Sundays with Sam is a combination of Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews.
My Week in Review
Happy first Sunday of 2026! I hope this year is your best yet!
I feel like I never have anything to say because I really don't do much (other than read). I worked from home this week which was nice because it's been cold. I am dreading returning to my commute tomorrow. I am also starting my once-a-week drive to work. I have no idea what the traffic patterns are or what time to leave. I most likely will leave the same time I would for the train and see what happens. At my job, almost no one comes to the office on Monday. Maybe this would be a good day to drive???
Monday, I said goodbye to my daughter. It was a nice visit. When she was here, we tried to get some food from LaoWu Authentic Shanghai Dumpling. A bunch of foodie reels popped up on my feed and it's in the next town. Why not, right? The first time we tried, we discovered it's very small, and there were a LOT of people waiting. We ended up going to the mall for Charlie's. We thought we would go before it opened on Sunday. It opened at 11:30 am, and we got there at 11 am to find a line outside. We gave up and ordered online for pickup. What else happened? We had a visit from my aunt and uncle who were up from Georgia visiting their son. I hadn't seen them in a while, so it was a nice catchup, had some port and kraut to welcome in the New Year.
Back to the grind. I have a day of meal prep, laundry, and blog posts ahead of me today.
On the Blog
Let's Discuss
Stacking the Shelves
The last two weeks of the year are always marked with an absence of approvals, but I also resisted downloading any free books this week. So, NOTHING, I added nothing.
Read Last Week
My reading week was slow, but good. My first book of the week was my favorite - Spectacular Things. The combination of elite sports, sisterly bonds, and family drama made this a page turner for me. Borison also charmed me in Charm City, once again, with And Now, Back to You, and a new-to-me author warmed my heart with the fun family-fix-up-Christmas-romance A Very Merry Matchup.
Find all my reviews on Goodreads
Books
- Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein - ★★★★★
- Holly and Nick Hate Christmas by Betsy St. Amant - ★★★★
- The Player Who Stole Christmas by A.J. Wynter - ★★★★
- And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison - ★★★★ 1/2
Audiobooks
- A Very Merry Matchup by Becca Kinzer - ★★★★ 1/2
- A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh - ★★★★
Currently Reading
- Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah
- Checking It Twice by Kendall Ryan
To Be Read
- Twice by Mitch Albom
- Love and Other Brain Experiments by Hannah Brohm
- Still Into You by Erin Connor
Let us know in the comments!
Haha, I never have anything to say in my Sunday Posts either. I didn't even write one this week because everything is always the same! I hope you have a good week.
ReplyDeleteI guess at least nothing bad happened to us, right?
DeleteWow! That's a popular restaurant if you show up a half hour before it opens on a Sunday and there's already a line. Hopefully you'll get to try it one day, but I wouldn't want to wait that long unless I went prepared for the wait ahead of time and just planned to make it part of the experience. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was funny because they spoke to my daughter in Chinese, too. Usually people think she is hispanic and speak Spanish to her. The food was great, but I would love to dine in.
DeleteThat LaoWu place must be incredible to always have such lines! I hope one day you will get to eat their dumpling and won't be disappointed Sam! Also Monday might be a good choice as in our country traffic is the heaviest on Tuesday and Thursday.
ReplyDeleteWe think maybe we will try going at dinner time since it's a Dim Sum place. Brunch is the time those places are busy. We did take out, and the food was fantastic.
DeleteSounds like you had a nice visit with family. Sounds like that place has good food if they having so many people going to it.
ReplyDeleteThe food was great. I would love to dine in and try dishes that I don't think travel well.
DeleteI'm glad your daughter was able to visit! Bummer about the one restaurant being crazy crowded. I don't have the patience when I'm hungry, lol.
ReplyDeleteI want to read more B.K. Borison books! I've heard such good things them and even bought Good Spirits at the store (the sprayed edges are lovely!).
I will also be catching up on house work today before getting back to our regularly scheduled activities tomorrow. I'm going to miss all this time I had to read and blog.
The first day we went, my daughter was hangry, so we went straight to the mall for food. The other day, we planned to wait. I adored Borison's Lovelight series, and so far, the three books released since have been just as good.
DeleteSpending your time reading isn't too bad of a way to be spending your time :) Honestly, I don't have much else going on either haha
ReplyDeleteHA! You have kids to care for, I have old people.
DeleteI'm glad you got to taste the food, even though you had to order and eat at home. I'm glad you had a good visit with your daughter. I absolutely loved the panda/dog sledding video, I watched it twice. You found some Christmas books that I haven't read this year which is tough as I did read or listen to 49 of them. Happy New Year, Sam.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that pup precious. I don't think I ever had a pet that had star quality like these pets these days. That is a LOT of holiday books. I get a lot of them through Hoopla and they tend to be smaller press or indies.
Delete