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As someone with anxiety, living through a global pandemic has been an interesting experience. I've run through "worst case scenarios" most days, for as long as I can remember. For someone without anxiety, that may be hard to fathom but on good days, these thoughts are not all-consuming and in some ways it is a reminder that things are better than that. I have had many high anxiety days since the pandemic spread to the US but overall the fear was of things that worry me anyway: losing loved ones, being out of control of my environment, etc. I can say though that never in my wildest worst case scenarios did I imagine the world we were suddenly living it. Suddenly we were confined to our homes and there was no end in sight. One of my biggest fears throughout this pandemic came true as we learned in May that my grandmother, my last remaining grandparent, was beginning to decline. Always one to do things in her own way, she passed away early on her 89th birthday. That day we j

The push to #BlackoutBestsellerList spans this week through Saturday June 20th. I was very excited when I saw this on social media, and immediately sent it to my parents. I then had to think hard about what books I wanted to purchase because I was already about to finish up Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and I realized just how many currently buzzy books are not written by Black voices... so I decided to put together a little list of books to add to my summer reading To Be Read list. Not all of the books on my TBR list are brand new but they're all books that instantly caught my eye and for one reason or another I haven't picked up yet. Many of the authors below have also written several books and I plan to check out their other titles down the line.  This post contains affiliate links. For more details, see my disclosure  here . On my TBR pile for Summer 2020: The Secret Women by Sheila Williams  Buy on Amazon   The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory  Buy on Amazon   Sing, Un