Interesting use of time

on Thursday, February 18, 2010

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

on Wednesday, February 3, 2010

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.