My Summer Reads
- lucysbookishbabble
- Aug 8, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 11, 2020
Picture this, you’re sitting with your legs in the pool, book in hand, and a cold sweet tea right next to you. That was the beginning of my summer, AKA when most of this reading occurred. The rest was spent read while working the Snack Shack at my local pool. Not as glamorous as the pool, but still good reading time. I finished 9 books this summer, which is pretty good for me, but I didn’t do a good job of reading more books outside of my comfort range. Considering the craziness of work, swim, and family my summer has been, I’ll let it slide.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Dimple doesn’t want the life her parents have planned for her, she wants to be a web developer and boss woman, not be stuck in an arranged marriage at eighteen. Rishi loves the idea of an arranged marriage and has been counting down the days until he meets Dimple at web developing summer camp. Told as a multi-narrative novel both Dimple and Rishi try to make their relationship work as well as win WebCon. I tried really hard to enjoy this novel, but I honestly just found Dimple to be really annoying. Menon tried too hard to make her different from the other girls to the extent that seems to be one of her defining traits, and it unintentionally shames side characters for being more basic than Dimple or having more conventional tastes. This made the story hard for me to enjoy, but I did really love Rishi’s character.
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
Due to the Coronavirus, I am laking my usual Big Brother fill this summer, but Nice Try, Jane Sinner was the perfect substitute. Jane flunks out of high school at the end of her senior year and is forced to finish her high school education at the local community college. In efforts to distance herself from her parents and church community, she signs up to be on a college-level knock-off production of Big Brother entitled House of Orange. Oelke writes some of the best dry, witty humor I’ve ever read and the way all the characters are written is just amazing. I guarantee Nice Try, Jane Sinner will make you laugh, cry, and throw it across the room.
My rating: 5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy is hilarious, gossipy, and intricate all at once. The ways he writes so many stories at once and intertwined is pure genius. Rich People Problems is the third installment of the trilogy and my personal favorite of the trilogy. I can’t reveal a lot of the plot without spoiling the first two books, but it mainly follows Astrid Leong, Kitty Pong, and of course Nich and Rachel Chu. I really liked the expansion of Kitty Pong’s character, instead of exploiting her as a “joke” character Kwan did a good job developing her into a well-rounded mother and friend.
My rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Again, but Better by Christine Riccio
I picked up this book at a garage sale, and to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan. Again, but Better follows Shane who has somewhat missed out on the college experience. By following her parents’ wishes she has straight As and is on track to graduate pre-med, but she has no friends or social life. That is until she goes on exchange in London in an attempt to make her life more interesting and pursue her dreams of journalism. I related to Shane a lot at the beginning of the story but eventually found myself to really hate her. Shane throws away a lot of really cool experiences because she is sad or insecure which angered me, and as my biggest book pet peeve she was a total boy chaser. Although Shane totally sucked, the London/Europe setting was a joy to read and really well done.
My rating: 2.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli
Becky Albertalli gave us a little tie-up/college epilogue novella for our favorite Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda characters and I am totally in love. Ready anything by Albertalli feels like a warm hug, and Love, Creekwood was no exclusion. It is fairly short and it is written in email format, so I read it in one afternoon. All the proceeds from book purchases go to The Trevor Project, so pretty please check this title out!!
My rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
For my full-length review:
People Like Us by Dana Mele
Boarding school, lgbtq+ characters, and murder? YES PLEASE! Dana Mele’s People Like Us follows Kay Donovan after she is a witness to a murder/suicide on her boarding school campus. It is a lovely suspenseful read and actually keeps the reading engaged and guessing. Mele’s characters are also very dynamic and full which makes you connect and empathize with them in a way many murder novels fail at. I loved this book and I think fans of One of Us is Lying will definitely enjoy People Like Us.
My rating: 5/5
Goodreads Synopsis:
For my full-length review:
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
I was not expecting a lot from this book, and it definitely exceeded my expectations. Silvera tells the story of Aaron Soto a boy growing up in the Bronx. Aaron has the perfect girlfriend, Genevive, a good group of neighborhood friends, and a loving mother and brother, but things start to change when Thomas moves in down the street. Thomas is a comic lover, funny, hopeful, and Aaron quickly falls for him. Which causes some complications to his seemingly perfect life. I loved this book, but I felt that the memory procedure was somewhat overly complicated and confusing for the reader.
My rating: 4/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
Love, Hate, & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Maya Aziz dreams of going to film school at NYU and being with the all-American football quarterback, but her parents have more traditional dreams for her. Traditional dreams of an arranged-marriage and college close to their suburban Chicago home. After a horrible attack hundreds of miles away, her community starts to turn against Maya and her family, leaving them paranoid and confused. I really fell in love with Maya throughout the story, until the ending. The ending just frustrated and disappointed me. While the ending did not live up to my expectations, the rest of the book was wonderful, Ahmed was able to confront Islamaphobia in a very effective, truthful, and non-aggressive way. I truly felt like I, the reader, was able to take away something about the place our country is in concerning racism and Islamaphobia.
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis:
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
A year after 9/11 Shirin transfers to a new school, again. It’s not her first time. She is sick of being stereotyped because of her skin color and hijab. She is sick of the rude comments and degrading stares, so sick of it she blocks everyone out, she doesn’t give them a chance to be mean. Then she meets Ocean, who despite being the school golden-boy basketball player falls for Shirin. This book was really similar to Love, Hate, and Other Filters but I felt like my reactions were flipped. I found the beginning of this book to be so boring I had to force myself to get through it, but by the end, I never wanted to put it down. I think the romance aspect of A Very Large Expanse of Sea, is much more realistic than Love, Hate, and Other Filters and honestly slightly more enjoyable. While I liked those aspects, I found Shirin to be hard to like, and her character development was really rushed and seemed unnatural to me.
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
Goodreads Synopsis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38720939-a-very-large-expanse-of-sea
I hope you enjoyed reading about the books I enjoyed reading (haha). Anyways until next time! Lucy’s Bookish Babble
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