The Best Lessons Come Frequently
I’ve been doing a lot of learning during what I’m calling “The Pandemic Years” (2020-2022). I was excited to read today’s Bloganuary prompt about lessons. My mind started reeling about which lesson to divulge, but I paused on the word recently. There are many things I’ve discovered about both myself and the world in the past few years, but I’ll hit on one that happened today: I really really love Beverly Jenkins.
In 2022, I read a whopping 103 books. Reading those books truly solidified that I will be reading a lot for the rest of my life. Reading brings me a ton of joy and peace; it’s not something I want to put on the back burner (another great lesson). One of my book resolutions this year is to read more of the Romance Writing Greats. This idea came to me a couple years ago when I first heard about Beverly Jenkins, a Black author writing love stories that featured Black people. She is prolific, and she’s been doing this a loooong time. Realizing how much I loved romance and the fact that I hadn’t read a single one of her books (or others like Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, Julia Quinn and so many more) felt like a travesty. This month I started righting my wrongs.
After some extensive research (googling which book to start with, ending up on these sites), I started my foray into Beverly Jenkins novels with Indigo. I finished the book in three days. Yesterday, I started Destiny’s Embrace, and I finished this morning. It’s safe to say I’m obsessed.
A great thing about reading an author with older works, (Indigo was published the year after I was born) is that so far I haven’t had to place a hold on either book. I just searched the title and checked out the book on Libby. Not only that, but she has SO many books available. Between Ms. Jenkins, my reading challenges, and my book clubs, I have a great year of reading ahead!