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! :)