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Here‘s my review for a book I won from Bookish First.

I started this book yesterday after my #libraryhold for it came in on the Libby app. It‘s good so far. This is another book I‘m reviewing for Bookish First. I‘m happy that I‘m almost finished reviewing the books that I won from Bookish First. Eventually, I would like to read the physical ARCs that I have on my bookshelf. I have a lot of them. Every time I look at them, I feel guilty that I didn‘t read them sooner.

Yay! My #libraryhold just came in. The wait time for this book was 2 weeks but I got it early. I‘m almost finished listening to Murder Mile by Lynda La Plante so this is the next book I want to read. I have to review this book for Bookish First because I won a physical ARC of this book.

This book is the authors debut and it‘s really good. Raj is on the verge of getting kicked off his elite tennis club after saying something beyond cringey and inappropriate while interviewing prospective members. Only so many people could pull off writing the protagonist‘s “faux pas” as well as Pandya does. Raj is a fully fleshed out, woeful character that I can‘t help but root for.

Overall I liked the concept, but it could have been better written. The beginning in particular tends to lean heavily towards telling rather than showing, but once I got through the first 3rd or so, it really picked up and I became much more interested in the plot.

Rajesh Bhatt, an Eastern Indian, and the only person of color at his tennis club now sits on the selection committee for new members. While interviewing a Black couple he says the dumbest racial thing he can say while trying to connect with them. In the same week he gets labeled as anti-Western, anti-American after he teaches an anthropology class. Despite his flaws I felt very empathetic to Raj. This was a book about belonging and about how👇🏼

In an attempt at solidarity with another POC, Raj ends up instead using a racial slur. His week then further devolves into crisis at work as racial prejudice is directed at him. I enjoyed this book and felt it did a good job of reflecting the nuance of people and how actions can be seen differently depending on the lens through which they are viewed. The MC is imperfect and that feels real.

The story and writing were good enough. But, I found this one problematic. The main character endured racism as a brown man but his careless racist comment to a black man and his subsequent attitude of I can‘t be racist because I‘m brown feels not right to me.

Watching authors on Zoom lately. Tonight included some new ones for me . Sameer Pandya read from his new book (postponed pub date until July) and made it sound really good.

Have you made any creative recipes lately? We‘re definitely in a place where we need to compromise with what we have on hand, right? I have a favorite oatmeal muffin recipe but I didn‘t have all the ingredients I needed. Fortunately, I found a comparable recipe online that I did have ingredients for! We have to celebrate the small things for sure right now!

Continued ⬇️