Booking through thursday: Worse?

Which is worse? Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or Reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

This is such a difficult question.

Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author?
I will have to put Patricia Cornwell in this category. I remember loving the first book I read written by her. But then I don’t know what happened. None of her other books could hold my interest, even the bestsellers. I was disappointed yes, I thought I had a new favorite author.

Reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?
This happens so many times. I remember when I was in college I loved Sidney Sheldon. I have read every single book by him. That does not mean I have loved all though. But I was never thoroughly disappointed by any of them until I read his last book, ‘The other side of me’, his autobiography. I didn’t expect anything dramatic like his novels obviously, but I was disappointed because it was an account of his life, it was all statistics without any real emotions in it.

So what is worse? I guess the first one. Because even if I don’t like a book by my favorite author I am sure there are other books that I might like. In the first case, if I don’t like any other books by a new author, it’s disappointment.

But in the end, both are disappointing to varying degrees.

Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Havely

Book Title: Triumph of Deborah
Author: Eva Etzioni-HavelyPublisher: Plume (February 26, 2008)
Paperback: 368 pages
Rating: 4.5 /5 stars

I had a sudden urge to read a historical novel this weekend. Since I own only a couple, the choice was easy. I had read a lot of reviews of ‘Triumph of Deborah’ and knew it was generally liked. So I didn’t hesitate to pick it up.

And yes, I liked it. In fact, I loved it. I had absolutely no knowledge about Deborah. So before reading the book I googled a little and found out that she was a highly respected prophet, a judge and a leader of Israel. And the fact that she was a woman and yet respected so much during that era was inspiring.

Okay, let’s jump to the book. Inspire of all her efforts, Deborah is unable to establish peace between the Canaanites and her people. Seeing that she has no choice but to go to war, she decides to appoint Barak as the chief. Barak is very young and inexperienced but she decides to trust him based on his past victories. Barak, although resistant at first, feels like he has no option. He leads Israel to victory against Canaanites.

In the Canaan country, the King gives the responsibility of war to Sisra who also marries his daughter Asherah renowned for her beauty. The King has another daughter Nogah from an Israeli slave and whose knowledge is kept a secret.

When Barak captures the Canaan Castle, he is smitten by Asherah’s beauty, so he takes her as his captive. Nogah accepts a job as a maid in Barak’s mansion. Thus begins a love triangle between Barak, Asherah and Nogah. Barak is smitten by Asherah and Nogah is in love with Barak, but Asherah hates Barak because she thinks he is responsible for her husband Sisra’s death. She waits for an opportunity to kill Barak and make him pay for his deeds.

Deborah, meanwhile, through her prophecies and her visions helps avoid another was between Israel and Canaan. In the end, Deborah, Barak, Asherah and Nogah help in bringing peace to the land.

Deborah is very strong willed and admirable. She is true to her people and is willing to sacrifice her personal life as well. I was surprised that I had never read much about the love triangle in any of the reviews. Considering it takes up more than half of the book, it’s a major part of ‘Triumph of Deborah’. I love romance books so I was in fact happy that there was this angle to it. But I do think some people might be annoyed by the number of chapters dedicated to it. So I just thought of mentioning it here.

I learned a lot about Deborah as a biblical character. The writing style is simple which makes it easier to get engrossed in the story. Although I won’t call it a character driven novel, I felt strongly about all of them; be it Deborah, Nogah, Asherah or Barak. In fact I hated Barak. He was a womanizer and he let his lust overpower all his senses. Nogah, I thought, was a fool for loving a man like Barak. But love has no logic right?

Conclusion: I highly recommend this book. I am definitely going to be on a lookout for Eva Etzioni-Havely’s other books- The Song of Hannah and The Garden of Ruth.

Isn’t this a beautiful trio?

I am adding this book to Orbis Terrarum challenge. The author was born in Vienna, Austria.

8 things…

I have seen this meme floating around and I thought I might as well give try it. Btw, I wrote this on Sunday.

8 Things That I’m Looking Forward to:
1. Rains. But summer has just started so there’s a lot of time for that. But it’s unusually hot this time. I think every year the severity of the heat increases. I don’t know what’s up with that.
2. When I become permanent at my job.
3. A new Shahrukh Khan movie. Shahrukh, I hope one of your typical masala movie releases soon.
4. I feel like my life is in a deadlock situation right now. I want everything to sort out and I am looking forward to something good in that front. High hope, but still.
I couldn’t go beyond 4 points. How sad is that. I’ll update this when I think of something. 

8 Things that I did Yesterday:
1. Went to Chung-Fa for dinner. It’s my all time fav Chinese restaurant here.
2. Watched ‘The Reader’. Loved it, it’s an amazing movie.
3. Finished the book ‘Triumph of Deborah’. It was a good book.
4. Started reading My Father’s Paradise. So far so good.
5. Made a plan with girlfriends to meet today (On Sunday).
6. External hard disk stopped working. I was really worried. I somehow managed to restore 80% of the data, but the folders are all messed up, I’ll have to arrange them properly
7. Applied Henna to my hair. My hair has got all nice highlights now
8. What else? I don’t remember doing anything else. Yes, cleared up my Google Reader a bit.

8 Things That I wish I could Do:
1. Visit any place I want to the minute I think of it. Be it Africa or Nepal.
2. Continue my Kathak clasics.
3. Play the guitar really well.
4. Read 300 pages in an hour.
5. Cook like a chef and enjoy it too.
6. Be invisible when I want to.
7. Rewind time.
8. Take decisions without hurting anyone.

8 Television Programs That I Watch:
I don’t watch a lot of television except on weekends and even then I watch whatever happens to be on. Mostly re-runs.
1. Cooking with Kylie Kwong.
2. Discovery Wildlife. It’s on most of the time.
3. The Haunting.
4. While you were out.
5. Dance India Dance. I don’t watch all the episodes, only those that happen to re-run on weekends.
6. Friends. Again re-runs. I can watch Friends anytime. I even own DVD’s of a few seasons.
7. No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. I just love this guy.
8. 80 Wonders of the World. It comes on FOX history. I try to watch it whenever I can. In the last episode I remember the host Dan went from Jordan to Israel and finally to the oldest church in Ethiopia. It was fascinating.

This was more difficult than I thought. Tag yourself if you feel like it.

Bad girls don’t die by Katie Alender

Title: Bad girls don’t die
Author: Katie Alender
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (April 21, 2009)
352 pages (Hardcover)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Have you ever heard of those age old stories where a doll is a ghost? Many times right? That’s exactly what the base of this story is. But such a refreshing take of an age old haunting story.

In the opening chapter Alexis is taking pictures of her old, huge house at 3 in the night. While she is going in after taking the pictures she notices a strange yellow light at one of the windows of her house. This is the first occurrence of something unusual that Alexis notices. Kasey, her 12 year old younger sister is acting stranger by the day. Her eyes suddenly turn from blue to green; she starts using words like oughtn’t and possesses the strength unusual for a 12 year old.

Alexis is a misfit in school, the girl with the pink hair, the one who is always at the sidelines. The cheerleaders group hates her. And Alexis in turn hates them, especially Megan, one of the cheerleaders and one of the popular girls at school. At home too, her mom is too busy with her work to pay much attention to her or Kasey. After a string of incidents she realizes that Kasey is possessed. She tries to find out the mystery behind Kasey’s behavior and the secret that seems to be surrounding her house with the help from an unexpected source. Oh and there is some romance too. Although it isn’t necessary to the story it doesn’t harm either.

For a rebellious teen Alexis is likable and Kasey, in spite of being possessed by the ghost 90% of the time, is quite cute. But then that is exactly what makes the story so creepy. It isn’t the kind where you’ll be so scared that you won’t switch off the lights or jump at any unfamiliar sound. It’s the mystery and the ‘What’s going to happen next’ factor that works so well. Also sentences like ‘It’s going to get worse’ adds to it. Have you ever watched ‘The haunting’ on the Discovery channel? Yes, the same serial which has dramatization of real life ghost stories? This book reminded me of that. It slowly build’s up to a showy kind of an ending.

It’s a page turner for sure. Read it. It’s good.

About the author:
Katie Alender (rhymes with “calendar”!) grew up in South Florida. She is the third of four children (three girls and a boy) and the child of three very loving and encouraging parents.Her first brush with publication was the article “So You Want to Live On Mars?” published in Sassy magazine in December 1991. More recently, she was the head writer on the 48-Hour Film Project “Best of Los Angeles 2007” winner, Project 96-B, and won a Backspace.org short story contest with a story entitled Deliverance Smith. For her day job, she produces televised dog shows, which happens to be the best day job ever.

To read the rest please do check out her site and her blog.

Sushi for One by Camy Tang

Okay first and foremost, I don’t read many chic-lits. I am not a fan of the genre but I do read one once in a while. I am very selective when it comes to which one to pick. I don’t like books that describe in detail what the girl is wearing every time she goes out. I mean that’s just plain irritating. I understand when she is going to a party or a function or something like that. That’s brings me to the next point. I also don’t like books that describe endless partying. I mean come on. Write something. Where’s the story?

So what’s the point of whatever I have written? Nothing really. I just wanted to tell you that I read a chick-lit and I liked it and well it wasn’t all dresses and parties and that was nice.

Lex Sakai is a Japanese American 4th generation (I think) 30-ish year old woman. Her control freak grandmother wants her to find a boyfriend because after her cousin’s marriage she is the next in line to be married. But Lex is our tom-boyish heroine who has no interest whatsoever in dating because of something that happened to her 8 years back. Her grandmother threatens to withdraw the sponsorship money for Lex’s  girl’s volleyball team. So Lex has no option but to find a guy till her cousin’s marriage.

So she prepares a list. As she’s a Christian, she lists some points from book of Ephesians. Sorry I am not a Christian so I have no idea what this book is about. But the points are what most of the girls would like to find in a guy.

She tries her best to date guys who fit her list but she keeps bumping into Aiden who is not exactly the type of guy she wants, mainly because he isn’t a Christian.

This book was good. The characters were fantastic, all of them, even the background ones. The situations were hilarious and the dialogues funny. Although I didn’t like the part at the end. (It’s something related to Aiden) But since this is Christian fiction it’s understandable. Perhaps Christian’s would understand it better. I didn’t. I wanted her to accept things as it is. But that’s not what happens. This book is also marketed as Romance (Romance with a kick of Wasabi). Although Aiden was an extremely adorable character, there should have been more footage (is that the right word) given to them. Otherwise for a chick-lit, this book is a fine one. Oh did I tell you there are descriptions of amazing mouth watering Japanese food in this book? Do not read it when you are hungry.

Sushi for one is actually a part of the Sushi series. This is the first book in the series.

A map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell

Book title: A map of the known world
Author: Lisa Ann Sandell
Publisher: Scholastic Press (April 15, 2009)
Young Adult
272 pages

First things first. The cover is gorgeous; I think it’s even better in person and it suits the story perfectly.
 
Now to the book. Cora’s brother Nate dies in a car accident which suddenly breaks the entire family as each one of them tries to deal with his death in their own ways. The house is not the same, her parents are not the same and everyone in school thinks she is a freak. Moreover she is starting high school the same year. Could it be any more difficult? And then there is Damien, her brother’s friend who her parents think is responsible for the accident even though he wasn’t the one who was driving. Cora tries to avoid him but gradually they come closer because of a common bond, Nate, or his death for that matter. When Cora discovers something about Nate and Damien she does not know what to make of it. She finds out that there is more she has in common with Nate than she thought she did.
 
Her mother tries to keep her home most of the time for the fear of loosing her too. All this tends to bring out the rebellious streak in Cora. Being an artist she finds solace in her paintings and eventually everything sorts out, as it usually does in novels.
 
I loved the way the author shows how different people handle grief differently. For instance Cora deals with everything through her sketches. She sketches places far off, places she has never been to, as a means to escape. By the end of the story, not only do you understand Cora really well but pray that everything works out well for her. The prose is beautiful and the editing is perfect. I don’t think I would omit even a single sentence from the book.
 
Even though the book deals with a difficult topic, the death of a loved one, it was nowhere overly sad or depressing. Yet, the writing brings out the sadness of the story really well. Although I would say the secondary characters were not very well developed, I feel this was essentially Cora’s story.
 
Although everything is not perfect at the end, there is a possibility of it. I’ll definitely be checking out Lisa Ann Sandell’s other books.

About the Author:
LISA ANN SANDELL is the author of Song of the Sparrow, a Book Sense Summer 2007 Pick, and The Weight of the Sky, which was named one of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age. Music and art have always been an important part of Lisa’s life; she is a prize-winning sculptor and also studies drawing. Lisa is a children’s book editor in New York City, where she lives with her husband and their puppy. Check out her site.
———————– 
I am going to club this with Cover attraction hosted by Marcia. I know it’s hosted on Wednesday, but Marcia please excuse me for posting it a day before . Usually I don’t participate in this meme because I like every second cover I see. But the cover of this book? Well, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s another book by the same author Lisa Ann Sandell, called Song of the sparrow. I was surprised that I had never read about nor seen this book anywhere on the internet. I don’t think I would forget this cover. I first saw it on Lisa’s site in the books section and then again read about it on the book ‘A map of the known world’. Yes, the same one reviewed above. Please do click on the pic to enlarge the cover, it will be worth it.
 
So remember both the covers and the titles and don’t forget to pick up the books next time you are in a bookstore

Read-a-Thon The last hour

1. Which hour was most daunting for you?
11th hour. It was I think 4.30 in the night or morning and it was way too difficult to stay awake
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
Bad girls don’t die which I was the first book I read. Also I think Scott Westerfields books would be really good.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
NO!!! I think it was perfect just the way it was.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
Ummm…everything? I don’t know. I think everything was good. I guess Twitter added a new dimension to it.
5. How many books did you read?
Three
6. What were the names of the books you read?
Bad girls don’t die
Memoirs of a fortune teller
The Techyon Web.
I also read a couple of stories from Fragile Things which were a little weird
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
The first 2 were good in their own way.
8. Which did you enjoy least?
The Techyon Web. Too much scientific jargon. But the story is interesting.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
No. They were all great. I did a little cheerleading even though I hadn’t signed up as one and it’s definitely not easy.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?
I will definitely participitate next time. I would like to do both the roles next time. Reading as well cheerleading.

The power went off during the last hour of Read-a-Thon. So I had to wait for almost 2 hours before updating. I spent the time taking a bath and getting ready to go out for dinner with a couple of friends. Even though I am tired I cannot back out. I’ll check out other posts when I come back.

A huge thank you to Hannah (WordLily), Ana (Nymeth), and Trish (Hey Lady!) for doing such a fab job with the Read-a-Thon. And yes, three cheers to Dewey to whose memory this Read-a-Thon was dedicated to.

Read-a-Thon hour 20 complete

How many people are awake???

The Tachyon web

It’s 1.50 in the afternoon here, that’s just about a little over 20 hours up? I am reading The Tachyon web by Christopher Pike. It’s a Science fiction book set way too ahead in the future. I have read 60 pages so far. I thought it would be an easy read, but it isn’t. There is way too much scientific jargon in it than I bargained for. Anyway the story is interesting. So that’s keeping me going. Besides I spent a lot of time visiting other blogs and commenting on them.

I have to go and have some lunch right now, just some rice and potatoes. I wouldn’t want to eat heavy food and then nod off.

Please keep going people, we are almost there.

Thanks again cheerleaders and those who have commented. It’s really motivating.

Read-a-Thon hour 16 complete

Hello
It’s 10a.m here. I slept at 5 and woke up at 9, so that’s 4 hours sleep. I finished Memoirs of a fortune teller before sleeping. It was a nice quick book. After I woke up I’ve read 2 short stories from Fragile Things which makes it another 30 pages.

Title of book(s) read since last update: Bad Girls don’t die, Memoirs of fortune Teller
Number of books read since you started: 2
Pages read since last update: 105
Running total of pages read since you started: 503

The next book I’ll be reading is Lady Sophia’s Lover by Lisa Kleypas. I don’t think I can complete it but I am not going to fuss about that. Off to have some breakfast and then continue with the reading.

Cheerleaders, you are amazing!!! Thank you so much for your comments.

Read-a-Thon hour 10 complete

It’s 3.30 in the night here. I am half way into Memoirs of a fortune teller which is a short book, say 100 pages. I read 40-50 pages an hour. So reading for 3 hours (okay, 2, I spent the rest surfing and making something to eat) and still not finishing the book is a sign

This is what I made or put together.

The watermelon works is really good when it’s so hot. It’s very refreshing. The other thing is a classic Indian snack called Bhel. I mixed together onions, tomatoes, coriander, salt and some chilly. I don’t know what the base ingredient is called in English, in Hindi its called murmure. It sure is very tasty.

Okay I am off to read the rest of the book. That will take about an hour to finish considering my speed. I’ll update after that. If not assume that I am off to sleep. There is no point in staying awake if I cannot read a hundred pages book in 2 hours I’ll wake up refreshed after say 4-5 hours.