47. Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

read the BOOK

2021
209 pgs.
MidGrade CRF  in Verse
Finished 5/6/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.59 - 1231 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: 1983 America

First line/s:  TWO

I have two lives.

One that is Indian,

one that is not.

I have two best friends.

One who is Indian,

one who is not.

My comments: Reha is in the eighth grade at a private school, where she has lots of friends.  She spends the weekends with her parents and all sorts of local Indian families that are not the people she knows during the week.  She has a best friend in each "camp."  And I guess the biggest theme of the book is:  where does she belong?  I very much enjoyed learning about the foods and culture of an Indian American family.  Another sad story, though.... There was a lot of talk about music, the music of 1983 to be precise, which is when the story is set.  Ah, such memories!

Goodreads synopsis:  An #ownvoices novel in verse about an Indian American girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother is diagnosed with leukemia.

          Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she’s the only Indian American student, and home, with her family’s traditions and holidays. But Reha’s parents don’t understand why she’s conflicted—they only notice when Reha doesn’t meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means “star” and Punam means “moon”—but they are a universe apart.
          Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick.
          Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can’t stomach the sight of blood, is determined to make her Amma well again. She’ll be the perfect daughter, if it means saving her Amma’s life.

31. The Set Up by Falguni Kothari

listened on Audible Original

narrated by Soneela Nankani and Vikas Adam

Unabridged audio (1:54)
2021
100 pgs. (?)
Adult short story/novella romance
Finished 4/3/2021
Goodreads rating:  3.64 - 646 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary I-forget-where America

What I posted on Goodreads:  Very cute, a good breather in between heavier tomes...

My comments: A very cute story about an Indian grandfather who begs his overworked new-doctor granddaughter to go on three different blind dates, just to please him, with guys he's chosen.  All three dates are actually with the same guy.  Although she is extremely negative about any kind of possibility and will only attempt the first date to please her grandfather, the meeting/s are clever and cte, though not particularly unexpected.  Lots of fun.  Great Indian accents for the older Indian characters.

Goodreads synopsis:  A perfect disaster - or a perfect match? Find out in this heartfelt rom-com novella....

          "Just three dates. That's all I'm asking. One boy shares your sense of humor. Another has similar interests and ideals. The third boy has a helpful heart like yours."
          When Aditi Gupta comes home late from work as a pediatric resident one night and her grandfather offers this pitch, she reluctantly agrees. She's far too busy with med school to be dating, and besides, she dreams of a love for the ages, like her parents, not an arranged marriage. And yet she finds herself agreeing to three dates because she loves her grandfather. All she has to do is make herself utterly ineligible and problem solved!
          And sure enough her first date with the disgustingly handsome and intriguing Krishna Lal goes exactly as planned: not well! But then the second date comes around and Aditi finds that there is more at stake than just three bad dates. Suddenly, her heart is on the line, and maybe her grandfather's, too.

31. Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown

listened to audio/Audible
narrated by Heather Henderson
Unabridged audio (11:00)
2014 NAL
368 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction (based on a real person)
Finished 2/16/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 811 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: 1676+ Massachusetts Bay Colony

First line/s:  "Later, Mary will trace the first signs of the Lord's displeasure back to a hot July morning in 1672 when she pauses on the way to the barn to watch the sun rise burnt orange over the meetinghouse."

My comments:  Historical fiction, based on a factual person, Mary Rowlandson, who was captured by Indians in the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 1670s.  Though loosely based on the facts, we get a good glimpse of King Phillip's War and Puritanism in the New England in this time period.  Such harsh religious fervor!I would've never made it living in this time period without being beheaded.  I enjoyed listening to this, though I think there were many repetitious segments that could have been deleted.  I've been enjoying some well written historical fiction lately, and I hope I'll be able to continue to find more.

Goodreads synopsis:  She suspects that she has changed too much to ever fit easily into English society again. The wilderness has now become her home. She can interpret the cries of birds. She has seen vistas that have stolen away her breath. She has learned to live in a new, free way.... 
          Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1676. Even before Mary Rowlandson is captured by Indians on a winter day of violence and terror, she sometimes found herself in conflict with her rigid Puritan community. Now, her home destroyed, her children lost to her, she has been sold into the service of a powerful woman tribal leader, made a pawn in the on-going bloody struggle between English settlers and native people. Battling cold, hunger, and exhaustion, Mary witnesses harrowing brutality but also unexpected kindness. To her confused surprise, she is drawn to her captors’ open and straightforward way of life, a feeling further complicated by her attraction to a generous, protective English-speaking native known as James Printer. All her life, Mary has been taught to fear God, submit to her husband, and abhor Indians. Now, having lived on the other side of the forest, she begins to question the edicts that have guided her, torn between the life she knew and the wisdom the natives have shown her.
          Based on the compelling true narrative of Mary Rowlandson, Flight of the Sparrow is an evocative tale that transports the reader to a little-known time in early America and explores the real meaning of freedom, faith, and acceptance.

19. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

listened on Audio
read by Myra Syal
Unabridged (10:34)
2017, William Morrow
304 pgs.
Adult CRF, quite racy in places!
Finished  2/19/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.91 - 25,470 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting: Contemporary London

First line/s:  :Why did Mindi want an arranged marriage?"

My comments:  This book IS actually full of exotic stories, as well as insight into the Punjabi/Indian/Sikh culture in contemporary London. Told from the point of view of a modern British young woman of Punjabi heritage, the twists, turns, inter-generational friendships, arranged marriages, and honest peeks into a fascinating culture enthralled me totally. And listening to the lilting accented reader was a special added treat.

Goodreads synopsis:  A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women’s lives at all ages—a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls.
          Every woman has a secret life . . .
          Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a "creative writing" course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.
          Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind.
          As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s "moral police." But when the widows’ gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.

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.