Letters between Us by Linda Overman

‘Letters between Us’ opens with the death of 40 year old Katherine who was a patient in a mental asylum. It is assumed she has committed suicide. When Laura her childhood friend goes to her funeral, she is full of questions. She wants to understand why was Katherine was compelled to take this step. Her husband David whom she has never liked much gives her Katherine’s old box full of letters, old photographs and some journal entries.

As Laura goes through the box and reads each letter and each journal entry she unravels Katherine’s life and her secrets. When she looks at all the memories with an adult’s perspective she finally reads between the lines and understands what Katherine was going through right from her childhood.

The book starts off really well. I wanted to know what Laura would find in all the letters and photographs. Would she find a mystery? Or would she find why Katherine died? But all the letters contained was how Laura was so involved in drugs and boys and experimenting with things. For a while I really started to wonder where all this was leading to.

But as Laura reads more letters, I realized that they gave an insight into Katherine’s and Laura’s life. I found the writing very edgy at times, or may be it was because of the topic. It’s raw and honest. Although less than 200 pages, this book cannot be breezed through.

Overall I liked it. If you can stick through the first 30-40 pages, you’ll certainly love the rest.

Letters Between Us-honored as “Finalist” in “Fiction & Lit: Chick Lit/Women’s Lit” category of National Best Books 2008 Awards sponsored by USA Book News.

Penmanship Tag

Okay, here’s another interesting tag from Melody.
I don’t remember last time I wrote anything more than a couple of lines. I do write my names on my books but I don’t think that counts

Anyway,
Here are the rules: (lifted from Melody)
1. Write down who tagged you.

2. Answer these:
your name / username / pseudo
right-handed or left-handed?
your favorite letters to write?
your least favorite letters to write?
Write “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
3. Tag five persons.

So any handwriting analyzer out there???

Review: Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton

Book Blurb from Amazon:
This is the story of Mina, a girl at a Sheffield call centre whose next customer in the queue is Peter, a Cambridge geography don who has crashed his car into a tree stump when swerving to avoid a cat.

Despite their obvious differences, they’ve got a lot in common – both single, both parents, both looking for love. Could it be that they’ve just found it?

CROSSED WIRES is an old-fashioned fairy tale. It is about the small joys and tribulations of parenthood; about one-ness and two-ness; about symmetry and coincidence; about the things that separate us and the things that bring us together.
 
I picked it up thinking it was a romantic book. 2 single parents meet each other, fall in love and everything falls into place again.  I love romantic books, books with a lot of mush and the works, so I am actually surprised that I liked this book. I expected the guy and the girl to meet and fall in love or at least fall in love because of incessant online chatting. That didn’t happen and not once did I feel like abandoning the book because nothing was happening where their love life was concerned. They are busy with their own lives, they have friends and family to turn to during difficult times, but you can easily see why they are so perfect for each other even though they don’t meet for more than half of the book.
 
Peter, a college professor and Mina, a call center worker are the lead characters in this story. But more than that they are normal human beings, who make mistakes, who react the way you and I would. Peter has 9 year old twin girls Cassie and Kim and Mina has a 10 year old girl Sal. Not to forget the friends and family that comprise of Mina’s straight forward mother and Peters friends Jeremy and Trish. They are all interesting in their own way.
 
Mina’s character reminded me so much of myself. I like to skirt around situations that are difficult to handle, I avoid confrontation unless absolutely necessary and I too worked in a call center once. So I could, in a way, understand Mina really well, although I did feel like shaking her at times and asking her to do something. That’s exactly what my boyfriend does, shakes me up when required
 
This book has some of the best character descriptions I have read in a while. Very non-dramatic and real.
 
If you are looking for a typical, stereotype love story, this book is not for you. If you are looking for a plot driven story, again this book is not for you. Don’t be fooled by the pink cover, this book isn’t all mush. Read it with absolutely no prejudice or strict expectations and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Thank you Rosy for the book.

About the author:
Rosy Thornton grew up in Ipswich and studied law at Cambridge University. She stayed on to do a Ph.D. and has been a lecturer there ever since. Rosy lives in a village near Cambridge with her husband, their two daughters and a Springer spaniel called Treacle.

BTT: Storage

I recently got new bookshelves for my room, and I’m just loving them. Spent the afternoon putting up my books and sharing it on my blog . One of my friends asked a question and I thought it would be a great BTT question. So from Tina & myself, we’d like to know “How do you arrange your books on your shelves? Is it by author, by genre, or you just put it where it falls on?”

Somehow I don’t like this question. Not because it isn’t nice, but because I don’t exactly have shelf’s that I can show off. I have a post up on my blog on shelf-cleaning and I had said that I can now accommodate at least 40 more books in. At that time it made me really happy, but I didn’t realize how quickly the space will be occupied. Now I don’t have any space left. I’ll have to put some books above the arrangement but somehow I don’t like doing that.
 

 

But anyway. Whatever be the case, previously, before shelf-cleaning, my books were not arranged at all, just nicely placed. Now I have them divided into 2 sections. Read and un-read. That’s all I can afford to do here. But I think that’s enough. When I have a bigger shelf though, my books will be arranged as read, to be reviewed and books from my TBR pile. And then maybe, if I feel like it I might arrange them author wise. Or maybe fiction and non-fiction.
 
Basically I don’t think about it much because then it makes me sad. Even if you just Google bookshelves, you’ll see some amazing shelves. Here take a look at a couple. The window one is from Susan’s blog. Susan, I hope you don’t mind.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

I am going to make it happen someday. When I have a house I can call my own.

Protected: What happened on Valentines day!!!

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A little something about me…

This ‘5 questions’ meme has been going around for quite some time and I thought why not do it too. So Terri sent me some questions to know me better. I don’t like questions that require one line answers, so I was thrilled when she sent me multipart questions that I could answer in length if I wanted to. And you all know how I love to rant

1. Describe where you live – could be your city or country, your home, your neighborhood, your climate, flowers, trees – whatever you think will give us a good picture of where you call home.
I live in India, probably one of the most colorful places to live in. My city, Pune, also called Oxford of the East was also known as the pensioner’s paradise or retirement heaven, but not anymore. It has become crowded with lots and lots of development over the last few years and I can see it’s heading the Mumbai way soon. I hope that doesn’t happen.

I lived in the “old city” for a long time. Old city literarily means the older part of the city, the core, where the city originated from. Whenever there was any festival, small or big, it was celebrated with gusto. There used to be loud speakers with full sound on every street for any celebration. Our balcony faced the main road and we loved watching Ganesh Chaturthi processions the entire day. It was fun and happening. Now I live in a “Posh” locality, a society with a swimming pool, a club house and a gym. But it’s boring. Even during Holi there is absolutely no noise. People do celebrate it early in the morning but isn’t the way we used to celebrate it. Moreover it’s very quite with no vehicles honking below, no street vendors screaming on top of their voices. But it’s still nice although a little different.
 
India is a tropical country so we enjoy 3 seasons, winter, rainy and summer. And I like it that way. I just wish it would snow though.
 
2. When you were a child, what was your favorite food?  What’s your favorite food now?
I think the favorite past time for most Indians is Bollywood and food. My mom is a very good cook, excellent in fact. When we were young she used to cook everything at home. She even made ice-creams.
 
I used to love pani puri as a kid. It’s basically a snack which you get on road side eateries or stalls. One dish has around 5-6 puri’s in it. But when my mom made it at home, she made so many that we got tired of eating. She doesn’t make them anymore as they are a lot of work and I am not sure I can eat that many now. But the smell of puri’s and mint leaves and boiled potatoes wafting through the house is divine.
During one of our extended family gatherings, one of my uncles taught my mom how to make something called ‘Chicken chilly’. It’s something I love even now. I think it’s a Chinese dish, Indianised though.
 
3. I see on your blog that you like to perform (me too!) – what kind of music do you perform? Do you play an instrument?
I LOVE to perform. There is nothing like performing on stage. I have been performing on stage since childhood, be it school plays, group dances, fashion shows, school band or singing competitions. When I was in the school Band, I used to play a flute. There is nothing more soothing than listening to the melody of a flute. Although I haven’t touched a flute for years, I am sure I can play at least a little even now. It is not something you forget. I have taken part in a lot of group dances in school and college as well. And it was pure fun. Nothing like seeing so many people screaming and shouting and enjoying every moment of what you are performing.
 
I remember when I was in college I took part in an inter college singing competition and I and my friend were supposed to sing a duet. I was so scared. That was the first time I ever experienced stage fright. I think it went well but I won’t be able to forget that feeling ever. I never took any of this to a level higher than schools or colleges because I know I lack THAT kind of talent and dedication.
 
4. What’s the best book you’ve read in the last 5 years? If you can’t narrow it to just one, pick two or three.
eeeks…Isn’t that the most difficult question ever? But if I have to narrow it down I will list the books that come first to my mind.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini
A thousands splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini
I am sure if I think for even a minute more I can come up with at least 10. So I won’t.
 
5. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the last year?  Why did you like it?  What’s the worst one?
I absolutely love watching movies. But I watch so many that I forget which was released which year, so I’ll tell you the ones I watched in 2008, they could be have been released earlier too.
Vantage Point. I loved the concept more than anything else.
Step up to the streets
Madagaskar 2. I am forever a fan of the penguins.
Rab ne banaa di jodi. I could be biased about this one. It’s a Shahrukh khan movie after all. But I did like it.
U, me aur hum. I know many people didn’t like this one. But I loved it.
 
Worst one? Well, when I was in Bangalore, I and J went to watch a late night show. There was this Oscar nominated movie called ‘Death at a Funeral’. So we booked the show for 10.30. During the movie we noticed that all the people in the theatre were laughing except us. I mean how could it be that only both of us didn’t get the humor? We decided that we were very tried and so walked out of the theatre midway. This is the only movie in my entire life that I walked out of.
 
Answering all these questions was fun. I hope you all know me a little better now
Thanks Terri. You sent me the perfect questions

A very long post eh? Anyway, if you want to play along just let me know in the comments and I’ll send you 5 questions

Mermaids in the basement

First Line:

” If I had not read the cover story in the March 2, 2000, National Enquirer, it’s doubtful that I would have gone to Alabama and ruined my daddy’s engagement party, much less sent the bride-to-be into a coma.”

Renata is a Hollywood script writer. Her boyfriend is a Hollywood director who is currently directing Ulysses with an actress who cannot speak English and who is known for her colorful ways. Renata thought she had a perfect life, but then everything comes apart when she reads the news in ‘National Enquirer’ suggesting that her boyfriend Fergusson has been getting cozy with his new actress. This news comes after her mom, whom she very close to, and step father die in an accident. Renata is devastated and hurt. And she does the only thing most of us would do. She goes home. Home is Point Clear, Alabama. Home is her grandmother Honora and her nanny Glady’s. Home could have also meant her father Louie, but he has been distant from her since he divorced her mother.

But Renata has one more reason for going home. She finds her mother Shelby’s letter tucked in a drawer that said it is to be opened only after her death. Shelby wants her to know certain things from her past which only Honora and Glady’s could tell.

And thus begins a tale through mysterious letters and newspaper clippings found in her mother’s trunk. Every cutting has a story, be it a party or a wedding announcement. Renata, through these cuttings, her grandmother and nanny learns things that she never thought could have been possible.

The story and the mystery unfold slowly but there wasn’t a single boring moment in the book. The characters were brought to life in a way that made me feel like I was watching a movie. Honora, Glady’s, Shelby and Isabelle (a former actress and Honora’s best friend) are all very colorful characters in true Hollywood style. They have secrets to share and things to reveal that couldn’t be short of a soap opera.

‘Mermaids in the basement’ is more of a character based novel rather than plot based. As Renata learns of new secrets everyday, the reader also learns new facets of every character and makes you feel like you know them so well. The author creates a very ‘I feel I am right there’ atmosphere with her beautiful descriptions of different places. You can smell the food, the air which is a part of the typical Southern atmosphere.

But there is a little problem. Although it’s small I am going to mention it here. As Renata is learning the truth of her mother’s relationship with her father through memories of these women, the narration switches very frequently. Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out whether they are talking to Renata or whether they are just remembering the past. You just have to read the end of every chapter carefully to know what’s coming next.

This is my first Michael Lee West book and I am sure I am going to read more. Don’t forget to check out ’Mermaids in the basement’.

By the way, the novel also has some yummy, mouth watering recipes at the back.

Michael Lee West is the author of five novels including Crazy Ladies, Mad Girls in Love, American Pie, She Flew the Coop as well as a food memoir Consuming Passions. She lives with her husband on a farm in Lebanon, Tennessee with three bratty Yorkshire Terriers, a Chinese Crested, assorted donkeys, chickens, sheep, and African Pygmy goats. Her faithful dog Zap was the inspiration of a character in Mermaids in the Basement.

Happy Monday!!!

I need rain now, heavy rains, the one where you cannot go out no matter how urgently you want to. But the weather does not act according to my whims and fancies. So it’s hot as hell. But it’s also very cold in the morning. I saw the temperature yesterday outside the weather department, it says min is 13 degrees and maximum is 33. That’s way too much fluctuating. But I know places that have much more fluctuations than these. But that’s not the point.

Did you realize what point I was making? I don’t think so. The point is I am bored and I need change. I am the kind of person who gets really bored with routine. I am so bored that I am okay with absolutely any change, even in weather.

But yes, summer is approaching and that means it’s time to enjoy all things that come with it. When I was in school it reminded me of summer holidays, 2 months of complete bliss. Hopping over from one friends place to another eating raw mangoes, tamarinds and cheap pepsicolas. My mom used to cut raw mangoes and soak them overnight in salt and turmeric. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I am not as patient as soaking them overnight but I do keep the mixture for an hour at least. Now thinking of summer makes me want to drool over pictures of snow covered mountain tops and even reminds me of chicken pox. Well I think it’s said that a person gets chicken pox at least once in his/ her lifetime and I haven’t got it even once. So summer does make me think of it.
Just a few weeks more and it will be that time of the year again.

We went to Karla caves last weekend. Although it was very hot, it was fun too. It’s good to get away even for a few hours. My boyfriend came over this weekend and we spent 2 blissful days together. He is off to Spain to meet his sister and her family. She lives on some Island which is also a tourist spot. I wonder how it is to live in such a place. Is life a perpetual holiday? May be not. But it sure could be more fun.

My reading has hit a wall. Usually a very bad book does it. But this time I have not read a book that was really bad, so I don’t know what is causing it. I am reading ‘Mermaids in the basement’ for more than a week. And it’s a good book, so I don’t know what the matter is. May be it’s the heat.

And may be it’s my boring job. I mean it’s not always boring, but I don’t think I ever went to work thinking, ‘Oh wow, I can’t get to start working on this’. Nope. I don’t want to work in Software. But I don’t want to leave either because it pays so well. May be after some years I will find something that I will be happy to do.

I came in to work today and I have terrible Monday blues. But I opened my inbox and happily noted that I have absolutely no work to do. So I am thinking of spending my time visiting the 200 unread posts on my Google reader and commenting too. And may be in the meantime I could google pictures of Amazon rainforest and spend some time day dreaming. Sounds like a good plan to me.

And I have realized what an incoherent post this is. It’s like I am talking to myself. I hope you didn’t find my rant too boring

Bear Any Burden: Review

Book Blurb: “1983: The Cold War is at its height. Sir Alex Campbell, head of an international drinks company is on a business trip to Poland, a country in the midst of political turmoil. A new “Solidarity” movement is rising on the streets, and the Communist government is cracking down mercilessly. Alex Campbell has an additional mission, a “little job” for the British Secret Intelligence Services. He will deliver an airline bag containing money and passports to a British agent who is to help the world-renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Erik Keller, escape across the Iron Curtain to the West.
Alex meets the beautiful Anna Kaluza, the British agent, whose life, like his and that of Erik Keller, had been impacted forever by her World War II experiences. He agrees to help her complete her mission.
What begins as one of many routine “little jobs” Alex has done for the SIS, quickly turns into an increasingly dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, involving murder, bribery, and international politics. His involvement in Dr. Keller’s defection becomes a journey into his own past, as Alex has to face his family’s history and, ultimately, his own self. Faced with the specter of oppression, he has to ask himself one question: What do you do? Do you turn and run? Or do you “pay any price and bear any burden” for liberty and freedom?
“Bear Any Burden” is a gripping page-turner, full of twists and turns and surprises as much a spy story as an epic family saga, spanning decades and continents, from 19th Century Poland all the way to the height of the Cold War. A richly complex thriller in the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré, posing urgent and timeless questions of family, loyalty and liberty.

This story is an espionage thriller. Alex Campbell is a businessman who trades in wines and such and is a resident of the United States. He has a friend in the Secret Services and as he travels across the world for work, he does small tasks for him, tasks which did not put him in any grave danger. Until now.

As he is about to go on a business trip to Poland, his friend asks him to do something for the Secret Services. All he has to do is carry a small airline bag which has passports and some money hidden to get a nuclear scientist out of Poland and into the U.S. A woman is supposed to come to his hotel room on a certain evening and collect the bag and leave. That’s it.

But certain events leave him no choice but to get involved in a deeper mess, a mess which could take his life or could put him in prison.

The author weaves a brilliant tale full with adrenaline and tension. His writing is smooth and easy to read. The story also gives you a look into Poland’s history during the World War.

But this book is not without problems. The only problem I found is that the author went back in time to write the details about the lives of Alex’s father and grandfather or say Anna’s family. Anna is the girl he meets in Poland. Although all the stories were very good, I think they deviated attention from the main story. Imagine reading something like ‘The door slowly opened and Alex found himself facing a gun’ or something like that. And then suddenly you are introduced to Anna’s mom and her family and her childhood. That was kind of frustrating. I want to know what happened to Alex…

Anyway, it’s a good book. If you like spy thrillers, or just plain thrillers, you’ll definitely like this book.

This review is for Author Marketing. Thanks Paula for the book.

No Beautiful Shore: Review

Book Blurb: Bride Marsh, the prettiest girl in a town of boys, and Wanda Stuckless, Bride’s best friend and a small-time drug dealer, have never been away from home. After seventeen years, their entire world has been a small, close-knit island off the coast of Newfoundland. But the two girls have bigger and better ambitions than to be stuck on the island their parents consigned them to.
Throughout the summer after high school, they make plans to finally leave everything behind and move to Toronto, but in the process, they realize that running away from home is not as easy as they originally thought. Once the boys in town start to show an interest in them, the girls find their plans for escape have hit a slight snag as they start to drift further apart and discover that the island might have more to offer than just a dead-end life.
Brimming with colourful characters, the novel is full of love and pathos for the tragic lives Bride and Wanda will be leaving behind. From Wanda’s blind father and catatonic mother, to Bride’s sorrowful stepfather/uncle and her sexually and emotionally insular mother, the island comes to life with their chattering, vibrant lives. Beverley Stone’s writing revels in cutting dialogue with poetic grace, describing the ache of losing a home and losing friends. With an angst reminiscent of A Complicated Kindness, No Beautiful Shore is awash in the anxiety of growing up and the irresistible urge to finally leave home.

2 Teenagers. One depressing Island and their hope to leave home one day. That’s the whole premise of the book.
Bride and Wanda are best friends who after finishing school want to move out of the Island to Toronto. Wanda sells drugs to save money and Bride decides to ask her grandmother for it.

Although the premise was good and what attracted me to the book, I found it too depressing. Every character in the novel was depressed and sad. Although I understand that the author had created an atmosphere which was required for the story, there is only so much sadness one can take.

I found Bride and Wanda likable, even though they were not really very loving towards their family. The only character I found myself rooting for was Bride’s mother Janice. Bride’s father dies before she is born and Janice marries Rupert and basically falls into a sad and lonely existence. She eventually finds love but with a woman which is against her religious beliefs.

I expected the book to end on a happy note, either with the girls releasing that there is nothing like home or leaving home and finding a place where they can actually make something of themselves. But the end was equally sad.

The author has a very unique and honest style of writing. But sometimes the narrator abruptly changes midway which was very confusing in the beginning. But as I read on I got a hang of it. There are many bad words and a few explicit sex scenes. So if you are okay with that go ahead and read it.