Ramya's Bookshelf..

The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik

2011-04-04T11:17:00.000-04:00

Title: The Good Daughter – A memoir of my mother’s hidden life

Author: Jasmin Darznik
Genre: Memoir
My Rating: 4 Stars

After her father’s death, Jasmin Darznik comes across an old photograph – it is a wedding day picture of her mom, Lili. But, with shock, Jasmin realizes that this picture is very different from the one that she’s seen hanging in the various houses she’s been in. For one, Lili is much younger and secondly, the man in the picture – not her dad!

Jasmin had not realized that her mom had a history that she was not aware of. And when she initially questioned her mom – all that she got in response was silence.

Later, however, Lili sent her a series of audio tapes in which she describes her childhood in Iran, her first wedding and her life before she immigrated to America. Darznik has transformed the story in those tapes in to a fabulous book – The Good Daughter.

Having an Iranian friend and listening to tidbits of her life in Iran before the Islamic Revolution made me thirsty to read more and gain more knowledge about Iran and its culture. I read a few Iranian-American memoirs like Funny in Farsi by Firozeh Dumas and Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni. But, “The Good Daughter” stands out amidst other Iranian-American memoirs. For one, it is much richer in the details of life in Iran before and during the revolution. And while the others that I have read focus on dealing with being Iranian in America, Jasmin’s book focuses entirely on her mother’s life and life in Iran and her struggles of fitting in after moving to America.

The Iranian customs, traditions and lifestyles are woven seamlessly in to the story and without really realizing it, you get a complete Iran 101! Lili’s history is so interesting that the book almost feels like a fiction novel. I had to stop and remind myself that this was a true life story and that Lili was an actual person!

One thing that I expected from this book even before I started reading it was good writing. Jasmin is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Washington and Lee University and I knew that her novel had to been well written. I was not disappointed. The Good Daughter is very well written and a joy to read!

The only issue that I had with the book was the title and it’s relation to the book. The title “The Good Daughter” refers to the daughter that Lili left behind in Iran; her daughter from her first marriage; the daughter she was forced to abandon. Being the title character, I expected to read a lot more about Sara and Jasmin’s relationship with her. But that was not the case. Sara was a part of the book, but only a small part and I didn’t think she was “title-worthy”. That’s just my opinion.

And of course, I would have loved to see pictures – at least the photo of Lili’s first wedding; the discovery of which made this book possible.

But apart from that, all other aspects of this book are so fantastic that it definitely makes a wonderful read. After the beginning of each chapter, Jasmin includes a line or two from Lili’s tapes. Those lines were my favorite part of the book. Reading those lines, in Lili’s own words, made her more real to me.

I would definitely recommend this book. I totally enjoyed reading this book and I am sure everyone else will as well!

A Palace in the old village - Tahar Ben Jelloun

2011-02-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

Title – A palace in the old village

Author – Tahar Ben Jelloun
Translator – Linda Coverdale
ISBN - 9780143118473
Pages – 192
Rating - 4 Stars

Tahar Ben Jelloun is considered “Morocco’s greatest living author”. Although his first language is Arabic, all his literary works are in French. This particular book of his is his latest and I read the translated version. “A palace in the old village” is the story of Mohammed. He is an immigrant in France. He has lived and worked in France for almost 40 years but never considers it home. Home, for him, will always be the village that he grew up in. However, as expected, this is not the case with his children. They consider France home and do not share their dad’s fascination for the old village in Morocco.

After leading a rather monotonous 40 odd years in France, Mohammad suddenly has to face his biggest fear – retirement. Work in the automobile factory has been the only constant thing in his life. He hardly speaks to his wife and barely understands his children, their modern views and their irritation with his old-world values. Retirement, according to him, is almost synonymous with death. It is the point where life stops.

However, to win the battle against his retirement, Mohammed decides to focus on a goal – building a house in the old village and settling there with his entire family. He moves back to Morocco and, almost obsessively, starts construction on what will be the biggest and most opulent house in the village. And once the construction of the house is over, he begins to wait – wait for the day when all his children will return to the village to live in the palace he has built for them.

The penguin website describes the book as follows:

A Palace in the Old Village is not a Zolaesque exposé of the failings of French society. Rather, it is an intimate and affecting portrait of an immigrant facing retirement and the concomitant problems of identity it brings with it.

I definitely couldn’t describe it better.

For me, the book is divided in to two sections. The first section covers approximately the first eight chapters that takes place in a single evening. Mohammed sits down to pray and through his thoughts we learn everything about his life until now and his views on religion, work, family, etc. The second part is the rest of the book – which suddenly becomes very fast paced. This is the part where Mohammad decides to do something about his retirement and moves back to Morocco. Chronology is the not the only factor separating the two sections. Retirement brings about a change in Mohammed as well and it almost feels like you are reading about two different people in the two different sections. The Mohammed before retirement is a confident and his thought process is clear. He is a devout Muslim and faith plays a big role in his life. He has made the trip to Mecca and follows the teachings of his religion. But, at the same time, his views are “moderate”. He criticizes the views of jihadist imams. He feels secure in his role as the provider for the family. He doesn’t interact too much with his children and though he knows that they don’t understand him and his values, this doesn’t perturb him.

However, with the arrival of his retirement, there is a sea change in Mohammed’s character. Without the security of his job, he suddenly begins to realize, and fret about, his relationship with his children. He sees that they have becomes citizens of France, while he hasn’t. and of course, they have no ties to his native land. The clarity in this thoughts and ideas begins to blur. His life, reflecting his thought process, becomes haphazard. His blindly convinces himself that building a house in his village is the magical solution to all his problems. His goal blinds him to everything going on around him. He doesn’t see that the villagers don’t accept him as one of them. He is an outsider to them – a wealthy tourist. He doesn’t realize that his children would never leave their lives and come to live with him in Morocco. And while it is clear to everyone around him (and to the reader) that his is only preparing for disappointment and failure, he refuses to acknowledge this.

The book is very well written (as expected by an author nominated for the Nobel Prize!). It appears to be a very quick read with just a 192 pages of very simple writing but only when you start reading it do you realize the depth of the book. You are drawn to Mohammed. You understand him, feel sorry for him and wish he’d see what everyone else around him is seeing..

I enjoyed reading this book. This is not a usual ‘me’ kinda book. I prefer the fast paced ones that you just can’t put down. But I liked reading this one and I’d definitely like to read more of Tahar Ben Jelloun’s books. I only wish I knew French well enough to read the original and not the translations..

Review: The Guide

2011-02-02T13:16:00.001-05:00

Title - The Guide
Author - R. K. Narayan
Genre - Fiction
My Rating -5 Stars

R. K. Narayan is one of India’s beloved writers. He is one of the He wrote a series of novels and short stories about people in a fictitious town called Malgudi. The descriptions of the place and the characters are so real that it is hard to believe that a place called Malgudi never existed and the characters are just figments of imagination. Though I have read short stories written by him, The Guide was the first novel that I actually managed to get my hands on.

If you are not new to this blog, you’ll know that my favorite author is Salman Rushdie. I love his style of writing and I don’t minds spending days poring over the pages of his books and flipping back and forth to re-read what I just read, etc.
And I have to admit, I enjoyed reading R. K. Narayan almost as much as I enjoyed Rushdie. They are almost completely opposite in their styles of writing and I would never have thought I would enjoy both to almost the same extent.

The first thing that I found interesting about the book was the way Narayan delved right in to the life of Raju – the protagonist. I expected a few pages (or at least a few paragraphs) setting the stage for the book.
Narayan’s style of writing took me by complete surprise. There were no flowery descriptions, no superfluous words, no pretentious texts. The writing was simple and concise. And yet, somehow, you get everything you need to know about the people and the place! It is totally amazing! I have read books which are hundreds of pages long and finished them feeling like I didn’t know the characters well enough. But with The Guide, I was hardly three chapters in to the book and I already knew Raju!

The book revolves around Raju. In alternate chapters we see Raju in his present avatar – a spiritual guru and in the other chapters, we see the previous avatar – that of a tourist guide. The present story and the past story are slowly developed and finally merge in the final few pages of the book. There are very few main characters but they are all very well developed. Telling you anything more about the book will only take the fun out of the reading.. I enjoyed reading the book when I started out knowing nothing about it and I want you to have the same experience. I didn't like the cover art initially, but after reading the book, I appreciated the nuances in the depiction more.

And a review any longer threatens to be longer than the book itself;) obviously, I am no R. K. Narayan when it comes to brevity of writing..

Review: Unaccustomed Earth

2011-01-25T18:41:00.000-05:00

Title: Unaccustomed Earth
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
My Rating: 4 Stars
Short Review: An interesting collection of short stories dealing with multicultural lives.

I read "The Interpreter of maladies" about 5 years ago and loved it. Then, I read Namesake, and though I found the theme repetitive, I still enjoyed the book. I hesitated before picking up The Unaccustomed Earth because I knew that Lahiri had again revisited the same theme - multicultural lives. Fresh-off-the-boat Indian parents, second generation kids that are caught between the values of the culture they are living in and values of the culture that their parents expect them to follow. How many different stories can you churn with the same theme?
Apparently, many! I was surprised when I picked up the book and realized that I was actually enjoying the book even though I had expected to find it repetitive. Lahiri manages to keep the stories interesting and the characters unique.
I usually prefer full length novels to short stories. Even before I understand the characters and get in to the feel, short stories are usually over and leave me feeling like something's lacking. But Lahiri somehow manages to keep the stories short and yet convey every little information that I require to "get into" the story.
At the end of the story, it feels like I've read a novel. I know the characters, I understand them well, I don't find the story incomplete.. I still yearn to read more about them but that happens with any good book, right? You don't want it to end.
The Unaccustomed Earth is a relatively quick read. The stories are longer than usual short stories but the language flows beautifully and you are done with the book much before you actually want it to end.
I give it only 4 stars because I find the themes recurring. I wish Lahiri would explore new arenas. She is an amazing writer and I keep hoping she'd get out of her niche and experiment with a different subject.
What did you think of the Unaccustomed Earth?

Review: Moloka'i

2011-01-21T19:50:00.002-05:00

Title: Moloka'i
Author: Alan Brennert
Genre: Fiction
My rating: 4.5 Stars
Description: A novel revolving around the fictitious life of Rachel Kalama who is "banished" to the leprosy settlement in the island of Molokai when she was 7 years old.

On the island of Molokai in the Hawaiian archipelago is a little village called Kalaupapa. The first thought that comes to mind while thinking of a village in Hawaii is beauty. However, Kalaupapa is associated with a very "ugly" history. In the late 1800s, Hawaiians who had/were suspected of having lepsory were immediately isolated and kept in quarantine. If medical tests came back positive, the victims were immediately shipped away to Kalaupapa, which can been aptly described as "a prison fortified by nature". There was no escape from this settlement.Luckily, the colony soon attacted caretakers who were ready to take care of the patients in spite of the widespread belief that leprosy was a highly contagious disease.

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert is set in the village of Kalaupapa. 7 year old Rachel Kalama is diagnosed with the disease and is "banished" to the leprosy settlement.In this place where lives are supposed to end, Rachel's just begins. She leads as normal as life as possible in the village surrounded by victims in various stages of decline. Death is a common phenomenon and life is not taken for granted here. But amidst all the sickness and death, Rachel sees that the victims still live life to the fullest. She, like most others on the island, develops strong friendships, supports other in times of need, falls in love, indulges in favorite activities, and in general stays happy!

Molokai is an amazing book. It is really well written. I sobbed my way through the first part of the book - the cruel action of separating an innocent girl from her family was heart wrenching, the condition of the people on Molokai was appaling and I felt that things could only go downhill when Rachel was sent to Molokai. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong. There was so much more to the place than just disease and death. Rachel grows up amidst people who love her.

The books ends in 1970 with the death of Rachel Kalama - but on a positive note. By this time, antibiotics have been developed to battle the bacteria and patients are no longer quarantined and sent to Kalaupapa.

I would definitely recommend this book. Even though this is a fiction, it is a well researched book and the facts about the leprosy settlement are accurate.

Have you already read this book? what are your thoughts? Did you like it as much as I did?

Review: Harry Potter

2011-01-19T09:54:00.001-05:00

Title – Harry Potter – The Complete Collection (7 Books)
Author – J.K. Rowling
Genre – Fantasy

Well, this is not so much a review as a documentation of the fact that I have FINALLY gotten around to reading this much acclaimed set of books. I don't think anybody would need a introduction to the series.

I remember being a HP fanatic several years ago when the first few books came out. I read the first book as soon as it came out, loved it, couldn’t wait for the second book. When the second book came out, I re-read the first book (to get in to the HP mood all over again) and then read the second book. By the time the third book came out, I was beginning to lose interest in the series (more because of the wait involved between books than because of the actual content of the books). I wouldn’t have read the book if a dear friend had not convinced me to read it before dragging me to the theatre to watch the movie! And the rest of the books, I just didn’t read them! The world around raved and ranted about the books. Even those that weren’t too much in to books seemed to have read HP (or at least claimed to have done so!). I knew I’d eventually read them all. I wanted to wait until all the books in the series came out so I could read them all at once and not have to wait for a year or more to figure out what was going to happen next.

And finally, more than a decade after the first book came out, I accomplished what I wanted to. My husband gifted me the complete Harry Potter boxed set on my birthday last year ..:) And what better way to begin the New Years than this?? I started reading the books and just couldn’t put them down. I’d finish one book and pick the next one and continued reading it like one big giant HP book. Having a 9 month old to take care of, didn’t allow me to indulge in ways that I would have done earlier. My reading times were restricted to when I was either commuting or the precious minutes that I managed to sneak in before I slipped in to an unconscious state that only sleep deprived ones can achieve.. But I have no regrets. Reading the 7 books at a stretch (all 4,100 pages of it) was a very memorable experience.

What are your thoughts on the series?

Review: Luka and the Fire of Life

2010-12-03T16:16:00.000-05:00

Title: Luka and the Fire of Life
Author: Salman Rushdie
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 978-0-676-97756-1
Pages: 240
Short Reviews: Rushdie proves that he is a master storyteller in this charming little tale meant for a young audience.

I walked in to Barnes and Noble on Black Friday to pick up some holiday gifts for family. The first thing I saw after entering the store, on the "Latest Arrivals" rack, was a bright blue book written by Salman Rushdie. It immediately went in to my shopping bag and I started my holiday purchases with a gift for myself;) You know I can never resist a Rushdie!

Luka and the Fire of Life is almost like a sequel to Haroun and the Sea of Stories. They are both meant for a younger audience. I am yet to read Haroun and the Sea of Stories so I can't really compare the two books. I guess that is also a reason why I found Luka and the Fire of Life interesting and fresh.. Maybe if I had read Haroun, I wouldn't find the idea of this book very novel.

Rushdie brings a modern twist to the tale by making Luka's adventure a sort of a video game journey with many lives and different levels.

The alternate world that Rushdie creates demonstrates once again his power as a story teller. He has a vivid imagination and has the wonderful ability to put all this thoughts down in words - perfect words that help recreate the world in the minds of the readers. Though meant for a younger audience, there's so much in the book for adults as well - the wonderful word play that is a delightful part of all his works and an "almost-overdose" of mythological characters that demonstrates rushdie's strong hold in history makes up for a redundant storyline of a boy entering a magical world to save his father who created the world in his imagination..

I am a sucker for Rushdie books and so my review would definitely be biased. I don't think I could ever get myself to dislike a Rushdie novel - I am sure I'll read it over and over again until I find things in it that I like:) So don't trust me 100% when I say this is a very enjoyable book. I have read reviews that don't echo this emotion but I would leave it to you to read and decide what you feel about it. Unlike a few of his other works this is a very simple and quick read and you'd breeze through it in no time!

Review: The Writing on My Forehead

2010-08-20T16:18:00.000-04:00

Book: The Writing on My Forehead
Author: Nafisa Haji
Genre: Fiction
My Rating - 3.5/5
Short Review - Interesting story line. Could have been written better.

After reading rave reviews for this book around the blogosphere, I had high hopes for this book when I picked it up and I wasn’t disappointed. I expected a lot more but I was satisfied with what I got.

Nafisa Haji takes us down a well travelled path – cultural differences between immigrant parents and their American born children. The plot of the book, The Writing on My Forehead, is nothing new. It revolves around Saira Qadar – a Muslim American of Indo-Pakistani descent. She’s the younger daughter in a strict muslim family where adherence to culture and tradition is given the highest priority. As expected, Saira’s the rebel – the complete opposite of her well behaved obedient older sister who does everything according to her parents. She breaks the rules of the house and puts her ambitions and dreams higher up on the priority list than tradition and culture. We’ve seen the cultural confusion that second generation kids go through. Bend it like Beckham, The Namesake and many other books and movies have explored this scenario and pretty much presented all that there is to it already. I found it clichéd that Saira was a rebel, had an obedient older sister, had a cousin who was gay and had parents that refused to see beyond the cultural curtain they had firmly drawn.

However, in spite of having such a predictable plot, Nafisa Haji manages to keep the book interesting and entertaining. The characters, for the most part, were well defined. Here again, I sometimes felt that the female characters were strong and well drawn whereas the male characters (Saira’s dad, her uncle, her brother in law, etc) somehow fell a little flat. While there were enough characters to demonstrate the close knit nature of the inner and outer circles of indo-pak families, there weren’t too many to confuse the readers. I’ve read some reviews of this book where the reviewer felt that there were too many characters in the book. I somehow feel that without introducing so many characters, it would have been tough for Haji to demonstrate the social circles of Indo-Pak families.

And as the book progresses, the concentration somehow shifts from the issues of a confused child of immigrants to deeper matters such as understanding and respecting the choice your parents make in their lives. Saira’s grandparents, now dead, and her Big Nanima (grandma’s older sister) play a major role in the book. The book slowly moves away from being dealing with Saira’s cultural struggles and reveals the issues that her mom and dad had with their fathers. I loved the fact that Nafisa Haji moves the book in this direction. And I also liked the fact that Saira is portrayed as a complex personality. She is a rebel but she also recognizes the importance of family ties.

The book picks up pace and almost becomes too rushed towards the end. I felt that some of the characters just fizzled out towards the end and some of them just disappeared.

But I guess we would have to keep in mind that this was Nafisa Haji’s debut novel. I would definitely be interested in reading more books by her. I felt that this story was gripping and there was an element of suspense that’s maintained throughout the novel. There were a few negatives but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. I would definitely recommend it especially to those interested in cross cultural fiction.

Review: The Sharper the knife, the less you cry

2010-08-03T21:52:00.001-04:00

Book: The Sharper the Knife, the less you cry.
Author: Kathleen Flinn
Genre: Memoir/Cooking
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Short Review: Interesting and easy flowing. A quick read.

When Kathleen Flinn was laid off from her corporate job - she did something that she thought would just remain a dream. She moved to Paris to study at Le Cordon Bleu. Cooking was her passion ever since she was a kid and her sister's love for all things French was addictive as well, I guess. The combination - Le Cordon Bleu! Nothing less.

Before she realized what was happening, Kathleen and her then boyfriend, Mike, moved to Paris and she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu. The book describes (in detail) the two years that she spent in Paris. It is mainly about the school and what she learnt there but it is also sprinkled a little romance, a little humor and tons of tried and tested recipes!

"The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry" is an interesting story. It flows easily and Flinn manages to keep you entertained and engrossed throughout the book. It provides an interesting insight into the activities of the students. The language is simple. But I must mention that sometimes, it just feels like you are reading someone's journal. I would have prefered it to be more of a story- not just a description of day to day activities.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the book and it was a good book to read after a long break. I don't think anything deeper could have held my attention.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

Review: Valeria's Last Stand

2009-08-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

Book: Valeria’s Last Stand

Author: Marc Fitten

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

My short review: A light and mildly entertaining read set in a fictional village in Hungary.

Marc Fitten’s ‘Valeria’s Last Stand’ is a geriatric fairy tale. Yes, you heard me right. Cupid strikes and hormones rage amongst the elderly population in an all-but-forgotten Hungarian village. In a typical rustic folk-lore fashion, the men are referred to by their professions. We have the potter at the center of the tale. A relatively silent widower who is used to minding his own business but manages to stay favorable in the villagers eyes thanks to his generous wedding gifts. The potter is involved with the boisterous owner of the tavern down the street from his workshop – Ibolya. Ibolya’s is the only tavern in the village and is the “hang-out” spot for most of the older men who spend their days there drooling over Ibolya’s raised skirts and open shirt buttons. Ibolya’s plan to maintain an “open relationship” with the potter backfires when an unexpected romance blooms between the potter and the village hag – Valeria.

Valeria was once a beauty – the village belle. But a romance gone bad and a lifetime of loneliness makes her mean, condescending and distrustful of everyone around her. She is the only one to even give the village locksmith his business in an otherwise trusting place. She locks up every door and even every drawer! She is a perfectionist – her house is spic and span and her vegetable garden bears the best vegetables. But since she expects the same degree of perfection from the others as well, her routine visits to the market are a nightmare to other vendors whose produce are not necessarily as perfect. She can spot a rotting vegetable from a mile and would make sure to point it out in her loud mouthed manner. She is universally hated and doesn’t really bother about it until one fine day, in the market, she suddenly and abruptly falls in love with the potter.

She rushes back home to clean up, wears a flowered skirt and a kerchief around her head and pedals away furiously towards the potter’s workshop to woo her man with a can of milk. This is the start of a romance that drives Ibolya mad with jealousy. The potter discovers that Valeria inspires him to create more than just utility pots and pans. Her inspiration makes him an artist!

The romantic triangle breaks the social balance of Zivatar. The villagers helplessly watch as the potter shuttles between Ibolya and Valeria. They are intrigued by Valeria’s distraction with the chimney sweep and even the mayor’s little indiscretion fails to divert their attention.

All this and more happens against the backdrop of Zivatar’s slow transformation. The greedy and ambitious mayor travels all over the world and there’s always talk of investors – there are plans to bring the railroads through Zivatar (the Mayor’s pet project), Korean investors are looking to open a television factory in Zivatar and the market suddenly sees bananas (a fruit new to the inhabitants of Zivatar).

Valeria’s Last Stand is different and entertaining. It will not make you drop everything else that you are doing and it fails to make a deep impression. It is a light read and the antics of the small village are entertaining. The language is simple and the author does a good job of creating a rural Hungarian atmosphere.

If you are looking for something light, this is a good book to consider. I definitely needed something completely different after “The Blue Notebook” and this was a perfect book for me to “recover” with.

Review: Friday Night Knitting Club

2009-08-14T16:24:00.004-04:00

Book: Friday Night Knitting Club

Author: Kate Jacobs

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Short Review: A relatively light read with some unexpected turns.

The Friday Night Knitting Club is a story of friendship between some very different women who happen to visit the same yarn store in Manhattan’s upper west side.

When James breaks Georgia Walker’s heart and walks away from her life, she is completely shattered… and pregnant. With the help of close friend and mentor Anita, Georgia slowly builds her life around her daughter - Dakota and her passion – knitting. ‘Walker and Daughter’, the yarn store that she runs with Anita’s and Peri’s help, soon blossoms into a successful business. It attracts a wide range of customers. Some of the regulars start coming together at the same time and soon “The Friday Night Knitting Club” is formed.

There are a lot of characters in the book. Though they are unique people and completely different from each other, it took me a while to get them all in to my head. In the beginning, I had to constantly remind myself who each person was but slowly, I settled in to the rhythm of the book and the characters didn’t seem confusing anymore. I must accept that the characters are well developed. Kate has done a wonderful job of giving each one of the myriad of characters a unique personality and of course their own issues. Each woman is struggling with a different kind of a problem and somehow coming together as a group helps them all.

However, it is not just the regular customers that need support – the strong willed and successful Georgia Walker has issues of her own as well. James is suddenly back in town and wants to be an active part of Dakota’s (and Georgia’s?) life. To make matters worse, Georgia is suddenly forced to come face to face with Cat – a wealthy socialite who was once Georgia’s backstabbing best friend.

Unlikely friendships are formed in the club and the women support each other more than they expect. The Friday Night Knitting Club is more than just a collection of women with a single interest. It is a potpourri of cultures and relationship issues.

Though I enjoyed the book, I personally thought that it had so much more potential. Kate brings up so many cultural and relationship issues but lets them all fizzle out without giving it any definite shape. It was definitely a light and easy book to read and some unexpected turns do bring tears to your eyes but I kept feeling that she could have done so much more with the book!

Have you read this book? I am sure most of you must have already read it. There was a time in the middle when every blogger I knew was reading and raving about the Friday Night Knitting Club. I finally managed to get hold of a copy.

Anyways, do let me know what you thought of the book! And if you haven’t read it, you should give it a shot. Even if you are not a knitter.. yes! Don’t let the title and the front cover let you think this one is one only for the knitters!

Review: The Blue Notebook

2009-08-12T12:08:00.000-04:00

Book: The Blue Notebook

Author: James Levine

My Rating: 4 Stars

My Review: A painful and disturbing book about child prostitution in India. Graphic descriptions and disturbing subject matter. Recommended only for adults.

I thought reading Lolita was hard. Reading about child predators and they way their mind worked scared me and it definitely wasn’t an enjoyable experience. Compared to the Blue Notebook, Lolita was a chick-lit!

The Blue Notebook is about Child Prostitution. James Levine, the author of the book is a doctor with the Mayo Clinic. As part of his work for the Clinic, he interviewed children in “The Street of Cages” – a famous prostitution street in Mumbai, India. While interviewing the kids, he was intrigued by a girl who sat outside her “cage” writing in a notebook. An in depth interview with the girl formed the basis of this novel.

Before I describe the book or my views of it, I have to mention that this book is only for adults. The descriptions are graphic and the subject matter is depressing (to say the least).

Batuk Ramsdeen was living with her family in a small village in Central India. When she was 9 years old, her father takes her Mumbai. Batuk is never warned about what she is getting in to. Her father takes her to meet someone and even before she realizes it, he leaves her never to return. And at that point, Batuk’s life changes forever. She is forced into prostitution. Her virginity is sold to the highest bidder; she is raped repeatedly until she breaks her defense; and she is beaten mercilessly by some of the customers. Her “nest” becomes her world. Batuk is an intelligent girl with a sense of imagination and that helps her get through her life. She imagines her “nest” to be a kingdom and her bed “the throne”. She uses euphemisms to describe what she has been forced to do. Even euphemisms cannot hide the sad state of affairs. When she finally gets her hand on a pencil, Batuk starts writing a journal. She writes about herself and her friend who lives in a nest two floors down – Puneet. Puneet is a pretty little boy who is eventually castrated to retain his “feminism” that he might have lost growing up. Batuk’s description of her life is somehow very detached. She writes about incidences, never about her feelings and emotions. I guess that was her way of dealing with her own. She never stopped to think about how she actually felt about the whole thing.

Batuk is not a character that you can identify yourself with. And she is not meant to be. At many parts in the book, she comes across as manipulative and cunning. Her character is in contrast to that of Puneet’s. Puneet is sweet and innocent and manages to retain a bit of the child in him despite everything that happens to him. Batuk on the other hand, is completely aware of her scenario. She is rational and uses almost “too adult” for her age. When she gets philosophical, it is hard to imagine that the words come from a teenager.

I must mention here that I found the ending of the book to be ambiguous. There is no explanation for the chain of events and you are left to form your own conclusions. I have to accept that I actually liked the way it ended. It just seemed very synchronous with the world that Levine was trying to introduce us to.

There is no pretty way to say Batuk’s story. As much as I found this extremely hard to read (I cried and had to put the book down several times because it was too unbearable!), I must accept that James Levine has done a fabulous job. The writing is beautiful. In spite of the heavy subject matter, Levine’s writing helps you get through the book easily. It is not distracting and lets you immerse yourself in a world that you wish didn’t exist.

I would definitely recommend this book. It is most definitely not an enjoyable read but it’ll definitely help you become more “aware” and I can assure you, you’ll be a changed person when you are done with this book.

Review: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

2009-08-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

Book: The Boy who Harnessed the Wind

Author: William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer

Genre: Memoir

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Short Review: An amazing and very inspiring book about a boy who built his own wind mill! A must read for everyone – not just book lovers!

What severe drought conditions struck Malawi, 14 year old William Kamkwamba was forced to drop out of school because his father didn’t have enough money to pay his school fees. William helped his father in the Maize field. But farming is not a year round work and there were periods when there was nothing that he had to do. Instead of whiling away time like other school drop-outs, William went to the library to learn what he was missing out in school. William was always curious about science and was already taking radios and cycle dynamos apart to figure out their working by this time.

From the library books, he came across electricity concepts. He learnt how the mysterious dynamo in the cycles worked to light the bulb. Concepts that baffled engineers seemed simple to this high school drop out.

In Masitala, a small village in Malawi, there was no one that William could turn to help or advice. Better still, there was no one to tell him that 14 year old boys didn’t go around building windmills. So that is exactly what he did.

William was perturbed about the fact that there was no electricity in most houses in his village. It cost a lot to get a power line to supply electricity to your place and even then, the constant power cuts made the expense worthless. He saw pictures of windmills and read about how they were used to harness the wind energy and produce electricity. If there one thing that his village wasn’t lacking, it was wind. William scoured the local scrap yard for discarded stuff – motors, wires, nuts, bolts, etc and two months later, he had his very own working windmill! I am definitely not kidding! A 14 year old boy in the middle of nowhere in Africa built his own windmill just by reading about it in books and using scrap that he found around him! That is pure genius!!
Luckily, the genius was discovered and we now have a chance to get to know this super-brain! Thanks to all the aid he’s been getting, William went back to school to complete his education and is now working towards like life easier for his family and friends in Malawi.

“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” is William’s story in his own words. The first half of the book describes the simple lifestyle of William and his family in rural Malawi – a land filled with poverty as much as it is filled with superstitions and blind beliefs. William describes the pitiful conditions caused by the famine and some of the descriptions brought tears to my eyes. Then he goes on to describe what he learnt and how he built the wind mill. William talks about AC/DC/Transformers/Voltage, etc like he was talking about chicken and maize plants! These complicated terms did not baffle him one bit! I remember all those sleepless nights I spent during my engineering days cursing my decision to learn stuff that didn’t seem relevant to me at all! All that I needed was electricity. Why did I have to care about how I got it? Reading this book has given me a new perspective. It has made me see my knowledge and education in a new light!

“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” is one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. The achievements of William Kamkwamba are not small. He deserves all the recognition he’s getting and even more!

Willaim’s bok “The Boy who Harnessed the Wind” co-written with Bryan Mealer is coming out on September 29. I think you should pre-order this book right now and read it definitely!

You can read more about William in his blog here.

Review: The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

2009-07-17T10:45:00.001-04:00

Set against the backdrop of World War II, Gail Tsukiyama’s “Street of Thousand Blossoms” delves deep into the lives of two brothers – Hiroshi and Kenji, who live in Tokyo.

Hiroshi and Kenji’s lives were touched by separation and sorrow even before the World War started. They lost their parents in a boating accident when they were very young and were now living with their old but loving grandparents. They have happy and content childhoods with dreams and aspirations. Hiroshi, always the protector of the family, aspires to become a successful sumo wrestler and his dedication and skill catches the eye of the most prestigious trainer - Tanaka. The shy and silent Kenji is fascinated by the masks he sees in a shop window and gravitates towards the art of mask making and Akira Yoshiwara, a famous mask maker for the Noh Theater. Kenji starts working for Akira as his apprentice in his mask shop. Unexpectedly, World War II interrupts their near-perfect lives and for the next few years, all that the boys and their grandparents can think of is surviving with what little they manage to have.

At the end of World War II, when Japan struggles to rebuild itself, Hiroshi and Kenji make a heroic attempt to redeem their childhood dreams and actually succeed in their attempt. The book is more than just about their professions, of course. You are drawn into the personal and professional struggles of both brothers and without realizing it, you smile at their joys and successes and cry with them at their losses and failures.

The book is an absolute joy to read. Tsukiyama gives us a good view of Japan’s two prized gems – Sumo Wrestling and the Noh Theater. We learn about the daily rituals and the lives of Sumo wrestlers in Japan. Until I read the book, I didn’t care much for Sumo wrestling. To me, it was just two fat men in their underwear trying to push each other out a teeny tiny circle. But as I read the book, I learnt to appreciate the dedication, the skill and the strength that is associated with Sumo wrestling. I started seeing it for the art it is. I actually started liking Japan’s most loved sport. The Noh masks are at the opposite end of the spectrum. It is a small, intricately carved mask where the face changes expression based on which angle you look at it. Thanks to google I found many videos and articles on both Sumo wrestling and the Noh Theater to satisfy my craving for more knowledge once I was done reading the book.

Both Hiroshi and Kenji are endearing and lovable in their own ways and the love and respect they have for each other is enviable. I enjoyed the way Tsukiyama seamlessly weaved the world war II and its after effects into the lives of Hiroshi and Kenji while describing their professional and personal lives completely.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. It is a very enjoyable read and it has only one short coming – it is very addictive. There’s no way you are putting it down until you’ve turned the last page.

Have you already read this book? Did you enjoy it as much as I did??

Review: The Space Between Us

2009-05-14T13:51:00.000-04:00

Book: The Space Between Us

Author: Thrity Umrigar

My Review: A captivating novel about the divide between the rich and the poor in India.

My Rating: 4 Stars

After having heard so much about Thrity Umrigar, I finally decided to pick up “The Space Between Us”. I was hooked from the very first page and found every possible excuse to read until I finally finished the book today.

Through the lives of Sera and Bhima, Thrity Umrigar attempts to describe the divide between the rich and the poor in India. Aravind Adiga tries to do the same thing with the White Tiger. While Adiga’s book explores the world of men and drivers of rich businessmen, Thrity concentrates on women and housemaids.

Sera is a wealthy Parsi woman in Bombay and the saying that money can’t buy happiness is definitely true in her case. When she had married Feroz, the man of her dreams all those years ago, little did she realize that her life would take a turn that she never expected. A physically and mentally abusive husband and a nosy, dominating mother in law make Sera’s life hell. She lives her daughter and son-in-law now. Her husband’s dead and her mother in law, crippled and bed ridden. There’s only one person that’s seen Sera through all stages in her life – her servant, Bhima. Bhima’s poor, yet happy, world is shattered when her husband meets with an accident at work. The accident takes away his joy and fun along with three fingers and leaves him with misery and a thirst for alcohol. He soon runs away from home taking his son with him. Bhima is left with her daughter, Pooja. Years later, when Pooja and her husband die of AIDS, Bhima brings their little daughter Maya. Her ray of hope. Maya is a smart kid and through her Bhima envisions a future with no poverty or the hassles of living in a slum.

Thrity Umrigar navigates easily through the ups and downs in Sera’s and Bhima’s life. In addition to their own lives, she also deals with the complicated relationship between Sera and Bhima. As much as they depend on each other for the moral support, they are both painfully aware of the difference in their castes and statuses at all times.

I really enjoyed reading the book. The characters are very well developed – even the minor ones like Sera’s father in law leave an impression on your memory. Have you read “The Space Between Us”? What did you think about the book? I loved this book and I really enjoyed Thrity Umrigar’s writing. Have you read any other book by her? Which one would you recommend for me to read next?

If you haven’t read “The Space Between Us”, I would definitely recommend this one to you. I enjoyed it and I am sure you will too!

Review: The Toss of a Lemon

2009-05-07T11:32:00.000-04:00

Book: The Toss of a Lemon

Author: Padma Viswanathan

Challenge: Orbis Terrarum 2009
My Review: A detailed look into the lives of a Brahmin family in rural Tamil Nadu (India) in the mid 1900s. A saga of sorts.

My Rating: 4 Stars

The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan first caught my eye when I saw a blurb in Dar’s blog. The book is set in the early 1900s in a small rural village in Tamil Nadu (a state in Southern India). It focuses primarily on a Brahmin family over a period of about 50 years. Being a Tamil Brahmin myself, I was curious about the book and the descriptions of customs and traditions; Customs and Traditions that my ancestors might have followed but not be followed anymore in this modern world.

In the very first chapter, however, I saw references to “Kulithalai” a really small locality in rural Tamil Nadu which is my mother’s hometown. This came as quite a pleasant surprise to me. If the descriptions in the book were accurate and valid, I had just found the key to the lives of my maternal great grand parents and my grandparents. I have visited Kulithalai about 20 years ago. I was about 5 years old and didn’t really notice much except for the cousins around me that I could run around and play with. As I read the book, faint memories of my ancestral home flashed across my brain. Hence, as you can see, this book had much more than just literary value to me.

The Toss of a Lemon describes the life of Sivagami from when she was about 10 until her death 50 to 60 years later. And through Sivagami’s life, we are given a peep into the lives of a small Brahmin community in Tamil Nadu in the early 1900s; A community filled with cultures and traditions passed down over generations along with a strong sense of caste distinction and deep belief in astrology and male dominance. In fact, the name of the title stems from an ingenious method developed to record the exact time of birth of Sivagami’s children so that their astrological horoscopes could be charted effectively. Astrology still plays a major role in many Brahmin households in India.

A short note from the history books: Dravidians are thought to be the original inhabitants of India. History books mention that Aryans invaded India and pushed the Dravidians to the south. This explains the difference in the physical attributes of north and south Indians. Aryans brought with them a distinction of the masses based on occupation – the scholarly folks, the warriors, the traders and the servants. Brahmins are traditionally the scholarly people. They were well educated and performed the Hindu rites and rituals and took care of the temples. Soon, they started considering themselves superior to the other castes and formed strict traditions of not letting non-Brahmins enter Brahmin households, eat Brahmin food, etc. In the present day, these caste distinctions still do exist in India. They no longer define occupations and are not as rigid as they were 50 to 60 years ago. People typically tend to marry within their own castes and inter-caste marriages (Though slowly becoming more popular) are still frowned upon.

The Toss of a Lemon brings out this aspect of Tamil Nadu beautifully through the actions and behavior of Sivagami and her family members. By the end of the book we can slowly see the shift from rigid Brahminical traditions.

The Aryan Society was also completely male dominated and Padma Viswanathan brings out the male domination in the Brahmin Society beautifully.

Though meek and subdued, Sivagami is actually quite a rebel. When she is widowed, she does something that was unthinkable by widows in that period. Instead of staying with her brothers in her childhood home, she moves back into the house she had occupied with her husband and manages the farms and her grandchildren there. Her strength of character is seen in little acts like these that are taken for granted today.

To me, a lot of the descriptions and many of the terms used in the book were familiar. I am really not sure how someone who is not familiar with Tamilian traditions would read and enjoy the book. And I must mention the fact that the book is a chunkster. It has more than 600 pages and it definitely took me a while to get through it. But in 600 pages, Padma Viswanathan weaves a complete tale. She transports you to rural Tamil Nadu in the mid 1900s and makes you a part of the Sivagami household.

I must mention here that the book might not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you are looking for action and interesting twists and turns throughout the book, I can assure you that you’ll be bored with this book soon. But if all that you are looking for is to learn about a new culture and get transported into a completely different world, this is a really good book for you! The book is very descriptive and the images are vivid. I definitely enjoyed reading this book! Why I make it a point to mention this is because I have read a wide variety of reviews for this book. Some absolutely love it and others don’t seem to like it at all! I was a little unsure in the beginning of the book. I finished about 100 pages and the book really didn’t seem to be heading in any particular direction… and then I was slowly sucked into the atmosphere of the book and by the end, I didn’t want it to finish!

If you do plan to read this book and if you have questions about certain terms used in the book or even traditions, I’d be glad to chat with you about it.

I read this book as part of the Orbis Terrarum Challenge. I wanted to definitely visit India in this year’s challenge as well and what better place than my mother’s home town?? Thanks to Padma Viswanathan for sending me a review copy of this wonderful book!

Review: Sarah's Key

2009-04-24T14:31:00.000-04:00

Book: Sarah’s Key

Author: Tatiana De Rosnay

Challenge: Orbis Terrarum Challenge

My Review: Yet another powerful book set during WWII. Very moving and a must read!

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

I knew I’d like Sarah’s Key. I knew it from the very first time I saw a review of it in one of the book blogs. And then practically everyone read “Sarah’s Key” and I kept reading all the reviews and loving the book even more. I don’t why I waited for so long to pick the book up.

Is it possible to love a book that describes atrocities committed in the past? Is it possible to love a book in spite of the descriptions of the pain and the torture that people had to go through? What is it about these books? They make me cry and they leave me feeling useless and helpless and almost guilty for having a perfectly normal life. And yet, I love them. I hunt them down with a vengeance. I consciously stayed away from the World War II Challenge because I knew I’d read more than enough books for it and it somehow doesn’t feel right to “enjoy” those books. I hope I am not rambling and I hope you get what I am trying to say here. I know a lot of you love reading books set during World War II and the holocaust. How do you feel when you read those books? Do they tear you apart? I know they do that to me!

Anyway, Sarah’s Key starts off as two separate stories and in the middle of the book, the two stories merge. The first story is set in France during World War II. It is set against the backdrop of the round up at The Velodrome d’hiver on July 16, 1942 – a massive round up of Jewish families in France by the French Police themselves. Before they were sent to the camps at Auschwitz, the families were kept in the Vel d’Hiv under very deplorable conditions. Sarah is a young girl, whose family is also part of the round up. Before leaving her house, Sarah locks her brother in a secret cupboard and leaves the house assuring him that she’ll come back soon to let him out.

Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond is assigned to do a story on the Vel d’Hiv round up and she comes across the story of Sarah Starzynski. At this point, the two individual stories – one narrated by Sarah and the other by Julia merge into one. And it was at this point, that the book started getting a little slow for me. The horrors associated with Vel d’Hiv are replaced by Julia’s personal fights against her dominating husband and her quest for Sarah. Don’t get me wrong here. I don’t mean to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. I enjoyed it very much but I can’t help thinking that in the end, the book was more about Julia than about Sarah and that wasn’t what I was expecting.

I know many of you have already read this book. What did you think of it? Share your views with me! If you haven’t read Sarah’s Key, I would definitely encourage you to read it. It is a fast moving contemporary fiction with a touch of history. Perfect for even those who do not like books that deal wholly with World War II.

Review: The Lucky One

2009-04-23T16:32:00.000-04:00

Book: The Lucky One
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Genre: Chick Lit
My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Summary:

When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck—winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph—his lucky charm.
Back home in Colorado, Thibault can’t seem to get the photo—and the woman in it—out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina—Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son—to be the girl he’s been waiting his whole life to meet.
Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, THE LUCKY ONE is Nicholas Sparks at his best—an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.
My Review:

How does one review any of Nicholas Sparks books? He’s found the perfect formula for a light entertaining read that would appeal to most women. The lucky one is no different. I enjoy Nicholas Sparks. I enjoy the way the romance builds up through the book and the predictable fight towards the end and of course the mushy ending! I classify Nicholas Sparks books as Chick Lits. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy hearted! I don’t know if he appreciates being put in that category and I know some reviewers hate classifying him under “Chick Lits” but it works for me!

If you’ve read Nicholas Sparks before and liked it, I am sure you’ll like this one as well!

Review: Slumdog Millionaire

2009-04-14T10:53:00.000-04:00

Book: Slumdog Millionaire (Originally published as Q&A)

Author: Vikas Swarup

My review: Fast paced and interesting with a detailed look at the life of the poor in Mumbai. Has all the ingredients for a successful bollywood (or even Oscar winning Hollywood) movie – action, romance, comedy.

My rating: 4.5 Stars

When I saw the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, I had no idea it was based on a book. And when I did find out that it was based on Vikas Swarup’s Q and A, I had to read the book. I have always been a staunch “book-before-movie” kinda person and when I picked up the book it irked me that I had seen the movie before I actually read the book. But I realized that I liked this much better than the other way around.

When I usually watch a movie after reading the book, I am almost always upset with the movie. Obviously a lot of the stuff has been left out and the story edited to suit the movie better. I enjoyed watching “Slumdog Millionaire” and then I read the book and liked that as well! So I guess in future, if I have to enjoy the movie, I should watch it before I pick the book up!

Well, I guess most of you are familiar with either the book or the movie or both. In case there’s anyone who is still not familiar, here’s a brief description for you. The book is about Ram Mohammed Thomas, a poor orphan boy who goes on to win “Who Will Win a Billion”, a game show closely resembling “Who wants to be a Millionaire” or its Indian counterpart “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. There is obvious doubt that he has cheated since he is illiterate but on further questioning, he describes the incidents in his life that gave him the answers to the questions asked in the show.

In spite of having already watched the movie and knowing the story I enjoyed the book. I guess this could partly be due to the reason that the book was very different from the movie in many parts. The differences were not just in minor details like the names of the protagonists, etc but also in the storyline and well as the questions in the TV show. Ram Mohammed Thomas was a likeable as Jamal and though I did miss the prolonged romance of Jamal and Latika, I could see traces of Latika in Nita (though she hardly had any role in the book!)

It is definitely an interesting read and I would definitely recommend that you read it even if you’ve watched the movie. I am sure you’ll enjoy it equally or maybe even more!

Have you read the book? What are your thoughts on it? Read the book and watched the movie? How do you compare the two?

Review: Secret Keeper

2009-04-09T09:15:00.000-04:00

Book: Secret Keeper

Author: Mitali Perkins

Genre: YA Novel

My Review: A sweet and simple book full of powerful messages of strength, sacrifice, love and affection.

My Rating: 4 Stars

The Secret Keeper is one example of a YA novel that can most definitely be read by and enjoyed by readers of all ages. I fell in love with the cover of the book as soon as I saw it and I wanted to read it even before I knew what it was about. Reading the summary of the book only made me want to read it more!

The Secret keeper is based in India in the 1970s. There is an economic crisis in the country and jobs are scarce. Asha lives with her parents and her older sister Reet in Delhi. Asha’s dad is forced to move to New York to find an engineering job to better support his family. In the meantime, Asha, Reet and their mother move to Calcutta to live with Asha’s father’s family. The name of book comes from Asha’s secret companion – her very own diary where she writes about everything she wants to. The diary, with its own lock and key, is her very own “secret keeper”.

In this book, Mitali Perkins beautifully describes the cultures and traditions followed in India in the 70s. Through Asha’s experiences she brings to light the restrictions that girls in India had to face during those years. Through Reet’s experiences, she describes the complex arranged marriage system followed in India.

I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of life in Calcutta in the 1970s. Asha and Reet shared a very loving relationship and it was endearing to see the things they did for each other.

I definitely did not expect the book to end the way it did. I was a little upset as soon as the book ended and then the more I thought about the book, I realized that the twist at the end only made the book more enjoyable and more memorable.

I definitely recommend this book to teens as well as to adults. Thanks to Mitali Perkins for sending me a reviw copy of this book.

Have you read “The Secret Keeper”? What did you think of it? Did you like the way it ended?

Haven’t read the book? Read it soon and come back here to discuss it with me!

Review: The Diary

2009-04-06T16:10:00.001-04:00

Book: The Diary

Author: Eileen Goudge

My review: Short, well written and easy to read. Interesting plot.

My rating: 3 Stars

Elizabeth Harvey’s future seems to be pretty stable. She has been dating Bob for over four years and she is pretty sure that he loves her as much as she loves him. Everything seems perfect and in place. Until one day at the country fair, she comes across an old classmate of hers and Bob’s – AJ. AJ and Elizabeth were pretty good friends until his parents passed away in an accident when they were 9. The incident transforms AJ and he slowly withdraws from society and Elizabeth in the process. When she meets him in the country fair, she realizes that she is hopelessly attracted to AJ and he confesses that he was always crazy about her. Elizabeth is suddenly in a dilemma – Bob is rich, stable, and well loved and respected in the society. She knows that he loves her and will keep her very happy. But she always knows that she has never felt as strongly about him as she feels about AJ. AJ, on the other hand, doesn’t have a stable job nor does he have a good reputation in town. He’s just “the keeler boy who burnt his uncle’s car”. Whom should she marry?

About 50 years later, Emily and Sarah are packing up their dying mother’s house and in the attic, they come across an old diary. The diary documents the incidents that happened in the year their parents got married and to their surprise, they realize that their parent’s love story was not the simple perfect one that they’ve always believed it to be. Their mother, Elizabeth Harvey, was in love with two very different men and one of them was their dad!

Through reading Elizabeth’s diary, Emily and Sarah learn more than just the story behind their parent’s happy marriage. They learn more about their parents and about themselves in the process.

“The Diary” was a short, sweet, enjoyable read. It was well written and had an element of suspense that kept you guessing till the end. I picked it up because I loved the cover. It was simple and the colors appealed to me as soon as I saw it. I am glad that the cover wasn’t the only nice thing about the book. The story was pretty interesting as well. I enjoyed reading the book. What added appeal to the book was the fact that the book was loosely based on Eileen’s parents’ love story. Thanks to Kim Miller of Nancy Bernald Public Relations, Inc for sending me a review copy of this book.

It won’t classify as one of the best books I have ever comes across… but I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a light read!

Have you read “The Diary”? What did you think of it? Were you as surprised by the ending as I was or was it just too obvious for you?

Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2009-03-31T08:52:00.000-04:00

Book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (GLPPPS)

Authors: Mary Ann Schaeffer and Annie Barrows

Style: Epistolary (Letters)

My review: A very charming tale set amidst the atrocities of World War II. The book transports you to Guernsey during WWII and introduces you to some very interesting characters that you get so acquainted with that you actually miss them when you put the book down! (not very brief I know!)

My rating: 5 Stars

1. A book set during World War II

2. A book written in Epistolary form (as letters between various people)

3. A book that received rave reviews from all the book bloggers that have read it until now

4. Winner of Washington post’s Best Book 2008 award

5. A book about a very unique book club with an even more unique name (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society)

Any one of the above criteria would have made me pick the book up instantly. Seriously! When I saw that the GLPPPS actually satisfied all five, I just HAD to read the book. And when I placed a request for the book in my local library, every passing day was filled with a sweet anticipation mixed with a slightly bitter anxiety that I wouldn’t like the book as much as I wanted to. I really needn’t have worried. The GLPPPS was absolutely amazing and I enjoyed every page of it!

During the World War II, Germany occupied a small, relatively unknown, island in the English Channel – Guernsey. Guernsey and its inhabitants buckled under the occupation – no food, no freedom, nothing! One evening, while a bunch of Guernsey inhabitants were returning to their respective residences way past curfew time they found themselves face to face with German authorities. Unable to mention the true reason for their staying outside after curfew (a gathering to partake of a delicious feast of roast pork from a pig that escaped German inventory), the group came up with one that the authorities would have no issues with – a literary society: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society! To validate the claim just in case the authorities decided to drop in and check on them, books were bought and discussions held. Soon, however, the members of the society turned to books to distract them from the agonies of German occupation.

In a completely unrelated part of the world, a writer Juliet Ashton corresponds with her best friend and her brother who is Juliet’s publicist. She is on a tour to promote her book which is a collection of her newspaper columns “Izzy Biggerstaff goes to war”, which had a humorous take on the war. Juliet is in search of a serious topic to write about when un expectedly she receives a letter in the mail from a Dawsey Adams of Guernsey. Being a member of the GLPPPS, he had fallen in love with the writing of Charles Lamb. He owned a used copy of the book and had taken the liberty to write to the previous owner hoping that she would direct him to more books by the same author. This seemingly innocent letter gives rise to a series of letters between Juliet Ashton and the inhabitants of Guernsey.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. It is easily one of the best books I have ever read. The writing is beautiful and immediately transports you to the post world war period. The characters are very well defined and so real! Even though the book is just a collection of letters, each voice is unique and adds more charm to the novel. The writing is very descriptive and paints vivid pictures to portray the beauty of Guernsey even for those who have never heard of its existence before reading this book.

IF you haven’t already read the zillion raving reviews for this book, I hope reading mine will make you want to pick this book up. I totally recommend this book to anyone to likes to read. There’s something in it for every reader!

The book has its own charming website. where you can find more information about the authors, the book, a recipe for potato peel pie, etc. Some of the interesting sections are: Books mentioned in Guernsey, Other Epistolary novels, etc – good resources for those looking for another interesting read!

Have you already read “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”? What did you think of it?

Review: The Teashop Girls

2009-03-27T10:30:00.003-04:00

Book: The Teashop Girls

Author: Laura Schaefer

Genre: YA Novel

My Review: As refreshing as a freshly brewed cuppa tea! Thoroughly enjoyable for girls/women of all ages

My Rating: 5 Stars

A wonderful review of “The Teashop Girls” in Bethany’s blog made me want to pick the book up from my TBR pile immediately. If you haven’t read Bethany’s review of it, head over to her blog to see her review. It is a really fun post with a recipe, some pictures, etc and quite an enjoyable read!

“The Teashop Girls” is a YA novel revolving around Annie Green. Annie’s grandmother Louisa, who also lives in Wisconsin, has her own tea shop called “The Steeping Leaf”. The Steeping Leaf is a dear little shop built lovingly by her grandparents. The plants, the oversized mismatched comfortable furniture, the expensive French soap in the restrooms, etc gave The Steeping Leaf a very personal touch. But ever since Annie’s grandfather had passed away four years ago, The Steeping Leaf had slowly slipped into financial troubles. Though Louisa loved the shop, she didn’t have too much of a business head on her shoulders. Annie and her two best friends Genna and Zoe were the official “Teashop Girls” after having spent many delightful hours in The Steeping Leaf ever since they were old enough to come there. The Teashop Girls had their little handbook (which included the mandatory “set of rules”), a scrapbook of many interesting tidbits related to tea and a new item on their agenda – Save The Steeping Leaf! Along with the many attempts to save the little tea shop (some successful, some disastrous), the girls learn a lot about life, their friendship and themselves.

The Teashop Girls was an interesting book and one of the most cheerful YA novels I have ever read! There are wonderful illustrations throughout the book. The best part, however are the little inserts found through out the book. I loved them all – the little Zen stories told by Louisa, recipes for wonderful tea as well as tea accompaniments, vintage advertisements for tea from across the world, lists and more lists drafted by the compulsive list makers, etc.

Laura Schaeffer has done a wonderful job with the book. It is a fabulous read for both young girls as well as others who are just looking for a light read. If you are a tea lover, let me assure you, there’s so much in this book for you! If you are not a tea-lover, just read this book and it sure will turn you into one!

This book proved to be dear to me because of the nostalgic memories it brought to mind. I grew up in a hill station – Ooty. Tea grows well in high altitudes and the slopes of the hills give the soil the right amount of moisture necessary for tea growth. Ooty is filled with tea plantations and I grew up loving the smell and process of tea making. During my vacations, I spent hours on the tea plantations observing the tea pickers and their nimble fingers as they worked through the plants picking just the right leaves which would then be sent to factories to turn into the black coarse powder we are all familiar with.

The process of tea picking is a very interesting one. The women are trained to pick just “two leaves and the bud” at the tip of every shoot. This is the most tender part of the tea plant and has the most flavor. The tea bushes are pruned and maintained at waist level to facilitate rapid picking of the leaves. During the tea picking season, you can find hordes of women with colorful baskets hanging on their backs on every slope in Ooty. They’d sing and talk as their hands rapidly worked through the tea bushes. I’ve tried my hand at tea picking and by the time I would meticulously pick out just “two leaves and a bud” from 3 to 4 shoots, the regular tea pickers would have picked at least fifty!

The leaves that are picked by these women are then transported to tea factories not too far away (because the leaves have to be fresh when ground). In these factories, the green tender leaves are turned into the coarse black powder that we are all familiar with. I loved visiting the tea factories when I was a kid. The smell of fresh tea was always in the air and at the end, I was offered freshly made lemon tea prepared with the highest grade of tea leaves, fresh lemon and some honey. I loved that hot lemon tea and no tea that I have ever had after that comes close to the flavor of that tea!

I guess you can understand now why I love tea so much and why I loved this book!! Thanks to Laura Schaefer for sending me a review copy of this book.

Have you read “The Teashop Girls”? What did you think of it?

Review: The Dream

2009-03-25T11:20:00.000-04:00

Book: The Dream

Author: Harry Bernstein

Genre: Memoir

Challenge: Jewish Literature Challenge

My Short Review: Second book in the trilogy of Bernstein’s memoirs. An interesting story with an inspiring touch considering the author’s age when he wrote the book!

My Rating: 4 Stars

I read “The Invisible Wall” earlier this year for the Jewish Literature Challenge. In that book, Harry describes the early part of his life when he was a little boy in England during WWI. It was a very well written book and I enjoyed reading. What inspired me more was the fact that the author – Harry Bernstein was over 90 years old when he actually started writing the book!

When I finished reading the book, I googled the author and came across his Wikipedia page where I learnt that his second book was already published as well and the third book in his trilogy of memoirs is expected in the middle of this year!

I immediately decided to pick up “The Dream” – the second book in the trilogy. In this book, Harry’s family moves to the US (well, everyone except for his oldest sister who got married at the end of the first book and was settled in England). Moving to the US was the biggest wish and dream of Harry’s mother. Their life in England was dominated by poverty and his mother had to struggle to make ends meet. His father who preferred to get drunk rather than socialize with his family was hardly any help because what he gave his wife for her weekly expenses were never sufficient.

For Harry’s mother, moving to the US was to be the solution for all her problems. Her relatives painted pretty pictures of their fancy lives in the US and she yearned to join them in the land of opportunity and extravagance. And then one fine day in England, her hopes and prayers are answered and they receive steamship tickets to go to America.

I guess for Harry’s mother, this was a perfect case where anticipation was way better than what you actually get in the end. The reality in Chicago was definitely not what she had expected: The cramped housing, the poverty, the stench. Her life was to be no better than the one she had in England!

The book deals with the difficulties they had to go through to get settled in the US and how their lives took many turns – some for the better and some for the worse. Towards the end of the book, Harry meets his soul-mate so there’s a touch of romance for those interested in that as well!

I must say that I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed “The Invisible Wall”. I am always a little wary of sequels because they are usually not as good as the first book but this book was definitely as good as the first one. It was a quick and easy read and as usual there were many pictures from Harry’s life to add that touch of reality to the book. I love having a face to associate the characters with!

Have you read any/both of Bernstein’s Books? What did you think about this one?

Review: Anne of Avonlea

2009-03-23T16:40:00.002-04:00

Book: Anne of Avonlea

Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Notes: 2nd book in the Anne of Green Gables series
My Review: As addictive and entertaining as Anne of Green Gables

My Rating: 5 Stars

I finished listening to Anne of Green Gables earlier this month and immediately started listening to Anne of Avonlea. I loved the way the first book easily flowed into the second without any kind of a break. Yet in spite of that, Anne in Anne of Avonlea is so much more grown up than the Anne in Anne of Green Gables.

Lucy Maud Montgomery has done a fabulous job in capturing the growth of Anne over the years. In addition, she brings all the people of Avonlea to life and listening/reading the book takes you into that world very easily – Avonlea in the early 1900s is such a beautiful peaceful community and the people are all very endearing – yes, even Mrs. Rachel Lynde!

A host of new characters are introduced in the book. Dora and Davy – the siblings that Marilla adopts when their mother dies, Mr. Harrison – the man who lives next to Green Gables with his garrulous parrot, Little Paul Irwing – one of Anne’s students in the Avonlea school, Miss Lavendar – who is pretty and charming and definitely one of Anne’s kindred spirits who lives in the most charming place called the Echo Lodge!

By the end of the book, you feel like you’ve always known all of them! Anne has definitely grown up in this book but not too grown up to avoid getting into scrapes. The chapter where she sells Mr. Harrison’s Jersey cow is hilarious!

If you’ve read Anne of Green Gables and haven’t read this one – you definitely are missing out on a book that is as fabulous as Anne of Green Gables! And if you haven’t read either of the books, I would recommend that you start with Anne of Green Gables and then definitely read Anne of Avonlea.

I am now listening to Anne of the Island and I am loving it just as much! Audiobooks are so useful when I am trying to knit. I am definitely not one of those prolific knitters who can read while they are knitting and so I just turn on my audiobook and get lost in the world of Anne while the little blue baby blanket that I am knitting for my best friend who is due this weekend slowly and steadily takes shape!

Have you read Anne of Avonlea? Share your thoughts with me!

Review: The Smart One and the Pretty One

2009-03-12T10:05:00.000-04:00

Book: The Smart one and the Pretty One
Author: Claire LaZebnik
Genre: Chick-Lit

My review: Interesting, easy to read and light
My rating: 3 Stars

If you’ve been following this blog long enough you know that I love my occasional chick lit. I came across a review for this on Swapna’s blog a while ago and added it to my mental to-read list and never really thought too much about it until I spotted it while I was browsing the shelves in my local library the other day. I picked it up and definitely didn’t need an excuse to start reading it.

Here’s a description of the book from the back cover:

Smart, successful Ava Nickerson is closing in on thirty and has barely had a date since law school. When a family crisis brings her prodigal little sister Lauren back to Los Angeles, Lauren stumbles across a forgotten document – a contract their parents had jokingly drawn up years ago betrothing Ava to their friends’ son.
Frustrated and embarrassed by Ava’s constant lectures about financial responsibility (all because she’s in a little debt. Okay, a lot of debt), Lauren decides to do some sisterly interfering of her own and tracks down her sister’s childhood fiancé. When she finds him, the highly inappropriate, twice-divorced, but incredibly charming Russell Markowitz is all too happy to reenter the Nickerson sisters’ lives. And always-accountable Ava will soon realize just how binding a contract can be…

I guess that beautifully sums the book up. It was an interesting story line and though both Lauren and Ava have their faults, they are both endearing. The men in the book, for a change, are not stereotypical. They are pretty interesting characters themselves and I liked the fact that the book was as much about them as it was about the sisters. The book is well written, easy to read and keeps you interested enough to sit with it until you turn the last page.

I would definitely recommend this one to any of your chick lit lovers out there looking for a nice light read.

Review: Anne of Green Gables

2009-03-05T11:00:00.001-05:00

Book: Anne of Green Gables
Published: 1908
Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Challenges: Orbis Terrarum 2009
My Short Review: Anne is a totally lovable character and this is easily one of my all time favorite books.
My Rating: 5 Stars

The year was 1998. I was 16 years old. I read Anne of Green Gables and all the other books in the series and loved them all! I remember that Anne of Green Gables was my favorite in the series, but I loved the other books as well! I totally identified with Anne. I was the garrulous one at home and I loved nature and day dreaming and Anne just seemed like me in so many ways! I even had a bosom buddy like Diana Barry – an angelic looking girl who was the sweetest ever and stood by me all the time! I even thought I had found my Gilbert Blythe! Those were the dreamy days.

I picked up Anne of Green Gables again this year – 10 years after I had first read it. I was curious to see what I’d think of the book now. I was amazed to see that I loved the book still. I no longer put myself in Anne’s shoes and no longer thought about having story clubs or inviting friends over for tea but I enjoyed the book nevertheless. I actually didn’t read it this time. I listened to the audio version that I downloaded from Librivox.

This would be my first stop in the Orbis Terrarum Challenge this year – Canada and I think it is a perfect book for this challenge. The beauty of Prince Edward Islands in the early 1900s is brought out beautifully in this book. Anne is a nature lover and through her descriptions we get to know about the beauty of the place!

Here’s a little blurb about the book for those of you unfortunate enough to have never read this:

Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are siblings who live together in Green Gables, a beautiful farm in Avonlea. They decide to adopt an orphan boy to help them with the farm work but by mistake, they get Anne Shirley – a tall, bony, freckled, smart, talkative 11 year old with bright red hair. They know they should send her back, but there’s something so endearing about her that they decide to keep her. Anne of Green Gables describes the first 5 years of Anne’s life in Green Gables. In this book you can see Anne transform into a beautiful young lady. And she gets more and more lovable as the book goes by.

I loved the book! It made me laugh at so many places and it made me cry as well! I realized that I had forgotten many parts of the book and remembered many other vividly! It was interesting to see what scenes made the most impact on me when I was 16! I personally think that these books can be read by women of all ages. It is definitely a fun read and remains one of my all-time favorites.

I am listening to the second book in the series now – Anne of Avonlea.

Dar, who blogs at Peeking Between the Pages and who was featured in my Book Lovers Recommendation section yesterday said that this was one of her all time favorite books! Bethany, who blogs at B&b Ex Libris just read and reviewed this book as well! Check out her review of the book here.

I am sure most of you have read this book. What was your favorite part in this book? What did you like most about it and what did you not like about it? Talk to me!:)

Review: The Invisible Wall

2009-02-25T10:33:00.001-05:00

Book: The Invisible Wall

Author: Harry Bernstein

Genre: Memoir
My short review: Very well written, simple and appealing story, vivid descriptions and a peep into lives of people in England during WW-I.

My rating: 4 Stars.

When I heard that Harry Bernstein was 92 when he started writing his first book, I knew that I was definitely going to read the book! It is really inspiring to see his determination to start writing at the age of 92. What made my decision easier was the fact that the person who recommended the book to me loved it and every review I found raved about it as well. So, that’s how The Invisible Wall landed on my nightstand.

Harry Bernstein’s writing appealed to me from the very first page. The Invisible Wall is a memoir. In this book, Harry describes his life before he immigrated to the United States. Harry was born into a poor Jewish family and lived in the Lancashire Mill Town. He had 4 older siblings (2 girls and 2 boys) and 1 younger sibling who came along much later in life. Harry’s family struggled to make ends meet. His father, who was a tailor by profession, preferred spending his evenings getting drunk rather than interacting with his family. He never talked to his children and didn’t bother too much about household affairs. Harry’s mom struggled to feed and clothe the children with the miniscule amount of money that her husband gave grudgingly for household affairs.

What is interesting about Harry’s childhood home is the street that his house was in. The street had houses on both sides. One side was occupied by Jewish families and the other by Christian Families. In spite of the proximity, the occupants of either side maintained such a distance between themselves that it felt like there was an invisible wall between the rows of houses. The interaction between the Jews and the Christians was minimal – restricted to occasional smiles and Friday evenings when the Christian women entered the Jewish houses to light a fire since the Jewish women had to observe Sabbath and could not do it. The descriptions of the street and the lives of the people have a very “D.H. Lawrence-touch” to them. Harry’s descriptions are vivid and you are transported to the England during WW-I.

What adds flavor the book is the love story that is featured in the book – not his own that but that of his older sister, Lily. Lily falls in love with a Christian boy from across the street. This is relatively unheard of in the street and the last time something like that happened, the girl was shipped off to Australia to live with her Jewish relatives and marry a Jewish man like she is supposed to do.

Since I am from India, I could totally understand the reaction of Harry’s family and their neighbors to the romance between Lily and Arthur. India is potpourri of castes and religions and romances across castes and religions is frowned upon and definitely not encouraged. Stories of inter-caste relationships make for good gossip among the ladies similar to what happens in this book as well.

The events on this street happen against the background of World War I. Boys and men are recruited from both sides of the street. Some come back affected in mind only, some come back injured both mentally and physically, and some don’t ever come back.

The Invisible Wall turned out to be a fabulous, entertaining read and I loved every page of the book. Even though it is a memoir, it reads like fiction since the time period that Harry writes about is not exactly contemporary. I guess that’s a big advantage of him writing this book when he is 92! Harry’s writing style is simple but powerful. His descriptions of the people and the places create wonderful images in your brain as you are reading the book. Some parts of the book tug at your heart and make you want to cry. Others are hilarious and make you want to laugh out loud. It is a quick read as it is not a long book either.

I would totally totally recommend this book to everyone reading this review. And I can’t wait to get my hands on Harry’s second book.

___________________

A few edits:

1. I just realized that this book would qualify for my Jewish Literature Challenge as well..So, that's 3 books done!:)

2. I forgot to inform you that Harry Bernstein's second book - Dreams is also out and I have that on my night stand..can't wait to pick that up immediately!

3.I also just found out that Harry Bernstein's third book is due to be out this april! he's 99 years old this year! Can you beleive it??? I am more and more amazed at his capability to do this!

___________________

Have you read this book? What did you think about it?

Review: Midori by Moonlight

2009-02-20T09:20:00.001-05:00

Book: Midori by Moonlight

Author: Wendy Nelson Tokunaga

Genre: Chick-lit
My Short Review: Refreshing new plot for a chick-lit, lovable characters and a quick and interesting read.

My rating: 4 Stars

Yet another immigrant story and yet another quest for the elusive “green card”… but this time, a much lighter story line. I had read a couple of reviews for “Midori by Moonlight” and I had picked it up from the library hoping to sneak it in after a heavy read. I found the perfect opportunity when I finished reading Kiran Desai’s Inheritance of Loss. I enjoyed Midori by Moonlight even more than I thought I would.

Midori is a young girl living in Japan and is in love with everything American. Kevin is an American visiting Japan. Midori and Kevin fall in love and he brings her to San Francisco with him to marry her. Midori is all excited about her American dream coming true. Soon after their engagement party, however, her world comes crashing when Kevin announces that he is dumping Midori to go back to his girlfriend Kimberley. Midori suddenly finds herself in a strange city with no fiancé, no knowledge of English, no job, a soon-to-be extinct savings account, an expiring visa, and no idea on what to do with her life! The only things she knows are these: baking cakes that are out of the world, and the fact that she doesn’t want to go back to Japan. This book is all about how the seemingly mild and timid Midori decides to take charge of her life and do everything that she can to make sure that she doesn’t go back to Japan.

Midori is extremely lovable. Her struggles with the idiomatic expressions in English are hilarious and her passion for baking is contagious...well, almost!(It got me thinking about what I might want to bake, if that counts!).I must however admit that there were times that I thought that she was a little stupid or should I just say, ignorant? For instance, the fact that it took her forever to realize that her roommate’s girlfriend was actually jealous of her! But I guess in spite of that, I still did like her a lot.

While managing to keep the light mood of the book, Wendy manages to sneak in quite a bit about the lives of people in contemporary Japan – the academic pressures of parents, the suffocative society norms for girls, etc.

I must say that I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it to you if you are looking for something light to read. I can assure you that it is a quick read and holds your attention throughout. You can most likely get through this in one sitting. I very nearly did!

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review: The Inheritance of Loss

2009-02-18T16:49:00.002-05:00

Book: The Inheritance of Loss

Author: Kiran Desai

Awards: Man Booker Prize 2006

My short review: Deep subject, Intense Writing, Beautiful Writing, Tough to Read

My Rating: 4 Stars

Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai is definitely one of the most complicated books I have read. Complicated in the sense that it has way too much happening in it - a lot of layers and you need to peel away each layer to expose what she is trying to get at. I spent 2 weeks reading this book and I am not sure I have done justice to it. I feel that there’s so much more to the book that I have missed. But I guess that is the reason that this is a Man Booker Prize winner. I had a tough time with the book but I know that it totally deserves the award.

In such a situation, it is difficult to write a concise review for this book. I am going to do my best here but I would highly recommend that you pick this book up as well and work your way through it to truly understand what I am trying to express here.

The Inheritance of Loss is definitely not an easy read. It is a book that is divided into two. On one side is the slums of New York filled with illegal immigrants struggling to find a way to live the “American dream”. On the other side is Kalimpong – a town on the Indian side of the Himalayas – a seemingly peaceful setting which is rocked with conflict. The background for the Kalimpong part of the book is the Gurkha revolution (riots caused by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF)) which happened in the late 1980s.

A very brief summary would probably say that the book is about the inhabitants of Cho Oyu (which is a dilapidated house in Kalimpong, a town on the Indian side of the Himalayas) and their associations.

Jemubhai Patel is a retired judge. He is rude, grumpy and arrogant. His grand daughter Sai comes to live with him (much against his wishes) when her parents die. She is an anglophile, just like her grand father but is different in all other aspects. She falls in love with her tutor Gyan who is a Nepali Gurkha. The cook is a master story teller who weaves fascinating stories about the judge and his son to make his mundane existence more exiting. The cook’s son, Biju, is in New York shuttling from one restaurant basement to another in an eternal chase for the elusive “green card” and of course to escape from the immigration officials.

Through the lives of these five characters, Kiran Desai addresses deeper issues such as the negative impact of globalization and the legacy of colonialism. This is a story of the emotional result of people going between the east and the west over many generations. This is a book that is not about how lovely multi-culturism is but about how difficult it is.

The overall tone of the book is pessimistic. Even towards the end, when you’d hope for everything to magically become better, Desai leaves the characters stranded as they are and that gives you a feeling of incompleteness. At times, the depth of the subject and the intensity of the writing overwhelmed me and I had to put the book down for a while before I could recharge myself to pick it up again.

In spite of all the difficulty in reading, I kept going only because Desai’s writing is a pleasure to read. Her descriptions are vivid – pleasurable when you can feel the cool Himalayan breeze but icky when it is a rat nibbling on your hair in the New York slums. At times, she can make you feel completely involved in the story and at other times, she makes you feel cold and uninvolved - like having a peep into your neighbor’s house. As I mentioned before, no review can do justice to this book. I wouldn’t easily recommend this book to everyone. It is definitely not an entertaining read and I would recommend it only if you are really in the mood to totally drown into the world as portrayed by Desai. If you are a literature fanatic like me, you should surely pick this book up – just to drown in and admire her style of writing.

Have you read this book? Then you know how inadequate my review is. I would love to hear your views on this one.

Haven’t read this one? What are your thoughts? Are you tempted to give this a shot?

Review: The Red Leather Diary

2009-02-09T13:04:00.010-05:00

Book: The Red Leather Diary

Author: Lily Koppel

My Short Review: Very interesting premise, a fascinating story, a peep at the life in New York in the early 1930s.A little slow.

My rating: 4 Stars

Challenge: Jewish Literature Challenge

I came across a description of “The Red Leather Diary” during a Jewish Book Festival here in Atlanta. The cover of the book instantly caught my eye and the story line immediately made me add to it my wishlist. I had bookmarked this book for the Jewish Literature Challenge and I finally got to it this month.

The premise of “The Red Leather Diary” is very interesting. Lily Koppel is a journalist. She lives in New York City and writes for the New York Times. One day in October 2003, Lily walks outside her apartment in 98, Riverside Drive to find a dumpster full of old trunks. The building management had decided to clean out the storage room in the basement and all unclaimed trunks were being discarded. Some of the trunks dated back to the early twentieth century.

In this dumpster, among other things, Lily finds a diary. Little red flakes were crumbling off the worn cover. Many many years ago, this would have been an attractive red leather diary with its own key. The Diary has a page for each date and on each page, and each page had 5 sections for 5 different years.

The diary belonged to a young jewish girl – Florence Wolfson. Florence received the diary on August 11, 1929 for her fourteenth birthday. Every day for the next 5 years, Florence diligently wrote in her little red book. She shared the most memorable moments of every single day for the 5 years until she turned 19. Lily reads the diary and goes on a quest to find Florence. The surprising thing is that she finds Florence, now 90 years old. This book is Florence’s story.

What is charming about the book is the fact that Florence is no special child. I mean with an IQ of 150, she’s gifted and all that… but apart from that, her life is extremely normal. Like most girls her age, she is obsessed with her looks and with boys (and maybe some girls as well!). She spends her days window shopping, visiting museums, drawing, painting, reading, watching plays, etc.

What I enjoyed tremendously about the book was that it gave us a peep into the life of people in New York in the early thirties. 1930s is not that ancient – in fact, Florence is still alive. But it is amazing to see how everything has changed in this short period of time. Everything from the way people think and behave to the most obvious change – technological advancements. One more thing that I really enjoyed were the photographs that were found throughout the book. It was fun to associate the descriptions to real faces and places.

Lily Koppel has definitely put in a lot of effort to recreate the life of Florence based on the few lines she wrote in her diary. Her effort is commendable.

There is one little thing that I must mention here. I found the book a little slow moving at times. There were times when I got a little tired of Florence and had to put the book down and just watch some TV. The premise was very interesting. I sometimes wished that the book could have been a little shorter.
But that might not even be because of the book. I have been in a ready frenzy the last few weeks and it might just be time for me to take a little break before delving into my next book.
Here’s a description from the back cover of the book
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“The young woman who emerged from the diary’s pages had huge ambitions, even if chasing them proved daunting. February 21, 1931. Went to the Museum of Modern Art and almost passed out from sheer jealousy – I can’t even paint an apple yet – it’s heartbreaking! January 16, 1932. I couldn’t study today and went to the museum to pass a morning of agonizing beauty – blown glass, jade and exquisite embroideries. April 10, 1932. Wrote all day – and my story is still incomplete. September 2, 1934. Planning a play on Wordsworth – possibilities are infinite. October 12, 1934. How I love to inflict pain on my characters!

What she craved most was to be enveloped in a grand passion that would transform her life. July 3, 1932. Five hours of tennis and glorious happiness – all I want is someone to love – I feel incomplete.”

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That was a teaser that roped me in! Are you tempted??

Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

Review: The Scent of Sake

2009-02-04T16:20:00.015-05:00

Book: Scent of Sake
Author: Joyce Lebra

My short Review: Well researched, well written, absorbing plot, Enjoyable
My Rating: 5 Stars

Yet another 5 Star read? Yes! And I must tell you that I am definitely trying not to be very generous with my stars. But I can’t really help it if I get 3 fascinating books to read in a single month!

The Scent of Sake is set in Japan in the 1800s. The protagonist, Rie Omura, belongs to the Omura household – producers of the White Tiger Sake, one of Japan’s leading Sake brands. Through incidents in Rie’s life, we get to see how the reputation and the betterment of the Sake business take precedence over everything else in the house. Family decisions, even those of marriage, etc, are made based on the benefits to the business. Rie is passionate about the business as well and is ready to sacrifice her personal life and marry a man she is not attracted to solely for the sake of the business. When she realizes that her husband, Jihei, is not motivated and driven enough to help advance the business, she decides to take business matters in her own hands.

What seems like a simple enough decision today, was an unthinkable one in Japan in the 1800s. The Sake business is a male-dominated world and there is no place for a woman in that world – not even for a woman like Rie who is determined, driven and has the most amazing sense of timing when it comes to making business decisions. Rie is nevertheless determined to fight all odds (starting with her very disapproving husband) and enter the Sake world. She overhears conversations, tracks sales figures, and acquaints herself well with the working and then tries to sneak in suggestions here and there. Slowly, her stand in the family business becomes stronger and she is recognized for her business acumen.

To complement the success of her diversifying efforts, Rie starts taking family decisions to benefit the sake business just like how it was done in the past. Even without realizing, the sweet Rie slowly transforms into a hard, determined, business woman whose sole focus in life is business. Her employees fear her and her family members begin to detest her for her lack of concern for their feelings. But Rie is focused on only goal – making the Omura household the number one Sake producers of Japan – and she will not rest until she has achieved what she wanted.

“Scent of Sake” was a well written book. In spite of having so many characters and a lot of little parallel stories, Joyce Lebra manages to keep the attention on Rie. The character guide at the beginning of the book is very helpful since there are so many characters. When I started the book, I was a little apprehensive. I knew that Joyce Lebra is a professor of Japanese history by profession and I felt that the might have a lot of boring facts and history details to deal with. But I was completely mistaken. There was a lot of history in the book, but the details were so well woven into the story that it only made the book even more interesting.

I am very interesting in learning about different cultures around the world and this was a fantastic learning experience and a very enjoyable one at that.

I very highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about Japanese culture or about strong willed women who do not hesitate defy norms. It is a very well written book and there’s not a single slow page in the entire book.

Thanks to Professor Joyce Libra for sending me a review copy of this book.

Review: Remember Me?

2009-02-03T19:13:00.022-05:00

Book: Remember Me

Author: Sophie Kinsella

My Short Review: Quick to read, very well written, very very entertaining!

My rating: 4 Stars( The highest I would give for a chick-lit book)

I read the Shopaholic Series a couple of years ago. It all started when I was browsing the library shelves and "The Undomestic Goddess" caught my eye. I loved the book. You can find my review here . I immediately googled Sophie Kinsella and realized that she'd written this whole series of Shopaholic books. I picked up "confessions of a shopaholic" and I was instantly addicted. My very brief review of the series can be found here .

It has been a while since I read the Kinsella books and I had "remember me" on my wishlist for a long time. I was browsing in the library yesterday and suddenly the bright yellow cover caught my eye. I immediately picked it up and as predicted, couldn't put it down!

Lexi Smart is out with her friends one night and it has not been a great day - she didnt get the much required bonus at work, her boyfriend stood her up, it is her dad's funeral the next day and just when she thinks things couldn't get worse, she falls down a flight a stairs and everything goes blank. She wakes up in the hospital all set to get back to the sucky life she's been leading only to realize that it is no longer 2004. It is 2007 and she's in the hospital because she's had an accident in her convertible mercedes. She finds herself slimmer (by two whole dress sizes), her dracula-teeth have been fixed, her bitten nails are manicured.. and in short, she's totally different.
Lexi is diagnosed with partial amnesia.. and she can't remember anything that happened after that fall in 2004. But one thing is for certain.. her life has completely transformed in the 3 years. She looks like a bombshell, drives a convertible mercedes, has a millionaire husband, and has also somehow becomes the boss of the department she used to works in!

Sophie Kinsella's writing is as addictive as ever in this book. It is a very light read and keeps you glued from the first page till the last. If you enjoy light reads I would totally recommend Kinsella's books to you..and this one for sure! If you've already read this one, I'd love to hear your comments!

Review: In the convent of Little Flowers

2009-01-29T17:14:00.019-05:00

Book: In the Convent of Little Flowers

Genre: Collection of Short Stories

Author: Indu Sundaresan

My short review: Heartbreaking stories, very realistic situations and characters, simple but powerful writing, thought provoking and highly enjoyable!

My rating: 5 full stars, of course!

Books by Indian authors are “comfort books” for me. As much as I love being in Atlanta, I totally miss India. I miss jostling my way through crowded streets, sneaking out with my brother and eating on “forbidden” roadside stalls, standing on the balcony on Sunday mornings and figuring out what my neighbors are having for lunch just by the scents relayed to me by the breeze, haggling with hawkers and auto rickshaw drivers, hmm!

I love reading books set in

India

– books in which the sights and smells are palpable - books that take me back home. “In the Convent of Little Flowers” was no exception. I totally loved the book! Thanks to the author, Indu Sundaresan, for sending it to me!

“In the Convent of Little Flowers” is a collection of nine short stories. At the end of the book, Indu has described how she came up with the idea for each of the stories in the book. I found that section very interesting. I was fascinated to read that the idea for each story came from real incidents – incidents that she got to know either through news tidbits, emails, discussion with friends, etc - Events that she pondered about until a new story was born out of it. She fictionalized the news tidbit and created fascinating stories! I cannot do justice to the description of the book. I loved it that much.

Indu Sundaresan is an extremely talented writer. Her characters are very real – so real that you almost feel that you know that in your actual life. She has a fascinating style of writing. You are pulled into the story from the very first line and you cannot put the book down until you’ve read the very last. And when you are done reading the last story, it only makes you sad because you want to keep reading more!

The stories are all about Indians and most of the stories are set in India. In each story, there is a clash between the culture, customs and traditions being followed in India for generations and the new ideals that are slowly seeping into the minds of youngsters these days. Each story is very unique in its own way. Some were emotional, some horrifying, and one totally scandalous!

The stories evoked very strong responses in me. I was on the verge of tears when I read “Three and a half seconds”. It was heartbreaking to read about an abusive son who ill treats his meek and hardworking parents. In yet another story, I could almost feel the Peon’s shame when his beautiful daughter has a child out of wedlock. And when I read about the village where a child was not only forced to marry an old man but also jump into his funeral pyre to show her dedication towards him, I wanted to run there and throttle the necks of her parents!

I really enjoyed this book. I just cannot find the words to describe how much I liked it. One reason I really enjoyed the book was because of the setting. The stories were set in places that were familiar to me. I could relate to the emotions of the people and their thought processes. Having grown up in India I have felt the internal dilemma between behaving according to traditions and following your mind to do what seems appropriate in today's world. Indu beautifully brings out the clash in her stories.

I am not sure if someone who’s never been in India would be affected the same way I was while reading the book. I’d be curious to see how they’d see the book. Have you read the book? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Haven’t read this book? I would totally recommend you to grab a copy of this one!

Review: The White Tiger

2009-01-27T16:42:00.008-05:00

Book: The White Tiger

Author: Aravind Adiga

Claim to Fame: Man-Booker Prize winner – 2008

My Short Review: Very well written, strong and well defined characters, dark humor, very interesting story line, easy to read.

My Rating: 5 Stars (yes! All 5!)

Well, I cannot avoid this task any more. I have to make up my mind, sit down and pen my thoughts on this book. Even before I start my review for this book, I should mention that I am totally totally honored by my friends’ trust in my taste in books. I have had at least 20 emails from various people asking me if I have read “The White Tiger” and what I thought about it and if I would recommend it. Geez! That’s the first time I came close to feeling that my opinion is valued (at least when it comes to books!). Thanks, Folks. I hope my review doesn’t let you down!

But the bad side to this is that there is tremendous pressure on me right now. A pressure to make sure I present all sides of this multi-faceted Man-Booker Prize winner.

Frankly, I cannot make up my mind on this one. I am sharing an intense love-hate relationship with this book right now. The “Literature Enthusiast” in me loved this book and the “Indian” in me hated it.

Let me start by giving you a brief description of the book. “The White Tiger” is a novel is epistolary format – the whole book is a single letter - A single letter written over 7 nights - A letter addressed to the Premier of China; A letter written by a person who claims to have a true understanding of the current status of India; A letter written by a person who is a Chauffer turned Murderer turned Entrepreneur.

Balram Halwai is

India

’s very own “rags to riches” story. He is originally from Laxmangarh, a small tiny village in northern India. His dad is a rickshaw driver and for those who are not aware of rickshaws, this is a physically demanding job that is definitely not lucrative. Balram is forced to leave school and work in a tea shop to supplement the family income with yet another meager salary. Sick of being stuck in the poverty rut, he leaves the village in search of wealth. For Balram, there is no looking back. He lies his way into becoming a chauffer for a wealthy “recently-returned-from-New York” boss and then murders his way into becoming an entrepreneur.

Balram Halwai is not your typical evil rogue. He is just another man who is sick of the “rooster coop” (this is the collective noun he gives to describe the servants of India) and wants to break out of it and do something worthwhile in his life. He doesn’t want to be the one waiting in the parking decks of expensive malls discussing inane stuff with other similar “roosters”. He wants to be the one who gets to leave his chauffer with his expensive car in the parking deck and walk around in the malls. In spite of his criminal actions, it is impossible to hate Balram. At least, I couldn’t. He lied, he cheated, he killed, he didn’t respect his parents, he blackmailed, he broke every rule possible in the rule book but yet, it is impossible to hate him for what he has done. I really enjoyed his sense of humor as well – not the straight forward funny humor – but a dark humor. His satirical view of life was a different perspective – something that I enjoyed reading.

Aravind Adiga is a truly talented writer. The book kept me hooked from the very first line to the very last. There was never a single boring line in the entire book. I enjoyed the style of writing and I enjoyed the twists in tale. I personally thought it was very very well written. I read a couple of reviews before I started reading the book and most of them seemed to mention that the letter to the Premier of China was a very weak pretext for the frame of the story. I thought it was a perfect way of showing how Balram had changed. His confidence in himself is admirable. He even has the audacity to think that he has risen to a level in life where he has the right to brief the Premier of China on the true state of affairs in

India

However….(you knew the “however” was coming, didn’t you?).. In spite of liking everything about the writing, there were a lot of things about the book that disturbed me. One important thing was the way Aravind Adiga has portrayed India. Someone who lives in India knows that India has two sides – the rich, educated side that dominates the IT industry and also a poorer side that just cannot be avoided. It wasn’t the portrayal of the poor that bothered me. It was lack of values that everyone seemed to be demonstrating that kinda got to me. I must say that I have always been proud of the family values we cherish, the respect we give our elders, our belief in God (not matter what religion), the pride we feel when we talk about the country…(I could just go on but I really should stop here coz I have made my point).. But somehow, the characters in “The White Tiger” disregarded most of these values. Adiga does mention, in an interview, that the thoughts and feelings towards India and Indians are solely Balram’s and in no way reflect his feelings for the country. But even then, I felt that the whole book gave a false image of the values of Indian people – both rich and poor. Or rather, I am scared that people who haven’t been to

India

and who don’t know what it is like will get a really wrong impression based on the things the read in books like this.

I know many of you belong to that category. Have you read “The White Tiger”? What was your impression about the

India

that was portrayed in the book? If you’ve read the book or read reviews about the book I would love to hear your views on this one.

In spite of saying what I said about the portrayal of India, I am still giving the book full 5 stars. I must say that it was very well written and a must read! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read it. It is an easy, quick read and very interesting. I really enjoyed reading it and I hope you do too!

Review: Who By Fire

2009-01-16T15:19:00.000-05:00

Book: Who By Fire

Author: Diana Spechler

My short review – Interesting premise, Well Developed Characters, Compelling Story

My Rating – 3.5 Stars

When Diana Spelcher contacted me asking me if I would be interested in reading and reviewing this book, I was excited! Honestly. I had been reading rave reviews for this book all around and I definitely wanted to read it sometime. Thanks for sending me a review copy, Diana. I really enjoyed reading the book.

If you are a regular in the book blogging circles, you would have seen many reviews for “Who by Fire” already. And you might have also seen that all the reviews are positive ones (at least the ones I have come across). My blog is just going to join that list as well. I enjoyed reading the book and would definitely recommend it to others.

In case this is the first time, you are hearing about this book – then here’s a little summary of the book for you. “Who by Fire” is a novel about a dysfunctional family. And there is a root to the dis-functionality (If that is even a word). Many years ago, the youngest child in the family – Alena disappears. She is kidnapped while playing in front of her house. She never comes back. Diana very beautifully shows the effect of such a traumatic incident on the remaining family members. The father slowly detaches himself from his wife and his remaining two children and eventually just moves out of their lives to start afresh with a new family. The mother handles the sorrow of both – her daughter’s unexplained disappearance and her husband’s explained one – in her own way. Never mentioning anything explicitly, she makes the remaining children – Bits and Ash somehow feel guilty for the disappearance of their younger sister. Bits deals with the absence of parental love in her life by becoming something along the lines of a sex addict. And Ash deals with the guilt in his life by deciding to move to

Israel

and become an Orthodox Jew.

The thing that I liked about the book was the fact that Diana let the characters be real. They each have their own faults. They make mistakes. They are human. I couldn’t get myself to like either Ash or Bits but I loved the book and that has never happened to me before. I always thought it was necessary to like the characters and relate to them to actually enjoy the book… Guess I was wrong!

The book turned out to be quite a learning experience for me as well. I had no idea about the practices and beliefs of orthodox Jews and I learnt quite a bit from the book. I am still debating on whether to do the Jewish Reading Challenge that is currently in progress. But if I decide to participate in it, this would be my official first book for the challenge!

In case you are curious about the title of the book, here is the prayer that the line came from:

From the liturgy of the Day of Atonement, there is this prayer.
Rosh Hashanah is the New Year in the Jewish liturgy. The Book of Life
contents the fate of every sinner. Ten days later, at Yom Kippur,
depending on wether the sinner repents or not, his fate is sealed.

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed
And on Yom Kippur it is sealed
How many shall die and how many shall be born
Who shall live and who shall die
Who at the measure of days and who before
Who by fire and who by water
Who by the sword and who by wild beasts
Who by hunger and who by thirst
Who by earthquake and who by plague
Who by strangling and who by stoning
Who shall have rest and who shall go wandering
Who will be tranquil and who shall be harassed
Who shall be at ease and who shall be afflicted
Who shall become poor and who shall become rich
Who shall be brought low and who shall be raised high.

Review: My Splendid Concubine

2009-01-13T10:34:00.002-05:00

Book: My Splendid Concubine
Author: Lloyd Lofthouse
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: iUniverse Publisher’s Choice
Pages: 365
My Rating: 2.5/5

Sir Robert Hart was a British Consular Official in China. He is referred to as the Father of China’s modernization. He was the architect behind China’s railroads, postal network, telegraph systems and schools. No westerner ever achieved Hart’s status and level of power in China. Hart was born and raised in Ireland. He moved to China in 1854 to become an interpreter for the British Consulate in China.

The book “My Splendid Concubine” is a historical fiction written by Lloyd Lofthouse. It is based on Sir Robert Hart’s life in China and concentrates on one side –his dark side(if we can call it that) which was kept a secret and not known to many. The Hart in this book is not the “Father of China’s Modernization” but rather an ordinary man who sleeps with his boss’s concubine, who has underhand dealings with a notorious opium dealer, etc. The first chapter of the book happens in 1908 when Hart is old and sick. He meets with the Empress of China before leaving China for good and returning to his home country – Ireland. During that brief meeting with her, he confides in her. He tells her a secret that he’s been living with in China – his concubine, Ayaou.

The rest of the book is about Hart’s and Ayaou’s passionate love affair. Hart first meets Ayaou when he rescues her family during a violent revolt. Later at a friend’s palce, he is surprised to see her again and realizes that her dad is trying to sell her and her sisters as concubines to the highest bidder. Hart is willing to pay any amount to get her but by a cruel twist of events she is sold to a heartless man – Ward. Hart eventually lands up buying her sister Shao-Mei to protect her. But since he is in love with Ayaou, he is unable to take Shao-Mei as a concubine in the truest sense. By a twist of events, Hart manages to get hold of Ayaou again. Though he intends to pay Ward for her, he never gets around to doing it. Hart moves into a house with Ayaou and Shao-Mei and spends some of the happiest moments of his life with his two girls.

“My Splendid Concubine” is a well researched book and gives us an peek into the life of the Chinese in the early 20th century. We learn a lot about their customs and traditions. I loved that part of the book.

The only thing that I could have done without was the excessive sexual content. It is true that many women in the China that we are reading about in the book are merely treated as sex slaves. They do very little in their lives apart from entertaining the men and “warming their beds”. It is for this fact alone that I give this book only 2.5 stars.

Apart from that, I enjoyed reading the book. Thanks to Dorothy from Pump Up Your Book Promotion for sending me a review copy of this book.

Review: Misadventures of Oliver Booth

2009-01-08T10:00:00.003-05:00

Title: Misadventures of Oliver Booth

Author: David Desmond

Genre: Satire

Publisher: Green Leaf Book Group Press

Pages: 205

Short Review: Hilarious from start to finish.

Rating: 3 Stars [Liked it!]

Recommend to Others –Yes!

Oliver Booth is not your typical likeable protagonist. In fact, he is quite repulsive. He is obese, clumsy, disgusting, stinky, sweaty, selfish, arrogant and greedy. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida – a place where homes range from about two million dollars to about 200 million. And no! Oliver Booth is not rich. He owns an “antique” store around the corner of the

Worth Avenue

– the shopping center of Palm Beach. His so called flashy antiques are all imported from Mexico and look as cheap as they really are worth. Oliver tries his very best to join the ranks of Palm Beach’s high society. But all his attempts are unsuccessful and totally hilarious.

Oliver’s (mis)adventures are not restricted to Palm Beach alone. When he is sent on an assignment to Paris, he manages to make an even bigger fool of himself much to the amusement of all around him and the readers.

If the whole book were about Oliver alone, it might have been just too much to handle. Thankfully, we have Bernard - A smart French boy whom Oliver hires as an apprentice. Bernard is everything that Oliver is not. He is smart, in shape, honest and likable.

And just like how any satire should be, this book is short and sweet. David Desmond is a talented writer. The book is humorous from start to finish and there are no slow parts in between. I have to mention that it is a pretty quick read. I started it last night after getting back home from work and had no intentions of reading more than a couple of chapters. But yes… by the time I went to sleep, I was done with the book!

I totally enjoyed reading this book. This was a good and refreshing change after reading “breathing out the ghost”. I am sure you will enjoy reading this as well. Give it a shot!

Thanks to David Desmond for sending me a review copy of this book! David, I sure did enjoy the world of Oliver Booth. I can’t wait to read more books about him.

Oliver Booth has his own website. You can visit it here to learn more about the book and the author. The page I enjoyed the most was the one with images from both Palm Beach and Paris (David lives in Palm Beach and has a house in Paris as well and so, is well acquainted with both places). There are quotes from the book linking each image to the relevant section in the book and it suddenly makes the whole thing more real!:)

Review: Breathing Out The Ghost

2009-01-06T09:25:00.002-05:00

Book: Breathing Out the Ghost

Author: Kirk Curnutt

Publisher: River City Publishing

Pages: 329

My Review Summary: Interesting Plot, Well defined Characters, Well Written, Socially Relevant Theme.

My score: 4 stars!!

When I read the synopsis of "Breathing Out The Ghost", I knew at once that by agreeing to read this book, I was agreeing to venture out of my comfort zone. But something about the book made me want to take that step. I am glad I did. I surprised myself by actually enjoying the book and missing it when I was done with it.

"Breathing Out the Ghost" is not a simple book to describe. Colin St.Claire leaves his son AJ in the car for a few minutes when he rushes into Home Depot to grab a few things quickly. He returns to find the boy missing. Unable to sit at home waiting for his son to show up, Colin decides to hit the roads - in search of AJ or at least, the person who Colin believes is responsible. But Colin's is not an organized hunt. He wanders aimlessly,his reason getting more and more clouded by lack of sleep and amphetamines. He lands up in towns where little children are missing - helping them in his own way.

The book is not just about Colin. Robert Heim is also on a mission. A mission to save Colin St.Clair. And in the process, he is risking the stable marriage that he has. Heim is a private investigator who recently lost his license. One fine day, after hearing from Colin, he takes off without telling his wife the real reason why he was leaving. He leaves not knowing if his marriage would wait for him when he came back.

And then, there is Beverly Pruitt... "Sis Pruitt". Sis's daughter Patty was raped and murdered by a man for no reason. He had assumed that a smile at the ice cream parlor was an invitation to rape. Sis and her husband Pete are yet to get over what happened to Patty - even after 18 years of her death.

Kirk is a master story teller. He makes you feel the pain of the loss of a loved one. He makes Colin St Claire and Sis Pruitt so real that you feel you actually know them!

Breathing Out The Ghost is a well written book and I totally recommend it to everyone. hmm..actually, not for "everyone". The whole concept of child molestation and sexually explicit scenes involving Dickie and the foul language used in some places would make the book unsuitable for teens.

I read this book as part of Kirk's Book Tour with TLC. Thanks to Lisa for including me in this tour. Thanks to Kirk for sending me a copy of the book and for including a personal message.

To learn more about Kirk and about this book, check out other stops in this book tour . You can also visit Kirk's website here .

I will be posting a guest post by Kirk later today.. so please stop by again to read what he has to say about the setting of the book.

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

2008-12-27T09:31:00.002-05:00

A while ago, softdrink posted a review for this book. As always, she brought in a whole new innovative approach to the review and I loved the sound of the book right away. I even mentioned that in her comments. Being the sweetheart that she is, she sent me her copy of the book!:) Thank you so much softdrink! I totally appreciate your kind gesture!

And of course, no review can even match hers. So head over to her blog immediately and check out her awesome review before coming back here to see my thoughts.

The book was just what I expected it to be – different, interesting and thought provoking. It is not a friendly cheerful book – not when the title “Thirteen Reasons Why” refers to the reasons why a school girl eventually commits suicide. A couple of weeks after Hannah Baker commits suicide Clay Jensen returns from school to find a package addressed to him by his front door. It is a shoe box with 7 cassette tapes. The box is sent by Hannah to the first person on her list – Justin Foley – Cassette 1 – Side A. And then is passed on in order to the 13 people who figure on the list. The Baker’s Dozen. Clay realizes that he’s received the box because he is on the list and he cannot figure out why!

With a map of the city and Hannah’s voice as his tour guide, Clay sets out for what would turn out to be one of the most memorable nights of his life – not necessarily in the good sense. And just like Clay, who just cannot get himself to put the tape down, you won’t be able to put the book down. I can assure you that much!

Jay Asher is a fantastic writer and it is tough to believe that this is his debut novel. Though it is a YA novel, I think it has something for people of all ages and I am sure it will also appeal to people of all ages. I got this book on Saturday and I was stuck to it throughout the weekend. I couldn’t put it down until I had turned the last page.

One thing I must mention here is that though the book revolves around one word – suicide, it is not a gloomy, morose book. Jay even manages to make you laugh sometimes.

And another thing that I have to definitely mention is the fact that the book is incredibly perceptive. Jay describes the sequence of events that eventually lead Hannah to do what she did. Some of the events are pretty minor – a rumor, a snicker, a joke, a pat. And some are a little more serious – back-biting, deceiving, taking advantage of, etc… but as you can nothing out of the ordinary - Nothing that doesn’t happen to every one of us. And yet, some of us let it affect it, some don’t. Some of the affected choose not to do anything about it, while there are some, like Hannah, who take extreme steps.

I think that this book is extremely important in that, it makes us realize that it is totally necessary to pay attention to small details and help kids when we can. Personally, this book affected me more than I would have liked it to. Those who know me personally know what I am talking about. It is hard not to think about how the world would be so much better if any single person who decides to take his/her life, leaves behind a note (or even a series of tapes) telling you why they eventually decided to do such a thing. Suicide is a very painful thing to go through – for everyone involved. It is an end without a closure – with so many unanswered questions and unsaid words. Nobody should have to go through it and this book gives us hope. It brings the message that if you are attentive, you can help more than you think you can!

Read this book! (I cannot give a stronger recommendation!)

Review: I Choose to be Happy

2008-12-24T10:00:00.005-05:00

Sometimes, when you least expect it, a book takes you by surprise and just squeezes your heart out. “I Choose to be Happy” is one such book.

Missy Jenkins is the survivor of a school shooting in 1997 in Paducah, Kentucky. The school – Heath High School. The Date – December 1, 1997. A seemingly normal (and slightly nerdy) boy, Michael Carneal walked into school one morning and randomly started shooting a prayer group. Three girls were killed on the spot and 5 were injured. Missy Jenkins was one of the 5 injured. The shooting left her paralyzed from chest down. She was 15 years old. The incident happened less than a month before her 16th birthday. Tragic, I know. Her birthday is today, December 24, 2008 and I thought that this would be the perfect day to post my review of this book. Happy Birthday, Missy!

What makes the book special is Missy’s attitude. Hours after the shooting, right after she got to know that she was going to be paralyzed chest down and was probably going to be wheel chair ridden for the rest of her life, Missy made the biggest decision of her life. A decision that made her the person she is today. A decision that we would all like to think was easy, but we know deep down that we wouldn’t have done it. She decided to forgive Michael and get on with her life. At the tender age of 15, a girl in the hospital reasoned that forgiving the guy who shot her and paralyzed her chest down would be the only way to get over the incident and get on with her life. Isn’t that amazing? That one line changed the way I looked at life. What is the point in harboring ill feelings towards anyone? It is so easy to take umbrage and feed the fire of hatred forever. What Missy did on December 1, 1997 is something that every one of us should take inspiration from. A line that we should think about when faced with adversity.

From that point, there was no looking back for Missy. The book describes her efforts to resume normalcy in life. Being paralyzed from chest down is not easy. Missy had to practically learn everything again from scratch – right from “how to sit down”. The difficulties she went through break your heart but at the same time, you can’t help but admire her perseverance, determination and best of all – her positive attitude. She was always thankful for having survived the incident and never once complained about being paraplegic for the rest of her life.

In addition to Missy’s own tremendous efforts, what really helped her get to where she is now are a loving family and a very supportive community. Her parents and siblings practically gave up their lives to be with Missy and never leave her alone even for a single waking moment. The Paducah community came together to help the Jenkins family, and all other families that were victims of this incident. Letters and cards from all over the world did make a difference to Missy. Her mom read out every card that came for her. The donations that came in went into a fund that helped Missy for all her therapy sessions. The book reaffirms our faith in humanity.

Missy’s story is one that is filled with hope, determination, love and any other positive attitude you can think of. There is nothing but a happy ending for such a story. Missy is still paralyzed from chest down today. But she has a life. She is married and has a very very cute son. She works as a school counselor. She hopes to help children like Michael at the time they need help and wait until they show up at school with a gun in hand.

I could go on and on about her and the book but I think the better alternative would be for you to get hold of your own copy. Missy Jenkins is a very admirable person and this is a book that every one of us has to read – without exception. This is a book you can turn to in hard times for inspiration. Seriously!

Visit Missy's website here.

Thanks to Langmarc Publishing for sending me a review copy of this book.

Review: Jack with a Twist

2008-12-19T11:00:00.001-05:00

Jack with a Twist is the second book by Brenda Janowitz. Her first book, Scot on the Rocks was published in 2007 and describes the misadventures of Brooke Miller, a Manhattan attorney, who attends her ex-boyfriend’s wedding.

In Jack with a Twist, we meet Brooke Miller again and this time, it is for her own wedding! Let me first tell you this. You don’t have to read Scot on the Rocks before you read Jack with a Twist. I had no idea about Scot on the Rocks when I read Jack with a Twist and it was a super read. There are references to the previous book in here at all!

Anyways, getting back to the book, Brooke is all caught up with planning her own wedding. Just when she finds the perfect gown that she loves (and it doesn’t make her look fat!), she also lands the biggest case of her life at work! How much better can things get? Perfect, right? Hmm… wrong! Unfortunately for Brooke, the opposing attorney is proving to be quite a handful. He doesn’t hesitate to pull all the dirty tricks in the law books and is hell bent on overloading her with work – so much so that she doesn’t even have time to finish planning her own wedding! But wait a minute, is there even going to be a wedding? Highly improbable considering that the attorney from hell is none other than Brooke’s fiancé and the love of her life – Jack!

Jack with a Twist is hilarious and a perfect light read. Brooke is a lovable character and of course, completely relatable to (I am sure you’re mom’s nagged you about buying dresses with sleeves that hide your fat arms, right??). I really enjoyed reading this book… and who wouldn’t? Didn’t you find the premise of this book interesting?? I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a light read.

I have to thank Brenda Janowitz and her publicist for sending me a review copy of this book!

Review: Professors' Wives' Club

2008-12-17T10:00:00.002-05:00

I won a copy of this book at a giveaway in Dar’s blog and after some issues with the mail, it finally arrived last week. I couldn’t wait to start reading it. After reading so many rave reviews for it all over the blog-o-sphere, I was kinda sure I would surely like the book. And I did. Thank you so much Dar!

If you still don’t know what this book is about, here’s a short description. The book is about 4 ladies – wives of professors who live at the faculty housing at the fictional Manhattan U. The 4 women are very different. Mary is the author of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Hannah is a former model. Sophia gave up a successful career as an agent in LA to become a stay at home mom in New York. Ashleigh is a lawyer. They get to know each other and start bonding because of one reason – a little private garden near the faculty housing. The garden is the sanctuary for each one of them. It is the place where they go when they need to deal with their issues and boy do they have issues. One of them is dealing with an abusive, dominating husband.

Another just cheated on her husband with her professor and is swallowed by guilt. Yet another is a lesbian and cannot figure out the right away to inform her strict senator dad. And the fourth cannot figure out if she should have actually given up a career to stay at home and wait, was her husband cheating on her??

The four women decide to join forces when Dean Havemeyer suddenly decides to demolish the garden to build a parking garage instead. Coming together for a common cause, they eventually find strength to deal with the issues that they are each battling against.

It is hard to believe that this is Joanne Rendell’s first book. It is very well written. Each of the four women has her own faults but overall, they are all very likeable. There is a light element to the whole book but at the same time, Joanne doesn’t shy away from dealing with topics like physical abuse. She puts across the point that physical abuse is not something that is prevalent in only lower classes of society. Sometimes rich and educated me also tend to be physically abusive and it is something that shouldn’t be tolerated!

I loved this book. It was a page turner and I had a very tough time putting the book down until I had turned the very last page.

This would have been enough to make the book a roaring success. But Joanne doesn’t stop here. She brings in a tough of suspense and mystery to this as well… in the form of a literary character… can it get any better? I loved the references to Edgar Allen Poe and I shouldn’t be saying anything more than this, coz I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag.

You still haven’t read this book? I think you should get a copy of this right away and trust me, you won’t regret it!

Review: Lady Susan

2008-12-15T09:38:00.005-05:00

In an effort to complete the Classics Challenge, I read Lady Susan by Jane Austen as my fifth and final book. I must say that it has been quite an ordeal and I did manage to abandon a couple of books in the middle. I made the mistake of picking 5 heavy books for the challenge. I really should have had a few light ones in the middle. Anyways, shall follow my own piece of advice next year (Trish, hope you are planning to host the Challenge again. There’s no way I am reading Classics without a challenge!).

Lady Susan was one of Jane Austen’s first few novels (if you could even call that one).According to Wikipedia, the book was written sometime around 1794, but it was not published until 1871. The major part of this short novel is in letter format. The central character of the novel is Lady Susan. Lady Susan is far from being charming and nice like the central characters of other Austen novels. She is, in fact, selfish, flirtatious, imposing and rather manipulative. In less than a few months of her husband’s demise, she starts her quest for the next possible “victim”. Martial status doesn’t deter her in anyway.

I loved the letter-style of the book. We get to know of Lady Susan’s activities through her own letters to her friend (whose husband greatly disapproves of her friendship with Lady Susan) and the letter exchange between her brother-in-law’s wife and her mother. Lady Susan invites herself to her husband’s brother place in spite of being less than friendly with them in the past. His wife, Mrs. Vernon, writes to her mother about the atrocities of Lady Susan and her uncaring behavior towards her own daughter. The book gets eve more hilarious when Mrs. Vernon’s brother visits them while Lady Susan is in residence and lands up falling hopelessly in love with her.

Lady Susan is short and amusing. In spite of just being a collection of letters, Austen manages to convey the essence of the novel without actually making the letters sound too descriptive.

Do you know of any other book in epistolary form? (Well, the only one I have even come close to is Bridget Jones Diary (if you can consider diary entries as letters)). I would definitely like to read other books in this style. Let me know!

With Lady Susan, I have officially completed the Classics Challenge and all my challenges for this year. I can’t wait to start on books for next year’s challenges.

Review: Keeping Hannah Waiting

2008-12-12T17:10:00.001-05:00

I loved the concept of this book enough to put down everything else I was reading and pick this up as soon as it came in the mail on Friday last week. Thank you Nanci Mora (from Hologram Publishing) for sending me a review copy of this book!

In this book, Kate's mom dies leaving behind a house full of books. Books that she has "rescued" over the years from various places. And better still, all kinds of books. User manuals, log books, novels, etc. Kate needs to sell the house and has no idea about what to do with all the books around the house. While poking around the attic one day, she comes across a log book with a hidden painting. After meeting with experts, she finds out that the painting was a never-publicized work of a renowned artist Marc Chagall. Even before she realizes it, she becomes a millionaire after selling the painting at an art auction.

With the newly obtained money, she decides to take a vacation in Europe. By chance she comes up on a photograph that will eventually lead her to the rightful owner of the painting and the story behind the lady in the painting.. Fascinating premise, right??

The book was well written and a light and easy read. It was fairly captivating and I didn't really put it down once I started reading it. Luckily, it didn't take me too long to get done with it or else I would have done nothing else the whole weekend!

There are a couple of things that I could complain about though. First, the cover art. I am a sucker for interesting looking covers. This cover of this book, though interesting, wasn't really what I would have expected for the book. The art in the cover is supposed to be "The Lady with the Flowers" or the painting that Kate discovers in the book. Sadly, the cover lacks all the magic that the painting is supposed to have. Considering that the painting is the central theme of this book, I would have preferred to see a better representation in the cover. For example, the painting's background is the parlor in Hannah's house. Secondly, Hannah eyes are supposed to be open! All through the book you read about the captivating blue eyes and the cover doesn't do any justice to the description. In fact, I think that the cover was a distraction.

Anyways, the second thing that I wasn't particularly thrilled about was the fact that Hannah's story reminded me a great deal of the movie - Titanic. Take a look at this:
Rich girl meets poor boy while traveling. Poor boy is an artist. Rich girl is already engaged to boring rich boy. Later, poor boy takes rich girl from stuffy rich people's party to a high energy poor people's folk dance party. Rich girl even manages to show off some of her trained dancing in the party. Finally, poor artist boy paints rich girl in the nude. You tell me.. don't you see the similarities??

In spite of these 2 shortcomings, I would still like to recommend the book. The book gives us a peep into the lives of eastern European Jewish life before the advent of Hitler. From Hannah's story we can see how the rich and influential Jews hardly expected what eventually happened to them. In spite of dealing with a subject like the holocaust, Dave Clarke manages to keep the mood of the book light and makes it an enjoyable read.

Here's another interesting tidbit that I got to know. Dave Clarke is the child of two holocaust survivors.. and the proceeds from the sale of every book will be donated to the Survivor Mitzvah Project to support aging Holocaust survivors in need around the world. Now, that gives you an incentive to buy this book, right?

I definitely enjoyed the read. It was well written and easy to read.. and definitely entertaining.

Let me know your thoughts!

Review: Perfect on Paper

2008-12-08T19:24:00.002-05:00

The (mis) adventures of Waverly Bryson..

Thanks to Tracee Gleichner @ Pump up your book promotion for sending me this book.

I have to start by mentioning this - The best part of the whole experience was the letter I received along with the book. Unlike the usual letter from the publisher, this book included a nice letter from Maria's dad thanking me for agreeing to review his lil' girl's book! Isn't that adorable??

First, Here's a little description of the book:

Anything can look perfect…on paper

When her fiancé calls off their wedding at the last minute, Waverly Bryson wonders if her life will ever turn out the way she thought it would…or should. Her high-powered job in sports PR? Not so perfect. Her relationship with her dad? Far from it. Her perfect marriage? Enough said.

Perfect on Paper is a humorous tale of Waverly's efforts to cobble the pieces of a broken yesterday into a brand new tomorrow. What does the future have in store for her? Will she finally find what she's looking for?

Her dates? Cringe-inducing at times, definitely entertaining

Her friends? Often amused, definitely supportive

Her new crush? Possibly intrigued, definitely a catch

The results? Hardly perfect, definitely just right

My thoughts:

As promised, the book turned out to be light, comical and entertaining.

I liked the simple yet interesting cover of the book. There was something appealing about the simple design.

I liked the goofy protagonist.Waverly is so adorable. I enjoyed her clumsy acts, her nonsensical observations, her insecurities, etc. She chokes on milky way bars before cute guys, she gets way too drunk, she falls at baseball games (with food and drinks in her hand, of course!), she breaks her ankle before new year's parties.. she's hilarious!

I loved the quirky "Honey" notes idea. It was innovative and I think that gave the book a whole new dimension.

"Perfect on Paper" is a perfect light read. When all that you want is to settle down with a light book, be sure to have Perfect on Paper within reaching distance.

Review: In the Time of the Butterflies

2008-11-26T12:35:00.001-05:00

I saw this book on my friend's bookshelf and immediately had to pick it up. Some books just do that to me. I don't know if it was the cover or the description of the book that made me do it. Whatever it was, I am glad I picked this book up.

Julia Alvarez fictionalizes the lives of four sisters in the Dominican Republic under the dictator Trujillo.They were involved in the resistance against him. I was horrified to hear that US, after leaving the Dominican Republic in the 1920s, gave Trujillo the right to rule knowing that he was a repeated rapist! The Mirabal Sisters slowly come to know of the atrocities committed by him as they are growing up and eventually end up in the secret movement against him. In the end, three of the four sisters - Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa were beaten to death after their car was ambushed by Trujillo's men. Dede alone survived. Known as "the butterflies", the sisters became beloved national heroines.

Julia Alvarez attempts to re-create the lives of the four sisters through this book. She read about the sisters and even managed to meet with Dede. But she decided to give the sisters a life of her own and made this book a fiction. I loved the way the book was written. Each chapter is narrated by a different sister. Dede's has a present and a past version. Maria Teresa's section are just pages from her diary. Through these bits and pieces, we get to know the four sisters. Each one of them so unique- and yet, somehow, all so similar.

From their accounts, it becomes obvious who would enter the movement first - Minerva; the girl with the courage to slap Trujillo when he makes a move on her at a party. When you can go that far, joining the resistance movement against him cannot be much farther, can it? Slowly, Patria, Maria Teresa and Minerva are neck deep in the resistance movement. The religious Patria seems to be the least likely to involve herself in this but she finds her own way of joining in the movement. Dede however doesnt involve herself too much because of her husband Jaime and his political views. By the time she decides to get involved with her sisters, it is a little too late.

The book is definitely not perfect. Alvarez has faced many criticisms for attempting to humanize the idols. She has even been accused of being an "outsider" with no knowledge of the actual happenings. In addition, when I tried to google this book, i read some more about Trujillo's atrocities against Afro-Dominicans. alvarez doesn't mention anything about that in the book.

Despite all that, I loved the book. I am glad she made that effort to bring to light the story of 'the butterflies'. The world definitely deserves to know more about them!

This was a perfect time for me to read this book. November 25 is observed as "The International Day Against Violence Towards Women". It was on this day in 1960 that the Mirabal sisters were killed.

I highly recommend this book.. It was a very interesting read!

Second Glance

2008-11-14T13:58:00.002-05:00

Friends have been recommending Jodi Picoult books to me for quite a while now and I have no idea why it took me so long to actually sit down with one. One of my colleagues at work (and another book lover, of course) gave me her copy of “Second Glance” to read.

My first Picoult book and I had no idea what to expect. To keep the suspense going, I didn’t even read the back flap of the book for a sneak peek into what the book was about. I am glad I did that and if you haven’t read “Second Glance” as yet, then, that is exactly what you ought to do as well!

It has been a while since I read a book as addictive and compelling as this one. Honestly. I started it and couldn’t function normally until I turned the very last page of the book. How she managed to give a twist to the story in practically every page totally amazes me! To say anything about the plot of the book would be like giving away a bit of it that you would discover as you breeze through the pages and I don’t want to do that. Let’s just say that it is a very spooky book. Much to the amusement of those around me, I am still very scared of the dark. I have a very vivid imagination and dark places are a perfect trigger for the cells that would love to work overtime anyways!

“Second Glance” practically kept my jumpy all through. Picoult talks about spirits and ghosts in a way that make them seem as normal as a Starbucks coffee on the way to work! But I loved it. It would take me a long while to actually become brave enough to venture into my yard in the dark or even look at the frosty mirror when I am done with my shower but I think it was worth it.

So, have you read this one? What are your views?

Have you reviewed it as well? Leave me a comment with your review and I’ll link it to mine.

Not read it as yet? Go and grab your copy now!:)

Btw, what is your favorite Picoult book? I am surely going to pick up another one by her and I would love to hear your recommendation!

Forever Lily

2008-11-10T16:05:00.002-05:00

A lady in the US accompanies her friend to China when she (the friend) goes there to pick up a baby that she has decided to adopt. In China, the friend suddenly decides to back out of this plan because she doesn’t feel the way she expected to feel towards the baby. Meanwhile, a strange thing happens. The lady (our protagonist) starts experiencing a strange set of dreams. What is fascinating is that her dreams are continuous. The story pauses when she wakes up and resumes when she goes back to sleep. So, effectively, she is almost leading two lives – one during the day as a lady accompanying her friend to China to help her adopt a baby there. The other life is her dream-life whenever she dozes. In this, she’s a Chinese woman in Imperial China. The king is attracted to her and decides to make her the mother of the heir to his throne. She however has a child with someone else and is forced to give the baby girl away before the king finds out that she has not been loyal to him.

Our protagonist suddenly realizes that the dream is nothing but her own story in a different lifetime and that she is actually getting a chance to make up for having had to give away a daughter in her previous life. She is aided in her realization by a psychic who is in America but can “sense” that the baby is hers and that she has to take it. To strengthen the aid, random people pop out of the blue and tell her how she and the baby were meant to be together. Eventually, the friend hands over the baby to our protagonist and they both return to the US to live their happy lives.

I must say that this is a pretty interesting tale and I definitely enjoyed reading it. Here’s the part that I found hard to accept – this is not a fiction. This is a memoir! Yes! Beth Russell, who accompanied her friend Alex to China, brought back her baby Lily after realizing that she was meant to have this baby as a result of the happenings in her previous birth. Am I the only one having a tough time dealing with this? I have never felt the urge to discuss anything personal about the author in relation with the book until this. But when the book happens to be a memoir, I am not left with any option. I read the entire book in disbelief. Was she serious? Did she actually have one long story broken up into dreams for every night? It almost felt like episodes of a TV show that airs every time she falls asleep (or sometimes, even just closes her eyes to meditate). The whole thing seemed too story like for me to accept it as a true life story.

At the risk of offending the author and anyone who happens to accept this memoir for what it is, I HAVE to say that I had too many issues with the story line. I can understand Alex’s nervousness when she is handed the baby in China. You can plan to adopt a baby and think about it for years, and do all the paper work, etc – but somehow, nothing is as real as actually carrying the baby in your own arms! I would be scared.

Somehow, I felt that Beth made no attempt to assuage her fears about adopting the baby and rather promptly announced that if Alex didn’t need the baby, she would take it! And then she proceeds to bond with the baby. When Alex has doubts about giving it away, Beth allows her to bond with the baby but makes no effort to hide the fact that she is upset that Alex might change her mind! To top that, the whole dream sequence feels like something straight out of a Bollywood movie. For the uninitiated, “Bollywood” refers to the thriving film industry of India “Bollywood” actually just stands for “Hollywood of Bombay”. Many bollywood movies, much to our amusement, deal with re-births and fantasy tales not too different from what I described above as Beth’s memoir. After having mocked such insane story lines throughout my life, I find it very hard to be able to accept something like this as a memoir. I cannot be more honest here. This is just my view! To me, it felt like the dreams were Beth’s way of convincing herself and Alex that she was actually meant to be with Lily.

Well, here’s the deal. Beth is a good writer. I liked her style of writing and enjoyed the book. If it were a fiction novel, I would have even praised it and recommended it to everyone who is actually reading this post. But unfortunately, the only issue that I have with this book is a big one. It is a memoir and I cannot understand how it can be one!

One thing I must mention though is the fact that I absolutely loved the cover of this book - the white motifs on those tiny blue shoes in the palms of an adult - fascinating picture and very very appealing. Someone please tell me that it is not actually a memoir and I will feel so much better!

If you have read this book and completely disagree with me, I would love to hear your views. Agree with me? Please tell me that I am not the only one to feel this way!Haven’t read this book? What do you think? Would you want to give this a shot? What are your reactions to this review?

Off The Menu

2008-11-06T21:37:00.002-05:00

The first thing that I liked about the book when i received it was the cover. I loved the heart shaped chocolates. They added such a feminine touch to the cover and i instantly knew this was one book I could like.

I am going to be doing this review a little differently. I thought I'd share a little something from the author herself about the book. In the following passages, Christine talks about her book, how the plot came about and what her inspirations for her main characters were.

"OFF THE MENU's the story of three, twenty-nine year-old Asian-American women who have become the embodiment of everyone's expectations of them--their parents, each other, society as a whole and themselves. They're living lives that everyone anticipated from them, but each harbor a desire that clashes with what they've become. They don't tell each other their hidden ambitions, partly because they think the others will disapprove, but mostly because they can't handle the idea that they might fail in their endeavors publicly. In the end, they do share a bit more of themselves, of course, and they come to realize that whether or not they strive for their dreams (I won't tell if you they or not!), they've got each other's support through thick and thin.

Each of the characters share a bit of my personality and struggles. Or those of my friends or acquaintances or family members or anyone else I might have met. At the time that I was thinking about the plot, I was dreaming of becoming a writer, and I couldn't tell anyone about it because it seemed so ridiculous. I was a lawyer at a prestigious international firm, making more money than I should have, working more hours than were reasonable. It was a good life, at least from an outsider's (read: my parents) perspective. A lot of my girlfriends were in the same boat, whether they were doctors or professors or fellow lawyers, and we spent so much time daydreaming of what we wanted to be when we grew up. But we were in our late twenties. Or thirties. Or forties. I started to think that this idea--of balancing the real world with our secret dream ones--was a very accessible and shared characteristic. So I started there. The rest of the story was my own projection of what could happen. What would it be like if Whitney Lee went for a music career? How would that look? How would she go about doing it? How would her friends and family react?

Inspirations for the characters? Me, of course! Ha! Seriously, some of the characters are very loose amalgamations of me. A lot of the characters are compilations of a bunch of people I know. Friends and family. Some are influenced by TV characters or movie characters or in part inspired by characters in books I've read. Some are pure figments of my imagination. I'm enormously chatty (can you tell?) and love to be around people. I'm usually the one laughing too loudly or making a jackass out of myself. But I also listen incredibly closely. I watch and observe, and when I'm around other people, the little things they do--mannerisms or tics or the way they tilt their head--I suck all of that up. Eventually, it may end up as a characteristic of one of my characters."

I am sure you see what an interesting person Christine is! Well, her book is pretty interesting too. It is a light and entertaining read. The characters are distinct and strong and by the time you put the book down, you actually start missing them! I enjoyed reading the book and I am sure you will too!:)

Do drop by again tomorrow afternoon to read my interview with her for her book tour by TLC! I had so much fun interacting with her and I hope you will enjoy reading the interview:)

One Native Life

2008-11-05T15:08:00.001-05:00

I got “One Native Life” when I wasn’t even expecting it. I didn’t even remember requesting for it. But the cover somehow looked appealing enough and I thought I’d just open the book and read a couple of pages that night before going to sleep. Two hours later, I was still awake, reading the book, loving it and totally unable to put it down!

Richard Wagamese is a native Indian living in Canada – he is an Ojibway from the Wabasseemoong First Nation in Ontario. This book “One Native Life” comprises of autobiographical snippets from his life. Wagamese is 53 years old now and this book is his way of reminiscing about his life. His life has been a struggle – a struggle to give himself an identity and find out more about himself and in the process, his people – the native Ojibway people. Abused and abandoned as a kid, Wagamese spent his adolescence moving from home to home amidst non-native people. At one point, he leaves his foster home and takes to the streets. He does odd jobs, drives aimlessly around the country, and survives. He later reconnects with his family, with his own people, goes on to become a successful journalist, and in the process finds himself.

The book is divided into 4 parts to demarcate the four stages in his life. Each part consists of many chapters is an incident – a snippet – written in short story format. These stories were originally published in the newspaper columns he wrote as “One Native Life”. And somehow, the chapters flow together, the parts flow together and we have the well written story of one man’s life.

Here is the description of his book in his own words (from his blog):

“My collected memoir, One Native Life, is exactly what it says. It's a series of pieces originally written for newspaper and radio that look back at the road I travelled in 52 years of life as a native person in Canada. you'll meet Muhammad Ali, Johnny Cash and a lot of other people who touched my life in good, healing ways. It's about the fact that we are, in truth, all neighbours and we need to learn to talk to each other more and share the stories of our time here. The reaction to the newspaper columns has been tremendous so I'm sure you'll enjoy the book.”

I loved the Wagamese’s style of writing and I loved the content of his book even more! As Wagamese looks back on his life, what is amazing is not how much he has learnt/ done. What is amazing is the way he has learnt it and his teachers. Wagamese shows us the importance of simple living and the importance of bonding with nature. There is so much to learn from everything around us – even animals (“animal-people”, as the Ojibway referred to them). We drift from day to day without really observing things and people around us. Wagamese’s book showed me the importance of relishing every living moment. There’s a message from every “seemingly-mundane” incident - so much to observe and so much to learn.

I know for a fact that I am not doing justice to this review. I totally enjoyed the book and I wish you would pick it up sometime and enjoy it as much as I did as well. I had never heard of Wagamese until I found this book in my mail box and now I suddenly want to read every book of his ( I think, he’s written 4 novels and a memoir in addition to “One Native Life”).

To know more about Wagamese, you can visit his website – www.richardwagamese.com

I found a link to my favorite chapter in the whole book – one about making bannock. Something about this chapter totally appealed to me. I think it was the sense of belonging that he got when he baked bannock for the first time after getting the recipe from his mom. The sense that he was actually someone in this world – someone who belonged to a community, had something more than just a body and a name. Here is a link to this article. I am sure that’ll give a taste of the book:

http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2305&Itemid=56

Do read the book and tell me that you loved it too!:)

Lipstick Jihad

2008-11-04T09:44:00.001-05:00

I had been meaning to read Lipstick Jihad for at least a year and then I finally got an opportunity to pick it up. How can you resist reading a book with such a fancy name? I read it last month during the week that blogger made my blog mysteriously disappear.

The book says that it is about growing Iranian in America and American in Iran. Azadeh Moaveni is a second generation Iranian in America. She was born and raised here but her parents were from Iran. This book is her memoir. It is about feeling alien in both America as well as in Iran. Somehow not fitting well in both places but yet fitting right in! It was something that I was totally interested in reading about.

With an influx of immigrants into America it is always interesting to observe the characteristics of those that moved here from another country and their children through various stages in life. Jhumpa Lahiri talks about this in her book “The Namesake”. If you haven’t read it, it is one book you should definitely read. She talks about a young couple moving to the US from India and then she goes to show their children dealing with the issues of being a second generation Indian in the US. I can imagine how tough it would be to be at cultural crossroads. I guess that was what made me pick up Lipstick Jihad – a first hand narration of the life of a second generation Iranian. Azadeh grew up in America not really knowing too much about Iran. She had been there once as a child and didn’t have too many memories of the place. To her, she was “Persian” and the Iran that her parents talked about was a mystical land of carpets and rugs. She has always been different from the other kids around her and somehow felt that in Iran she would fit right in.

She gets an opportunity to go to Iran. Because she has an Iranian passport, she is allowed to enter the country as a reporter (a privilege that other Americans don’t get). But when she gets to Iran, she realizes that she is even more of a misfit here than she was in America. She can’t speak Farsi too well and she can’t relate to the lives of women under the Islamic regimen. She observes their behavior as an outsider, not being able to relate to their feelings and their need for freedom.

The book is all about coming to terms with her identity.

In concept, it is a great book. I was really interested in finding out everything about her life in the US as well as in Iran. But, somehow, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to. It wasn’t gripping enough for me. I found myself putting the book down pretty easily. I had to make myself pick it up to finish it just because I wanted to find out more. I guess my expectations for the book were too high and somehow it didn’t meet them. I didn’t feel a part of the book. To me it was a bunch of incidences that I liked reading about. When I put the down, I didn’t really miss it. And I guess that is why I have taken so long to write this review. I feel bad when I want to like a book and land up not liking it as much as I wanted to.

But after having said that, I really think that if you are interested in the concept of this book you should read it. There is a lot to learn about life in contemporary Iran - The true state of affairs after the Islamic revolution. I really hope you like it better than I do.

If you have already read this book, I would love to hear your comments.

The Hiding Place

2008-10-30T12:57:00.000-04:00

I first saw the review for this book in Bethany's blog. Thanks for writing about it and making me want to read it Bethany. It was a fabulous book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

The Hiding Place is a memoir of Corrie ten Boom. For the first 50 years of her life, Corrie had a very normal life. She was a spinster and lived with her aged father and another spinster sister (Betsie) in a fascinatingly rundown house in Haarlem in Holland called the Beje. I absolutely loved the quirky house. I could never do adequate justice to the description. Alongside is a recent picture of the Beje (Which is now a museum). It is hard to imagine that a house so small had so much happening inside it!

The picture alongside is a picture of Corrie's parents. Corrie's mom died when she was 63 but not before teaching Corrie and Betsie the importance of being generous and nice to people. Even when she was bedridden with no ability to talk, she remembered the birthdays of the destitute and made Corrie write little notes wishing them. Corrie's father has a watch repair business and was loved by everyone in Haarlem. He was a very simple man and loved his job. He sometimes even forgot to take money for the repairs he did and never thought of anyone as competition. It is tough to find such simplicity these days. Everyone seems to be driven by the need for money. It is sad how our society has become such a money-centric society!

Anyways, during World War II, when the Jews were trying to escape from the Nazis, Corrie helped them hide. She even had a secret room built in the Beje and hid Jews there with an elaborate warning system. The picture alongside is an image of Corrie's room along with the secretroom (Seen beyond the wall). The Beje is now a museum.
Unfortunately, they were discovered and Corrie and Betsie were sent to the Concentration Camp.

Nothing but pure unadulterated faith kept them going. They survived hardships and worked hard but never lost faith. They smuggled in a little bible with them and read it everyday to other women in the camp. Little messages from the Bible were taken and practiced. It really was fascinating to see the power of faith. Faith gave them a reason to survive and go on living even under the darkest circumstances.Even though Corrie was in charge of the Beje operations, Betsie suddenly seemed to be the stronger one when they were in the camp. Through all hardships, she somehow managed to keep her faith intact and her optimism and her faith were infectious. She harbored no bitter thoughts towards anyone and even felt sorry for her prosecutors. To be like Betsie is so tough. Unfortunately, Betsie did not survive the camp. She died a few months before Corrie was released.

But Corrie went on to honor Betsie's dream. She spent the rest of her life helping those affected by the Holocaust and by talking about what she and Betsie had learnt in Camp. She travelled widely and spread her message throughout the world! She died when she was 91 years old.

I think this book is a must read for everyone. It is very inspiring. I know there are loads of people who think that once they are 50, their life is done. Corrie's life actually started when she was 50! This was an absolutely fascinating book. I want to watch the movie that was based on this book as well.. I wonder if they actually shot it at the beje.. anybody knows anything about that? Have you seen the movie? What did you think of it?

If you haven't read this one as yet, go and grab a copy and read it right now!!

After Dark

2008-10-23T09:57:00.003-04:00

I know I have a bunch of pending reviews and I wanted to finish those before reviewing books I read now…but I just finished After Dark by Haruki Murakami and I just HAD to write about it immediately.

This is my second Murakami book. I read Norwegian Wood earlier this year and I found that it was very dark and very intense… but, nevertheless, I liked it! I saw “After Dark” on the library shelf when I was browsing and decided to pick it up.

After Dark is a novel that is based on the happenings in one night. Different people; Different places; but somehow, they are all connected.

Mari Asai is spending the night away from home just to “get away from it all”. She has a voluminous book in hand and she plans to sit in a restaurant all night just reading. Well, that doesn’t happen. Her night is eventful. She meets one of her sister’s friends, helps a Chinese prostitute who has been beaten up by one of her customers, feeds kittens a tuna sandwich in the park, meets a girl who’s been hiding for three years running away from a cruel past, and most importantly comes to terms with who she is and the relationship she shares with her sister. Too much for one night, you might say… and I agree but when you read the book, you’ll realize that a night is actually long and there’s so much that you can do when the world is asleep.

In another part of the city, Mari’s sister, Eri Asai is asleep. But her sleep doesn’t seem natural. She’s breathing but there’s something unreal about her when she’s sleep. [This was, frankly, the part of the book that I never got. Maybe I should read it again to understand what is actually happening to Eri. If any of you have read this book, I would love to have a discussion with you about Eri on this particular night].

As another parallel story, we see a strange workaholic. He works late, has a family that he is not too fond of. She tries to avoid them as much as he can. He doesn’t want to get home until they are all asleep and doesn’t get up until after they leave so he won’t have to meet them. He’s the one who beats up the Chinese prostitute.

As I mentioned earlier, there were parts of the book that I didn’t really understand. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to keep reading. I loved parts of it and I totally loved the way the book was written. I totally admired the way Murakami dealt with complex emotional issues. The conversations were very concise but very powerful and a lot of what is being said in the book stays with you. Murakami tries to sneak in the fact that sometimes, life’s biggest problems are usually not that big. They have a simple solution and all that you have to do is pause, get away from it and think about it from an external perspective. That kinda resonated with me.

Anyways, I enjoyed reading After Dark. It wasn’t too long or too intense. But it was powerful and interesting and different. You should give it a shot sometime too!

Other Reviews of this book -
3M - I particularly liked the way she concisely, yet perfectly described the story of the sisters : "One of them can’t sleep and the other one won’t wake up"..

Have you already read this one? Just leave me a comment with a link to your review and I’ll link it to this post.

The Choice

2008-10-21T14:55:00.001-04:00

There are times when you want to just curl up on the couch with a bag of potato chips and a nice book - Something that is gripping and yet doesn’t require you to think too much. I usually go for a chick-lit or a nice romance book for such times. And I just found the perfect author for days like that. After watching “The Notebook”, I have always wanted to read the book and see if I would like it as much as I liked the movie. I didn’t get to read the notebook, but I did get to read “The Choice” by the same author – Nicholas Sparks. I won this book in a giveaway… Thank you Anna! It was a very enjoyable book!

I don’t want to say too much about the story of The Choice. If you haven’t read it, you should and you’ll know what I am talking about. I loved discovering the twists in the tale as I read through it and I loved the suspense of not knowing what happens next and I want it to be the same way for you.

A few of us were having a discussion a couple of weeks ago. There are times when you finish a beautifully written heavy novel and then you are just not in the mood for another heavy book. Even if you do actually get to picking up one, you’ll realize that you don’t enjoy it as much as you would have if you hadn’t read it immediately after an intense read. The Choice is perfect for times like that; for times when you want to just unwind. When you want to smile and cry as you read without actually feeling the pain… I love that kind of a book. I am such a romantic at heart and books like this will always hold a nice place in my heart.

So if you are looking for a light read, and you haven't read "The Choice" already, grab a copy! You won't regret it!:)

Monique and the Mango Rains

2008-10-21T14:40:00.004-04:00

... Two Years with a Midwife in Mali.

Monique and the Mango Rains is a beautiful book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I read the review for this book in Natasha’s blog and I knew immediately that I wanted to read this book. It was an amazing book.

Kris Holloway went to Mali for a year as part of the Peace Corps program. She stayed in a village and Monique, the midwife in the village was her host. This book is all about the year that Kris spent in Mali – the things she sees there, the things she does, the people she meets, the friendships she makes, etc. Through Kris’s eyes, we see the reality. We see Mali for what it is. Through a simple description of one year in Mali, Kris brings out a lot about the life of people there – their culture, their habits, their life, their eating habits, etc. When you finish the book, you almost feel like you’ve been in

Mali

yourself!

Monique was a very inspiring person and I am glad that Kris decided to share her story with the world. At the age of 24, Monique was the only midwife/clinician for the village of Nampossela. She had an active interest in the health of the community and went out of her way to help those in need. She battled childhood malnutrition, found a way to get contraceptive for mothers, fought against female circumcision, etc and managed to keep her cheerful face and friendly demeanor through all difficulty. Monique the midwife, however, had another life. She had an unhappy marriage and two children. Her salary for being the midwife went directly to her father in law and she only received a small portion that was insufficient to make ends meet.

You don’t have to be a book lover to like this book. It is definitely not a tough read… but it is definitely fascinating and very inspiring. And it definitely makes us more aware of the world around us. Sometimes, it is so easy to take the comforts that we have for granted. So it is good to read books like this once in a while and realize that we are indeed very lucky in the world and most of our cribs and complaints are so insignificant.

I think the best learning experience would be to visit places like this and see all this for ourselves. But then again, not everyone gets to go to Nampossela and stay there for a year and interact with the local community. I guess that is where books like this become so important. They give us the knowledge without actually having to go through the experience.

Well, bottom line – you should read this book. It is an amazing book; Educational and at the same time interesting to read!

Red Azalea

2008-10-06T15:38:00.003-04:00

I had reviewed “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” last month. I really enjoyed the book but it raised a lot of questions in me that I wanted answered. One such question was about re-education (the concept of sending children from the cities to villages to be re-educated in the ways of the peasants). I was searching for books which dealt with this and I excited when I came upon something that might be the answer. It was a memoir. A book by Anchee Min about her life in China and how was sent to a farm for re-education and how she managed to get away from it. I got the book and immediately sat down to read it.

Plot Summary

The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Anchee talks about her childhood. She’s an outstanding student and a hard working daughter, practically being a mother to her younger siblings from the tender age of 5! She whole heartedly believes in Mao’s communism and knows the Little Red Book of Mao’s sayings inside out and even wins prizes for being able to quote from the book. Later in the book, she and a friend test themselves on their knowledge of the book. She gives a quote and her friend gives the page number and the paragraph number. Wow! She even testifies against her favorite teacher because she is asked to by the Party people.

In the second part, she goes to a farm outside of Shanghai. There, amidst other teenagers, she first begins to doubt the ideals that she had believed all along in life. She sees how individualism is punished and she is not sure she likes it. Anchee, throughout the book, NEVER rejects Mao’s teachings or even criticizes them. She only explains how she realizes that life is not as simple as Mao’s teachings. There is so much more to it. She sees a friend go mad and finally commit suicide after being “discovered” while in a relationship with a guy. Her own frustration in being unable to befriend a guy and have a relationship pushes her to experiment with lesbianism with another friend in the farm.

In the third part, she is selected to train for the part of “Red Azalea” in a movie. In this part, she witnesses abuse of power and gets involved in a complex relationship which I am not sure I can call love. These incidences further increase her disillusionment with Mao’s system. By the end of the third part, Mao dies and his wife Jiang Qing is arrested.

Eventually, Anchee moves to the US.

My Thoughts

Well, I liked reading the book for the things that I learnt about life under Mao. I had read Wild Swans by Jung Chang about 3 years ago and after a long time I am re-visiting China. It is scary to see how individualism was condemned so much. I can’t imagine not having my individuality. I can’t imagine a life where what I say/think/do is not something I want to say/think/do but only what I have to say/think/do! How miserable is that!!

Having said that, I have to say that I didn’t like the way the book was written. It was just a narration and did not evoke any feelings in me automatically. Every time I paused to think about it and put myself in her shoes, I could feel resentment rising in me. But nothing while reading the book. I was detached throughout the book. I finished it because I wanted to finish it and not because I couldn’t put the book down! I think this is going back to my review of Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. I think it is a talent that a few people have to convert incidences into gripping stories. Just narration of an incident is not enough. Writing a good novel requires so much more than that and I found that lacking in Anchee’s description of her life in China. It was just that – a description. Nothing more! At least that is how I felt about it.

But then again, this was a best seller and did win an award. so obviously a lot of people didn't really agree with me!

There was one thing that I found interesting in the book though. Anchee had not spelt out the names of the characters in the book. She actually referred to them by the translation of their names in English. Her own name meant “Jade of Peace” and it was fun to see how her little brother was named “Space Conqueror” because her father was such an astronomy lover. That was definitely interesting.

Recommendation

I am sure whether I want to call this a great book. It is a memoir so everything said in the book is true and that’s enough reason to read it – to learn more about life in China in the 70s. But I did not find this book very gripping and interesting… so, I am not sure if I should recommend it to everyone. So I leave the choice to you. If you want to read this book, just go ahead and do it.

I tried finding reviews for this, but it looks like this isn’t very popular on the blog-o-sphere. I didn’t really find any review for this. If you have read and reviewed this book and I missed finding your review, just post a comment with a link to your review and I’ll add it to this post!

Half of a Yellow Sun

2008-10-02T12:10:00.001-04:00

I can now understand why the art of story telling was big in ancient cultures and how story telling was an art. It is so obvious that not everyone is good at it. A lot of people can narrate incidences, but only a few have the ability to take a incident and then weave a story around it and narrate it in a way that would actually make you feel a part of it. I think people like that write wonderful books – deep books that immediately go on your “best books of the year” list. Chimamanda Adichie is surely one such person. She has a talent for taking incidents and then weaving such powerful tales around it. I read Purple Hibiscus for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge earlier this year and I loved it. I definitely wanted to read “Half of a Yellow Sun” and I was not disappointed. It is a fascinating book at many levels. There is a political situation to grasp and understand and then there’s the complexity of human interaction. The book is a perfect blend of these two.

Half of a Yellow Sun is a story about a war - The Nigeria-Biafra war that happened in the early 70s; A war that is being largely forgotten around the world and is going down in history as yet another one of those unrests in Africa. But in this book, Adichie has successfully revisited the war. She goes into the political details and the personal torments that were experienced during the war making it a event to register in memory. And yet, it is not a documentary. She makes sure we understand the cause and effect of the war and she makes sure we remember it for what it was – not as “just another African war”. But then again, it is not all about the war. It is a story full of human emotions – love, friendship, betrayal, anger, lust, envy, pride, etc. It is a powerful tale in which the lives of the protagonists are completely intertwined with the political happenings around them. Some are in a position to dictate the happenings and others just get “dictated”. For some it is a “riches to rags” story, for some it is a discovery of the self, for some it is about losing the identity that they’ve always been familiar with. It would have been an amazing book with just the stories of the people and their interactions but adding the war element to it, takes it to a completely different level.

In brief, the story deals with the lives of Olanna, her “revolutionary” lover, Odenigbo (A university professor with radical political ideas), their house boy Ugwu (a poor boy who comes to Odenigbo from a village and slowly becomes a part of the family), Olanna’s twin sister Kainene (who is nothing like Olanna. They are not identical twins and couldn’t have been more different in character), Kainene’s boyfriend Richard (who is actually white but becomes so much a part of what is happening in Nigeria/Biafra that it is hard to picture him white after a while). Then, there are the other characters that come and go and yet manage to leave an impact.

The book has a lot of characters and a lot of parallel stories and fascinatingly, Adichie manages to keep them unique while seamlessly blending them. I am wonderstruck at her ability to take complicated lives of at least 5 people, add to an already complicated tale of the war and come up with a story that is simple, powerful, entertaining and addictive. I couldn’t put the book down from the minute I started it. I had to get back to it and see what happened next. I smiled when the characters laughed and I felt the pain when they cried. I now feel like I just spent the last two days of my life in Nigeria during the war. I feel as though I know the characters personally. I actually miss the book now that I am done with it. Very few books can actually do that to you; which is why I have to reinforce my point that Adichie is a master story teller.

I totally loved reading this book. I am sure you’ll like it too!:) Give it a shot! Here are some more rave reviews for this awesome book if you still aren’t convinced to pick it up:

Dar @ Peeking Between the Pages

Trish @Trish's Reading Nook

Natasha @ Maw Books

Gautami @ Reading room

3M @ 1 More Chapter

If you've read this book and reviewed it, please do leave a link to your review in the comment section and I'll add it to this wonderful list of reviews!

The Devil Came on Horseback

2008-09-29T11:57:00.003-04:00

The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur

Brian Steidle

With Gretchen Steidle Wallace

Natasha has been hosting the Reading and Blogging for Darfur event at her blog this whole month. I wanted to actively read and watch a lot of videos this month but unfortunately couldn’t do as much as I wanted. Luckily, one of the books I had ordered got to me before the end of the month. So I sat down to read “The Devil Came on Horseback”. I had read Natasha’s review of this book over at her blog and that was one of the reasons I definitely wanted to read this one. And I am glad I did. Once again, thank you Natasha!

What is the best way to know more about everything happening in Darfur, you might wonder. Well, how about a book written by someone who was there, someone who interacted with both sides of the fight, someone who took pictures of everything happening there, someone who made notes of every incident he witnessed, etc etc?? You basically get what I am trying to say, right? There couldn’t be a better way to get to know about the happenings in Darfur than to read “The Devil Came on Horseback”.

Brain Steidle is a former United States Marine. He goes to Sudan for a year as an unarmed military observer for the African Union. His job was to go with his team and record the incidents he witnessed all over Sudan. After spending a relatively quiet few months in the Nuba Mountains, he requests a move to Darfur. His frustration at not being able to do anything to help better the situation in Darfur is obvious through the book. The helplessness he feels when he looks into the eyes of the poor villagers who think that he might just be able to help them is so palpable. But given his situation, Brian does the best he can in his own way. He records every incident, every conversation, every scene in the form of reports, photographs, letters to his sister Gretchen, audio notes, etc. And then, he wrote a book to convey the message to everyone else in the world. I think what he’s done is so commendable.

If you are expecting a dry, boring, documentary reporting mass killing, rape and other atrocities, you are soo wrong. The book is actually well written and very interesting. It is quite a page turner. Personally, I felt the first part of the book, before he goes to Darfur seemed kinda slow. But the minute he landed in Darfur, I couldn’t put the book down. I just had to read and read and read and grasp every word he had to say. Some of the things that he had to say, I already knew… Many other things shocked me. The images in the book were heart-wrenching and I would be lying if I said that the book hasn’t affected me.

The one thing that troubled me was his faith in the American Government. Throughout the book he keeps mentioning things to the effect that if the information actually got to the US government then they would immediately do something to better the situation in Darfur. Did he actually think the folks sitting here have no idea of what is happening in Darfur? Well, it is not just the US government. It is governments all over the world. Somehow, everyone has decided to ignore the happenings in Darfur. Atrocities committed against the tribes in Darfur are so inhuman and should never be permitted. It is disgusting how things like this are going on for years and years and no one seems to be doing anything about it!

It is hard to imagine that this book is actually a memoir- that events described here are not figments of imagination from a psychotically deranged brain. They are actual events appening in a different part of the world. People are starving, getting killed mercilessly, getting raped, being turned out of their homes right as I type this review. It is really hard to imagine that everything said in the book is true.

Brain’s job is to act as an unbiased recorder of the incidents he witnesses. But throughout the book, it is obvious that he has taken a side. I do not know if that is good or bad. I have no idea if the actual scenario is that clear cut. Is there actually a “good vs bad” situation in Darfur? I think that’s just not possible. I might be just naïve here. I have no idea about what I am talking. Is it THAT obvious that there is one side is right and one side is wrong? If the situation was that obvious, won’t something be done about it already?

On the whole, I would totally recommend this book to everyone. In fact, not just to people interested in knowing about what is happening in Darfur but to EVERYONE. I think it is important to be aware of things that are happening all around us.I know this has been made into a movie as well. So if are you not really a book person (Wait, then what are you doing in my blog??) then you should get yourself a copy of the dvd to watch!

Well, please feel free to leave your comments here. I would love to hear what you think about this. If you have also read this book, do send me a link to review and I’ll add it to this post.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

2008-09-24T10:31:00.000-04:00

I think this is my week of banned books/authors. I started with Taslima Nasrin’s Shame which is banned in Bangladesh. And then I moved on to this book by Dai Sijie, which I later read is banned in China! It was originally written in French and then in English. It has been translated in 25 languages but not in Chinese. After reading the book, I could understand why though. Now I am reading East/West by Salman Rushdie. The book in itself is not controversial… but we all know about the author!:) Well, it wasn’t planned I tell you. I just realized that when I started writing this review. Well, I realized this and then I went to Natasha’s blog to get the link of her review to add it to this post and guess what I saw? She had mentioned that Sept 27^th to Oct 4^th was Banned Book Week sponsored by American Library Association. Hmm.. maybe I should have just waited for that. I just read all the banned books I had!

Anyways, getting to the book now:

I knew I was going to pick this book up the minute I read the review on Natasha’s blog. The cover totally totally appealed to me… I don’t know why though. A simple pair of old shoes with quaint looking buckles. But there was something about the picture that made me feel that the book might be a good read and I wasn’t disappointed.

Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress is a semi-autobiographical novel. Like most kids from educated middle class families, Dai was also sent to rural china for “Re-education”. This was during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I guess during the revolution, schools and colleges were shut down and any child having intellectual parents was sent to the villages to live the life of peasants and learn from them. Similarly, in the book, the narrator and his friend Luo are sent to a village near a fictional mountain called “phoenix of the sky” for re-education. There, they meet a pretty little girl – the tailor’s daughter and hence, she is called the little seamstress. Luo and the little seamstress soon fall in love but it seem pretty obvious throughout the book that the narrator himself was in love with her though he never openly admits it. During this period, no one is allowed to read or own any other book apart from the little red book of sayings written by Chairman Mao. Luo and the narrator come by some translations of classic english novels and reading those books turns out to be a life changing experience for them and the little seamstress. I can’t imagine having a restriction on my reading! That would be the worst thing ever.

The novel was pretty humorous in many areas. I loved the story of the alarm clock. Luo and the narrator bring with them a little rooster alarm clock. A clock is an unknown item in the village and soon, it assumes the position of an idol. Little anecdotes about the alarm clock and the story telling prowess of Luo and the narrator lighten the mood of the book. What could have been a rather heavy book about oppression of freedom during Mao’s rule becomes light and easy to read.

I really think that this was a charming book. If you ever get a chance, do pick this book up! I guess there is a movie that’s based on this book that came out in 2002. I am planning to watch that one as well.

Here’s a link to Natasha’s review that made me want to read this book - Natasha.

If you have read this one as well, please do leave me a link in the comments section and I’ll add it to my post!

Shame

2008-09-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Political Background

Before 1947, India was under British Rule. When India was finally free in 1947, it wasn’t free as one nation. Two separate countries were born on that day – India and Pakistan. Pakistan had a west and an east section separated by the Indian mainland. In 1971, East Pakistan became a separate country – Bangladesh. (This is my feeble attempt to summarize the past of three different countries in just three lines. Please bear with me!)

India has remained a secular state recognizing all religions. On the other hand, Pakistan and Bangladesh have declared Islam as their state religion. Around 20 to 25% of Bangladeshis were Hindus in 1971. Now, less than 15% are. Something happened that slowly pushed the Hindu families out of their homeland that they had occupied for generations. Taslima Nasrin documents one such trigger in this book. Though separate countries now, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are more intertwined than they ever want to be.

On December 2, 1992 – A Mosque in India was demolished. Hindu fundamentalists claimed that in the past, during the rule of the great king Babar, a temple in the same location was torn down to build a mosque – the Babri Masjid. They claimed that the area the mosque was built on was a sacred place for the Hindus – a place where one of the Hindu gods was supposed to have been born.

Well, you can guess what would have happened next. Riots broke out all over India. More than 2000 people were killed. Many places of worship (both mosques and temples) were destroyed. What little was left of the Hindu-Muslim unity was shattered.

What is surprising though is the fact that the reaction to this event was not just in India. In Bangladesh, hundreds of Hindus were attacked – men were beaten, women raped, houses and shops burnt, children abducted and killed, temples demolished - All this for events happening in some other country. I guess now you know what I mean when I say that the countries are more intertwined than they want to be.

About the Book

Shame was a very controversial book written by Taslima Nasrin documenting the occurrences in Bangladesh following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in India. Why it became controversial was because of the fact that she took the side of the Hindus and blamed the government for not taking any action when it should have. It initially came out as a novella describing the rape of a Hindu woman by a Muslim man during the riots. She later took the concept and expanded it, making it a 200-odd page novel.

The book was published in 1993 in Bengali under the name “Lajja”. It was immediately banned in Bangladesh and Taslima Nasrin had to flee the country because an Islamic fundamentalist group declared a death sentence. The book was later translated into many other languages.

The Story

Shame is divided into 13 chapters – one for each day following the demolition of Babri Masjid in India. Taslima wastes no time in giving the background of the riots. Her aim was to bring out her feelings regarding the reaction that she saw in Bangladesh. So, for a reader not from the Indian subcontinent, this book might be difficult to understand because there is no context. But having said that, I sometimes feel that the reason behind such events lose their importance. It is suddenly not anymore about the reason. What become more important are the reaction and the reaction to the reaction. Eugh!

Well, the book surrounds the happenings in life of the Dutta family. The Duttas were Hindus living in Bangladesh. Sudhamay is the head of the family – the father. His wife Kiranmayee is a docile housewife whose sole aim in life is to agree with everything her husband says and serve him. They have two kids – Suranjan and Maya. Maya is a friendly 21 yr old. She is responsible and doesn’t like to depend on her parents for her spending allowance. Suranjan is an atheist who doesn’t believe in religion and is an idealist youth. He is jobless and has no qualms with living off his parents until he finds a job that would satisfy his needs. On the whole, they are a fairly functional family living in Dhaka.

Anyways, the riots start and initially, the severity of the riots doesn’t really hit them. Slowly, they are pulled into it. They keep hearing about everything happening around them. People who they know are moving to India to escape from the atrocities being committed against the Hindus in Bangladesh. But Sudhamay and Suranjan are strong in their beliefs. They feel that Bangladesh is their country and they wouldn’t move out of it. Suddenly, their lives are affected by the riot as well. Their house is attacked and Maya is taken away by a bunch of 21- 22 yr old boys.

** Warning – Spoiler Ahead.

What is sad is the way the book ends. It is not intended to be a fairy tale and hence the ending is really sad. Sudhamay is finally driven to agree to leave the country. He does this for the sake of the happiness of his wife and son. Maya doesn’t come back though I kept hoping and praying that she would. I so desperately wanted it to end happily but I guess that’s not life. It is sad to see how a relatively happy family, is reduced to a bunch of scared, devastated individuals in a span of less than 2 weeks.

My Views

I have always wanted to read Shame and I am glad I finally got to read it. I am not too clear about the happening in India let alone what happened in Bangladesh.

Until I read books like Riot (By Shashi Tharoor) and Shame, the Babri Masjid incident was only a vague memory for me. I was 10 years old when it happened and what stuck to me was just the fact that the mosque was torn down and the aftermath was horrible - riots all over the country. It was interesting to get the perspective of someone who witnessed the events; someone who was on the protected side in Bangladesh but yet managed to see above it all and feel sorry for the attacked.

First, the positives:

The book comes across as a very strong and powerful piece of writing. Through the depiction of the life of one Hindu family, Taslima manages to capture the essence of the happenings in Bangladesh. It is obvious that she felt that the way the Hindus were treated in Bangladesh was wrong and she has definitely managed to convey the feeling. I totally appreciate her for having the courage to come out with a book documenting her feelings and opinion about such a controversial topic. Taking the side of the Hindu minority, while being a Muslim in an Islamic country, is unthinkable for so many people. I totally admire her guts for sticking to her convictions and not hesitating to voice her opinion.

The book definitely makes you think. It is sad how people change in times like this. Taslima highlights so many incidences where Muslims change their attitudes and behaviors towards Hindus they have been friends with all their lives after incidents like this. I think that is so sad. How can we let some action taken by crazy fundamentalists in other parts of the country (or in a completely different country) influence the way we behave with friends we’ve known all our lives and who actually had nothing to do with the action! I felt sad when Maya and Suranjan reach out to their Muslim friends only to feel awkward in the process. I hated the way it affected young children. In one part, Suranjan’s friend Pulak talks about his little son. The boy used to play with his friends before the riots started. Suddenly they stopped playing with him because their fathers had asked them not to play with Hindu boys. I mean, can you imagine the little 5 year old?? He doesn’t even know what it means to be a Hindu or a Muslim!

The overall impact is very upsetting. Innocent people losing their lives, innocent girls getting gang raped and left to die. I can’t even begin to imagine the mental status of those who managed to survive after such an ordeal!

Now, coming to the negatives:

The book was a tedious read – not because of the language, but because of the details. Every few pages, Taslima gives us an update about the temples that have been demolished, the people who have been driven out of their homes/businesses, women/kids who were abducted/raped, etc. Frankly, after a point, the lists just got to me. I know that she was trying to highlight the damages done but I am thinking the same impact could have been achieved by just giving us summary numbers instead of individual cases – at least that is my personal opinion. And then of course, there’s the political part. Pages and pages citing the constitutions and the amendments that seemed to favor Muslims living in the country. If Taslima’s aim was to increase the awareness of people regarding the supposed ill-treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh, I think she might have slightly over done it here. I personally thought that the book was biased - Too much in favor of the Hindus. The riots following the Babri Masjid demolition wasn’t solely initiated by the Muslims. Though Taslima brought out only the atrocities committed by the Muslim fundamentalists, I know that many Hindu fundamentalist groups reacted badly as well; At least in India. Maybe in Bangladesh, they were too much of a minority to be able to fight what was happening to them. I am not sure.

Recommendation

After reading all this, you must have decided for yourself by now if you want to read this book or not. But if I was given the choice, I would ask you to read it. Read it to get a realistic picture of things happening around the world.

A Long Way Gone

2008-09-17T13:18:00.001-04:00

I read this book a couple of months ago when I was on vacation in India and I didn’t get a chance to review it then. I read it for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge. My read from Sierra Leone. I am glad I made little notes while reading. Now all that I have to do is compile those little notes and get my review done. I hate it when I fall back on my reviews.

It has been over 2 months since I finished the book and I have read many books after that. But the memories of the book are still strong in me. I must say that “A Long Way Gone” is a pretty powerful book. I still shudder when I think about it.

A Long Way Gone is a memoir – a true life story of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. A little boy who’s innocent happy boy life which is spent in rapping and having a good time with friends is suddenly stolen from him. He is suddenly exposed to the brutal way and made to run from place to place in search of peace and solace, in search of the family he had lost, and away from the attacking rebels. He starts off with his friends and loses them in the middle.

The kinds of things he experiences and witnesses are horrible. I am wishing I didn’t even have to read about it let alone experience such things. People getting killed by the guerilla forces, being forced to run away from their homes, from the villages that they have known all their lives, see their loved ones die in their arms, lose friends and family, etc- all this when he was 12 years old.

Eventually, Beah finds himself in a village controlled by the national army. He thinks he is safe here since the army would protect him from the attacking rebels. But soon, he is asked to join and fight for the national army with a bunch of boys as young and as untrained as he was. Fueled by the atrocities he has witnessed, he readily joins the army with no thoughts on what it might do to him. He fights for the army for two years and in this period changes completely. He becomes a cold blooded murderer with no respect for life. He lives in a perpetual haze created by the vast quantities of marijuana and cocaine he consumes. He forgets that his life was once differentt...and he was once different.

Unlike many young boys who fight in wars like this around Africa and around the world, Ishmael Beah finds a saving grace. He is taken to a rehab facility organized by UNICEF for boys like him involved in the war. He slowly and painfully is made to overcome his drug addiction. He comes in contact with humans, with the society and slowly starts to realize that the kind of life he has been living for the past few years is not normal.

He finds an uncle to live with for a while and then is adopted by a lady in the United States.

Beah wrote this book when he was 26 years old, after having gone to school in NYC. But from this book you can see how those years torment him through his life. One thing that is sad about the book is that though it ends happily, you close the book knowing that not every boy soldier’s story has a happy ending. Not every boy managed to survive the war and there are many who still live on in the war ridden countries as cold blooded, drug induced men killing in frenzy.

Coming to the writing style, I realized before long that the intention of the book was not to contribute to literature.. it was written to expose the lives of millions of boy soldiers around the world. The writing comes off as insensitive and harsh many times but I guess that makes the whole thing more real – no lacy details, no frills! I did think that there were many unanswered questions when I finished reading the book. But I can understand why Beah decided to keep his book the way it is now. It is a short, sharp pain; A pain that you won’t forget soon; A pain that will make you be thankful everyday for the happy, protected life you live; A pain that remind you that not everyone in the world is as lucky as you are; A pain that will remind you that not everyone gets to live they want to live;

I would highly recommend this book to everyone. In fact I think it is necessary to read such books and become aware of the lives that some people are forced to live. It is a very touching tale. I must warn you that it is not going to be an easy read though.

If you want to know more about the author, listen to his interviews, read excerpts from the book, etc… you can find it all here in the book’s website.

Reviews by other bloggers : Trish

Mee

If you have already read this, I would love to see what you thought of it. Please post a comment with a link to the relevant post in your blog.

My Soul to Keep

2008-09-16T15:15:00.000-04:00

I received Melanie Wells's My Soul to Keep from Camy Tang. Thanks Camy!I must start this review by saying that this is not the kind of book I usually read. But thanks to the book blogging community, I have become adventurous in my reading selections and I must accept that I have been surprised quite a few times.

My soul to keep is a suspense novel. It is the third book in Melanie Wells's Dylan Foster series but I think that it is not necessary to have read the other two books before getting to My Soul to Keep. I mean, maybe reading those books would give you a better context to the happenings of this book because most are the characters are present in the other books as well. but, i read this book without reading the other two and i didnt have any trouble grasping the essence of the book. I would have liked more information on Peter Terry but the events and the descriptions are enough to give me a good intuition.

well, what is this book about? I guess that is a tough thing to do in a review when the novel is a suspense one.. Well, let me tell you this. Dylan Foster is a professor. She is a obsessively clean kinda person (wiping and dusting all the time) but her life is as chaotic as her house is clean. While organizing a birthday party for one of her friend's daughter Christine, another friend's son Nicholas is kidnapped. The book is all about how they track down Nicholas and find him again. All the time, there is a conflict between the good angel and the demon. The evil demon is haunting Dylan's life and adds to the chaos. Anyways, another interesting twist in the story is Christine's supernatural ability to feel/see what Nicholas is feeling/seeing and that kinda helps them in tracking down where he is.

Well, as i mentioned before...this is not a book that i would have picked up had i read about it before. Suspense? Supernatural powers? Good vs Evil? You must be kidding me!

But there was something about this book that kept me going. I mean, I was ready to put it down and not get back to it if it was wierd but i actually managed to not only finish the book but actually like it enough to say.."maybe you should give it a shot" in my review!

Seriously.. try it! give it a shot. let me know what you thought of it! do you read suspense novels? well, then go ahead and suggest a few books that you really enjoyed because i am ready to try out a few more suspense novels now!

Swahili for Beginners

2008-09-12T10:47:00.000-04:00

Swahili for Beginners by Lisa Joyal - A Young Adult Novel

If I had to describe the book in two words, I would say – sweet and simple.

Georgia is 13 and she lives in Toronto, Canada. She is an energetic girl and is full of dreams. She wants to sail, be an astronaut, ski, etc and her list keeps growing every single day. She is very endearing. She is browsing the internet one day and she finds a pen pal website. She decides to write to a girl, Ellie, in Tanzania. Soon, Ellie and Georgie start communicating and this turns out to be a life changing experience for Georgie. Ellie is a poor Tanzanian from a small village at the foothills for Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Through the innocent letter exchange between Georgie and Ellie, Lisa Joyal brings out the complex lives of people in developing nations. Kids in developed countries take so many things for granted – things that are a luxury for kids in many countries around the world. Through Ellie’s letters, Lisa shows us the actual lives of people in countries like Tanzania – their issues with money, education, health, etc. The book is not all about issues of developing countries. With the help of Ellie and her best friend, Jodi, Georgie leans to come to terms with many things in her own life including her parents divorce and her first crush. Lisa even manages to highlight the issues of Anorexia that is becoming a big problem with young girls in this book.

Swahili for beginners starts out being the simple story of Georgie and her friends but turns out to be very deep. I think it brings out complex issues of pre-teens and teens around the world in a very simple way. The book teaches to you work hard to get things that you want and not to take things for granted. It makes you realize that the world outside is very different from what you see around your own home in developed countries. And the best part is that the morals and the lessons are all well intertwined in an interesting story and hence, makes for an interesting read as well!

I think it is a perfect book for young girls to read. There’s so much to learn from this book. I would definitely recommend this book for young adults!

Check out this link to find out more about the book!

Thanks to minibookexpo for giving me a chance to read such a nice book!

Mrs. Dalloway

2008-09-10T12:28:00.000-04:00

As a slight deviation from my initial plan, I read Mrs. Dalloway as the fourth book for my classics challenge. I got Mrs. Dalloway from Bethany for winning the first Orbis Terrarum Giveaway. Thank you Bethany!

Mrs. Dalloway is set in England around the post world war I period. It describes a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway. Clarissa goes about her activities in preparation for a party that she is throwing that evening.

Through Clarissa’s thoughts and actions, Virginia Woolf brings out the complexity of the social structure in post war England.

During the course of the day, she thinks about her past and her present and contemplates on how her life has turned out. She picked the stable and successful Richard Dalloway over the enigmatic Peter Walsh to marry and she wonders if she made the right choice in life. Peter Walsh confuses her more by paying her a visit in the afternoon after having just returned from India. As a parallel story, we see Septimus a World War I veteran who is in the park with his wife Lucrezia. Ever since the war, Septimus has been suffering from hallucinations. From the park Septimus and Rezia go to a psychiatrist who suggests that it might be better for Septimus to be admitted in a home for the mentally ill in the country. A few hours later, Septimus commits suicide by jumping out a window.

Towards the end of the novel you see how both the stories tie together. After having spent the entire day thinking about her life and her decisions, Clarissa hears about Septimus and his suicide during the evening party. She thinks about it and eventually decides that she actually understands what it is that he does and eventually comes to admire the act. Somehow the parts just fit right in together!

Virginia Woolf beautifully brings out the status of women in England around that time – she just weaves it into Clarissa’s thoughts and activities. She also exposes the pseudo society of England that was so wealth conscious and relationships were built on social standing and not on personalities.

Reading Mrs. Dalloway was a tough task for me. The language wasn’t simple and a lot of the sentences went on for more than 10 lines. A sentence contained many different thoughts and it took me a while to actually get into the book and understand Virginia Woolf’s writing style. Evidently, this is my first Woolf book. While I glanced at the book initially, it looked short and easy to read... I was totally mistaken. But I must say that I actually started liking the book halfway through it. I realized that Woolf must have been so forward in thought to write a book like in 1925. It definitely paved the way for modern writing.

Mrs. Dalloway is an interesting read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for something different and has the time and the patience to sit through Virginia Woolf’s complex web of thoughts and words.

The Trouble with Testosterone

2008-09-09T11:33:00.000-04:00

.. And Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament
--Robert.M. Sapolsky

I have a confession to make. In addition to liking all these novels that i read from around the world, i secretly like books that deal with neuro-science...and actually anything related to human biology..(phew! its finally out!)..:) I guess having a masters degree in Biological Sciences does point toward that predilection of mine..

One of my good friends, who also happens to be a professor of psychology feeds my interest with awesome books that totally enthrall me.. One book that I totally enjoyed reading and re-reading was this book by Robert Sapolsky. Robert Sapolsky is a professor of Biological Sciences and a Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University and he writes books!(So, I guess in a way, I was predestined to like anything he wrote!).

A small technical interlude in case there is a kindred soul who likes Biological Sciences and loves reading books enough to visit my blog - Sapolsky's main work focuses on Stress and Neuron Degeneration (and on a related note - gene therapy mechanisms to protect susceptible neurons). When he's not in the lab in Stanford, I guess he likes "vacationing" in Kenya annually where he studies a population of wild baboons to identify patterns of relationship between personalities and stress among these animals. He's written some other books along the same lines and you know it as well as I do - I am definitely going to read them!

Did you know???

- In August of 1992, an article published in the prestigious Science journal, finally demonstrated a biological difference between homosexual and heterosexual men. Homosexual men tend to have a smaller "third interstitial nucleus" in the hypothalamus ( the part of the brain that is central to sexual behavior) when compared to heterosexual men.. can you even imagine the implications of this discovery?? I guess that would be a whole post in itself. Of course, it is yet to be determined if the small "Third interstitial nucleus" is the cause of effect of being homosexual..

- A researcher of Chimps in Tanzania discovered a strange eating pattern among the Chimps. On waking, some of the chimps ate the leaves of the Aspilia plant..well, they didn't actually eat it but just kept it under their tongues for a few minutes before swallowing it whole. The strange thing was that these leaves weren't even tasty and the primates grimaced as they ate it.. Why would they want to put themselves through such an ordeal?? Well, looks like the leaves are rich in an antibacterial substance that helps in cleaning the digestive tracts of unwanted bacteria! I guess they have thir own little primate pharmacies with prescriptions as well!:))

- All primates tend to live in groups. One interesting phenomenon observed in these groups is the mechanism of adolescent emigration (i.e., adolescent primates moving permanently from one group to another). I guess that is nature's way of preventing inbreeding among the primate population. The coming together of two groups and the emigration of an adolescent from one group to another seems random but it sure isn't.

Well, i guess you get the general hang of the book from this. I loved reading all the essays in this book and I got too carried away by the subject matter to actually analyze and see how a lay person (with absolutely no biology background whatsoever) would understand and like the book. If you are looking for a different kind of a read, i would totally recommend this book to you.

If you have already read it, i would love to hear your views on this one.

Night of Flames

2008-09-05T14:50:00.000-04:00

No matter how many versions of it you read, some stories always tend to have the effect on you. One such story is the gruesome story of the Holocaust and the states of Germany and countries surrounding it during World War II. My first encounter with this story was through the diary of a 13 year old young Jewish girl – yes, Anne Frank. Since then, I have heard this story often… Various books, various authors, same story – Exodus by Leon Uris (The story of Jews fleeing from the Nazis in Europe and the birth of Israel), The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (which is a non fiction about Jan and Antonia who save Jews from the Nazis and protect them by putting them in animal cages in the Warsaw zoo), Night by Elie Wiesel (an autobiographical account of a holocaust survivor of his life in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps), The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (a best selling novel about a little German girl during World War II who befriends a Jewish man in the basement of her home) and finally Night of Flames by Douglas W Jacobson. The books are so similar… yet, so unique in their own way.

Night of Flames is a historical fiction about a young couple in Krakow, Poland – Anna and Jan and how their lives become entangled with the Polish and Belgian Resistance movements. Anna is a University professor in Krakow. Her husband Jan is a Polish Cavalryman. Jan is called to fight in the resistance against Germany’s attack on Poland. Meanwhile, Germans take over Krakow. All the intellectuals in Krakow are called for a meeting and they are arrested overnight and taken to Germany to be executed. Anna’s dad is one amongst the arrested professors. Anna is forced to flee from Poland with a Jewish friend and her son. Anna’s friend dies in the middle and only Anna and Justyn reach Belgium. There’s as the years go by, Anna gets slowly involved in the Belgian Resistance. Jan, on the other hand, gets deeply entangled with the Polish resistance.

Through Anna and Jan, we get to know the happenings of the Polish and Belgian resistances. They meet a lot of people in their journeys (Polish, German and Belgian) and we get to know about the holocaust from personal experiences of the people they meet. One part that I really liked was the part about Otto. When Anna is taken by a German officer, Otto (The officer’s chauffer) saves her from him. Otto was a guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp and we realize that he’s having a tough time dealing with what he saw there. That little incident really made me think. It is easy for us to say “cruel Germans” every time we think of the holocaust, but it is not like everyone involved in it did it because they wanted to do it… many, in fact, most did it because they had to!

And somehow, throughout the book, one message is really clear. In the middle of the war and executions and everything – people still survived. I think it is just two things that kept them going on – hope and trust. The trust that they had in each other is amazing. Especially at a time where one wrong word could kill you and all those around you, people trusted each other and friends and worked together for the resistance. And this was brought out over and over again in the book.

Many characters, many little stories embedded throughout the novel. The novel is not about Anna and Jan. It could have centered on Justyn, or Willy, or any of the other characters that we came across… because what Douglas really brought out was not a love story. It was the story of World War II in Europe.

I really enjoyed reading the book. If I had to, I would give it 3 stars out of five. It definitely wouldn’t come in the best books of the year list… but nevertheless, it was a good book and the fact that Douglas has researched so much to get this book out has to be definitely appreciated. Everytime I read about World War II, I learn so many new things. I am glad that there are authors who still write about it and keep the events from becoming just events in the history text books. I think it is essential that everyone knows what happened then, for the sole purpose of learning from history and making sure that things like that will never ever happen again..

If you have read this book, do let me know what you thought of it. If you have a review online then just send me the link and I’ll add it to this post!

Shadow of the Wind

2008-08-29T10:35:00.000-04:00

I thought writing a review for this book would be the easiest since I enjoyed it so much. But I am beginning to see that it is not an easy task. I recently started taking an interest in reading more about the author while reading a book. I have never done it before and I enjoy doing it now. It gives me so much more insight into the book and sometimes explains so many things about the book! Well, Shadows in the Wind is all about the urge to find out more about an author.
Shadow of the Wind is set in Barcelona. It was originally written in Spanish and it became an overnight bestseller. It was later translated into many languages including English. This is the author’s (Carlos Ruiz Zafron) first book and his much awaited second book is due by the end of 2009. This book is added to my Orbis Terrarum Challenge list! I travelled to Spain this time and i loved the journey.
The book starts with a little boy being taken by his father to a secretive place – the cemetery of books. According to the tradition of the members, Daniel walks around the labyrinth of books to pick out one book that he will treasure through his life. The book finds him. It is “Shadow of the Wind” by Julian Carax. He reads the book in one sitting and becomes interested in knowing more about the author and other books that he might have written. This seemingly innocent quest changes his life for ever.
The book almost has a magical, mystical setting… or should I just say, Gothic? It almost has a fantasy touch to it – the cemetery of books, people falling in love at the drop of a hat, homeless men becoming heroes, etc. So don’t think too much and just read the book for what it is and you will totally enjoy yourself. Being rational doesn’t help while reading this book!
I must mention that it is quite a scary book - the faceless strangers, the dark mansions, the eerie sounds, the murderers… It still gives me a shudders!
I came across a review for this book and some guy had written that this book was powerful enough to make him cry. I didn’t feel that strong an emotion for this book. It was a tale that I was witnessing, not experiencing. It was a fun read but not something I could cry for (and I cry easily. I cry for ‘you’ve got mail’ every time I see it... so you know what I mean!).
But it is a gripping novel. There are so many parallel stories happening and so many twists to the tale that it is hard to take a break. I’d read up to the end of a chapter planning to put the book down after finishing the chapter… but a single line at the end of it would make me even more curious and I would land up reading the book for a long long time after that! One thing that I have to add here is there are times when the book suddenly gets a little boring.
One thing that I didn’t like too much about the book was the way the protagonist’s character starts out being strong and then slowly dwindles into significance. I am not sure if this was something Carlos was trying to get at. When the book starts, Daniel is very obviously the center of the novel. And then the novel progresses and you suddenly realize that you are no longer interested in Daniel and his doings. Fermin seems to be a more dominant character and you realize that you are drawn to him more than Daniel. By the end of the book, both Fermin and Daniel are forgotten. There’s just Julian. And you begin to wonder if the book was all along only about Julian and you just had missed it in the beginning.

**Possible Spoiler Ahead
One more thing that irked me was the way Daniel gets to know everything there is to know through a letter – a very detailed letter at that. I am wishing that there was more to that part than just a letter. Well, it so turned out that Nuria was on Julian’s side. What if she hadn’t been? How could Daniel just take everything that Nuria mentioned in the letter at face value? I thought that the letter was too convenient an ending for my liking. After all the twists in the plot, the ending was almost anticlimactic to me.

Well, having said all that, I must re-state that I totally loved the book. It was different from books that I have been reading and it was a nice and interesting change.
You must must pick it up if you haven’t already read it!

If you have read this book and reviewed it, do leave me a comment with the link..
Thanks!

Lolita

2008-08-26T10:34:00.000-04:00

I have heard that Lolita is a complex book of many depths, linguistic acrobatics and brilliant writing. I have heard that Nabokov’s writing style is flamboyant and is characterized by word play, double entendres, multilingual puns, anagrams, etc. All this made me desperately want to read Lolita. I wanted to delve into the satire and look at the book from a literary perspective. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it. I was too involved in the story line to make note of the literary achievements of Nabokov. And worse, I couldn’t appreciate the satire in the midst of the events that I was reading about.
Lolita, contrary to what I had expected, turned out to be one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. It deeply affected me and I found myself having nightmares for a couple of days after I had finished the book. In spite of dealing with one of the most delicate subjects ever, Nabokov doesn’t use obscene language or graphic descriptions even once through the book. The book definitely doesn’t come across as one of those cheap pornographic trashy tales. It is a dirty little confession made in the classiest possible way.
What disturbed me the most was the fact that a person like Humbert could exist in this world – someone who easily destroys the life of a little girl and then gets away with it too! He does land up in jail by the end of the book, but as we all already know, it is not for the sexual assault on a minor but rather for the murder of a pornographer (Who doesn’t deserve to exist in the first place! {Well, at least according to me!}). Little things that he mentioned in the passing scared me. Like the part where he talks about how he sat in the park, pretending to be absorbed in the newspaper he held in his hand, but actually was looking at little girls at play and waiting for any little interaction with them. That totally scared me.
I haven’t been able to look at the comedy of the events described in the book. And I haven’t been able to see Dolores Haze as a sexually precocious little girl. To me, she was just like all the other little girls we see out there – active, energetic, moody and extremely curious about anything and everything happening around them. All that I saw through the book was a little girl, absolutely helpless with no one to turn to; caught in the clutches of Humbert, and being forced to do all the things she didn’t enjoy doing. She eventually learns to bribe him with sexual favors to get her way – but even that, I don’t think points to any perversity on her part. Given a choice, I am sure she would have preferred the typical life of a pre-teen girl any day!
Anyways, it has been a week since I finished reading the book and I don’t remember registering anything but the story. I completely missed the writing and the literature and the grammar plays. Does that mean I would have to read Lolita again to grasp it all? The very thought gives me the jitters.
With Lolita, I finish my third book for the Classics Challenge. I am currently reading “Of Human Bondage” by Somerset Maugham and I have partially finished classics still sitting on my bedside table – Picture of Dorian Gray and 1984. I hope to finish both sometime soon!

So, if you have read this book, I would love to hear your views. I am curious to see what others liked or disliked about this book.

Siddhartha

2008-08-22T11:55:00.000-04:00

As part of the classics reading challenge, the second book that I decided to read was “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse.

The first thing that I noticed about the book was its conciseness. This was in start contrast to the classic that I had just finished before this – Crime and Punishment. In Crime and Punishment, I enjoyed the fact that I was witnessing practically every waking moment of Raskolnikov. The huge book spanned just a period of about 2 weeks. But it included not just the events that happened over the two weeks but also a detailed insight into each and every thought that ran through Raskolnikov’s head over the period of two weeks. As I have already mentioned in one of my previous posts, I totally enjoyed C&P in spite of it being a very heavy read. But Siddhartha was very concise. It spanned nearly the entire lifetime of Siddhartha, the protagonist, in less than quarter the number of pages of C&P. It jumped over years in a single line. Though the writing was concise, the content was vast and extensive.
Siddhartha was completely different from C&P when it came to the mood of the book. Talking about the difference between these books, the first image that comes to mind is of rivers. C&P resembled a slow moving sluggish river, something like the braided rivers in Alaska – heavily laden with silt that it carries from the glaciers. The river twists and turns and struggles throughout its journey burdened by the weight of the silt. It branches out and then the branches join again in an attempt to deposit the silt along its way. It is not turbulent, doesn’t have sudden surprises, no gorgeous waterfalls in the middle of its journey. It is silent, yet beautiful, in its effort. C&P was like this - heavily bogged down with the emotional turmoil of the characters.
In contrast, we have Siddhartha which resembles a free flowing river - rich in content but not heavily laden with silt. It flows easily through flat lands, silently again, and if you are not really conscious, it flows right by you! If you notice it however, there’s so much that you can derive from it. Cool, refreshing water and so much pleasure. Siddhartha flows like the river I just mentioned. It is not a complicated read, not a twisted plot; A simple story that you can glance at, see it but not really experience it. In that, it resembles The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. At first glance, it looks like there’s not much to the book- not much to the story. But the more you look at it, the more you can get from it; the more pleasure you derive. And after reading this book once, I don’t think it is possible to form a strong opinion about the book after reading it just once. You need to read it multiple times, toss the ideas back and forth and then eventually grow into the book.

Having said this, I have a disclaimer. I am not too much into spirituality. I need to put in a lot of effort to read books like these. It takes me a while to get into the mood of the book. And I have to change my whole reading style. I am used to reading fast, consuming many many pages and sometimes whole books at one sitting. But books like Siddhartha and The Alchemist just do not allow me to do that. They force me to go slow, go back and re-read the chapters I just did, pause, think, etc. and that’s tough for me. But I am glad I read Siddhartha. I really am. Thanks to the Classics Challenge for that. So my disclaimer is this: I don’t understand spirituality. It makes me cynical and sometimes I just can’t see the point in what I am reading. So my views of the themes of the book may be way off where I am supposed to me. Feel free to argue with me and put some “spiritual-sense” into my head.

The plot of the book doesn’t require too much discussion. Contrary to my initial opinion, the book doesn’t deal with the life of The Buddha whose name was Siddhartha Gautama. I had assumed that the book dealt with his life. But the book actually deals with another Siddhartha who lives in the same age as The Buddha. Though he leads a sheltered blissful life of a Brahman boy, his mind is filled with discontent. He wanted to discover “inner peace” and he wanted to find the knowledge that every ascetic is in search for. His search for the knowledge takes him away from home, and leads him to a group of ascetics, to the Illustrious One (“Gotama” himself), through a period of material pleasures with Kamala the courtesan and Kamaswami the businessman, and eventually to the riverside where he meets Vasudeva the ferryman. At each step Siddhartha is disappointed that he hasn’t been able to achieve his goal. But eventually, when he does achieve it, he realizes that it not a particular incident/experience that helps you attain enlightenment. “Experience” is the best way to understand reality and attain enlightenment. You cannot understand reality by attending talks and lectures, by mind dependant methods, by immersing yourself in carnal pleasures of the world, etc. Experience is a totality of all these events. You need to live every stage of life if you want to attain enlightenment. (At least, this is what I got from the book). This idea is in sync with the basic tenets of Hinduism.
According to our scriptures, man goes through four stages in life. The first stage (Brahmacharya) is the student phase. This is followed by (Grihastha) which is the stage where he gets married and has a family. Once his household responsibilities are over (his children are grown up, etc) he gives up material pleasures and spends times in prayers (Vanaprastha) and in the fourth and final stage, he totally devotes all his time to the thought of God and breaks all ties with the world. His aim in this stage is to attain Moksha and break free of the material cycle of birth and death.
As you can see, Hinduism believes in the fact that you can attain moksha only after going through all the stages of life.

Though this is the main theme of the book, there are many other concepts discussed in the book, which of course I am not going discuss in this blog.

But I would totally recommend this book to everyone. It is a must read. It really makes you think in a different way. It makes you want to look at bigger picture of life. I am sure that I would read this book again, later in life. Books like these always have something new to tell you no matter how many times you read them. I am experiencing the feeling with The Alchemist as well.
Also reviewed by:
Katrina
If you have already read this book and reviewed it, please leave me a comment with the link and I’ll tag you in this post so that others can read your views as well.

The Blood of Flowers

2008-08-21T10:22:00.000-04:00

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

A fictional story set in seventeenth century Iran describing a life as complicated as the protagonist’s passion – carpets. Not just any carpet, authentic hand-woven Persian carpets. What better era to concentrate on than that of Shah Abbas – the lover of Arts and Architecture. Shah Abbas turned what a tribal art and occupation into one of international fame. He set up carpet workshops around the country and selected the best designers and weavers to work in those carpets – compensating them well for their efforts. Thanks to Shah Abbas, the Persian carpets left Iran and adorned homes all around the world – and still do!

First there wasn’t and then there was. Before God, no one was.

The book begins with this line. And as you read the book, you see that every folk tale narrated in the book start with this one. I am assuming that this might be similar to the “Once upon a time” of English tale narrations. Even time, I turned a page and found the italicized writing waiting for me, I jumped with joy. I loved Anita’s way of inserting folk tales at appropriate places in the story. Reading this book, I am beginning to see how there are so many similarities between Indian culture and the Iranian culture. We have a set of folktales as well, fondly called “grandmother stories” because they are usually told by grandmothers in an attempt make little brats eat or sleep.

One more similarity that I found between olden day India and Iran was the dependency on stars and astrology. Astrology is still big in India… not sure if that’s the same case in present day Iran. Indians strongly believe that the stars control our destiny and by studying them, we would be able to predict the life of an individual. Coming from a family where astrology has been a ardently followed hobby, I find myself in two minds when it comes to my opinion on believing the stars. The rational side of me refuses to believe that something as distant as the stars can control the decisions that you make here on earth. But, even then I must accept that there are some incidences that provide compelling evidence that there in fact might be some connection…. Anyways, that’s not the point here. What I was trying to get here was the fact that Anita has beautifully brought out the beliefs and practices of ancient Iran woven intricately into the story of an anonymous protagonist.

Unlike European art, art in Asia is not artist centric. Very rarely do we find artists name on the art work. Artists are anonymous. I have noticed this in Indian art work. We talk about regional art – Madhubani prints, Tanjore paintings, etc…. very rarely do we talk about artists who created the wonderful arts. In most cases, the artists are poor women in rural regions who stitch, or weave throughout the day to make a few rupees to sustain their deprived lives. Little do they realize that the dealers, who buy their handwork from them for dirt cheap prices, later sell the same pieces for exorbitant prices. Now, initiatives are being taken to bring the artists in direct contact with the customers so they can get more money for their effort. I have always been interested in traditional Indian art work and have always resisted against buying from dealers. I was really excited when I realized that this book deals with the life of an anonymous poor carpet weaver and the difficulties that she has to go through in spite of being extremely talented in her art.

One thing about the book that thoroughly surprised me was the concept of sighehs or “temporary marriages”- more like a short term contract that can be renewed. I was surprised to read the terms in the book and then on researching further, I realized that this is still practiced in Iran. “Temporary marriages” is a term that I find very difficult to deal with and accept but isn’t that the beauty of international literature. You get to know so many things about different parts of the world that you might never visit. Some practices that resonate with the culture that you have been brought up in and some practices that are hugely discordant.

So, why the name “Blood of Flowers”, you might wonder. According to the author, the title comes from a poem called “Ode to a Garden Carpet” by “an unknown Sufi poet, circa 1500” and it portrays the garden carpet as a place of refuge that stimulates visions of the divine. In the poem come the words “Sometimes it seemed as if every thread in a carpet had been dipped in the Blood of Flowers”. This title is very apt for the novel. To me, it somehow portrays the pain and the sacrifices that go into making of an exceptional art piece.. Again, this takes me back to “The Thorn Birds” where the central theme was the story of the legendary “thorn bird” that spends its life looking for a thorn tree and then impales itself on the sharpest thorn. And while dying, it sings out and its song is better than any other song that the world has ever listened to. Somehow, when there is pain involved the resulting work is made spectacular.

I loved the book and I think it is a must read for anyone who enjoys reading in general and international literature in particular. I think this is a fantastic novel and it is Anita’s first book. I know she is working on another book right now and I can’t wait to read that when it comes out.

Some other reviewers who have read this book:
Softdrink

BCF Book Reviews

Janelle

If you have read this book and reviewed it, do leave a comment with the link to the post and I’ll add you to this list!
Thanks!

Bitter Sweets

2008-08-08T13:42:00.000-04:00

I had been waiting to read Bitter Sweets for over two weeks before I finally received it in the mail. After reading the book, the first thing that came to my mind was a line from the poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by John Keats. In the poem, there’s a line:
Heard melodies are sweet, those unheard are sweeter;”
Poetry hardly ever leaves a deep impression on me because I always fail to see all that the poet wishes to convey through the lines. I am definitely not one to go about quoting lines from poems. But somehow, I still remember this particular line from this particular poem. Maybe because I found it so true and found myself recalling it at various instances in my life. Well, it is not the universal truth and doesn’t really apply to all possible situations. But it seems really true on certain occasions. I guess what Keats was implying through this line was something to the effect of – the state of anticipation is better than actual fulfillment. Heard melodies will never be as sweet as those we have not yet heard. It is a very eloquent line and is really true sometimes. As I already mentioned, it doesn’t always work all the time. Sometimes, I wait to read a book with growing excitement because I have heard so much about it and when I actually read the book, it is better than what I expected and that is bliss! But with Bitter Sweets, my anticipation was actually “sweeter” than the actual fulfillment.
I got an Advance Reading Copy of “Bitter Sweets” by Roopa Farooki. I had a completely different idea in my head after reading the plot of the book. I was expecting something with deeper roots, something with deeper emotions. Somehow, the book seemed very shallow to me. The people whose lives the book revolved around seemed very materialistic and….for lack of a better word, shallow. I know I keep coming back to the word, but that best describes what I actually thought about it. The story describes the lives of 3 generations of people in a family from Calcutta to Dhaka to Islamabad finally to England. The concentration of the book was not on coping with culture differences but rather on copying with relationship problems. What makes me feel confused about the book is the fact that I am not totally sure that the author wanted it to be just a book on extra marital affairs and coming to terms with it. I am sure she was trying to get somewhere further with it but just didn’t get to doing it!
Well, that is just my opinion.
Well, not everything about the book was totally negative. I received the book on Monday evening and I was done reading it by Tuesday night in spite of having to get to work all day Tuesday. Not all books that you come across can make you do that. The language was simple and easy to read (which was a welcome break from the other two books I have been having difficulties with – 1984 and Mrs. Dalloway which are so complicated in their writing styles that it requires special effort to actually get through even a page!). And then of course, the story was entertaining and kept you glued to the book. There were no boring parts that you wanted to skim through just to get done with the book. I guess it was a good first attempt at writing. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone just to see what they thought of it; to see if they liked it better than I did; to confirm if they felt that the author was trying to get any something more than what the book seemed to say. If you read the book, I hope you like it better than I did. I know that Roopa Farooki is in the process of getting her second book published as well. I would definitely want to read it. Maybe I’d have a better understanding of her writing by then to make better judgements.

Crime and Punishment

2008-07-26T13:15:00.000-04:00

"But here begins a new account, the account of a man's gradual renewal, the account of his gradual regeneration, his gradual transition from one world to another, his acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality. It might make the subject of a new story - but our present story is ended."

With these lines, I closed the book that I have enjoyed most in all my readings until now. Yes. I can say, with assurance, that Crime and Punishment far surpassed all books I have read until now. It was a wonderful experience and I am proud of the fact that I did not gulp the story down but rather read it in intervals allowing the feelings wash over me before picking the book up again to read yet another equally entertaining and very well written segment.

If you have ever noticed my blog, you would not have missed my quote of Ernest Hemingway which more than adequately describes the foremost reason I love books. When I finished reading C&P I felt that I had just come back from Petersburg - the filth and the dinginess somehow still sticking to my clothes. I felt like I spent the past two weeks with Raskolnikov.. and listened to his rants about his life.. Never before has a book so strongly drawn me in. So before have i felt so transported.. Solely for this fact, i am adding this book to my list of books read in my orbis terrarum challenge as well..

There's nothing to say about the plot of C&P..the world knows it by now. A young college student murders a wicked old woman (who he thinks doesn't deserve to live) and the book describes the events leading to, during and following the Crime. A simple plot but only Dostoevsky can make it feel like your story rather than an article you read in the newspapers. The confusion that goes through Raskolnikov's head regarding the motive of the crime (once he's already done with it) is totally understandable.. does it do it for the money? does he do it just to test himself to see if he is capable of doing such a thing? does he do it because he thinks she is useless and doesn't deserve to live? does he do it so he could eventually put the money to better use to help the people who are in dire need of it? these questions haunt you and you can see throughout the book that they haunt him too!

And then, there is the question of the fever.. did he commit the crime in delirium because of his illness or does he get ill because he's so stressed because of the crime?

To add to that, there's porfiry Petrovich who sees right through raskolnikov and provides scene by scene account of it (as though he witnessed the whole event)..sometimes you wonder if he is so perspicacious or if the guilt and confusion is that apparent from raskolnikov's behaviour.

I could go on and on with this list but in short, there's just one point that i am trying to make here. the motives for the crime and the punishment are not straightforward and i don't think they can ever be.. doestoevsky has brought that point out beautifully. There is usually never just one reason that leads to the murder.. it is always an interplay of various factors and is usually prompted by the right circumstance.. and then, the punishment. i think raskolnikov was punished for his actions.. but i don't think the eight year jail sentence was the punishment.. i think the biggest punishment was the two weeks he spent after the crime wandering around the city, trying to get back to normalcy and realizing that he could never ever live in peace with this on his mind..

I did not start the book with any sort of expectations. I knew it was going to be a tough read. I had heard about C&P all my life and I expected it to be laborious but I was willing to take up the task.. If you have been following my blog, you would know who I am doing this for. But what I found was an unexpected surprise. The book was not complicated. It had an element of suspense throughout the book which made you want to keep going on and on and the introduction of so many characters and so many parallel stories that were somehow tied together kept you interested through the 500 odd pages.

As you can see, i am totally floored by the book! I would love for everyone to read this book.. i would love to be able to discuss this with others and see what they thought of it..
if you've read this book.. leave me a comment as to what you thought of it.. and if you havent already read it, try to pick it up sometime and see if you enjoy it as much as i did!!