Thankful for the year 2009

I am thankful for the year 2009. 2009 brought for me a faithful reader by name Mridula :) I'm thankful for her comments on almost every one of my posts! She has always said something nice which inspired to go on writing my book reviews.

I'm also thankful that I could be active on this blog and have not left it midway. I have made many friends through the blog world and now am an avid blog reader. I discovered Google reader this year and hence am up-to-date on all the blogs that I love :)

Hope 2010 brings good news for all of us!

In the Convent of Little Flowers - Indu Sundaresan

Indu cleverly potrays various insights into Indian society through this compilation of stories. In one, it is the story of an Indian girl who is adopted by an American couple and her real birth mother's sister writes to her later on after twenty years or so. Another is about a couple and their weird son Bikaner and how he cheats on them. Another is about a old couple who have nowhere to live after their 12 kids do not care for them. Hence they are sent to a retirement home. Different stories like this make this book. I was hoping for more actually that maybe the stories will come together in the end. I liked it, but not too much!

First Darling of the Morning - Thrity Umrigar

This is a lovely book written by Thrity about her childhood as a Parsi in Mumbai. I really liked the way she started with her as a child and how she grew up at home. The tension at home with problems in the factory her uncle and father were the boss of, the sadness when her uncle died and how she had to grow up. The book ends when she makes a decision to go to US to study and to learn to be independent. Really nice novel to read

The Konkans - Tony D'Souza

I enjoyed the beginning of this book. It is a nice one with customs from Mangalore basically Konkan people (people who speak Konkani). Towards the end, it dragged out a bit. This is a story of Babu who is the firstborn son of his father (father is also a firstborn son) and of his brother Samuel. Babu marries a white lady and goes to the US after sometime. His two brothers follow along shortly. It is a tale of Babu through his son's eyes. Good one!

Tiger Moon - Antonia Michaelis

I liked this novel. It is about Raka, a young bride who tells her story to Lalit/Lagan, a lowly servant in her husband's house. The story is about a young thief Farhad who is commissioned by Krishna to save his daughter from the clutches of Ravan who is in human form. Nitish, a white tiger, helps him in this journey. At the end, the lines between the story and reality fade and the two stories blend together. Really good book!

Sold - Patricia McCormick

This novel really touched me. It was about a Nepali girl and how she is brought into India and sold into the streets as a prostitute. At the end, she gets a chance to escape and to find out whether she escapes or not,read the book!

The palace of illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

After reading the reviews by Mad momma, Mamma of twins and Mystic Pizza, I had decided to read this novel. It sounded really good according to their reviews. And boy oh boy was I pleased that I read the novel. It is an amazing potrayal of Draupadi's viewpoint starting way from her birth to the end in the Mahabharata. I really loved the way Draupadi had her own thoughts and it was really good. A must read for everyone!