Posts

Book Review: Faraway Music

Image
An engaging novel which hardly sags or ebbs. Beautiful, lyrical and warm, it makes for a perfect weekend read.  ******************************************************************** (I met Sreemoyee Piu Kundu recently at a Women Writer's Fest organised by SheThePeople  at the Saturday Club, Kolkata. I asked her what would she recommend out of her three published works. She asked me what genre do I like and then went to to recommend this as well as Sita's Curse, an erotica. After she left for the podium for her talk, I bought Faraway Music.) Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, an ex journalist, debuted with Faraway Music in 2013. Partly biographical, Faraway Music is the story of acclaimed writer Piya Choudhury. It meanders through the bylanes of Kolkata, soaks in the rains of Mumbai, rubs shoulders with the Dilli ki Sardi and races towards end via a posh NY penthouse before finally coming home to Kolkata. Piya tells her story to another journalist on a long flight and this play o

Book Review: Tell Tale by Jeffrey Archer

Image
These 14 stories make for an easy read and with their twists and tales are sure to keep you engaged for a good while. ******************************************** Jeffrey Archer's latest offering of short stories comes after the seven part series called 'The Clifton Chronicles'. This collection of short stories bear all the hallmarks of an Archer short story. They are simple and intriguing. I think what makes Archer tick for me is that very fact. The engaging stories take you from one place to the other at times on their own and on others through the sheer word power of the author. I was waiting to read this book from the time Pan Macmillan India sent me the cover and a nugget of information that the book had a story with a Calcutta connection. Later through The Telegraph, I got to know that this story (Double or Quits) was told to Archer by his friend, erstwhile tennis player Naresh Kumar. Getting back to the boo, I have always liked most of what Jeffrey

A Decade of Motherhood: :Lesson 2

Raising a child might be easy for people who have either seen something similar like people with older siblings raise their offspring(s) or people who haven't sleepwalked through their lives. For me having a child for which I was responsible thoroughly has been like roller coaster ride in an adventure park. So far. (But now, with some added experience, I can vouch that nothing is going to change.)  I just got up and took a seat on the conveyor belt without knowing anything about its twists or turns; loops or or having a clue about the time frame of zero-G suspension. As much harassing as it has been for both of us- the baby and  me- I have gathered a lesson or two at every bend. I have realised that as is with the roller coaster ride so it is with the child raising phenomenon. You can't do much more once the light turns green. Yes, you can fling your arms and scream your heart out, but you can not get out of the situation, unless you count abandoning your kid. (If that be

Book Review: The Twentieth Wife

Image
A novel set during the Mughal period bringing to life characters from your History books, and possessing all the qualities of a good romance novel (and alas just that!). ******************************************* It is not the first time that I keep colliding with a book everywhere I turn. 'The Twentieth Wife' by Indu Sundarsena and I bumped at Kindle lists, on the book blogs, some IG handles of book lovers I follow as well as on the comments and posts of the reading  group on FB. Thus, taking the hint from Providence I downloaded it on my Kindle along with  a handful of others, a few days back. I started to read it some 3 days back and finished this novel set in 17th century India yesterday evening. The book tells the story of the woman- Mehrunnissa, whom we all have known fleetingly and as Nur Jahan, wife of Mughal emperor Jahangir. Born in to the family of a Persian refugee, Ghias Beg, Mehrunnissa is left out on the road by the desperate father w

Book Review: The Duchess by Danielle Steele

Image
As glamourous as the cover looks, the book is but a predictable story of a holier-than-thou heroine who falls on bad times and as is expected rises above her circumstances. ********************************************* The cover of The Duchess by Danielle Steel had me at the very first glance and I was looking so forward to reading it. I am not much a 'Romance' person but off and on I do go back to the genre to feel good about life and exhale all my pent up energies as I sigh reading the exploits of people who are affected by love (read are in love). Just before I started this book, I had read the very fabulous and my first Colleen Hoover- It Ends With Us (Now reading November 9). I read it from cover to cover and had I been reading a hard copy I would have taken the book with me everywhere I went like a beloved person. So it was with high hopes that I started this Steele. The Duchess is set in 19th century England where the women had no claim on any property, be it