www Wednesdays (2)

It is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should be reading ...To play along , just answer three (3) questions..

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish?
• What do you think you'll read next?

My current reads are the re-reads for the 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Reading list-though these books will not be added towards the completion of the challenge, I felt like reading them all over again....

Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
Though I am not a PP fanatic, this was one of the earliest book I started with ,I love it as Austen had portrayed the female protagonist with substance and style and oh yes I liked Darcy too...

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone by J.K RowlingI I was completely all over Harry Potter like any other high school graduate when it released The Sorcerer's stone ,the first among the  Harry Potter series  is my top favorite of all the books in the series, though I read all of them, my love for the series ebbed away after Goblet of fire..

The Zahir by Paulo Coelho
I have had a love hate relation with Paulo Coelho's work..There are a few that I am absolutely in awe for while there are others that I totally dislike..While The Zahir takes the middle path..I have had mixed feelings about this one ...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books of all time...From the young Jane till she finds love in odd circumstances everything about Jane Eyre is a masterpiece to me..Re-reading was an absolute treat for me...

Recently read

 

If you love art and history then this one is for you...Just grab it and relax, slowly you'll be transported in to the  gone by era of course do not miss the fantasy of time travel ...

Future read...
I haven't made up my mind though there are many books that I have left unfinished because of my frequent travels..I guess I'll grab some from my old stack...

How are your days coming up????

Book review:All I want for christmas Fate with a helping hand book 1 by Lisa Mondello :Blog tour

Title:All I want for Christmas, fate with a helping hand book 1
Author: Lisa Mondello
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781465962690
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Review copy Bewitching blog tours
Buy All I want for Christmas from amazon.com
Buy All I want for Christmas from smashwords
Buy All I want for christmas from iTunes
Buy All I want for Christmas from Barnes & Nobles

Summary
Santa Claus is going to have a rough season... Lauren Alexander is raising her daughter alone. Abandoned by her family for her decision to keep her daughter Kristen, she has done a pretty good job for the last six years. Or she thought she had. That's why she is crushed when little Kristen gives up her wish for a toy or goodie and instead asks Santa for a present for her mother. But delivering Daddies isn't Santa's bag.
But this Santa has a plan...
Kyle Preston knows what it is like to be abandoned too. Luckily he found the support of loving adoptive parents and has turned himself into one of the most successful Real Estate developers in town.

Review
Young Kristen wishes for a father like every other kids around the block, this reminded me of a movie where the heroin all dressed on her birthday,wishes for her father to come over...Lauren is a single mother supporting her daughter all by herself..Not even her family supports as she turns down the adoption of her daughter Kristen...Though Lauren does everything to keep up the ends and her daughter happy, she is unable to be Kristen's father no matter what..Kristen though too attached to her mother, still yearns for a father...Thus begins a cute family drama where as a Christmas miracle Kyle comes into the lives of Lauren and Kristen...
Kyle is every lady's dream but Lauren's past doesn't let her take the leap of faith for good, complicating things much to the dismay of Kristen...Will Kristen finally have her dream of a complete family?? Will Lauren be blessed by the bloom of love for a second time?? Will Kyle prove to be Santa's gift for the family?? Read the rest to find out...The books ends wonderfully for a scope for  upcoming series...
I loved the Lauren's character, it  was well developed, she is determined , sensible with an attitude face things as it comes..At no point the novel was utterly dramatic, yet the moments were put in a perfect length of frame..Oh how can I miss Kyle , he is charming who remembers his past with a sense of responsibility to pay it forward..This is a book for a light read that you would enjoy thoroughly...

Excerpt

"You don't have to be afraid. This will explain it all. I promise you." He smiled warmly and Lauren wanted to trust him if only to believe in simple kindness.
With shaking hands, she took the piece of paper, warm from being in the pocket close to Kyle's body. She held it up straight so that she could see Kyle while reading the words on the paper.
"Dear Santa..." she read out loud, then read the next part silently. "Oh, no," she groaned.
"I know. That's just how I felt."
Lauren shot him a skeptical glance. "How did you get this?"
"Kristen gave it to me."
"That's impossible. Mrs. Hopkins just helped her with it this afternoon and-"
"And she gave it to me in the Mall," Kyle finished for her.
She looked at him quizzically, still trying to comprehend the course of events leading up to his seizure of her daughter's precious note.
"It's not that hard to figure out, Lauren," Kyle said warmly.
His dark eyes gleamed with the light from the lamppost. He wore no hat to protect his head from the falling snow. Now his hair was filled with powdered flakes, matting it down.

His grin was bright and wide as he informed her, "I'm Santa Claus."

About the author

Lisa Mondello (a.k.a. LA Mondello) has held many jobs in her life but being a published authors is the last job she'll ever have. She's not retiring! She blames the creation of the personal computer for her leap into writing novels. Otherwise, she'd still be penning stories with paper and pen.  Her first book, All I Want for Christmas is You, was the winner of the Golden Quill contest for Best First Book and to date has had over 400,000 downloads worldwide.

She is currently the author of 14 novels under the name Lisa Mondello and LA Mondello. You can find more information about Lisa Mondello at http://www.lisamondello.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/lisa.mondello.1

 

Tuesday teasday (5)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by should be reading ..Anyone can play along!!!!!! Just do the following :

• Grab your current read
• Open a random page
• Share two (2)  "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!!! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the books for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants  can add the book to their TBR  Lists if they like your teaser !!

Delhi 101 by Ajay Jain

 "The city has been abused like every ruler's mistress, but was often rewarded with palaces as befits a Queen..It shed tears evrytime it was ravaged by those within and from far beyond, but given reasons to smile whenever peace followed."

My week looks great with my work and books....

Monday Mailbox (1)

Welcome to Mailboxmonday, the weekly meme created by Marcia, formerly from The Printed Page, where book lovers share the titles they received for review, purchased, or otherwise obtained over the past week. Mailbox Monday currently is on tour, and this month’s host is bermudaonion.. 

I have been a silent reader Diary of an eccentric for a while...She is a Jane Austen fanatic and has some and historic fiction fan, do check her site for details....It is through this site I got introduced to this meme but never made it to it..Finally I made it..

 I had a good relaxing weekend did all my chores and all set for the week ahead..
Books I received for reviews..

Shades of love : An anthology of short stories edited by Ankit Mittal 

"Who first said ‘Love is a many-splendoured thing’, is a difficult matter to trace but movies, plays, poems and songs have claimed the phrase greedily over the years. Love is the most complex, perplexing phenomenon one can ever encounter, spanning the most insipid to darkest emotions known to Man. Definitions, meaning, interpretations and perspectives vary from dictionary to dictionary and from person to person. If one sits down to compile all the interpretations, the length of the compilation would surpass the length of the guide to understanding women and men and what happens between them. Perhaps this is what is meant by the many-splendoured shades of love.
Shades of Love, Grapevine India's first anthology, comprises of twenty five short stories, written by some of the biggest best sellers and many debutante writers. However, each story is a different shade. From the innocent to the macabre, the mundane to the supernatural, from the soulful to the psychotic, each tale seeks to spur the reader on a journey from shade to shade."

Delhi 101 by Ajay Jain

"Delhi 101 is an incomplete illustrated must-do guide to Delhi.
For one, it does not list everything for a traveller as other guide books promise to. Delhi has too much for even the weightiest tome to cover it all.
Second, it comes with a flashlight thrown it. No, don’t look around the packaging for it – it is in the written word. Rather than just list places, and rattling off a brief history and essential facts, I have adopted an anecdotal and opinionated style to the writing. Popular attractions are shown in a new light, and lamps have been lit on the path to other gems. I am not just telling you about, say, Mehrauli, I am giving you reasons to go there and what to do when there. Travelling with this book makes the passive into active.
And thirdly, it comes peppered with imagery. Seeing is being tempted!"


Awakening of Leeowyn Blake by Mary Parker

"I'm a normal teenager. I have a normal teenage life with normal teenage problems.
The summer is my heaven. I live with my mom during the summer months. We stay in her tiny condo in Jacksonville, Florida. My parents split up when I was little. I'm not sure why. My mom never talks about it. Whatever it was, it was bad enough to make my mom pack me up in the middle of the night when I was four years old and run to my Gran's condo.
My mom got the condo after Gran died. From that time on all I had known my entire life was beach life.
Until four years ago.
Until my uncle found me."


Bohemia by Veronika Cranby

 

"In her debut novel, Veronika Carnaby picks up where the Beat Generation left off. Set in 1960, Bohemia chronicles a group of twenty-somethings who defy the "ideals" of a mid-twentieth century society to seek creative fulfillment. In the process, they spotlight the creative path that artists of all mediums tread, all the while depicting the challenges faced by youth in the decade that changed the world. "



For blog tour

All I want is you for Christmas by Lisa Mondello

 
"Sometimes fate needs a little hand...
Santa Claus is going to have a rough season... Lauren Alexander is raising her daughter alone. Abandoned by her family for her decision to keep her daughter Kristen, she has done a pretty good job for the last six years. Or she thought she had. That's why she is crushed when little Kristen gives up her wish for a toy or goodie and instead asks Santa for a present for her mother. She wants Santa to bring a Daddy. Delivering Daddies isn't Santa's bag."

Book review: Tamarind City by Bishwanath Ghosh

Title: Tamarind city
Author: Bishwanath Ghosh
Publisher:Tranquebar
Pages:344
Price: Rs 295 ( I got it for Rs 189 from homeshop18.com)
ISBN:9381626337
Genre:Travelogue
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Personal


Buy Tamarind city from flipkart.com
Buy Tamarind city from amazon.com

Summary:
From the back cover

‘While in other big cities tradition stays mothballed in trunks, taken out only during festivals and weddings, tradition here is worn round the year.’

This is just one of the author’s many keen observations of Chennai. With mordant wit, this biography of a city spares neither half of its split-personality: from moody, magical Madras to bursting-at-the-seams, tech-savvy Chennai. And, a minute into the book, the reader knows they are inseparable-and Bishwanath Ghosh refuses to take sides.

And yet, he tells us, while Chennai is usually known as conservative and orthodox, almost every modern institution in India-from the army to the judiciary, from medicine to engineering-traces its roots to Madras’s Fort St George, which was built when Delhi had only just become the capital of the Mughal Empire, and Calcutta and Bombay weren’t even born. Today, the city once again figures prominently on the global map as ‘India’s Detroit’, a manufacturing giant, and a hub of medical tourism. There have been sweeping changes since pre-Independent India, but even as Chennai embraces change, its people hold its age-old customs and traditions close to their heart.

Review:
Chennai , always Madras to me, is one of my favourite cities in the country..The city has various hues and colors..People might call it over crowded but don't you think ,we make the crowd?? Some may even call it too busy, but for me Madras ,Chennai whatever you call it goes by its own swing of time that sets it apart from other cities with all its charm and sensuous beauty...Predictably Ghosh starts with the history of the city but makes the reading different with his wit and humor that he adds on with the golden art of a story teller....He calls the city the charming old lady, with a string of jasmine tied around her hair who is too modest to talk about herself..
Chennai that hasn't changed and never will. Women still wake up at the crack of dawn and draw the Kolam- the rice -flour design- outside their doorstop.Men don't consider it old f ashioned to wear a dhoti, which is usually matched with a modest pair of Bata chappals.The day still begins with coffee and lunch ends with curd rice. Girls are sent to Carnatic music classes. The music festival continues to be held in the month of December. Tamarind rice is still a delicacy- its preparation still an art...
( p-xxvii)
It was in Chennai where the roots of modern India took ground, and Lord Robert Clive, Arthur Wellesly, Elihu Yale(yes the same person after whom the Yale University takes its name) all had their humble beginning here..Call it destiny or way of life they made their mark..The fort of St. George is the abode for most of the modern institutions of the country ..The first chapter is enriching with all details of great names linked to the city right from the pre-Independance era till day...
Ghosh has portrayed well how politics , religion, spirituality, personalities melts and are woven into everyday lives of the people..The famous rift between the Iyers and the Iyengars (two variation in the Brahmins), political set up of the state and the two dominant parties that rules the state today and their history and nuances are given with insights...Beaches ,Mylapore, Triplicane with the hot steaming Sambar and idly makes a wonderful combo to be savoured...Of course how can you miss people like Sankar who have immortalized the Vikram Betal comic series in Chandamama..In Tamilnadu politics and films go hand in hand ,even the present Chief minister used to be a top heroine of the 80's so no wonder you read a chapter exclusively on it....To me reading the chapter Sex and the city came as a surprise in an orthodox city and I will not spoil by giving away the details...From the online matrimony meet to lady entrepreneur to the historian you can find a unique blend of tales and information about the city and people that sets this book far ahead of its counterparts, and Ghosh has taken every effort to keep the reading light all through...What I liked about Ghosh's writing is that he takes the role of  a story teller giving no moral or his personal thoughts at the end...Being a journalist he has been able to step into the role of a complete outsider all through the book that has only helped the book immensely...Do not miss the Prologue before plunging into the book , it tells you the tale behind the title and the course of the book....There are eleven chapters that stand alone and can be enjoyed without really reading the others but you won't stop yourself from reading just one...For a person like me who loves the city the book was a real treat to relish and rekindle my special bond with the Madrasapattinam..

Book 26 for SAC

Book review: Mistress by Anita Nair

Title:Mistress
Author: Anita Nair
Publisher: Penguin India Pvt Ltd
Pages:448
Price: Rs 399
ISBN:9780144000333
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Borrowed


Buy Mistress from flipkart.com
Buy Mistress from aamzon.com

Summary:
When travel writer Christopher Stewart arrives at a riverside resort in Kerala to meet Koman, Radha’s uncle and a famous kathakali dancer, he enters a world of masks and repressed emotions. From their first meeting, both Radha and her uncle are drawn to the enigmatic young man with his cello and his incessant questions about the past. The triangle quickly excludes Shyam, Radha’s husband, who can only watch helplessly as she embraces Chris with a passion that he has never been able to draw from her. Also playing the role of observer-participant is Koman; his life story, as it unfolds, captures all the nuances and contradictions of the relationships being made-and unmade-in front of his eyes.
 
Review:

image source

 Before getting into the book let me talk about Kathakali (story-play) classical Indian dance-drama known for its elaborate and exquisite make up...The art is a combination of Literature, Music, Painting, Acting and Dance..The performances are based on the stories from The Mahabharata and The Ramayana, ancient scriptures (Puranas ) of India..There are classical Kathakali stories that are chosen for the performances, starting by dusk it goes on all night..Artists by means of Mudra (hand gestures) and facial expressions that comprises the Navarasa convey the story  with rhythmic dialogue complemented by drumming.. Kathakali is believed to be originated during 16th century in southern Kerala, India.

image source

Now , about the book ,the story is set on the banks of river Nila that instils the beauty of art,  wonder of creativity and depth of love and passion and the pain of infidelity....Koman is a renowned Kathakali artist, Christopher Stewart , Chris a travel writer visit the Matt to interview him, but a deep attraction develops between Radha, Koman's niece and Chris , complication sets as Radha is married to Shyam.... There are more complicated relationships in this novel to be explored one that between Angela and aging Koman, Koman has a way for many such intimacy ...There is an intricate love story that is told by Koman between Sethu and Saadiya in a mythical Arabipatinam... The novel comprises nine chapters named that goes by navarasas and each chapter revolves around the title..The characters are memorable even Malini Koman's pet bird that calls aloud from its cage"Kallan, Kondhan" (thief) adds its own deeper meaning to it..

Before you end up thinking that the book is all about many complicated relationships let me tell you that it's not, the book explores and discovers the art of Kathakali in a new light through daring and bold characters especially the one like Radha, various aspects of the art itself is picturesque...Radha has no remorse nor has any hesitation of showing her bond  between Chris to her husband Shyam..I ended up pitying Shyam but at the same time wondering what stopped from acting against Radha's actions...Watching Radha and Chris together, Koman compares it against the kindle that of Duryodhana and Bhanumati in Uttara Swayamvaram....Kathakali is portrayed in an everyday human perspective, overwhelming the reader with its beauty...Nair knits relationships and the Kathakali bhava to complement the novel into a full circle...I had a problem with the characters when they looked down upon the people who didn't understand the art of Kathakali,I guess I took it personally because I belong to that category of mortal souls who don't understand much about it....The book is a real beauty of the reader who enjoy the art of Kathakali and and also to those who appreciate it but for others this would sound like a mere tale of interwoven and  complicated relations that loses its charm by the end of it....

Book 2 for book blogger recommendation challenge (BBRC2012)

 

Sunday Post

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer..It's a chance to share the news...A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received  and share news about what it is coming up on the blog  for the week ahead....

Time just slipped away like the grains of sand through my fingers..I have no clue where the week went sprinting away and it's a weekend again..

 

 Past week the blog saw..
The tale of Lucia Grandi
Ramblings in-Ireland
The cat cellar and other short stories

There have been no shopping haul just the books I received for review are the upcoming posts for the week..I complied the books I read for my 2012 reading challenge here..

That was my week..All you have a great week ahead...