Second year anniversary

Yet again, I missed my blog's anniversary :) (like last year)

Blogging about books has really helped me a lot to think and formulate my thoughts. It's the one thing that I do just for my satisfaction. There is no pressure or need to excel. It helps me be me!

Breakfast with Buddha - Roland Merullo

This is my personal copy of the book. I don't recollect how I came to own this book :) I've been reading this book since few months. The reason for the long time for this book is because I really liked the story and wanted to absorb the lessons of the book. It is about Otto Ringling who is tricked into driving Volya Rinpoche,his sister's spiritual guru, across the country. So Otto has to drive Volya from New York to somewhere in mid west of US. The lessons that Rinpoche imparts to Otto while discussing normal things was very profound atleast to me. It was a simple book and I really liked it!

The Choice - Nicholas Sparks

I'm a romantic at heart and loveee these kind of novels. :D

The story is about Travis Parker and Gabby Holland. Gabby already has a boyfriend and has just moved into the neighborhood. She meets Travis her next door neighbor who falls in love with her. Slowly through his charm and wit, he wins over Gabby who is confused. Here is where the crux of the story lies - I thought the book was about the "choice" has to make between Travis and her boyfriend :) That is not the choice. Read the book to find out what the "choice" is all about! I loved the book. I've read 'The Notebook' once long time back and liked that too :)

The Dead Lie Down/The Other Half Lives - Sophie Hannah

The novel is all about Det. Sgt. Charlotte Charlie Zailer and Det. Constable Simon Waterhouse. Charlie and Simon are getting engaged and Charlie is worried about how their marriage will turn out to be. The story is about Ruth Bussey, who was violently attacked many years earlier, now is seeing a guy named Aidan Seed.
Aidan confesses to Ruth that he has killed a lady Mary Trelease. But Ruth knows that Mary is alive and tries to convince Aidan that she is alive.Ruth goes to Charlie and tells her about this and on the same day, Aidan goes to Simon to tell him that he has killed the lady Ruth many years back.

The story is so confusing in the beginning but you still don't want to keep the novel down. I had to finish it before sleeping and read it till quite late in the night :) I liked it but people might find the style of writing confusing since it keeps switching from different people's perspectives. Everything does tie together in the end though.

Actually both of these books are the same - The Dead Lie Down and The Other Half Lives. I realised this after reading the novel. I think it was released in the UK as 'The Dead Lie Down'.

Ladies Coupé - Anita Nair

It's been so long since I've updated the blog :) I've been so busy travelling to India and then my parents came by for a visit. I've been reading but had no time to update :D

I had wanted to read this novel from a long time since I heard quite a lot of reviews about it. I found it interesting. It is about the girl Akhila who get a one-way ticket and travels in the Ladies coupe to Kanyakumari. She meets five other women ( Janaki, Margaret Shanti, Prabha Devi, Sheela and Marikolanthu) and listens to each one's story about their life and problems.

How Akhila listens to their stories and comes to a conclusion about her life is the entire novel. I liked it because it gave interesting perspectives into the lives of different kinds of women. Akhila wants to know the answer to her question - Can a woman stay single and be happy, or does a woman need a man to feel complete? Interesting novel!

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

I really loved this book. After reading the book, I went to see whether the author has written any other books. It seems she has a hard time finding publishers to publish this book. I wonder why. It is really very good. It is a story about the colored help in Mississippi during the old times in USA and their white ladies. It details the story of Abileen (colored maid who takes care of Mae Mobley and Lil man), Minny - a strong colored maid - who is quite outspoken and Skeeter - a young white woman - who was taken care of by Constantine (colored maid). Skeeter talks to Aibileen and wants to write a book which involves interviewing all the colored maids in Jackson. This was a time during which colored people lived in a separate part of town and weren't treated quite as well as now. I really liked the view points of Minny and Skeeter the best. I've heard that this book is getting turned into a movie. That should be good. Hope it lives up to the book!

Honest Illusions - Nora Roberts

I did like this book. Max Nouvelle is a father who is a magician and has a daughter by name Roxanne. Lily is his partner and Max takes in Luke as a child when he runs away from an abused home. Roxanne falls for Luke and is unable to understand why Luke is not able to reciprocate. Luke leaves them and five years later comes back to make a deal with Roxanne.

Divine Evil - Nora Roberts

This book is very much different for me atleast compared to Nora Roberts' other books that I have read. It is a story of Clare who is a famous artist who comes back to her home town Emmitsboro and she meets the town sheriff Cameron. He was her love interest earlier. In the background she recollects some coven ceremony taking place when she was a child. The book is mainly about this and about the grave of an infant being dug up.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bront

This is supposedly a classic and I think here, everyone has read it. I was okay with the book but was not very much enchanted by it. I had read it way back in February and this was sitting in my drafts folder. It is a love story of Heathcliff and Catherine and how this love story destroys them and everyone around them. It's sort of like a love saga kinds. I was not very much impressed with the book.

Lord of Hawkfell Island - Catherine Coulter

I somehow didn't like this book. All weird things happen in this. It is set way long time back during Vikings time. Rorik kidnaps Einar's half-sister Mirana to avenge the slaughter of his wife and children. Mirana is very independent in thinking and doing stuff just like a man. And all weird things happen. It wasn't a good book for me! I had read this book way back in February and just got around to posting it.

Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet - Jamie Ford

I really loved this book. It was so touching and emotional. I started thinking about how life must have been during that time. The book is about Henry Lee who is a American - Chinese boy who grows up during the World War II time. He has a friend Keiko who is Japanese. During this time, the Japanese were hated by Americans because Japan was against America during the war. Keiko and her family are sent to a refugee camp to stay there and Henry misses her and somehow manages to meet her. They later say good bye and due to certain circumstances, the letters that Keiko and Henry write to each other are not received. Henry gets married to a Chinese lady Ethel and has a son Marty. The story starts out when Ethel dies and Marty and Henry start getting closer. A very lovely story. I read the book through the night on Wednesday because I couldn't keep it down once I started :)

The Prince of Mist - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

It's war time, and the Carver family decides to leave the capital where they live and move to a small coastal village where they've recently bought a home. 


Once they move into that home, strange things start to happen to the kids Max and Alicia. With the help of their friend Roland, they try to find out who the mysterious "Prince of Mist" is. I didnt like the story much because I expected many things to happen. The ending felt a bit flat to me.

The mistress of spices - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

This was a good read. It starts out with the Tilo who is made a mistress of spices in California and how she uses spices to heal everyone. She is not allowed to touch the people she talks to. But one fine day, a guy comes in and she gets carried away with him. I did not like the love angle as such. But the description of each spice in each chapter and the way it is used to heal people, I somehow felt convinced that spices have powers heheh :) I liked it but not as much as Palace of Illusions.

My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes

I got tagged by Comfy and Smitha to write about – ‘My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes’. which was created by the super blogger IHM 


Here goes my list of 10 things that I have done which I am not supposed to as a woman:
1. I like being in control of every trip, thing that I do. I don't relinquish control that easily :) I take charge of everything.
2. I have stayed alone for more than a year and enjoyed that phase of life. 
3. I don't wear make up that often and detest jewellery. I prefer a jeans and T-shirt any day to  salwars, saris etc
4. I like to read manuals of gadgets and make sure I make maximum usage of the gadget.
5. I love searching for deals for electronic items.
6. I hate heels and do not own a single pair of high-heeled shoe. I think most of the girls will hit me for this :)
7. I like driving because it makes me feel I am independent. I hate depending on anyone for anything.
8. I can change bulbs, fix things with a screw driver - a general handy man of sorts.
9. I like to explore and see around more than anyone. I like to go for walks and check what is around to do.
10. I have a knack to find coupons to use for most of the expensive things that I buy.

And now for the tough part. I’ve got to tag people. Apparently according to IHM, if you read this and you don’t take the tag up , you are  - ‘cursed to wear blue pants if you are a woman and pink shirts if you are a man – for next twelve years’.

Because everyone I know already has been tagged, I tag everyone who reads this blog :) 

The vine of desire - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I thought perhaps the sequel might not be good since the first book was really nice. But this was good too. In this part, Sudha has left her husband since his mother doesn't want a girl and Anju has miscarried her son. Sudha goes to US to console Anju and also to find a better life for herself. Anju's husband has feelings for Sudha and this turns into a web of desire. 

Sister of my Heart - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I liked this book. It talks about Anju and Sudha who are cousins. Anju is the daughter of the Chaterjee family and Sudha is the daughter of a cousin of hte same family. Sudha is very beautiful while Anju is not. Despite this and being born on the same day (i.e. the day their father died), they are sisters of the heart. They are very close to each other.
One day, Sudha learns a secret that threatens to destroy the closeness between the two. Eventually both of them get married and Anju leaves for the US and Sudha is in India. The story continues in the second part - The vine of desire.

The mirror of fire and dreaming - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I really enjoyed this novel. For me, it was like a Indian version of Harry Potter :) with all magic involved. Anand is in the Silver Valley and his mentor, Abhaydatta, is sent to save a village. Anand gets a vision where in he feels his mentor is in grave danger. He tries to convince the Elders about this fact, but doesn't wait for their answer and sets out with Nisha to find Abhaydatta with the help of the "conch" - a magical and powerful object. In the process he ends up in olden times of the Nawab and Haider Ali. Quite an interesting read! I loved it!

Queen of dreams - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

American-born Rakhi is an artist and later becomes co-owner of a teashop with her friend. She is the daughter of Indian immigrants and is confused as to why her mother, who is a interpreter of dreams, doesn't want to talk about this gift. She is suprised why she has not got the gift. It leaves Rahki bitter and resentful that she cannot share in this part of her mother's life. When September 11 occurs, a series of events unfold and she realises what her mother means by what is missing in her shop. The story is beautiful and is from Rakhi's point of view. And it opened a new view point for me on what would people from India would have faced during that terrible time for no fault.

Thrill

Nothing beats starting your day seeing you have won a badge from Comfy :)

I was so surprised that my answer turned out to be somewhat correct :) Thanks Comfy for making my day!

The cottage - Danielle Steel

This is really material for a Hindi serial for sure. :) It starts out with Cooper Winslow an actor who was top of this field during his age. He has grace, charm and everything. But right now he's broke due to his lavish spending. He needs to sell his home of forty years or rent it out. He agrees somehow to rent it out and has two new tenants Mark and Jimmy. Mark is dealing with his divorce from his wife who has strayed and Jimmy just lost his wife due to her illness.


Amidst this chaos, something is happening. There is a scandal of Coop romancing a wealthy doctor and the news that someone is pregnant with his child. There is an unexpected guest who turns up and changes Coop's life. Quite a fun filled story.

Bungalow 2 - Danielle Steel

Tanya Harris loves her life as a mother of three and being the wife of a lawyer. She is a successful writer of short stories and soap opera scripts. Suddenly out of the blue, her agent calls with a dream offer: a major director wants her and her alone to write the script for a new high-profile film. Tanya's first reaction is distress about leaving her kids alone, but her husband convinces her that this is her big opportunity. In Hollywood, Tanya enjoys her work. But soon she realises that her husband is straying and kids are not happy with her. Interesting story :)

Going home - Danielle Steel

Here the storyline was a bit weird. I expected something and something else happened. Gillian is a divorced , single parent who moved from NY to CA for a change of career. She meets this guy and sleeps with him. The guy doesn't treat her that well and still Gillian hangs on. She gets pregnant and the guy is scared. Hence she moves back to NY to have the baby. He later comes around to the feeling of having a child and gets her back to CA. But he dies in an unfortunate accident. In the end, everything does come along but I was still wondering why she was with the guy in the first place.

A fair maiden - Joyce Carol Oates

I didn't like the book very much. This may be because I'm prejudiced against the topic. I hate the idea of older men preying on younger women. But the style of writing was good. Katya is a young girl who is working as a nanny in a Jersey neighborhood looking after two young children. While there, she meets Marcus Kidder who is a wealthy artist. He catches her window shopping at a lingerie store and tries to buy it for her. But she refuses. Later on, she visits him and is intriguied by him. The end was kind of expected but I didn't like the book mainly for the story line. 

Irish Love - Andrew M. Greeley

In this book, Nuala Anne has left her singing career and is happy to be at home in Ireland. There is a bomb blast in an adjacent site and  Nuala and her daughter Nelliecoyne smell blood due to them being fey. Later on, we come to know that it was the site of a brutal massacre where innocents were blamed for the crime of another. Dermot gets a book by a Chicago journalist Edward Fitzpatrick and they realise there is a connection between the old crime and the now present day. The book was interesting and I liked it better than the first book I read.

Irish Mist - Andrew M. Greeley

Nuala Anne McGrail and her husband, Dermot Michael Coyne come to Ireland so that she can sing in an Irish Aid concert. On the flight over to Ireland she has visions of a young woman in a burning castle and of a man assassinated on his way to Mass.Dermot finds out that the man was Kevin O'Higgins, successor to Irish rebel leader Michael Collins. Nuala is psychic and uses this gift to uncover the people who murdered Kevin. There is also a puzzle involved in this. It's a good book but not one I would like to read again. The author assumes that the readers are either Irish or from Europe and hence can understand most of the plot. It took me sometime to figure out the book :)

Tut's mummy lost - and found - Judy Donnelly

This is the first book that I had to read as part of my interaction as a pen pal of a student here. It was fun to read the book and think of it from the perspective of a 9 year old. I had to motivate the girl to read the book and also, give my thoughts on certain things in the book. It was a nice read for kids because it shows many values i.e. the value of not giving up when everything is against you. Also lots of news words are learnt.

As for the book, it is the story of King Tut died and how he was buried in a secret location. Years later, the archaeologist Howard Carter starts to search for Egyptian treasure for nearly five years with no success and suddenly through his persistence finds the tomb! I really liked the pictures of things in the book :)

Interesting use of time

I have always liked to read and also to volunteer for activities. When I found an opportunity that combined these two, I was elated. Here in the US, we have a site called epals. What it expects is that certain books are read by a student and you(the penpal) and then it starts a series of discussion between you and the student through secure email.

The book chosen for us this semester is Tut's Mummy: Lost...And Found - Judy Donnelly. I'm excited on how to motivate a young person to read and enjoy a book! It's my first time being a pen pal!

My seduction - Connie Brockway

This was an interesting read. The heroine Katherine Blackburn is a widow now who had a very short marriage of six months since her husband was killed in war. Her father dies trying to rescue three young men. Kate now after few years has one chance of trying to redeem her and her two sisters situation by trying to reach her cousin sister's husband's brother and implore him to help the family out. On the way, she meets Kit Macneill ( this is one of the three men her father saves) who tries to help her to repay the debt of her father sacrificing his life. On the way to Scotland, many dangerous things happens and she learns that the death of her cousin sister and husband was a plan. It was a good read!

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

I haven't yet disappeared from the blog world yet :) It's this book that's taking me a long time to read. The writing style is very unusual compared to normal books and hence takes me a while to read. The closest I could compare to was Arvind Adiga's style in White Tiger.

The story is about kids born at midnight during Independence for India. Saleem is one and he is the narrator of the story. He realises at age 10 or so that all these kids have some gifts and that they can communicate to each other within their minds. I'm still reading the novel so not much details now. Will update this post when I finish reading the book.

Update

I really liked the book. It is basically a story about the kids born at midnight all tied in with the political events of Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and the assassination, the destruction of slums. I did like the novel but it was a really slow one for me since it was narrated in a different way.

Knitting scarf

My scarf that I'm knitting currently! :)

Winter storm

This post is for Mridula who keeps telling me to post some pictures. I had taken some short video around a month back when there was a huge snow storm here. :)

The Courtship - Catherine Coulter

It is a romance between Lady Helen and Spenser Heatherington, Lord Beecham. Beecham overhears a conversation between Alice and Helen and is intrigued. Helen wants Beecham as her partner but not in the way he is thinking :) She wants his help in finding a mythical golden lamp rumored to make its possessor all-powerful. It was supposedly given to King Edward when his wife was dying and she was restored back to life. Interesting story!

Mad Jack - Catherine Coulter

Lord Cliffe is happy with his lonely existence when tow of his great aunts come to his home with a valet "Jack". Jack tries to steal Lord Cliffe's horse and is caught by him. That is when he realises that Jack is a lady actually in hiding from her stepfather. He needs to save her and her sister from the step father without alerting the step father to her presence! Does he save the day ? :)

Things about me……

…………..that you may or may not know, but are true. Yup! that’s the tag passed on from Colormesunshine. The rules are:

Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true..

Tag 10 people with the award, and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do).

Link back to the blogger who tagged you.

Ohh my! 10 things that people don't know about me :) That's very difficult task :)

1. I love cooking and trying out new recipes. I'm a sucker for food blogs and love love the way people give helpful tips while creating a dish

2. I prefer not sleeping during the day. I hateeeeee sleeping during afternoon on weekends. I feel it's a waste of time

3. I like doing things like knitting, cross stitching. Most of my friends find it a weird trait in a computer engineer ;) (I'm currently knitting a multi directional diagonal scarf :) I will put up a picture sometime this week)

4. I loveeeeeeeee eating. I'm trying to control my weight but I can't seem to eat in moderation all the time!

5.I like travelling and seeing new places. I've seen almost all the places in US now. You name it, I've been there :) I would love to see Europe and Australia.

6. I have to-do lists for every single thing to do - while visiting places, while going to the grocery, while moving house. You name it and I have the list. I think I have OCD sometimes! I can't leave things half done in between.

I can't think of any more right now but will add as it comes to mind :)

I would like to pass this tag to many people but have just selected 10 now that come to mind:

Monika - I'm so impressed by her determination to lose weight! I would love to hear new things about her

Asaan - I like her super saver tips. I'm so jealous of the things that she gets in thrift stores. After seeing her stuff, I'm planning to go to the thrift stores when I need to buy some stuff.

Soyfeliz - He's a good friend but I would still like to know some new stuff about him that no one knows!

Raj - Would like to hear what things people don't know about him. He's a very straight forward person.

Shilpa - Oh her dishes are so yummy and so typical of Mangalore. She recently put up posts about breadfruit and my memories of my mom's awesome curry made me almost cry!

Chandni - I'm a avid reader of her blog. She's really nice and has lovely posts!

Choxbox - Like her family and the way she writes about them

Sundar - Oh the posts about his missus and his two sweet kids! I love them and wait to see his next post. I'm going to try his Mysore pak recipe soon!

Swaram - I like her sweet simple logical way of posting. Her posts are really good and I keep waiting for her next one!

Kiran - I like both her blogs http://thirtysixandcounting.wordpress.com and http://karmickids.blogspot.com/. I love the tales about the brat and stuff he does hehehhe Would like to hear from her

Woo hoo! First award

Woo hoo! This is my first award on my blog. In Nancy's words - "The Blog Friends award goes to those blog-friends who are silent most of the time but when I write a really good post they never hesitate to tell me how much they liked it:-) ..." And she really did spread a lot of cheer for me in this new year.

I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart for this very special first award for my blog.

I would also like to pass this award on to

Mridula - for sweet comments on my posts and encouraging nature

ChefinYou - for her lovely yummy recipes. I follow a lot of food blogs but I love hers the best!!! I feel so sad if she doesn't post any recipes for some time. She gives step-by-step instructions and is really cool if you ask her questions. She responds quite soon too!

CraftyShines - Man is she swesome! I love her little creations and she responded so sweetly to my email!

Indianmakeupblog - Oooo I love her blog. She gives excellent advice on makeup and how to put it. I don't use makeup but for sure would like to try a little after seeing her tutorials

Colormesunshine - For her lovely blog and also reply to my doubts :) they were quite dumb but she was sweet to reply

I have so many more to add :) But as of now, I can remember only these many!

The aristocrat - Catherine Coulter

Brant Asher is a famous football player in New York. He comes into an inheritance and goes to England to see what it is. He learns that he has to marry Daphne Asherwood if he wants to get the inheritance. It's very confusing for Brant with aunt Chloe who transforms Daphne and the vamp Lucilla who wants the inheritance. Eventaully Daphne and Brant get married but do they stand the test of love? :)

Patience - Lori Copeland

Oh I liked this novel. It is about Patience Smith who gets kidnapped by a man who thinks she is another woman. She escapes and stumbles upon an abandoned mine with a lonely orphan Wilson. Wilson tells her that there is gold in the mine and that the old prospector who died told him that. She goes and tries to get help in mining the land but no one comes because they have heard the mine is haunted. Jay is the Sheriff from the town she was kidnapped. He comes to search for Patience and finds her and tries to take her back. But Patience is trying to convince him to help her mine the mine. Nice story :)

Now and always - Lori Copeland

Katie Addison is the good person that we all wish to be. Helping battered women in a shelter, taking in injured horses and helping people to mend their hearts. Warren is her neighbour and she has very little sense of finance :) She takes Warren's help to try to fit a budget. On the other hand, there is the sheriff Ben who can't seem to get Katie's attention ever since he didn't turn up on prom night. Katie is still angry with him for that. In the end, who does Katie choose? Warren or Ben. Read to find out :)