I got my In-Principle Dependent’s pass for Singapore today.(it’s a temporary slip of paper which can be used to gain entry in the Singapore). I am so relieved, now we don’t have to worry about tourist or dependent pass. It can be done when I’m finally there. I’m so impressed by the way things work in Singapore.

My shopping is done…almost. Just a few things remaining here and there.

My elder sis and brother in law are coming this Sunday. My aunt is coming on Monday. One day before the wedding, there will be 40 people in the house. Hmmm…it will fun I guess

This is the jewelery I had to sort through and decide what to take with me. It was difficult but it had to be done.

We filled 200 of these small packets with colored rice the other day (to be used during the wedding).

I am still reading but I really don’t get much time. I have 3 reviews to write, but I’ll do that after the wedding. I don’t feel like writing them now.

I log in to Google Reader for at at least 10 mins everyday to check out posts, but I don’t comment, it’s difficult when you have a crappy net connection and only 10 mins. Thank you though for taking the time out to comment on my blog.

I still have to pack my bags.

Did I tell you I’m going to Goa for my Honeymoon? We both love that place and we wanted to relax. So a lot of beaches for a week…yay!!!

We are coming back to Mumbai on 5th for his sister’s birthday party who lives in Spain with her family. We don’t know when we would be able to celebrate her birthday together.

We are leaving Mumbai for Singapore on 7th December. We still have one week for the second phase of the honeymoon I guess we’ll go some place close by.

I know you didn’t ask for my travel details, but you get them anyway

Oh…and the most important thing.
This blog will go on a hiatus at least till mid-December. I might post some pics if I get the time. I’ll login to Google Reader from time to time, it’s just like checking mail to me

For authors/ publishers/ publicists: Don’t worry, your books will get reviewed, just a little late. I have read them, just haven’t written the reviews yet. Sorry about the slight delay though.

What else? How are you all?

I hope it’s visible, you could click to enlarge if you want to. It’s basically 2 rows of very tiny diamonds with a slightly larger diamond in the center.

This is my Mangalsutra, another essential in a Hindu wedding (except South India, I think). I also spend a lot of time getting the correct one.

I just thought I would do a quick post before rushing out again. How are you all?

Title: Kabul 24
Author: Henry O. Arnold and Ben Pearson
Genre: NonFiction
Rating: 3.75 out of 5

My thoughts:
Kabul 24 is about 24 people taken hostages by the Taliban in 2001. Out of these 24, 8 were foreigners and were working for the Christian Organization Shelter Now International (SNI). The remaining 16 were Afghan employees of SNI.

These SNI workers were helping to rebuild war torn Afghanistan by building factories, schools, orphanages and such for the Afghani people. It was a time when Afghanistan was still under the Taliban rule and the situation was already very tense and fragile as the Taliban had implemented the strict Sharia Law for all the Afghani people, a law where women couldn’t work and people had to follow strict ways of dressing, living and even praying.

During this time, Diana and Heather, 2 foreign employees of SNI, went to an Afghan family (apparently on their insistence) to show them a documentary on Jesus and tell them a little about their faith. But seemed like it was a set up by the Taliban with the help of the Afghani family to catch them red-handed trying to convert people to Christianity. They arrested the 2 women and then went around the SNI homes and offices to arrest as many people as they could. They got hold of 24.

Kabul 24 mostly focuses on the 8 foreigners-2 men and 6 women. They did not understand what was going on and why they were being imprisoned. Now begins my real complaint with the book. For e.g. take a look at these separate passages from the book.

–>Even though Georg and the others had shared their beliefs about Christ with the Afghan employees, conversion was not a precondition for Afghan employment with SNI. They loved the Afghans for their own sake, and those sixteen men deeply appreciated the opportunity for work and the kindness shown them by the SNI staff without any pressure to convert.

–>We have never forced anyone to convert. That is not our policy. We simply help people with their needs without regard to their beliefs. We do not go into the cities and hold crusades or swing our bibles and say you must convert or you shall go to hell. We are Christians. We never deny that. We speak about our faith when asked, but only in a way that is acceptable within the culture.

–>They both visited the Afghan family in question. Against her better judgment, Dayna had given a copy of her children’s Bible stories book to the young boy after he had worn her down by his unrelenting determination to have it.

Here no where do they accept that it was a mistake showing the documentary and giving the book to the children. I’m not accusing them of trying to convert people to Christianity. I’m just saying that don’t act surprised. Under the Taliban rule, where they knew how strict the Sharia law was in Afghanistan, I’m surprised that this thought never crossed their mind that showing such things to Afghani’s was wrong given the circumstances. Besides why did Dayna give the kid the Children’s Bible story book? She could have shown him any other children’s book. Again, I’m not accusing anyone, just saying that it should have probably expected the accusations from a party as religiously fanatic as the Taliban.

So these prisoners were shuttled from one prison to another where the conditions were very bad. This book gives us a glimpse into what the prisoners, foreigners and otherwise, suffered under the Taliban regime. It’s very heart-breaking. Although the book as a whole was well written, I found it a little too dramatic at times. You don’t really need to dramatize anything, it’s already dramatic enough. For the last hundred pages I was literally glued to my seat. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. The faith of these people is something that comes across very strongly in this book. It is this very faith that helped them get through this ordeal. After their escape from Afghanistan they decided to go back to Afghanistan to re-build what was destroyed. That takes courage.

I really liked this book. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s brilliant but it’s definitely worth a read. It also gives a little background on the Taliban and some other things mentioned in this book.

This book has stronger Christian elements than the other Christian themed books I have read before but I didn’t feel like the authors were trying to preach anything. It was just because faith was such strong part of the SNI employees that the book automatically reflected that.

Title: The Everafter
Author: Amy Huntley
Genre: Young Adult
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (September 29, 2009)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

About the book: (from Amazon)
Madison Stanton doesn’t know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this—she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can reexperience—and sometimes even change—moments from her life.
Her first kiss.
A trip to Disney World.
Her sister’s wedding.
A disastrous sleepover.
In reliving these moments, Maddy learns illuminating and sometimes frightening truths about her life—and death.
This is a haunting and ultimately hopeful novel about the beauty of even the most insignificant moments—and the strength of true love even beyond death.

My thoughts:
I finished this book some time back and I loved it, but when it came to writing a review I was stuck. I didn’t know where to begin. This is not a book where you can simply tell the plot and what worked and what didn’t. I wasn’t sure where it was going in the beginning but as it progressed I knew that The Everafter would definitely be a great read.

Let’s give it a try. As the book opens Madison is trapped in a bubble or a tiny space of nothingness. She knows she is dead. She sees objects all around her, some of them are really of little worth-like a sweatshirt, a bracelet, orchids, or so it seems, until she connects to the objects that take her back to the moments of her life where she lost them. It finally dawns on her that she is surrounded by lost things, things she lost when she was alive and these things are her only means to go back and experience it once again, to find out what really happened to her and why she is dead when she is just 17 years old.

As she goes through the moments of her life through the lost things, she remembers she has a boyfriend, a best friend and a family. What starts as an effort to remember and piece together her life, turns out into figuring out the meaning of life and death.

There are moments of brilliance in Amy Huntley’s writing. I especially remember a couple of chapters on Emily Dickinson’s poems and how Madison connects them to her life and death and the kind of ‘aha’ moment when she discovers what it means. I don’t like poetry because I don’t have the patience to understand it. But this book made me want to do that, to understand the depth and feelings that the poet might have wanted to convey. That for me is powerful writing.

The book raises questions that we sometimes think about but don’t say out loud. What happens after we die? And although I don’t think the intention of this book is to answer that, it does makes Madison realize the meaning of life and death and moving on.

As the author Amy Huntley puts it

I realized that Madison’s quest to make peace with moving on to The Everafter is really the same battle that everyone goes through as they grow and become someone new.

Read it to really know what I’m talking about.

Highly Recommended.

Book blogging, as a concept, is essentially pretty simple: If you have Internet access and an opinion about a book, you can be a book blogger. However, actually maintaining a book blog is much more complicated — our blogs are labors of love that require a lot of time, energy and devotion. For this edition of Weekly Geeks, I want to focus on the little things that make your blogging and/or reading life a bit easier. Do you use sites like GoodReads, LibraryThing or Shelfari to organize your books? Do you swear by Book Darts? Couldn’t live without your Book Buddy? Love connecting with other bloggers on sites such as Twitter? Tell us about what makes your blog tick. Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired?

This is the Weekly Geeks for 23rd Oct, but I’m already loosing track of things, so I guess it’s ok

Before my blog I had an account on Shelfari. I used to LOVE it. Most of the books on my wishlist came from endless surfing on that site.

But after I started blogging, most of my wishlist comes from other bloggers. I opened a new account on Shelfari, one with my blog name. But then it tends to load very slowly. It really irritated me at times. I had heard about Goodreads but somehow I never liked it. But when Shelfari was blocked at my new workplace, I tired Goodreads and now I love it. There are things to be desired still, but usually I’m satisfied with it. But I think the communities in Shelfari are more active than the ones in Goodreads. Anyway…let’s move on.

I swear by Google Reader too as many of you do. I don’t know what I would have done without it. It helps me keep track of more than 200 book blogs and 200 other blogs as well.

What else makes my life easier? Twitter? NO, I think it takes away a chunk of my reading and blogging time. But then it’s fun connecting to people and getting to know them a little better. Besides you get to know a lot of things that are going on in blogspere that you otherwise would have never got to know about.

What makes your blog tick? Is there something specific that keeps you organized or inspired? As I have always said, my blog lets me talk about books and that’s more than enough inspiration. It has become a way of life now.

I’m on Ning too and bookblips. I access Ning sometimes but I don’t remember the last time I accessed bookblips. Sometimes it all gets so overwhelming.

Here are the links to my active profiles
Shelfari
Goodreads
Twitter
Ning

Do leave yours in the comment section

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
320 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Razorbill; 1st edition (October 18, 2007)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My thoughts:
Thirteen Reasons is the story of Hannah Baker and as the book title suggests, 13 reasons why she died. All these reasons are in fact related to 13 people who helped her reach the state she did-the state where she felt like she had no other choice but to take her own life. Before she commits suicide, all the people who were somehow responsible for it were sent a set of tapes so that the person knows how much his/ her actions affected Hannah.

Whenever I hear somebody committed suicide, my first thought is obviously “Why?”, followed by thoughts like how can something this trivial force someone to take his/ her own life and leave so many unanswered questions and blame games behind. But it’s almost never one thing; it’s never “just” or “trivial”. It’s a culmination of many incidents and as Hannah says “A snowball effect”. Thirteen Reasons Why shows exactly that, the other side of suicide, something which we would probably never get to see or should see.

Hannah Baker is the new girl in town and like everyone else she finds it difficult to fit in. Hannah has left her own town and with that her old life which was filled with rumors and she hopes to start with a fresh slate. But things don’t turn out how she wants them to. Rumors follow her in the new town as well, trusts are broken, games are played and at one point Hannah doesn’t feel safe anymore, neither in her school nor at home.

Clay Jensen is one of the guys who gets the set of tapes. The book is an intermingled narrative between Hannah’s voice in the tape and Clay’s thought process or rather his reactions to it. It helps the reader get a different perspective on Hannah’s story. It also made it difficult for me to get into the story. The moment I felt I was getting involved in what Hannah was saying Clay would come up with totally unrelated things to say, not always unrelated, but many times. I know Clay’s perspective was important too, but it wasn’t done as well as it could have.

The writing was okay. In fact I really didn’t think I was going to like this book at all. Some where after the first 100 pages, the book really picks up pace. But I feel the power of the book lies in the story, in the message. To some people it will help realize how even their smallest of actions could affect someone’s psyche if it was fragile enough. Teenagers usually tend to be insensitive and wrapped up in their own world, it would hopefully make them realize that everyone’s worlds are overlapped and some things could have greater consequences than they realized. But on the other hand, it does not provide any hope to people who are probably thinking of giving up on the world like Hannah.

I would say it’s a good book which would probably be great for teenagers and adults as well.

I’m joining one more challenge but this one runs through next year so that’s good.

I have read a lot of books with the “Women Unbound” theme but mostly they have been memoirs. So I thought I’ll do a list for people who are interested. I have divided the list into 2 sections “read” and “to-read”. “to-read” will be my list for this challenge.

My “to-read” list
This list is tentative; I read whatever I feel like at that moment. But so far I have these in mind.

• The Story of my Life by Helen Keller

• Samira and Samir by Siba Shakib

• My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani

• Their Eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• The Complete Persepolis by Satrapi Marjani

• Educating Esme by Codell, Esme Raji

• Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto

• Madras on Rainy Days by Samina Ali

All these books are from my TBR pile. But I will obviously buy or borrow books if Singapore has a good library or a bookstore, so this list could change. Do let me know if you feel any of these books do not fit with the challenge. Also, I’m not sure how many books I’ll get to read but I’m keeping my options open and my reading list long

Recommendations for the challenge:
A Thousand Splendid Suns: It’s not exactly feminist fiction but it is about 2 women trying to survive in the most difficult of times. It also shows the relationship between Laila and Mariam beautifully. A great story of getting through the daily horrors that life offers and coming out of it with hope.

Do They Hear You When You Cry by Fauziya Kassindja: I picked this book up because it was about an African girl and honestly I did not expect much from it, mostly because I had never heard of this book before. I ended up loving this book. It’s about a young girl who runs from her home and ends up in America as an illegal immigrant. The story follows her struggle to stay in a foreign country and make them understand the difficulties and the dangers she would face if she is sent home. She also spends some time in the refuge prison. Turns out this was a landmark case in American Refugee history. Other than the fact that her story had to be told in whatever form possible, I also liked the way the book was written. It describes her life before she runs away from her home and also her life as a refugee in the U.S. This is a very heartfelt and a sad memoir but with lots of hope. I remember not liking something about the book but I really cannot recall what.

Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody: One of my favorite books of all time. (From Amazon) Betty Lover met the perfect “dark stranger” in a Michigan hospital. Her Iranian therapist, Dr. Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody, became her husband and the father of their daughter, Mahtob. Despite the vicissitudes of the Iran-U.S. hostage crisis, Betty and he flourished until their summer “vacation” in Iran in 1984. The next year and a half were a nightmare. Betty and Mahtob, held hostage by Mahmoody and his family, were subjected to Islamic fundamentalism, Persian nationalistic fanaticism, and a life of squalor.

Mayada, Daughter of Iraq: One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein by Jean Sasson: Again an awesome book. I cried a lot while reading it. (From Amazon) in 1999, Mayada was arrested by Saddam Hussein’s secret police for allegedly printing anti-regime pamphlets in her Baghdad print shop and imprisoned for nearly a month in Iraq’s brutal Baladiyat Prison. Sasson’s candid, straightforward account of Mayada’s time among the 17 “shadow women” crammed into Cell 52 gives readers a glimpse of the cruelty and hardship endured by generations of Iraqis. Mayada stares down this ugliness as soon as she’s yanked from her meticulously run shop into the prison’s interrogation room: “She saw chairs with bindings, tables stacked high with various instruments of torture…. But the most frightening pieces of… equipment were the various hooks that dangled from the ceiling. When Mayada glanced to the floor beneath those hooks, she saw splashes of fresh blood, which she supposed were left over from the torture sessions she had heard during the night.” Almost all Jean Sasson books fall under this category.

Wild Swansby Jung Chung: This is another great book that documents the life of 3 generations of Chinese Women-mother, daughter and grandmother, during the regime of Mao. It does get a little tedious and overbearing at times but over all it’s a very good book. If you were like me and didn’t know anything about the times of Mao, this book will provide lots of information. Review Link.

Empress Orchidand The Last Empressby Anchee Min: These are 2 books in a series but you can read the first book without reading the second. These books chronicle the life of the last Empress of China as fictionalized by Anchee min. They are both great books imho. Here are my review links: Empress Orchid and The Last Empress of China.

Abandonedby Anya Peters: This book is about sexual abuse. And seriously, the abuse scenes are so descriptive and detailed that I felt myself cringe a number of times. Her story is very heartbreaking. Anya Peters is a really good writer though. Read it only you can stomach such issues.

The Color Purpleby Alice Walker: I read this book long back and I don’t remember much about it other than the fact that I loved it. It did take some time to get into but it’s a great book if you like the writing style.

Prisoner of Tehranby Marina Nemat: This is what I wrote about this book a few months back. “Marina shows amazing courage in the midst of all this chaos. It is difficult to believe that a person who has seen so much hatred and destruction in the name of Islam, to still have faith in God. But it is this faith that pulls her out of it all and keeps her sane. This book is a very sad reminder of what is or was happening around a certain part of the world when we were comfortably sleeping in our beds or going about our normal duties. Read this to know about a time and place so different from what most of us have lived and also marvel at the courage of a woman called Marina Nemat.” Read my review here.

Cutting Looseby Nadine Dajani: Okay, this ones fiction and a little chicklit-ish but it does fall under this category. As I said about this book “As the story progresses, all three of them find the courage required to cut loose their ties from the past, enter into a whole new and challenging territory, leaving something that is painful but familiar behind”. It’s a classic tale of 3 women from different backgrounds who face problems similar to our own. That’s in fact what made me resonate with the novel more. It’s could be a tale of any 3 women.

Some more recommendations from Janaki@twistntales
1) Diddi by Ira Pande
2) The Book of Rachel by Esther David
3) Changing by Liv Ullman
4) Refuge
5) Janani-ed. by Rinki Bhattacharya
6) My Story by Kamala Das
7) A year by the sea by Joan Anderson
8 ) Pitching my tent by Anita Diamant

That’s about it I guess. How about you? Are you joining this challenge?

These updates do help me get things into perspective and see what all is going on with my life. You are probably not that interested but you get to read them anyway.

• First things first. It’s getting very cold and I have realized that I have come to hate cold weather. I used to love it before but now even the slightest cold makes me uncomfortable. Give me the warm weather and summer anytime.

• My boyfriend would be husband found a flat in Singapore and he sent me the photographs yesterday and I must say I’m really impressed with the way things work with the rent system in Singapore.

• I had to send back my wedding ring twice, first time they had got the design wrong and the second time the finishing wasn’t good. If I’m spending so much I want the design to be perfect. Hopefully it will be ready by Sunday. He has also ordered his ring and I’m surprised by how non-fussy the process was

• My college friends wedding reception this Saturday, this means I’ll get to meet a lot of people I haven’t been able to for a long time. yay!!!

• I have to constantly remind myself why I am getting my wedding stuff stitched from a designer rather than my friendly neighborhood tailor. She keeps on postponing the date saying she is busy with things like ‘kids school function’, ‘going to Mumbai’, ‘family function’ and stuff. I mean I get it that you are doing it for a hobby but I’m not getting my dresses stitched from you for hobby. I hope she gets them ready on time.

• Wedding photographer booked, wedding make up woman fixed. yay…

• Neither wedding card nor reception card has been printed yet. But I guess a couple of days more.

• I feel so bad leaving so many of my books behind. I have almost finished all the ARC’s, except 3-4 which I plan on finishing this month.

• My last date at this job is on 6th Nov. I’m still trying for a transfer; let’s see how things work out. But I’m looking forward to the 20 days off before the wedding.

• What else? I’m reading Where the Heart is which also happens to be an Oprah book club pick. So far, it’s good.

What’s up with you guys? Anything new?

Suggested by Jennysbooks:
Something I’ve been thinking about lately: “What words/phrases in a blurb make a book irresistible? What words/phrases will make you put the book back down immediately?”

hmmm…very interesting.

For me, words like “true story”, “war zone”, “fairy tale”, “scary”, “southern charm”, “romantic”, “in the depths of the forests”, “magical” make a book irresistible.

What I won’t care about is probably “spiritual journey”, “suffering from incurable disease”, “sports”, “has to take a super secret chip from Russia and plant it in the USA and then act as a spy by infiltrating the British Army” (basically anything that looks too complicated)

That’s it’s actually. But I am a very impulsive person; I just might pick anything depending on whim and if any blogger I trust effectively pitches it

I have answered the question considering what I understood is correct

Title: Book of a Thousand Days
Author: Shannon Hale
Genre: Young Adult
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

About the book (From Amazon):
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren’s refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.
As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren’s two suitors—one welcome, and the other decidedly less so—brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.
With Shannon Hale’s lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

My Thoughts:
Book of a thousand days is based on Grimm’s fairy tale Maid Maleen. But Shannon Hale has effectively twisted the tale and made it her own.

The story begins with a princess and her Maid being shut down in a tower for 7 years. The princess’s father wants her to marry Lord Khasar, the ruler of the down under, but the princess wants to marry Khan Tegus, also the ruler of one of the eight realms. The father wants to teach her a lesson by isolating her for 7 years in the hope of bringing her to her senses.

The maid is a 15 year old girl who has no family of her own to speak of and she is assigned to the princess just one day before she is to be locked in the tower. The maid without knowing anything about this pledges to serve the princess in all conditions.

The maid’s name is Dashti and she is a mucker, the people who roam the grasslands for a living. She knows how to live in frugal and harsh conditions and in turn takes care of the melancholy princess.

This book has the perfect fairy tale ingredients, obviously since it’s a re-telling of one. But I loved how Shannon Hale gave an extra dimension to every character in the story. She created characters you could hate and love. She also created a wonderful atmosphere which was as melancholy as the princess’s situation. Here is one of my favorite paragraphs:

Here’s something true about darkness-after enough time, you begin to see things that aren’t there. Faces look at me, and when I turn my head, they dissapear. Colors wash themselves before my eyes, then fade away. Shiny gray dream rats dart between my feet but don’t make a sound. I wanted to write this down so I can remember that those things aren’t real.

Shannon Hale has also challenged the concept of beautiful in connection to happily ever-after in The book of a thousand days which made me appreciate the story even better. If you’ve read Grimm’s fairy tale or this book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

All in all I would it’s a very good book with an ending suitable for fairy tales. This is one of the YA books that could be a cross over. I cannot wait to get my hands on other books by Shannon Hale. Recommended.