1. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Mendon

read on my iPhone
2017, Simon Pulse
380 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 1/1/2018
Goodreads rating: 3.8 - 16,390 ratings
My rating: 3 (and that's generous because it was fun)
Setting: Contemporary San Francisco

First line/s: "Dimple couldn't stop smiling.  It was like two invisible puppeteers, standing stage left and stage right were yanking on strings to pull up the corners of her mouth."

My comments:  Other reviewers have called this book "cute" and "adorable."  I agree....it was a fun, easy, predictable read.  I raced through it and, for the most part, enjoyed it.  There were no surprises, lots of stereotypes, and - spoiler, spoiler! - a feel-good ending.  I was expecting something a little meatier, so in that way I was disappointed.  And there were lots of things that bugged me, the biggest being the cover.  What a ripoff!  Dimple wears big, clunky glasses all through the novel.  She only takes them off one teeny, tiny, short time.  As a (proud) glasses-wearer this really ticked me off.  It was a fun read to end/start the year, although I feel my rating is a bit generous.

Goodreads synopsis: Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
          Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
          The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
          Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

MOVIE - Mustang

Nominated for Best Foreign Film, 2016 Academy Awards
PG-13

Wide release 11/20/15

Viewed 1/19/16 at the Loft with Sheila

RT Critic: 97   Audience:  89
Critic's Consensus:  Mustang delivers a bracing -- and thoroughly timely -- message whose power is further bolstered by the efforts of a stellar ensemble cast.

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven (a female!)

CG Cinema (at the end of the credits it said FRANCE, GERMANY, TURKEY

In Turkish with subtitles

Actors were AMAZING!

My comments:  It took place in Turkey and was in Turkish.  It told a great (though sad) story.  The acting was superb.  Getting a chance to glimpse a little bit Turkey once again was fantastic.  Watching it with a friend: extra special.  Loved this movie!

RT Summary:  Early summer in a village in Northern Turkey. Five free-spirited teenaged sisters splash about on the beach with their male classmates. Though their games are merely innocent fun, a neighbor passes by and reports what she considers to be illicit behavior to the girls' family. The family overreacts, removing all "instruments of corruption," like cell phones and computers, and essentially imprisoning the girls, subjecting them to endless lessons in housework in preparation for them to become brides. As the eldest sisters are married off, the younger ones bond together to avoid the same fate. The fierce love between them empowers them to rebel and chase a future where they can determine their own lives in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's debut, a powerful portrait of female empowerment.