a social scientist and academic. I have big thoughts and a robust vocabulary, and thus am to apply this heavy brain to things of equal heft and such volumes are to be held in covers free of even the slightest hint of pink.

There is little to say (unless you are, like, an asshole) that was ‘good’ about the thickest days of COVID. And if I am told to enjoy the ‘space’ and ‘pause’ I’m liable to spit - however, this practice, started to meet the needs of curiosity and comfort, was a  ‘blind date’ for me and many a Romance writer.  I don’t keep a gratitude journal, but if I did… this ‘thank you’ would live there.

Here is where YOU come in: I want some tasty titles from YOU. You down? They need not be steamy, but can they be fun? All genres welcome, topics, presentations (graphic, poetry etc). The ONLY requirement is that said shares make you feel good, offer escape, insight, comfort, and are more ‘important’ than any big headed bozo might think. Surprise me and reply!

Here are a few of mine:

Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Get a life Chole Brown by Talia Hibbert

Dial A for Aunties by  Jesse Q. Sutanto

West Side Love Story by Priscilla Oliveras

Xo,
Tracy Michele