My best friend, Amy, and I recently discovered the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. We’re obsessed. I recommended the series to Amy based on a book tuber’s review. At the time, I was reading This Story Might Save Your Life (by Tiffany Crum) so I couldn’t start the Unselected Journals at the same time Amy did. She signed up for Audible in order to listen to the first book while waiting on the physical copies of books 2 and 3 to be returned to the public library where she had placed the entire series on hold. Amy refuses to read a Kindle despite my encouragement.

As soon as I wrapped up TSMSYL, I bought book 1 of the Brower series on Kindle and zipped through it, captivated by the quirky characters and brilliant protagonist.

“I love Young Hawkes,” I texted Amy last night. “I hate Cousin Archibald.”

“I want to punch Cousin Archibald,” Amy texted back.

She hearted my comment about the unconventional vicar, Young Hawkes.

Today, Amy texted me to say she was laughing out loud while reading book 4.

“Where are you?” she asked. I knew she meant where was I in the series, not where I was located.

“I’m still on book 2,” I texted back. “I’m babysitting today. I’ll catch up this evening.”

“We’ve got to discuss how book 4 reminds me of Gilmore Girls,” she texted. Even though the books are set in London in 1883, I can still see where she’s going with her comparison.

It’s always more fun when the two of us buddy read. Reading is even more rewarding when we find a stand-alone book or series that we both love with equal fervor. Recently, the two of us have given four thumbs up to Elly Griffiths’s Ruth Galloway series, Susan Fletcher’s The Night in Question and The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans.

While reading, we screen-shot passages and text each other. We quote parts of the books in birthday cards to one another. We laugh at the same parts, cry at the same parts, discuss plot points and character development; and when we reach the end, we scramble together to find another book to which we can both devote our time and attention.

We’ve been buddy reading since the beginning of our friendship 38 years ago (as college freshmen). While I’m writing, I just saw a text from Amy, “I started book 5; but I’m on hold still for book 6. It’ll take forever…”

I’d better wrap up this slice so I can try to catch up!