Sundays with Sam is a combination of Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews.
My Week in Review
Happy Sunday! Can you believe it the last Sunday of May? This month flew by. I am currently enjoying a three day weekend. I have zero plans, but I am ok with that. I have a lot of catching up to do since I was out of town last week.
Last Sunday was lovely. I really enjoyed my daughters show. I cried when I saw her dance in one of her friend's pieces. It was a beautiful piece, and it's just so wonderful to see her still dancing. Her piece was great too. Her dance was set to Premonitions by VAULTS. It was very "her", and I could spot her style from a mile away.
Monday, we went to Yardbird. This place is all over instagram, and the food was good, but I though it was a bit over priced. I was frustrated too when I ordered my drink. This place has a full bar, and of course, I assumed I would be getting a fountain soda. WRONG! I find all these places trying to be fancy serve soda in glass bottles. It was the smallest bottle of diet Coke I have ever seen, and it was $5. Live and learn.
My trip to the airport was rather uneventful which was nice after the last time that a man dropped his pants on the bus. In fact, the bus and the train were both rather empty which was nice. Plane took off, no issue, but when we landed, they had no gate for us in Newark. We sat on the plane for 40 minutes waiting for another plane to vacate our gate. It worked out since my father was running late.
Other than that, went to work for the rest of the week. It was casual. Friday was a ghost town at work. There was almost no one in the office. I regretted not doing my work from home day that day because management gave us the go ahead to leave an hour early. Since I take the shuttle to the train station, I could leave an hour earlier as I take the first shuttle out. Boo!
On the Blog
- Monday: #AmReading - Our Place on This Island, A Love Catastrophe
- Tuesday: Nutshells - The Bookshop of Yesterdays, A Little Hope
- Wednesday: #AmReading - Just My Type, The Love of My Life
- Thursday: Nutshells - You Were There Too, The Plus One
- Friday: Discussion - My Self-Hosted Experience
- Saturday: #AmReading - The Somerset Girls, Everything After
Let's Discuss
- Julie and Lynn talk tropes
- AJ shares what makes her read a book
- Lila has thoughts about villains and diversity
Stacking the Shelves
I am getting some interesting invites from publicists I have never interacted with before. I am always pleased by this. I am leaning towards downloading the James book since I liked her last book. I adore Singh's contemporaries, but I don't really read books like the Psy-Changling books. I have yet to read Armas because her other books have seemed bloated with their high page count. This one is a normal length, so it's a possibility.
Netgalley/Edelweiss
- The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove by Karen Hawkins
Invites
- Resonance Surge by Nalini Singh
- The Deja Glitch by Holly James
- The Long Game by Elena Armas
Free
Read Last Week
I am always happy when I read my weekly TBR with no DNFs, so this was a very good read. Not only did I have no DNFs, I had two 5-star books. CLo continues to make me happy. I really adored The True Love Experiment. I also loved Kismet. I feel like some readers will take issue with how messy the main character is, but she was going through some stuff. Though I was frustrated with her at times, I pleased with her personal journey.
Find all my reviews on Goodreads
Books
- The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren - ★★★★★
- The Half of It by Juliette Fey - ★★★★
- Practice Make Perfect by Sarah Adams - ★★★★
- Kismet by Becky Chalsen - ★★★★★
- A Little Too Close by Rebecca Yarros - ★★★★
Currently Reading
My loan for Oona came though. I had had my eye on this for a while and finally decided to give it a go when I saw a solid review from Ali. The book has a very interesting premise. Oona travels through time living her life out of order. When the story starts, she's 20 on the inside but living her 51st year. The time jumps take me through time, and I love all the pop culture references as I am familiar with all these eras.
I had to pause the Carr book (which is really good) because I never checked off my keyword challenge for May. I slotted books, but oops, didn't read them. I found Of Spice and Men which fits for both my word challenges. It's a cozy mystery by a new-to-me author, and so far, so good.
- Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
- Of Spice and Men by Sarah Fox
- The Summer That Made Us by Robyn Carr
To Be Read
- Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler
- Summer Stage by Meg Mitchell Moore
- You with a View by Jessica Joyce
- Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Let us know in the comments!
I'm happy the trip to see your daughter went so well!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Always a good time
DeleteYour comment about coke in a glass bottle had me laughing Sam! In Europe we only get glass bottles at restaurants. there is no fountain and we found that in the US so weird! Also the possibility to refill all the time was mind blowing to us. I am glad that you had a great time with your daughter!
ReplyDeleteI like fountain soda and look forward to it when I eat out. The bigger issue was the price for what I got. It was maybe 6 oz. Small. And $5
DeleteI agree, May has flown by. No plans for the long weekend here, here - especially since the husband is sick. We were going to cook out burgers or steaks but all he wants is chicken noodle soup. lol I got a smile at you talking about your daughter's performance. :) I have the audio of Practice Makes Perfect on hold and should have it fairly soon.
ReplyDeletePoor hubs! I hope you enjoy your trip back to Rome. I was a big fan of the pairing in Practice Makes Perfect
DeleteAww, glad you had a great trip! LOL, that's why I always order just water at restaurants. Even fountain sodas with refills seem overpriced. Tom always gets one, so I just drink from his.
ReplyDeleteI order water when I know the fountain soda is not good or they don't have fountain soda, but I had never eaten there before.
DeleteI agree it's hard to believe this is the last weekend in May! Hopefully you're enjoying Oona Out of Order; I thought it was pretty good :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVED Oona! Seeing NYC through all those different years was a thrill (since I grew up there), and it was thought provoking. I was left thinking about so many things. A great read for me
DeleteI am so glad that you had a good trip. It seems like drinks are always overpriced at trendy places. I am cheap so I always just get water :) I loved Hello Stranger! I hope that you have a wonderful week.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to the Center book. Her books are always great for me. All I drink at home is water. It's nice to have a flavored beverage when I to out. The diet Coke is my treat.
DeleteSome of those places that are overpriced seem to do things like that. I'd rather go to some little hole in the wall greasy diner. lol
ReplyDeleteIt goes with the area of the city it was in. At least we tried it and know what it's like.
DeleteDrinks are always overpriced no matter where you go. Unless its a special occasion I tend to stick with water or iced tea. oooh glad you got a invite to that Nalini Singh. Love her books. No matter what she writes. If I were you, I would familiarize yourself with the world of the psy changelings but its a great book, I just read it and loved it!
ReplyDeleteI am not a big paranormal/fantasy reader, but it's always nice to be invited to read a book. Makes me feel like a worthy blogger LOL
DeleteMay has definitely flown by. I can't believe my son is already out of school for the year. I'm glad to hear that your trip went so well and that you had so many wonderful reads this month. I hope June is equally good to you!
ReplyDeleteSchools out. Hope you have lots of fun plans for the summer.
Delete"Marked slices of a tree" LMAO
ReplyDeleteI laughed so hard
Delete