What I’m Reading (5.30.22)

Hello, friends! Happy Monday. It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S., a day for us to honor the fallen soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I have complicated feelings about patriotism and it’s hard to be proud of this country—both its past and its present—but I do believe in honoring our military, paying homage to those who have lost their lives, and striving to make this country better. That’s all we can do, right?

Changing gears dramatically, it’s time for some book reviews! I have two four-star reads for you guys today, so it was a pretty good reading week for me.

Cream and Punishment by Susannah Nix (★★★★☆)

This romance was pure fun! I really enjoyed it, especially the character arcs of both Lucy and Tanner. In this novel, Lucy and Tanner are former partners; Lucy broke up with him after Tanner said the L-word way too early in their relationship (in her mind, at least). They’re both trying to move on when Tanner gets a job in the content marketing department of his family’s (incredibly successful) ice cream business. The team lead of that department? Lucy. Eeks! Throughout the novel, we find out why Lucy broke up with Tanner and the really sad home life she has. Her whole goal is to get a promotion so that she can finally move out of her mom’s house and not be the sole provider/caretaker/maid/etc for her brother and mom. I found Lucy’s incessant need to take care of everyone around her to be relatable; it can be so, so hard to establish boundaries with family members because they’re family and shouldn’t you do everything in your power for them? At times, I just wanted to shake her, though, because her mom was being so blatantly manipulative and I wanted Lucy to develop a goddamn backbone. (I also felt like Lucy’s mom lacked a bit of nuance; it was sometimes hard to understand why Lucy felt such a strong need to take care of her when her mom was just so awful to her all the time.) Eventually, though, Lucy learns to stand up to her mom and find her own happiness with Tanner. (Tanner had his own internal demons to deal with, although I found the way things turned out in the end for him to be a little too picture perfect.) A good, easy, unremarkable romance novel!

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon (★★★★☆)

I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel, which is based on the real story of the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. In this novel, the author reimagines the people and their experiences onboard the Hindenburg airship as well as what may have happened to cause the explosion that left 35 people dead. (To this day, a specific cause has never been identified, although many theories abound.) The novel brings together the stories of five specific people on the Hindenburg: the journalist who is on the airship with her husband, the stewardess who has a secret, the cabin boy who is just trying to help his family, the navigator who is in love with the stewardess, and the American who may not be exactly who he seems. While survivors of the disaster are quick to say that their time onboard was uneventful, Ariel Lawhon thinks differently. How can people spending three days in close quarters have such an uneventful flight? I thought this novel was such an easy one to sink into. I loved getting to know all of the different characters, and I particularly enjoyed the way the author structured the novel—especially how the sections started getting shorter and shorter in the hours leading up to the explosion, giving the novel a quickened pace. I spent a lot of time looking up zeppelins (which is the type of aircraft that the Hindenburg was; in today’s terms, it’s essentially a blimp) and what the interior of a Hindenburg class of aircraft looked like. (It reminded me a lot of a cruise ship… but in the air! Can you imagine?!) All in all, a really easy, interesting read that taught me a lot about this time period from an entirely different angle. (This novel takes place two years before the official start of WWII, but Nazism and propaganda are very much discussed, especially considering the Hindenburg had swastikas all over it.)

What I’m Reading This Week

• Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly (print) – I’m a little more than 50 pages into this queer romance and I’m very much enjoying it. The setting for this novel is a cooking reality show and it makes me want to binge past seasons of Masterchef right now!
• Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett (e-book) – I’ve read just 50 pages of this essay collection and I’m already highlighting the hell out of it. Michael Bennett is a former NFL defensive end and I’m really looking forward to his views on the NFL and their approach to racial justice.
• Pony by R.J. Palacio (audio) – Once I come off the holds list for this book (which should be within the next few days), I’m going to start it on audio. It gets excellent reviews, so I’m looking forward to starting it!

What are you reading?