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! I hope everyone had a good week. I know some of you are football fan. May your desired team do well today.
As I write this, we are enjoying some unseasonable temperatures. The kids are out playing in the lot by me, enjoying the weather before we return to normal February weather. I had Tuesday off to go to the eye doctor. We are trying a new dry eye medication. It's not covered by my insurance, but there's a program I can get it through for $90 per month. Very expensive. One month of the medication will last for 2 months, but still. I may ask if we can try another medication that is covered (which would only cost me $100 for the whole year) when I go back next month.
I also went to the dealership to talk about my car. They were calling people who still had equity in their vehicles. My car had 4700 miles after three years. It's was a very gently used car. I ended up with a 2024 Forrester that day. I kept thinking about getting something different, but I like the Forrester. This is my 4th (or 5th?) one. I got the Starlink again, so I can do the remote start and now I can set the climate control from the app, too. I was pretty excited about it.
On the Blog
Let's Discuss
Stacking the Shelves
So much love this week! I always feel like this in the beginning of the year after the drought of the end of the year. I was very excited to get an invite to Meg Shaffer's new book. I LOVED The Wishing Game, and its follow-up sounds equally enchanting. Summertime Punchline sounds fun, and it's set in my home state. You would be surprised how hard it is for me to check NJ off my challenge.
Netgalley/Edelweiss
- Summertime Punchline by Betty Corrello
Invites
- Director's Cut by Carlyn Greenwald
- The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
- The Enchanting Case of Spirits by Melissa Holtz
- The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
- Forgotten on Sunday by Valerie Perrin
Purchased/Free
- Playing Dane by Hannah Gray (free)
- Silver Brewer by L.B. Dunbar (free)
- Meet Me on Christmas Eve by Alana Highbury (free)
Read Last Week
My favorite of the week was a book by a new-to-me author. I cannot express how lovely and wonderful The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley was. It reminded me a bit of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill where the main character was also a bit prickly. I loved the way the list was used to help Isadora connect with others and learn to appreciate herself. Her found family was outstanding, and it was just one of those stories that left me smiling my face off. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something feel-good.
Find all my reviews on Goodreads
Books
- The Bookbinder's Guide to Love by Katherine Garbera - ★★★★
- The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh - ★★★★★
- My Darling Bride by Ilsa Madden Mills - ★★★★
- The Trail of Lost Hearts by Tracy Garvis Graves - ★★★★ 1/2
- The Good, the Bad, and the Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto - ★★★★ 1/2
Audiobooks
- The Forever Farmhouse by Lee Tobin McClain - ★★★★
Currently Reading
Dolly Alderton is new to me. I wasn't sure if this was going to be "literary". Those are hit or miss for me, but Good Material is quite wonderful. I am enjoying Andy's post breakup journey while also rooting for him to heal, move on, and get his life together.
I am happy to be back in the world of The Brothers Hawthorne. The focus is primarily Grayson and Jameson, but the whole gang is there in some capacity, so I am happy.
- Good Material by Dolly Alderton
- The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (audiobook)
To Be Read
- A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
- Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez
- The Messy Life of Jane Tanner by Brenda Novak
- The Happiness Blueprint by Ally Zetterburg
Let us know in the comments!
That's awesome about the car. We had some unseasonable weather this week too we actually had a thunderstorm! In Michigan in February! Usually too cold for those.
ReplyDeleteThe Mike Chen book I read was fantaatic.
I welcome the unseasonable weather with open arms. I always see jokes about false spring in the midwest. Does this not apply to MI? I have heard great things about Chen's books (Shannon has reviewed a few). So far, I am enjoying this. He had a great wit, and I like his storytelling style.
DeleteWE do get false starts but not usually a thunderstorm in Feb! It did get almost to 60 though...
DeleteYay - I hope you love your car! Good luck with the eye medicine. Hopefully the cheaper one will work. It's so miserable to have eye trouble.
ReplyDeleteMy dry eye is one of the reasons I don't drive much. I have double vision and get nervous driving too far. We'll see if the doctor agrees.
DeleteWe've been having very warm weather the past few days. 80 this weekend - ugh. I'm not ready. I hope the new medication works. My mom has been having eye issues. Dry eyes plus she's having cataract surgery this week. She keeps saying she doesn't know why the surgery won't help the dry eyes no matter how many times she's told that it's two separate issues. (beats my head against the wall) Hooray for the new car!!
ReplyDeleteI have had dry eye since my 20s. It's great to have the eyes of an 80 year old - LOL! I hope mom's surgery goes well. My mom is getting hers done in a week or two. She only has the one eye, so she is paying out of pocket for the laser procedure. You are correct. The cataract has nothing to due with tear/oil production, but mom will be able to see better after it's done.
DeleteCongrats on the car, but ouch about the eye medicine. That's a lot of money. I hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThe newer medications are always not covered, and I know $90/month is a deal. Those dry eye medications are over $1000/month, but it's still expensive for me.
DeleteI listened to Worst Wingman Ever last week and absolutely loved it! The weather yesterday was so nice; we took Henry to a new park and he already wants to go back. We will probably have to invest in a new car this year for Tom, and we are looking at Subarus.
ReplyDeleteIt was really nice on Friday by me. Much sunnier. I did like the temperature, and it's a nice little opportunity for the kids to get outside. He's getting so big and you can have so much fun with Henry. I love my Subaru. I got it after my Jeep kept breaking down. I needed something dependable, and they have been great. I got my mom and sister to switch, too.
DeleteI can set climate control from my app too and that's so handy! Also the weather is extremely mild here too!
ReplyDeleteI live in an apartment and my car is parked pretty far away. It's nice to be able to get it warm and not have to scrape.It's the best $100 I have spent.
DeleteSometimes I feel like I drive 4000 miles in a month (I don't but it feels like it). St. Louis is not set up for public transportation and neither of my jobs are really close to my house. Congrats on the new car! I hope that you have a wonderful week!
ReplyDeleteMost people drive a lot for work. Taking that out of the equation, I save a lot of miles. It's only 2 miles to the train station.
DeleteLooks like you have some cause to celebrate with receiving a new car. I have been debating whether or not to get one, I don't miss the loan payment lol But mine is five years old so the mileage is getting up there. I will need to check out your review of that Ilsa Madden Mills, I really enjoy her stuff.
ReplyDeleteI get a new car every three years, and this one is so similar to the last one. There doesn't seem to be too many new features since 2021. Madden-Mills always hits the spot. I liked the heroine so much, and there's a book store. The hero grew on me.
DeleteCongrats on the new car! That's so exciting!
ReplyDeleteNow I can worry about someone dinging me all the time.
DeleteWe've had much warmer weather here, with all of our poor frozen plants starting to put out some new growth. I hope the worst of the winter is over so they have a fighting chance!
ReplyDeleteIt's up and down here. It was sunny and mid 50s Friday, pretty warm all weekend, and tonight we are supposed to get a snow storm. You new know what you are going to get. Hope the plants recover from winter. I may not, lol
DeleteOh, I love watching bird mating dances! They do some of the neatest things, and some have such colorful plumage that really adds to the flare. Glad to see you enjoyed Sutanto's book. I'll be picking it up at some point this year.
ReplyDeleteI just thought he was so funky. I have loved the Aunties. Sometimes, you are in the mood for an over the top caper, and those books were done well and tons of fun for me
DeleteWe've had a couple of clear days after so much rain, but it's been cold. I hope you enjoy your nicer weather before regular February temps come back! I hope your new eye meds work out. Congrats on getting a new car. Forrester is Subaru? A lot have of people have Subaru up her. We need a new car, but we've been holding off. So happy you loved Isadora! The story filled me with joy, too! I have that Tracey Garvis Gray so I'm happy to see you enjoyed it and I hope to get to Jane Tanner at some point.
ReplyDeleteMother nature said HA! It's snowing a lot right now, but they let us work from home which is a relief. The Graves book was good. It was full of surprises and ultimately such an incredible journey for both characters, but especially the heroine.
DeleteCongrats on the new car! I have a Subaru Forester as well and I think I'm on my fourth Subaru overall. I just love their cars.
ReplyDeleteI have had good luck with them. No complaints
DeleteThat medication sure is expensive. I hope it's worth it at least!
ReplyDeleteI don't drive so I can't get too excited about your new car, but what counts is that YOU are. Now I'm picturing you doing a happy dance like that bird's 😂.
It's so expensive, and if it was life-or-death type medication, I wouldn't even hesitate, but there are other medications that are covered by my insurance. I don't have the skills that bird does.
Delete