The reluctant fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid

I read this book after borrowing it from a friend. It was really good. It is the story of a Pakistani man who tells his story to an American - It involves the story of how he initially came to US with his dreams and worked very hard towards it and then upto 9/11 and then how it all disintegrated for him. I really liked the story line and the way the story was written. The ending was a bit disappointing for me!

Dragon Bones - Lisa See

Just finished reading this novel. Loved it. It is about a couple David and Hulan. David is a lawyer now settled in China and Hulan is his wife who is Chinese. They have a daughter who passed away when she was small. They have been unable to recover from her loss and now are involved in a case of the Three Gorges dam where artifacts are missing and mysterious deaths occur. It is upto both of them to solve this case without causing international scandal. Loved the book and would recommend it. It involves parts of Chinese history too :D

On a Someday - Roxanne Henke

This story is about Claire West and her family. Claire is a college professor and close to retirement. She had tried to author a book for the past five years but has not gotten it to be reviewed by a book publisher. One of her friends asks her to give it a shot and it turns out to be a best seller and there starts her chain of lectures to promote the book.

Claire is married to Jim who is a owner of grocery stores. He bought an old car to restore 'someday' when he retires.

His son Drew is a loan officer in New York and gets married and then his wife pushes him to move to his home town. She feels being closer to grandma and grandpa would be nicer for the son they now have.

Jim initially wants Drew to take over his business and Drew doesnt want to. How does the story end? It's all about 'someday'. When will that blessed 'someday' come in our lives?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

I loved this book. I came across this book because my book club is reading it this month. Rebecca Skloot writes a sort of biography of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks is a black woman in the 1950s who died from cervical cancer. Her doctor had taken a sample of her cancer cells and that cell was the first one to survive in a lab. It was responsible for many breakthroughs in science, especially the cure for polio. But no one knew in the beginning whose cells they were. Rebecca followed up with Henrietta's daughter Deborah and there in begins the story of how the book is written. Lovely book!

A Child called It - Dave Pelzer

It's a sad story of child abuse. I felt really bad while reading the book. I didnt like it much probably because there is no conclusion at the end. But truly, while reading it, I was much hurt that parents could be like this. I wouldn't recommend it because it is a sad story!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo

Heheh this was actually a colleague's recommendation for kids. But I read it :D The story is about the china rabbit Edward. It starts out with Abilene and her granny. Granny had given Abilene the rabbit as a gift. Edward is a bit vain. When Abilene and her parents are going on vacation, she takes him to play with. But due to some fight with kids, he gets thrown overboard. Then Edward is passed onto different people - a hobo, a girl with pneumonia, a fisherman etc. All the lessons learnt on the way help make Edward a selfless rabbit. He is eventually broken and is taken to a doll maker to be repaired. He lies on the shelf and is finally bought by a little girl Maggie whose mother turns out to be Abilene :D

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog - John Grogan

Oh I had heard a lot about this book and the movie. But Im a book lover and hence wanted to read the book before watching the movie. I loved the book! I must say I've never been much happy with the idea of a dog at home. But after reading the book, I want one and want one NOW! Especially a lab. I find them as puppies so cute. I want them to never grow :D always be those cute adorable puppies.

Now onto the book review, it's about the newly married couple John and Jenny who are settling down in Florida. Jenny decides she wants a dog to nurture so that she can practise her mothering skills :) They get Marlet and life changes totally heheh. He's a cute puppy who grows up into a huge dog who acts crazy. The book is about the life of John and Jenny and how their life changes through Marley. A good read!

True Colors - Kristin Hannah

This is an extremely dramatic book. I liked it in the sense since it is about three sisters - the Grey sisters. How they are together and how they break up because of certain circumstances. The oldest is Winona who is fat and who longs for her father's approval. She is a good lawyer in town and everyone values her advice. The second one is Aurora who married her lover but he dies leaving her a widow. She remarries again but is not happy. She is the peacemaker between Winona and the youngest one, Vivi Ann. Vivi is carefree and generous. No thoughts about the future. Everything comes easily for Vivi Ann. She falls in love with a native Indian and that's where the trials start!

The Winter Rose - Jennifer Donnelly

I loved this book :D I don't know why but I just couldn't put it down once I started reading it. It's set in London and India Jones wants to work at a clinic in the slum-sections of London. She is a aristrocrat and her fiance is set to take over London's parliament. She meets Sid Malone, the underworld don there and she is confused as to her emotions. On the other hand, we have Fiona Bristow who is a big-time tea merchant and she is the sister of Sid. No one knows about this other than her husband Joe Bristow. Interesting storyline of how India has to convince Sid to leave his ways. She tries to but in the end, the cops catch up with him. Does he survive? That's for you to read and find out!

The Godmother - Carrie Adams

It is an average book for me. I wasn't much impressed by this book. I'm still not sure how it got on my 'To-read' list :D It is the story of Tessa King who comes back from India after taking a vacation from her stalker boss. She now has to find a new job and she is the godmother of her friends' children. She sees the life of Nick and Fran who struggle bringing up their son Caspar; her friend Al and Claudia struggle through fertility treatments to have a child; Neil and Helen have twins but Helen has her own deep dark problems;Billy is a single mom to Cora and can't break it with her ex even though he treats her badly and lastly;Ben and Sasha who have no plans to have children. Tessa was in love wih Ben once and she is confused about relationships. It's confusing for her and she has to re-examine many things in her life!

Savannah from Savannah - Denise Hildreth

I found this book very hilarious. The story is about Savannah who is from a place Savannah in Southern US. According to Savannah, her mom Victoria Phillips is constantly meddling in her life and she wants to do something for herself. She wins a publishing contest and thinks that her mother had something to do with it and hence she rejects the offer of a book publication and comes home to become a human-interest writer. She gets fodder for her story through some investigation that she is doing :D and it is so funny the situations she gets herself into. Really lovely book! I want to read some more by this author.

Shanghai girls - Lisa See

I picked this novel mainly because of the author. I loved her previous book Snow Flower and the secret fan that I've read.
This book too didn't fail. I was engrossed and always waiting to see what would happen in the end. It is a story of two sisters May and Pearl who are forced to marry two Chinese guys from US i.e. Vern and Sam respectively. They try to not go to US but are forced to go there. How they spend time on the immigration island (Angel Island) because of some problems and then go to US. 'Paper sons' and 'paper wives' is a concept new to me. I was only a bit disappointed in the end. I expected something more. :)

A man's heart - Lori Copeland

I liked this novel. Jules broke off her engagement to Cruz twice before and she returns back from her college when her father passes away. She is not close to her sister Crystal and this story is now about Jules and how she gets back with Cruz, Crystal and also about her close friend Sophia. Jules ends up having to take care of Sophia's two little kids and also a potato farm left to her by her father. I really enjoyed reading this novel :)

The accidental virgin - Valerie Frankel

This was a chickflick novel that I had picked up. Didn't like it much. It is about Stacy Temple , a designer at an online lingerie store, who broke up with her boyfriend one year back and hasn't gone on a date since a year and how she tries to get laid with anyone before that one year is up. It was just okay for me and I didn't quite like it.

The red scarf - Kate Furnivall

This book actually captured me because of its cover and story line. It is set in Russia and is during a very brutal time during communism.


Sophia Morozova and Anna Fedorina are in a Russian labor camp. They both become friends and Sophia vows to get Anna out. Anna had told her about her beau Vasily who she had last met when she was twelve and he was fourteen. Sophia has to escape from the camp and convince Vasily to help her and on the way, there are many interesting things that happen and how she mistakes different people who ultimately all come together to help her achieve her goal.

The first time - Joy Fielding

I was having a hazy feeling when I picked this book that I had read it earlier before. I wasn't 100% sure though, so I started reading and by the first chapter, I realised I had read it before :D to my surprise I hadn't reviewed it here. It is an interesting one and brings up lots of issues. Mattie Hart is married to Jake and has a teenage daughter Kim. Jake is leaving her and is with another woman Honey Novak. Then tragedy strikes and Mattie has Lou Gehrig's disease. Jake feels guilty and comes back and starts living with Mattie and Kim again. Unresolved issues start coming back and the three of them are forced to deal with it. Nice book :)

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'.