Sunday Post (90) / It's Monday, What Are You Reading

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. It's Monday, What Are You Reading is a fun weekly meme now hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, where we share what we've read and reviewed over the past week and what we plan to read next.

Happy Memorial Day! Can't believe we are at the end of May already. I am excited for summer though. I have a feeling it will go by in a flash.

After an unplanned blogging break, I have a lot of reviews to catch up on and hopefully I can use some of this long weekend to do that. I also need to finish my book for my book discussion group and figure out what books to suggest for July. 

This past week was the 40th anniversary of the movie release of Star Wars. Hard to believe isn't it? At my library I showed the movie all day and put together some book displays and had a trivia quiz that patrons could fill out to win a DQ gift card. There were supposed to be cookies to give out too but the bakery did a really bad job decorating them (Darth Vader was especially unrecognizable and moldy looking) so the staff ended up eating them. The children's department also put out some coloring and activity sheets for kids but in spite of our efforts, it wasn't very popular (perhaps because of the timing--right before the last day of school, graduation and Memorial Day weekend). I did see that a few of the books got checked out though. *I love that Princess Leia standee. I will have to take a picture standing next to it. I was surprised that Carrie Fisher wasn't that much taller than me!*

This coming week will be all about finalizing my plans for our summer reading program (still need to buy all the stuff for the grand prize gift basket) and getting ready for my rock painting craft night. So far I've forgotten to submit a purchase order to buy some necessary craft materials and my director is on vacation till the day of the program. I'm sure it'll work out somehow, right? I did buy a StoryHero book sleeve from Becky at Stories and Sweeties to give away as a prize at our Comic Con. It is so cute! If I didn't read almost exclusively on my Kindle, I'd buy one for myself too!

Books read:

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

I thought this was a fun book. Dimple is thrilled that her parents are letting her go to coding camp but what she doesn't know is that Rishi, the son of her parents' friends, will be there too and the families are hoping they will get married. Rishi thinks Dimple is interested in an arranged marriage down the road and she has no idea who he is so of course things don't go smoothly. 

The Vicar's Daughter by Josi S. Kilpack

While there is a romance involved, the story focuses on character development and family relationships first. Cassie hates that she has to wait till her older sister Lenora gets married before she can be presented to society. Lenora is already in her late 20s and she is painfully shy and suffers from anxiety so after several seasons she is still single. Cassie decides to help bolster Lenora's confidence and when Lenora meets a nice gentleman, Cassie starts writing to him in her sister's name. Then she falls in love with him herself. 

The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

I thought this was pretty good. I connected with the main character and thought the author did a good job of portraying what it's like to be a conservative Christian teen.

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon

This is my afternoon book group's selection for May. I didn't really know much about the Hindenburg disaster and I found it to be a fascinating story. There is also a bit of mystery/suspense and the author presents her take on what caused the disaster.

The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Michael's dad is the leader of an anti-immigrant group and at a protest, he sees a beautiful Muslim girl protesting in favor of the refugees. Then Mina shows up at his school as a new student and they are partnered on a project. Gradually he starts to see things from a different perspective as he and Mina spend more time together but then her family's business is targeted and Michael has to decide what he believes.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

One of my coworkers jokingly asked if this book is like Fifty Shades--it is not! Nikki gets a job teaching what she believes will be a creative writing class at the Sikh community center but when she arrives, she realizes that her students (all Punjabi widows) are barely literate. She tries to teach them to read and write anyway but they decide that they want to tell erotic stories which she transcribes even though they could get in serious trouble from the strict men who police the  Sikh community.  Nikki gets to know the women in her class and realizes that though society marginalizes them, they are still full of life and have much to teach her.

Lost and Found Sisters by Jill Shalvis

This is Jill Shalvis's first "women's fiction" novel but I thought it was pretty heavy on the romance with lots of steamy scenes. It wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as Kristan Higgins's novels in that genre.

Books listened to:

Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama by Brian Daley

The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Radio Drama by Brian Daley

I am glad I listened to these radio dramas and I enjoyed the narration of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker but I didn't care for the actress who portrayed Princess Leia. She could be pretty whiny and seemed helpless at times--something Carrie Fisher's Leia never was. I did like the addition of Billy Dee Williams in the second one and I enjoyed the incorporation of sound effects and the movie scores. 

Currently reading:

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

This is my evening book group's May selection. So far I like it. The protagonist worked in advertising for Macy's back in the 1920s and was also a published poet. I do wish the book had better pacing like Flight of Dreams though.

On my TBR pile:

The Summer House by Hannah McKinnon

The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues by Edward Kelsey Moore

In This Moment by Karma Brown

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

New books received:

The Summer House by Hannah McKinnon (for review)

In This Moment by Karma Brown (for review)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (for review)

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn (library book)

Saints for All Occasions by Courtney J. Sullivan (library book)