tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56113776534990841912024-03-07T15:17:25.735-08:00Drift through booksMeandering, whimsical non-reviews of books and ruminations on reading.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-19396646062877457442013-08-01T20:36:00.003-07:002013-08-01T20:36:48.952-07:00Read Alert<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
For a change, the silence on the blog is not because I haven’t been reading; rather because I have been reading with a frenzy, which is just how I like it. However, the disadvantage of reading books back-to-back is that you do not get enough time to reflect on the one you’ve just finished, before you’re on to the next. All I have the energy for here, is to list everything I’ve read since I finished the Ibn Batuta trilogy. So, to the beat of Tom Lehrer’s The Elements, here goes: <b>Empires of the Indus</b> – Alice Albinia, <b>Ghost Train to the Eastern Star </b>– Paul Theroux, <b>The Elephanta Suite </b>– Paul Theroux, <b>The Tenant of Wildfell Hall </b>– Anne Bronte, <b>Layover at Dubai</b> – Dan Fesperman, <b>Grave Secrets in Goa </b>– Katherine McCaul, <b>A Regular Guy </b>– Mona Simpson, <b>Anywhere But Here</b>– Mona Simpson, <b>My Theodosia </b>– Anya Seton, <b>Crazy Salad </b>– Nora Ephron…</div>
<br />
Ok, the list sounded a lot longer and a lot more impressive in my head. And in my defense, I would’ve had a few more books in there, but for the fact that I struggled with Mona Simpson’s Anywhere But Here. The book was more than well written; I just found the characters difficult and depressing. I struggled much less with her A Regular Guy, but liked the protagonists no better.<br />
<br />
In this list, the standout was, by far, Alice Albinia’s Empires of the Indus. The book traces the mighty river from its mouth in Sind province in Pakistan, to its source in Tibet. I also loved Ghost Train to The Eastern Star, particularly the bits in Turkmenistan and Vietnam, and Theroux’s encounters with Orhan Pamuk in Turkey and Pico Iyer and Haruki Murakami in Japan. The book added many places to my-must- see list, on top of which, now, is Hanoi. The three novellas in The Elephanta Suite, set in India, actually have themes that a reader of Ghost Train will instantly recognize. Many incidents and realizations from his travels through India resurface in it. The two murder mysteries set in Dubai and Goa were pure pulp fiction. Layover was decent, Grave Secrets, a miss. As for the two older books, I am ashamed that I never read The tenant.. until now. Anne Bronte is unusually perceptive and knowledgeable for her times about addiction, but I would’ve loved the story more if I had read it in my early teens, while I was discovering her sister Charlotte, and Jane Austen. My Theodosia, which is set in post-independence America, was a fast and interesting read, but in terms of literary style and historical accuracy, more Jean Plaidy than Hilary Mantel. Crazy Salad, was good fun and gave insights into America, particularly the women’s movement in the 70s, but some of it felt dated. <br />
<br />
I am grateful for the stream of books that has kept me busy over the last few weeks. As someone who is <strike>often </strike>mostly dependent on friends for reading material, it is wonderful to have access not just to books, but to wonderful, varied, intelligent books. I shall enjoy it while it lasts! </div>
shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-39633197446545081372013-04-07T23:30:00.003-07:002013-04-08T01:04:42.215-07:00The Ibn Batutah Trilogy - Tim Mackintosh Smith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div><br />
I’ve just emerged – yes, that’s the right word - from one of the most intense reads in a long time. Intense in length, and densely packed with information. For the past month, I have been travelling with <b>Tim Mackintosh Smith</b>, as he retraces the journeys of <b>Ibn Batutah </b>(IB), the fourteenth-century Tangerine traveller. <br />
<br />
Spread over ten years, Smith’s travels have been chronicled in three volumes, <b>Travels with a Tangerine</b>, The <b>Hall of a Thousand Columns </b>and <b>Landfalls</b>. The first book starts in Tangiers, IB’s birthplace, and covers Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Oman, if I remember right. The second book is entirely in India and the third, is a more episodic narration of his journeys to Zanzibar, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, China, Mali, Guinea and Spain. <br />
<br />
As I have tediously and repeatedly mentioned, I like my information disguised as fiction. Even history, which I love, I love less when it comes in textbook form. TMS (for the sake of brevity) is an accomplished writer, however, who does not bore you for an instant. But I did feel overwhelmed at various points in during the journey. The first volume, <b>Travels with a Tangerine</b>, especially, was a difficult read, but only because this is a part of the world I am completely alien to. It just made me realize how Europe-centric my reading has always been, with North America thrown in now and then. But the Islamic world, North Africa, the Levant, these are regions I have no knowledge of. In fact, I cannot even claim superficial knowledge. And things are more complicated because TMS is following in the footsteps of IB, and the fourteenth century is also unfamiliar territory. For instance, in Egypt, it is not the country of the ancient pre-islamic pharaohs - the one that we are all so familiar with, that he visits - but that of Sultans and saints. So I had to deal with both historic and geographic dislocation in this volume. Both The Hall of a Thousand Columns and Landfalls were easier in that respect, but that respect only. <br />
<br />
TMS has a simple, lucid style with self-deprecating humour and an understated yet keen sense of the marvelous. Still, there are cultural references and words that I needed to Google frequently. There is latin, French and Arabic thrown in frequently, but in the most unpretentious way possible. <br />
<br />
Following in the footsteps of IB, especially when those footsteps have been obscured by time, is not easy. TMS sets off looking for tangible remnants in the places that IB mentions visiting, but these are few and far between. IB’s tomb in Tangiers, which he visits in the beginning, is probably a fake. Many of the monuments that IB mentions in his travels are either destroyed or renamed. Many of his co-ordinates too, are inaccurate. But occasionally, TMS does hit paydirt and finds a relic of IB’s times, intact. (Although strewn with turd in some cases: The hall of a thousand columns.)<br />
<br />
The three volumes contain such a wealth of esoteric knowledge, that one reading is not enough. I enjoyed several accounts. In the first book, my favourite parts were set in Oman. Going to college in Kerala meant that you’d bump into, and even befriend several Gulf malayalees, as they are called, and quite a few of my friends were from Oman. They would tell me tales of mythical beings such as KFC, McDonalds and Pizza Hut, all fantastic to my just-liberalized Indian ears. TMS’ Omani legends are quite different. His travels to Dhofar, particularly, made me want to go there. <br />
<br />
In <b>The Hall of a Thousand Columns</b>, my favourite part (perhaps predictably) is when he goes to Calicut and meets the Zamorin (the ruler). IB’s ship had been wrecked on the coast of Calicut just as he was about to depart to China, and it was the Zamorin of his time who protected him. There is a goosebump moment, when the Zamorin’s nephew shows TMS a ruby necklace gifted by Vasco Da Gama. Not long afterwards, the Portuguese adventurer (and I use that word in its negative sense) slaughtered many locals as the Zamorin would not give the Portuguese exclusive trading rights. TMS talks of meeting the Arackal Bibi and a Muslim family, whose history is fascinating. It gave me a particular thrill when he talks of travelling by the country boats in Kerala, bound together with ropes not nails. Now this is something I have written about in many travel/resort brochures, knowing it was an old traditional custom, but not really understanding how far back it went, or where its roots really were. <br />
<br />
The Hall of a Thousand Columns starts in Delhi, as IB was appointed judge to Mohammed Bin Tughlaq, the very same Delhi Sultan who was dubbed ‘the wisest fool’ and whose shenanigans captivated us in middle school. TMS also visits Daulatabad, the brief ill-fated, capital of Tughlaq’s empire. The spookiest moment comes when TMS identifies a sati ground mentioned by IB, somewhere in the heartlands of India. In Delhi, TMS also meets scions of ancient Indian families.<br />
<br />
<b>Landfalls </b>chronicles a series of journeys. Each chapter takes you to a different Batutian destination. It’s hard to say what I enjoyed most in this book, because each was a perfectly crafted bit of goodness. There was something eerily beautiful about the Balafon performances in Guinea, and downright spooky about the ancient pagan sacrifices in the Maldives. The chapter on China was a revelation in that I had never thought of its Islamic past. Exceedingly dumb of me, but there it is. The ‘Ding’ episode is just the kind of historical serendipity that I adore: TMS meets a clan of Dings, and realizes that the name is a version of the Islamic surname, Al Din. <br />
<br />
Over the course of the three books, TMS himself emerges as a likeable, humble and fun chap. In many ways he seems to be the antithesis of IB, who was famously a swaggering, libidinous profligate. In spite of the worst setbacks, his spirits don’t seem to flag. A lot of reviews mention the scatological slant to some of the writing, but it didn’t bother me in the least. What amazes me is how understanding and empathetic he is of Islamic history and culture, while still being able to maintain an academic distance from it all. <br />
<br />
I know it’s not everyone's thing, but I shall still recommend it without reservations! <br />
shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-15396070130676094512013-01-27T23:41:00.000-08:002013-01-27T23:42:31.835-08:00The Fry Chronicles – Stephen Fry <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"></div>I’m going to come right out and say it: I haven’t enjoyed a book as much in a long time. You’re free to leave the page now. Or stick with me while I ramble some more.<br />
<br />
<b>The Fry Chronicles </b>is the autobiography of the English actor and writer, Stephen Fry. Specifically, it covers his stint at Cambridge and early years in television. An earlier volume Moab is my Washpot, covers his childhood, including his incarceration for credit card fraud. <br />
<br />
I have always been a huge fan of Fry’s generation of English actors, and specifically British comedy of the eighties and nineties. My first encounter with Fry was through Jeeves and Wooster, which was televised in India in the early nineties. Although my mother, sister and I had too many preconceived notions about Wodehouse and did not think the casting perfect, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie registered in my mind. Over the years, they popped up here and there.<br />
<br />
I first got a taste of Fry’s writing first through twitter and then through a wonderful article on PG Wodehouse written by him, which a colleague shared with me. (Read it here http://www.pgwodehousebooks.com/fry.htm). But Fry has actually been writing as long as he has been acting. His style is humorous, ironic and self-deprecating. I found myself wishing to write down quotes and phrases in a way I have not since my teenage years. <br />
<br />
<b>The Fry Chronicles </b>seem to document the actor’s ‘normal years’ – the phase that came between imprisonment at 17 and cocaine addiction/experimentation at 30. The portions set in Cambridge are fabulous. I have always been an anglophile, with an unabashed admiration of an Oxbridge education. Fry spends more time at various theater performances – on stage and as a spectator than at classes – but he brings alive the history, tradition and exclusivity of these ancient institutions, particularly their special interest clubs. His nostalgic descriptions of the wonder and beauty of the May Ball and May Bumps especially, capture a beautiful moment in time and the whimsical, ephemeral nature of youth. You wish you had been around at that particular time, meeting those particular people, living those particular experiences. <br />
<br />
Fry makes frequent apologies for the exclusive and often outdated traditions of these places, without once failing to show us their magic and mystery. He makes no bones about his love of Wilde (whom he played in a biopic which I have always wished to see), Wodehouse and Sherlock Holmes, and the age and manners they represent. In a lesser man, these loves may reek of pomposity, but Fry is funny and self-aware and doesn’t take himself too seriously. Whenever he gets too introspective, he lightens the mood with a casually tossed remark such as “Goodness Stephen, who rattled your cage?”<br />
<br />
It is also an absolute delight to bump into a hundred familiar characters – Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Douglas Adams, Tony Slattery (it took me a while to place him), Graham Norton, Richard Curtis and more. <br />
<br />
More than anything else, I loved the hopeful, kind and gentlemanly tone of the whole book. In a world where sensationalism reigns, it is heartening to see a celebrity making no excuses for bad behavior, for erring - especially knowing that he is not playing to the galleries in doing so, but expressing genuine regret. Fry’s demons are very real, and this is evident from the way he resists aggrandising his mental agonies. Before you allow yourself to say “What does he have to complain about?” Fry takes the words out of your mouth. <br />
<br />
The sheer wealth of intelligence in the book, the pleasure of not being talked down to, makes me want to take a crack at the classics again – Shakespeare perhaps? It’s like Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt in ‘As Good as it Gets’, “You make me want to be a better man”. The Fry Chronicles makes me want to be a better writer and better travelled – or at the very least, better read!!<br />
shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-41877474190959973332012-10-18T00:48:00.003-07:002012-10-18T00:49:22.523-07:00The New Yorker on Hilary Mantel's winhttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/10/on-hilary-mantels-booker-win.htmlshaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-68903306713329632782012-08-22T03:47:00.001-07:002012-08-22T03:48:51.325-07:00The Paris Wife - Paula McClainA conversation with a really close friend today made me think of The Paris Wife. How do you know when a marriage is over? This friend, who recently walked out of her marriage after 15 years, the last several abusive, without so much as a rupee to her name, has come under flak from friends and family for putting up with it so long. While I’m thrilled to see that attitudes have changed, and that no one advocates living with abuse any longer, I also think she deserves a break.<br />
<br />
As does Hadley Richardson. <b>The Paris Wif</b>e is the story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, the woman who put her faith in him before the world did. The New York Times review, and the wonderful new friend who lent me the book, were both scathing of Hadley’s tolerance of ‘Hem’ and for staying on in the marriage longer than necessary. <br />
<br />
I felt rather differently. I completely agreed with Hadley’s decision to leave him, but I’m not surprised that it took her long. (Not that long, by the way, they were married only about 5 years in any case.) But let me start this story from the beginning. <br />
Hadley Richardson was a sensitive, quiet woman in her late 20s, past the first flush of youth, when she met Hemingway, at the start of the 1920s. An injury in her early childhood had meant she led a reclusive, overprotected life, in the shadow of her suffragette mother, and scarred probably even more than she realised, by the suicide of her father. Hemingway, some eight years her junior, swept her off her feet. Eventually, using her money, the couple moved to Paris so that he could devote himself to writing…as all the literati of the time, like Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and F Scott Fitzgerald lived there. <br />
<br />
In theory, this should make for a grand tale. My quibble with the story, is not Hadley’s meekness. What annoys me is that in spite of such fantastic material – a stellar cast of characters, a luminous setting – the story never rises above the ordinary. The writing is far too uninspired, and the characters, are just a series of names dropped, with no real insights. The big names aren’t just exposed to have feet of clay (which still would make a good story) but are rather small, commonplace people. <br />
What I did like is how beautifully the squalor and poverty of an artist’s life is portrayed. It, definitely, is not for the fainthearted. Hemingway’s neuroses, ego and changing personality are nicely done too. I’ve never been much of a fan of the writer, even though I’ve struggled with A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and To Have and Have Not, so I was not approaching The Paris Wife with anything close to reverence. At the end of it, of course, I was not a fan of the man either. I found his combination of puritanism, self indulgence, pig-headedness and licentiousness repelling. <br />
<br />
Hadley I feel much kinder towards. Definitely a misfit in the hard glitter and shallowness of the parisien life, her essential niceness comes through. So what if she seems retrogressive? From our 21st century perspective, it is easy to be judgemental. Hadley, I believe, was a woman of her time, even as her female contemporaries were trying to be progressive. She wasn’t glamorous, she wasn’t creative, but she was solid. I can understand her staying. I can understand her thinking things would improve. I can understand her trusting someone, and then being shocked at betrayal. I can understand her wanting to believe that her love was true, and that it would triumph. I can understand her inability to see what was happening. I can understand her paralysis when faced with life changing choices. When you trust someone that much, you never imagine, for a moment, that they have changed; moved away. <br />
<br />
In fact, as I went on, I was more surprised that Hadley did walk away when she did, rather than stay on or agree to any humiliating arrangement that Hem had in mind (a typical male, he wanted it all, his wife Hadley and his lover Pauline, also in typical male fashion, he didn’t want to be the villain). For women, sometimes will do anything for love, or the distant, highly seductive promise of better times. <br />
<br />
Knowing when to leave is not easy. I would like to believe that there is however, a sign, a breaking point, which most sensible people do not ignore. I’m glad Hadley didn’t, I am relieved my friend didn’t. <br />
shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-48636072541399070182012-08-08T01:57:00.002-07:002012-08-08T03:54:15.536-07:00Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary MantelI just finished Bring Up The Bodies last night, and I really don’t know what I should think of it. I did not feel the unalloyed pleasure in reading it that I did with Wolf Hall. Maybe it suffers from the middle child syndrome, and fails to have the novelty of the first part or the finality of the last. This is no reflection on Hilary Mantel’s writing, which is just as compelling in this volume. <br />
<br />
Most of my discomfort was with the changing or emerging character of the protagonist, Thomas Cromwell. In Wolf Hall, I didn’t expect to like him, but I found myself drawn to his character. In Thomas Cromwell, Hilary Mantel made efficiency sexy. His tenderness for his family, his camaraderie with the boys at Austin Friars, his adeptness at handling disparate personalities, and his sense of humour were endearing. There was integrity in everything he did, that made you believe that history had Cromwell’s measure wrong. <br />
<br />
In Bring Up The Bodies however, I find Cromwell slipping from my grasp. If I was puzzled as to his motivations in Wolf Hall, I am more so now. What compels him to bring down Anne and her so-called lovers? Does he really believe they are guilty? If not, is he driven solely by vengeance over Wolsey’s death? An instinct for self-preservation brought on by Anne’s growing power? Or a desire to do the King’s will at all costs? The book suggests all three, but it is hard to reconcile this Cromwell with the one of Wolf Hall. I don’t want to believe that he was an opportunist, but perhaps it is a measure of his good sense and ability that he is one. It is easy to forget that times were different, and survival required sharper wits and less reliance on law. <br />
<br />
All the same, these inconsistencies make Cromwell’s personality that much more complex. He is nearly as inscrutable to us, as he was to his contemporaries. Henry emerges as peevish and silly, Anne self destructive and arrogant. Yet in her final days, she arouses our sympathy. I had to remind myself of the number of lives she herself destroyed, and would no doubt have continued to, had she lived. <br />
<br />
Reading of Anne’s destruction also fills me with foreboding, because I do know what is coming at the end of the last volume. There are times, fleeting moments, when the usually surefooted Cromwell seems hesitant, even fearful. <br />
<br />
Is Cromwell, in some recess of his mind, beginning to know it too?shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-43409109484764267932012-03-27T05:25:00.003-07:002012-04-18T01:14:50.058-07:00Charlotte Gray - Sebastian FaulksOver the past few months, I’ve been quietly catching up on my reading. I re-read Sea of Poppies, in preparation for reading <span style="font-weight:bold;">River of Smoke</span>. River of Smoke is a very different animal from its predecessor, but it is an amazing book too. There are fewer characters and fewer threads. A long time ago when I was a quizzer – not a very good one – I went through a brief period where I stopped reading for pleasure, and more for acquiring knowledge. I tried memorizing opening lines of books, quotable bits, minor characters’ names – as these were the kinds of questions that were asked frequently at quizzes. It rather destroyed my pleasure in reading, and I had to consciously stop myself from doing so. I don’t enjoy reading non-fiction, so any knowledge I have acquired has come as a by product of my reading for pleasure. That was one of the best things about River of Smoke. I knew virtually nothing about the age or its politics, while now I understand a lot more about it, I really didn’t have to labour very hard to do so. I look forward very much to the third part in the trilogy. <br /><br />I also read <span style="font-weight:bold;">Haruki Murakami</span>’s <span style="font-weight:bold;">Norwegian Wood</span>, one of the most lyrical and haunting stories I have read in a long time. I believe it is somewhat autobiographical and the least characteristic of Murakami’s novels, as there is nothing remotely surrealistic or non-linear about it. This time at the library I toyed with the idea of picking up another Murakami but then put it off for later. <br /><br />What I did pick up was Sebastian Faulks’ World War II novel, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Charlotte Grey</span>. Really, it seemed to have been written with me in mind, the sucker that I am for this particular time in history. One of my favourite popular authors is Ken Follet, whose writing is always well crafted. I adore his WWII novels especially, such as The Eye of The Needle, Jackdaws, Hornet Flight and The Key to Rebecca . These are fast paced and full of nail biting excitement, and decent characterization. Of course, they are popular fiction, and do have all the limitations of that genre. <br /><br />According to Wikipedia, Charlotte Gray is one of three novels written by Sebastian Faulks, set in wartime France. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Birdsong</span> is set in WWI, and <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Girl at the Lion d’Or</span> is set in the period before WWII. <br /><br />Charlotte Gray is the story of a young Scots woman who goes to London at the height of the war (1942) and because of her knowledge of French, is slowly co-opted into the secret service as a courier. Her task is to accompany an agent in to France. Charlotte has an ulterior motive in going, her airman lover has been shot down in France and she hopes to find him. When she is due to return to England, she opts to stay back in the little French town Lavaurette, where her contact, Julien Levade, lives. She becomes, for a time, his father, Levade’s housekeeper. <br /><br />Even though the book’s summary at the back makes it sound that the story is all about Charlotte’s search for Peter, her lover, it actually isn’t so. In fact, when they do reunite at the end, it isn’t because of any machinations of hers. Her search for him, in fact is mostly fruitless and it is just chance and luck that he escapes. It may have been the motivation for her staying on in France, but her stay goes on to mean much more than that. <br /><br />What the book really does is offer an insight into the French collusion with Nazi occupation. With our benefit of hindsight, it is easy for us to see that the colluders were in fact making the wrong choices, but at the time, it was simply a matter of aligning with the power that seemed the stronger at the time, with the hope of being rewarded with power and prestige in a “new Europe”. And the English, of course were always their traditional enemies. As characters in the book say, Churchill was seen to be prolonging the war for his own ends, and it was believed that the English were refusing to bow to the inevitable. Charlotte Gray does a wonderful job of putting things in their historical context. When the book draws to its close, the allies have begun to regain ground and the mood has changed. <br /><br />Some of the most luminous exchanges in the book are between Charlotte and Levade, the father. A man who is thoroughly imperfect, yet very perceptive. Julien the son, is endearing, and there are moments when you do wish that it was him Charlotte loved (I believe the movie version has it that way). But only for a fleeting second, because more than liking Peter Gregory, you fall in love with Charlotte’s intense love of him, and wish to hold on to the belief that such love does, and will, conquer all. <br /><br />The Jewish question is also beginning to rear its ugly head in the book. Two little Jewish boys, Andre and Jacob, as French as can be, lose their parents who are amongst the early deportees. Julien Levade, himself a part Jew, hides them and provides for them. The little boys almost never take centrestage in the story, except for one harrowing chapter, which is perhaps the most heartbreaking in the entire book, and the one that stayed with me the longest. I defy anyone to read about the little boys’ fate with a dry eye. <br /><br />For a novel about war and spies, the book is curiously lacking in tension, the feeling of imminent danger. You almost never fear that Charlotte will be caught. But then, it is never intended to be a spy novel in the conventional sense. There is a big denouement though, when all things come to a head, when Levade is denounced as a Jew and deported, and Charlotte is threatened with exposure. <br /><br />As a child when I read my commando comics and concentration camp stories, I was horrified and saddened, but in a more abstract way. The Diary of Anne Frank, which I have read several times over, affected me deeply, but still on an impersonal level. But as one grows older, and struggles in a real way with a world that is often strange and arbitrary and seemingly full of random tragedy, these characters’ struggles begin to be your own. Charlotte Gray may be a work of fiction, but to me it felt very real.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-77374473879171887102011-07-27T02:32:00.001-07:002013-07-15T21:27:08.137-07:00The BBC ListEveryone knows this list by now..how the BBC says most people wouldve read only 6 of these. I have already done this over on Facebook, but actually, its rightful home should be a blog about books! So here goes. <br />
<br />
1<span style="font-weight:bold;">. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen</span><br />
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee</span><br />
6. The Bible<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte</span><br />
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell<br />
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy</span><br />
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller<br />
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier</span><br />
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger<br />
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger</span><br />
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell<br />
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald</span><br />
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens<br />
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams<br />
26. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky</span><br />
27. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck<br />
28. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll<br />
29. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">30. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy<br />
31. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens</span><br />
32. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">33. Emma -Jane Austen<br />
34. Persuasion – Jane Austen</span><br />
35. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">36. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini</span><br />
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">38. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden</span><br />
39. Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne<br />
40. Animal Farm – George Orwell<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">41. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown</span><br />
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">44. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins<br />
45. <b>Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery</b></span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">46. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy</span><br />
47. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood<br />
48. Lord of the Flies – William Golding<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">49. Atonement – Ian McEwan<br />
50. Life of Pi – Yann Martel</span><br />
51. Dune – Frank Herbert<br />
52. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">53. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">54. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth </span><br />
55. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">56. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens<br />
57. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon</span><br />
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
60. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">61. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov</span><br />
62. The Secret History – Donna Tartt<br />
63. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">64. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas</span><br />
65. On The Road – Jack Kerouac<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">66. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy</span><br />
67. <b>Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding<br />
</b><span style="font-weight:bold;">68. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie<br />
69. Moby Dick – Herman Melville</span><br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">70. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens<br />
71.<span style="font-weight:bold;"> Dracula – Bram Stoker</span><br />
72. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett</span><br />
73. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson<br />
74. Ulysses – James Joyce<br />
75. The Inferno – Dante<br />
76. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">77. Germinal – Emile Zola<br />
78. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray</span><br />
79. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Possession – AS Byatt</span><br />
80. A<span style="font-weight:bold;"> Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens</span></span><br />
<b>81. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell<br />
</b>82. The Color Purple – Alice Walker<br />
83. <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro</span><br />
84. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert<br />
85. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry<br />
86. <b>Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White<br />
</b>87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle<br />
89. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton</span><br />
90. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad<br />
91. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery<br />
92. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks<br />
93. Watership Down – Richard Adams<br />
94. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">95. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute</span><br />
96. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas<br />
<b>97. Hamlet – William Shakespeare<br />
</b>99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl<br />
<span style="font-weight:bold;">100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo</span><br />
<br />
Score 47/100<br />
<br />
Am currently reading the unabridged Les Miserables, but I have a long way to go to make a dent on this list. Not only that, I have some very lightweight books on the list, like Memoirs of a Geisha, and A Town Called Alice. Marquez, Steinbeck and Joyce are shameful omissions. I don't I will ever read think Steinbeck and Joyce - well maybe Joyce - I have no appetite for such things now. But Marquez, yes I will try. I've abandoned some on this list (like The Wind in The Willows) and some, like Moby Dick I have read only the abridged version. So not definitive at all.<br />
<br />
Updated on April 16th 2012 - 50/100<br />
Updated on November 5 2012 - 53/100<br />
Updated on July 16 2012 - 55/100shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-26322566933918812442011-07-25T23:53:00.000-07:002011-07-25T23:57:44.541-07:00Same Old StoryThe script doesn't quite change. Hendrix, Morrison, Joplin, Cobain...Winehouse. Dead at 27.<br /><br />In my misspent youth, my eyes would've filled at genius, hacked down at its prime.<br /><br />Now, mostly, I shake my head at addiction, self indulgence: the sheer futile tragedy that talent seems to bring in its wake. <br /><br />What price credibility? What price immortality?shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-57082658212488250982011-07-07T22:20:00.000-07:002011-07-08T05:07:09.075-07:00Read and look good - Ankita's giveawayMy young friend, Ankita Chaturvedi, is organising a giveaway to celebrate six months of completion of her blog. Already her followers run to numbers I can only dream of. She's got some amazing brands as part of the giveaway - MAC, Bourjois and Avon. So go over there now and read all about it <a href="http://corallista.com/2011/07/07/corallista-6-months-giveaway-mac-bourjois-and-avon-goodies-to-be-won/">here</a>shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-71122332626400028272011-06-21T04:04:00.000-07:002011-06-21T04:14:21.226-07:00"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought"That, surely, must be the charm of Angela’s Ashes, which I finally read this past week. It made me think of national stereotypes, especially with regard to Ireland – the music, the poverty, the Catholicism, the alcoholism. Everything Irish that I’ve read in the past two decades have flirted with one, or in the case of Angela’s Ashes, all these themes. Frank McCourt says it best in the beginning “The happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests, bullying schoolmasters; the English and all the terrible things they did to us for 800 long years." This perhaps is the only bit of commentary he provides in the book; the rest is just narrative where you read between the lines to understand what his feelings were. <br /><br />I am not going to review Angela’s Ashes here, since the book is quite well known. Instead, let me set down a few thoughts I’ve had in the few days since I finished it… let me, as it were, live up to the title of this blog and drift through this, and a few other books. <br /><br />My introduction to Irish literature was through Roddy Doyle. I’m struck by how similar his books are to McCourt’s. Similar in spirit if not content. Angela’s Ashes may be a memoir, but to me it feels fantastic. Conversely, Roddy Doyle’s books may be fiction, but they feel real to me. Such is the power of both authors’ writing. Maeve Binchy, another favourite Irish writer, is a gentler soul, with less searing tales, yet the sorrow, the poverty, the narrowness, exist in her stories too, especially the earlier tales set in a pre-boom Ireland. <br /><br />But why with all this sadness and doom have the Irish never earned a reputation for dourness like their fellow Celts across the sea, the Scots? I suspect it is the music. The triumphant beats and haunting melodies of an Irish jig (best known thanks to the kitschy yet fabulous Corrs) stand in stark contrast to the mournful wail of the pipes. <br /><br />Reading an Irish novel means having the words sing off the page. Even the fast paced dialogue in a typical Roddy Doyle novel is pure music, with its rhythmic cadences and its inverted phrasing – I can hear the soft burring r’s and the stretched out vowels in my head as I read. Angela’s Ashes has the same lyrical quality, with no obvious effort.. To be Irish is to be musical, I suppose. <br /><br />A word on the alcoholism, supposedly the Irish Curse. Perhaps my first brush with alcoholism in literature is through Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, a very poignant tale of a woman at the receiving end of her husband’s abuse. In Angela’s Ashes, it shapes the destiny of the family. It denies them even the very basics of life. If Malachy McCourt Sr. were just able to stay sober and support his family, the tenor of this tale would be very different. Alcoholism they say, is a “family disease” because it brings everyone down. But this of course is nothing new – attend any AA meeting and you are bound to hear similar stories of degradation, and it is to McCourt’s credit that he brings such freshness and vigour to it… I think Angela’s Ashes must be required reading for every recovering alcoholic. <br /><br />All in all, heart-wrenchingly good, to paraphrase Shelley rather badly.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-57261229175433682792011-05-31T04:50:00.000-07:002011-05-31T04:53:25.927-07:00The Matisse Stories - AS Byatt<span style="font-style:italic;">At the outset, apologies if the writing is bad – I haven’t written much in a while and am rusty. </span><br /><br />It has been a while since I reviewed anything here. I have been reading though, and some of the books I read have been pretty good. I adored <span style="font-weight:bold;">Nick Hornby</span>. I enjoyed, but was less impressed by, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Stieg Larsson</span>. I thought briefly about reviewing the trilogy here, but figured there were enough opinions out there about it. To the OPEN reviewer who stated it was better than Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, I would like to say: NOT!<br /><br />I’ve finally felt like setting down my thoughts on a book after reading AS Byatt’s <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Matisse Stories</span>. While I consider myself slightly knowledgeable about art, (I can at least tell a Monet from a Manet) beyond knowing that Henri Matisse was a 20th century painter, I knew nothing about him. I guess that helped because it helped me approach these stories with no preconceived notions whatsoever. <br /><br />The Matisse Stories is a collection of 3 short stories, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Medusa’s Ankles, Art Work</span> and <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Chinese Lobster.</span> Matisse is a motif in all these stories. In the first, a salon owner hangs a Matisse painting in his shop, because it goes with his décor. In the second, a struggling artist venerates Matisse and celebrates colour just as the Frenchman does, and in the third an art professor is horrified by a feminist student’s misunderstanding and desecration of Matisse’s works. <br /><br />This, of course is oversimplification on my part. I really don’t know what Byatt intended, but these very readable stories are also studies of people in various stages of quiet desperation, of what a wearying business life really is. In two of the stories (Medusa’s Ankles, The Chinese Lobster) aging is a subtext, while both Art Work and The Chinese Lobster deal with loss of brilliance, of promising futures unrealised. Matisse’s importance in the book increases with each subsequent story: he is just a presence in the first story, an inspiration in the second, and the reason in the third. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Medusa’s Ankles</span> has a middle aged lady drawn to a salon because it features “Rosy Nude” – she becomes a regular there over the years, striking up a sort of comfortable relationship with the owner with his easy patter and hairdressing skills. He talks, she listens, until one day one of his remarks triggers an unexpected outburst from her. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Art Work</span>, the second story, has particular meaning for me, and will for all of us who think of ourselves as creative. (I may be a commercial writer, but I do see advertising as a creative art!). Debbie, the protagonist, is the wife of a struggling artist whose ‘big opportunity’ seems increasingly unlikely to come to pass. Debbie good humouredly runs the home with help from the capable Mrs Brown, pays the bills and manages the show, setting aside her own dreams so that her husband, ostensibly the more creative, can have his space and freedom to work well. It is the kind of sacrifice a hundred women make, and there is no hint of the martyr in Debbie, because quite simply, she ‘loves Robin’. Robin, on the other hand is, while not unsympathetically drawn, not a particularly attractive character - rather querulous and indulged. He is undeniably talented but his career never takes off. Everyone admits he ‘has something’ but it is perhaps not enough. Robin’s work is the kind not everyone will ‘get’ but nor is it the kind of genius that can be understood only in retrospect, like Van Gogh’s. It reminded me that talent is no guarantee for success really. I know so many ambitious and deserving people who somehow never seem to make it, and turn bitter in the process. It also made me think of how men are so much more ill-equipped to deal with failure and “smallness”. I will be the first to admit that men have an ability to see the larger picture in a way women sometimes don’t. On the other hand, women are so much better at the art of living – of learning to make-do, to adjust, to juggle, to accept, to go with the flow, what have you… and Byatt has captured that beautifully here. I loved the story, even without the nice little twist at the end. <br /><br />The third story, <span style="font-weight:bold;">The Chinese Lantern</span> is perhaps the easiest read of the three, motivations up front and quite crystal clear. Two academics meet at a Chinese Restaurant to discuss the fate of a student, and the meeting gives insights into the personality of both. I wonder how much of Byatt herself is there is in the female character, Gerda Himmelblau. <br /><br />Readers of this blog (yes, the two of you) will know how much I adored AS Byatt’s Possession. The Game, while enjoyable, was just not in the same league. But The Matisse Stories is a nice little collection, a gift box of exotic truffles, each with a nice squishy flavoured filling. Easily devoured, but not so easily forgotten.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-21494251486528541102011-04-01T05:14:00.000-07:002011-04-01T05:17:10.447-07:00Book TagSaw this tag on a make up blog (!) http://ladylavendersays.blogspot.com/ and just had to do it. Hope this is not booooring...<br /><br />Favourite childhood book?<br />All the Enid Blytons, especially Five Findouters and the school series. Tintin. In fact my dad made up a song which went – “Shaila Tintin devotee”.<br /><br />What are you reading right now?<br />Nothing. Just finished Immortals of Meluha. Waiting for my next read, don’t know where it will come from. <br /><br />Bad book habit?<br />I fold down the corner of the page to mark my place. I know. Disgusting. <br /><br />Do you have an e-reader?<br />No. I’d rather ruin my eyes the conventional way. <br /><br />Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once?<br />One at a time. Though sometimes I keep a work related book at work. <br /><br />Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?<br />No. At the outset I made it clear that I read for pleasure only, and that I didn’t want any kind of competitive pressure.<br /><br />Least favourite book you read this year (so far)?<br />Nothing. Generally not to enamoured of the sloppy “popular” Indian writing genre <br /><br />Favourite book you’ve read this year?<br />Hmmm… nothing so far.<br /><br /><br />How often do you read out of your comfort zone?<br />I’m 34 now, so I am rather entrenched in my comfort zone. I like the books I read to be well written <br /><br />What is your reading comfort zone?<br />I like well written books, don’t want to sound too pretentious, but slightly serious writing that makes you think. That said, I hate having to decode totally abstract writing. Love anything with a historic setting too… and biographies. Poetry a rare once in a while. <br /><br />Can you read on the bus?<br />Never. The train yes. <br /><br />Favourite place to read?<br />At home. Increasingly, with tea and munchies on hand, feet up on the table. <br /><br />What is your policy on book lending?<br />I do lend to close friends. No one seems to read much these days anyway. <br /><br />Do you ever dog-ear books?<br />yeah… Im trying to break the habit though. <br /><br />Do you ever write in the margins of your books?<br />No. But my great grand-dad did, he underlined words too. It feels kinda nice to see it now. <br /><br />Not even with text books?<br />Yes. They were underlined with yellow marker and had doodles of orrefors-style vases, ships and girls (the only things I can draw) all over them. While studying Caesar and Cleopatra, I got thoroughly inspired and scrawled all over it, comparing Shaw’s Caesar to Shakespeare’s. <br /><br />What is your favourite language to read in?<br />English. I’m too slow with other languages. <br /><br />What makes you love a book?<br />Characterization and writing style <br /><br />What will inspire you to recommend a book?<br />If I enjoy it I will. <br /><br />Favourite genre?<br />Hmmmm… tough one….I like most kinds of fiction. I think it is easier to say what I don’t like: Science Fiction, Self Improvement etc <br /><br />Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?)<br />hmmm… this isn’t an exact answer, but I rather regret leaving the existentialists and Joyce so late… and Marquez too. An uncle whom I respect very much told me to read Joyce in my 30s… now that I am there I haven’t the slightest desire to do so!<br /><br />Favourite biography/autobiography?<br />Hmmmm. I liked the one I read recently “The Duchess” <br /><br />Have you ever read a self-help book?<br />I think I have but don’t really enjoy it. I like my life-lessons disguised as fiction. <br /><br />Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)?<br />Not this year particularly. I read a lot, and sometimes you get jaded. You may enjoy a book, but inspiration is a different story. If I look back on the past decade, I would say without hesitation that Harry Potter brought magic back into my life! <br /><br />Favourite reading snack?<br />Something crunchy. Used to be pickle once upon a time. <br /><br />Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience<br />Maybe Stieg Larsson – but I cant say it ruined it. <br /><br />How often do you agree with critics about a book?<br />I do read reviews – that is how I find most books – sometimes on salon.com. Then again, I find that my tastes are more lowbrow than most critics so I am easily pleased. <br /><br />How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?<br />It shouldn’t be a personal attack. <br /><br />If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose?<br />Hmmm. Haven’t thought about it. <br /><br />Most intimidating book you’ve ever read?<br />Can’t think of any. I have done a fair bit of serious reading, so I am ready to grapple with most things. <br /><br />Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin?<br />I wouldn’t see it as intimidation, but I’ve stayed away from Russian novels except for the odd Tolstoy or Doestovesky, cos there are far too many characters! And the Russian system of nomenclature can be pretty confusing! <br /><br />Favourite Poet(s)?<br />Byron… loved all the romantic poets in my teens. Shakespeare’s sonnets. Some Whitman, Dylan Thomas and Auden. I wish I could say there was one poet other than Byron whose entire oeuvre I am familiar with, but there isn’t. <br /><br />Favourite fictional character(s)?<br />Hmm Harry Potter, Jo March, Margaret Schlegel, Elizabeth Bennett, Scout Finch <br /><br />Favourite fictional villain? <br />Voldemort<br /><br />Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation?<br />I tend not to take books on vacation <br /><br />The longest I’ve gone without reading<br />Probably when I had my son, two small babies to look after. <br /><br />Name a book that you could/would not finish-<br />Very seldom leave a book half way. I think the last one was Orhan Pamuk’s “My Name Is Red”. Just couldn’t connect with it. <br /><br />What distracts you easily when you’re reading?<br />TV. I’m that pedestrian <br /><br />Favourite film adaptation of a novel?<br />A very long engagement (starring Audrey Tatou) in French. It got the letter and the spirit of the book down.<br /><br />Most disappointing film adaptation?<br />The Kiera Knightly P & P. Elizabeth Bennet is NOT a giggly miss. BBC’s 6 part mini series was fabulous. <br /><br />The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time?<br />I don’t buy too many books. But at one point, the local library survived only cos of me. <br /><br />How often do you skim a book before reading it?<br />If it is an Agatha Christie, I am not above turning to the last page. Not otherwise though. <br /><br />What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?<br />This usually happens with non-fiction. Also I have less patience now that I am older. I can’t read those Hardies ever again! <br /><br />Do you like to keep your books organized?<br />Yes, but I don’t own too many books. <br /><br />Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them?<br />All the books I own are books I have already read and enjoyed and know for certain I will re-read. So they are treasured. <br /><br />Are there any books you’ve been avoiding?<br />I have a copy of Salman Rushie’s Shame at home. I haven’t felt the slightest need to read it. <br /><br />Name a book that made you angry –<br />I don’t know if this counts, but we have an encyclopaedia set written in the 30s. pre-independence, British publication. The chapter on India made my blood boil. It was so pro-British and all “white man’s burden” like. <br /><br />A book you didn’t expect to like but did?<br />The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga. Rather hack-y and playing to stereotypes, but it had its moments too. <br /><br />A book that you expected to like but didn’t?<br />The last Jeffrey Archer collection of short stories “And thereby hangs a tale”. Archer is one of the few pulp fiction writers whose craft is decent, but his last few novels were trash. I think he redeems himself with this. <br /><br />Favourite guilt-free, pleasure reading?<br />Romance novels, preferably in a period setting. Looove. <br /><br />Books I love or “the ones I can read again and again and again and…..”<br />All my favourites. Jane Austens, especially P & P and Persuasion, Harry Potter series, Georgette Heyer, Sherlock Holmes Tintins, Asterix comics, To kill a mockingbird… there are books I have read 6-7 times <br /><br />Books I love to hate: <br />Indian lite fiction – way too light. Not too fond of chick-lit, they make better movies than books. Or new-agey books which tell you to “connect with your inner self”. <br /><br />Books that left me underwhelmed:<br />Some of the booker winners maybe.<br /><br />I encourage all you bibliophiles to do this tag. If you do, let me know in the comments.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-1474668381028931902010-10-22T02:20:00.000-07:002010-10-22T02:25:04.554-07:00My reading wish listThis is what I am dying to read: <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Master of Hestiviken</span> <span style="font-weight:bold;">tetralogy </span>and/or the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Kristin Lavransdatter Trilogy</span> by <span style="font-weight:bold;">Sigrid Undset</span> - Have read one (or was it two?) of these books set in medieval Norway, when I was 15. Would dearly love to read both the entire series from the beginning. Undset won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928. <br />Indiaplaza has a couple of books from the latter series. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Oathsworn Series</span> by Robert Low (read and reviewed the first one, The Whale Road on this blog here) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Night Watch by Sarah Waters</span> – a story set in WWII England – need I say more? (Rs.233 on Indiaplaza) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller</span> – Just to see what all the hype is about. <br />(Rs.189 on Indiaplaza)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant</span> - A book set in Renaissance Italy. I’m not sure if its trash fiction aspiring to be highbrow or not, but it seems worth a read. (Rs.254 on Indiaplaza) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lord Byron’s Novel – The Evening Land by John Crowley</span> - I adore Byron, and I love books that employ narrative techniques that are slightly different. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Twilight by Katherine Mosby</span> – No, no, not that one! This Twilight is pegged as one woman’s tale of awakening and is set, from what I can tell, in pre WWII Paris <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry</span> – A story set in Ireland, one with buried secrets from the past - the sort of thing which is right up my alley (Rs.526 on Indiaplaza) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Dark Lantern by Gerri Brightwell</span> – This one traces the life of an orphan girl in turn-of-the-nineteenth-century England and apparently “exposes the lies, deceptions, hypocrisy, inequitable class system, and restrictive gender roles in nineteenth century British society” Whew! I just love period fiction, that is all. (Rs.524 on Indiaplaza) <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland</span> – A fictional biography of Louise de la Valliere, mistress of Le Roi Soleil or Louis IV<br />(Rs.1245 on Indiaplaza) <br /><br />There does seem to be a common theme running through these books, doesn’t it? None of them are set in contemporary times! <br /><br />Also looking forward to reading Stieg Larsson, Roddy Doyle's latest, and much more!shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-15295616182967384562010-09-10T00:25:00.000-07:002010-09-10T00:57:51.062-07:00Wolf Hall - Hilary MantelPicked up this book to read over the Onam holidays. The 2009 Booker winner, this book is quite a departure from the work they usually award the prize to. For one thing, it is historical fiction. For another, it uses very few literary devices. The one that it does use is present tense, consistently. And it truly helps to define the tone of the book and its subject, Thomas Cromwell. <br /><br />I don't know if it's a factor crucial to understanding and enjoying the book, but I am fortunate to love and know quite a bit about Tudor history. However Cromwell himself is a shadowy figure. As a teen, I read Jean Plaidy's account of Anne Boleyn's life and although subsequent reading has led me to realise that she was no saint or martyr as portrayed by that book, my views are still sufficiently coloured by it. Anne is shown to be quite scheming, and I think contemporary writing increasingly sees her as such. <br /><br />Wolf Hall, of course, is sympathetic to Cromwell, who is perhaps among the most reviled people in history. Here, he is shown as more capable and clever than wily and machiavellian. A spin doctor. A wheeler dealer. A man who has lost a great deal, but lands on his feet. A man who instinctively understands how not to misstep.<br /><br />Much as I enjoyed the characterisation, which made me adjust my views on Cromwell quite a bit, I was always a little mystified as to his motivations. While not quite admiring Anne Boleyn, he assists in obtaining the divorce. Mantel's Cromwell doesn't seem the type to look out for the main chance or feather his nest, so why undertake these tasks which he didn't really believe in? <br /><br />There is a wealth of secondary characters in the book. The people at Austin Friars, particularly are engaging, especially the young men around Cromwell and their banter. Henry the Eight is less the tyrant of the tower and more the 'glorious Prince Hal'. But then again, he is yet to begin chopping off his wives' heads when the book ends, just before the rise of Jane Seymour. Anne is sharp and admirable, but not quite lovable (which is perhaps accurate).<br /><br />Wolf Hall is vigorous, its energy quite worthy of its indefatigable subject. Crisp and spare in spite of its not-so-small size - some 600 odd pages - it goes by at a clipping pace.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-52089133767254029832010-08-05T04:56:00.000-07:002010-08-05T04:57:45.956-07:00The originalI am amazed that I haven’t yet waxed poetic about Georgette Heyer on this blog. It’s not snobbery, because I have no qualms admitting to anyone that she is one of my favourite authors, critically acclaimed or not. <br /><br />My first Georgette Heyer was Lady of Quality, a book I read when I was about 12 or 13. My mother and sister were most disparaging, but I was fortunate that I had a great aunt who loved her books. To anyone who dismisses them as mere romance fiction, I would like to humbly say that they are a lot more. They are romances alright, but not particularly romantic. Quite realistic in fact, with characters, who even if they conformed to type, were still well-drawn. I have read loads of shoddy historical fiction and regency rip offs – Mary Balogh etc and even M & B’s own legacy of love series. Forget actual anachronisms, these books make their characters behave in ways that a Heyer fan would instantly recognise as anachronistic. <br /><br />Heyer wrote both intense romances and the light-hearted ones. It’s hard to say which I enjoy more: the frothy yet meaningful romps or serious ones with the ever persistent vein of humour. <br /><br />My favourites undoubtedly are <span style="font-weight:bold;">Friday’s Child, False Colours, Cotillion, Devil’s Cub, Venetia, Lady of Quality</span>… although I have enjoyed all and most many times over. <br /><br />But what makes me bring up Heyer now, two decades after I first read her? I guess I always underestimated the pleasure she brought me. Or in what esteem I, a so called serious reader, hold her. I recently introduced her to a friend via Friday’s Child, but she hasn’t enjoyed the subsequent Heyers she picked up as much – although those were the admittedly less enjoyable ones like April Lady and An Infamous Army. I am deeply tempted to force her to read my favourite Heyers, and to say ‘but she is credited with inventing the historical romance genre’ as though it would validate her! I am surprised at myself, really.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-54936470473476520612010-06-08T03:14:00.000-07:002010-06-08T03:30:09.461-07:00Sorry...cheating :)Have nothing new to write or review, so am enclosing a few links to book reviews done sometime in 2004, on a website called mouthshut.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">On favourite kiddie books:</span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Favourite_Books_Of_Childhood-48322-1.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Worth Winning - Dan Lewandowski </span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Worth_Winning_-_Dan_Lewandowski-50732-1.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The World According to Garp - John Irving</span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/World_According_To_Garp___The_-_John_Irving-47418-1.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre</span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Vernon_God_Little_-_DBC_Pierre-58432-1.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">White Mughals - William Dalrymple</span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/White_Mughals_-_William_Dalrymple-49522-1.html<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Miss Smillas Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg</span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Smilla%27s_Feeling_For_Snow_-_Peter_Hoeg-48397-1.html<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Howards End - EM Forster</span><br /><br />http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Howards%27_End_-_E.M._Forster-46372-1.html<br /><br />In retrospect, some of the reviews are pretty decent.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-9239383898923171022010-04-21T22:00:00.000-07:002010-04-21T22:15:03.864-07:00Summer vacationA lazy time. No school timetables to follow, no lunches to pack, no homework to supervise. It should follow that I spend these days reading up a storm. <br /><br />Well, yes and no. My domestic help quit in early March, we made our bi-annual trip to the hometown(s), I had my parents over... and it has been a really busy time at work. <br /><br />Now that I have a new servant, I do have a little time. But the way things are in my life this year, I haven't felt in the least compelled to read anything serious. Just something light and escapist, thank you very much. And so I have been reading Agatha Christies back to back. About 10 at a go. They still make for such fresh reading. I always check the copyright before I start one - most of them were written between the 20s and the 40s. I am both amused at some of the quaint notions and shocked by how 'modern' some of it is. The mysteries are always ripping good fun - some I had read before so vaguely remembered the ending to. Also, am not above turning to the last page :) (Sorry!)<br /><br />Unfortunately the kind friend who has been lending them to me has nearly exhausted her collection. She does offer me more serious stuff, which I turn down. Since I have known her under a year, I'm sure she thinks I am one of those low-brow readers. Which I cannot remedy anytime soon. In fact I am going even more lowbrow this week. I have borrowed a stack of M & Bs. The first one quite promisingly, is set in Bordeaux. In return, I plan to introduce her to my preferred light reading: Georgette Heyer.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-89450001578481086712010-03-10T01:30:00.000-08:002010-03-10T01:40:19.041-08:00Into Harvard Business SchoolI remember my first job. Two months of ‘sales’ – ad space and subscriptions – for two small time trade publications that shall remain nameless. Going from company to company, making cold calls. Finally I faked a bad tummy to stop going to work and then resigned. I was 20. <br /><br />When I got into copy, I knew I had found my place. It was a struggle to unlearn everything I had learnt about writing, to write to sell rather than to be self indulgent, to be coherent rather than veiled. But I knew with a certainty that this was what I wanted to do with my life. <br /><br />Still, adapting my writing to the demands of the market didn’t come easy to me. I was, after all, weaned on a diet of Byron and Ibsen, not Drucker or Kotler. But over the years I figured out that it was all about identifying customers’ motivations and speaking to their needs or even <span style="font-style:italic;">creating </span>needs.<br /><br />The best copywriters have an instinctive understanding of people’s needs and motivations and address them. They don’t need an MBA to get into their customers’ psyche. However there have been times when I have acutely felt the disadvantages of not having a business school education. Especially with some clients who take exception to my rather simple, conversational style of writing copy. They, I know would love their brochures dense and heavy, laden with management-speak. <br /><br />All this introspection is the result of the book I am reading at the moment: Philip Delves Broughton’s <span style="font-weight:bold;">‘What they teach you in Harvard Business School.</span>’ The title itself is a reference to Mark McCormacks management tome, What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School. Phillip Delves Broughton was a journalist with 10 years of experience. At some point he felt like he had plateau-d and wanted to explore new opportunities, maybe even think about going into the media business for himself. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What they teach you in Harvard Business School</span> is neither a management self help book, nor is it an out-and-out expose. I would say it is a journal or memoir of the author’s time at the one of the world’s most respected institutions. Many things in it resonated with me. Broughton is not from the world of management or finance; he is no ambitious young turk, he is English – and he uses his outsider’s perspective to great advantage. He is highly and genuinely critical of high-powered, soul-less ambition, meaningless jargon, fatuous networking and yet, manages to see the entire HBS experience with enough wide eyed wonder to convey the excitement of being in its rarified atmosphere. His descriptions of how the HBS system works, as well as interesting titbits on the classes, fellow students and the professors give me a vicarious thrill. The numerous case studies described in the book (again, through Broughton’s fresh eyes, unsullied by any sort of management experience) are absorbing. The descriptions of behind the scenes machinations, hyper competitive peers, and mammon worship are to be expected, but still manage to surprise. And the best thing is he manages to do so without the slightest whiff of a sour grape. <br /><br />Broughton in some ways is very old-school – preferring calculator to spreadsheets. He talks of going to Yahoo and his experience there reminded me of my own reaction to a visit to a top IT firm. After being shown rec room after rec room, cafeterias, outdoor green zones etc, I remarked to my boss that the company clearly didn’t want their employees to have a life. I was dismayed rather than impressed, and that was how Broughton seems to have felt as well. I especially love his consistent bewilderment at the literature that comes out of HBS - from the alumni or the institution itself - indecipherable management gobbledygook.<br /><br />As he grapples with excel and finance, and does poorly in his summer placement interviews, I can’t help but think that’s its okay to be not so good at some things. In this world where multi-tasking is celebrated, it’s important to remember that we each have our strengths, and it's best to play to them.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-64476546641808238592010-02-04T21:33:00.001-08:002010-02-04T21:36:30.255-08:00To AdityaYou asked, <br />will you be my mother in my next life? <br />And I swore to myself <br />I would love you enough <br />for every life hence.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-34453069890186013982009-12-09T22:19:00.001-08:002009-12-09T22:56:57.222-08:00Not just booksI don't know what to do with my spare time at work - yes there is such a thing - other than read. I seldom carry a book to work (that would be going too far), so it's usually mags, advertising books and blogs. There are quite a few blogs I check out and some that I keep returning to. It's usually the author's style of writing or personality that engages me.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />www.gofugyourself.com</span><br />My favourite. This is a fashion blog that lets rip on the fashion foibles of the rich and famous. Jessica's and Heather's posts are cleverly written with loads of puns and pop culture references. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">www.apartmenttherapy.com</span><br />This is one of those blogs many people contribute to, and I stumbled on it just after we bought our new home. The writing is patchy, but the site has fabulous energy, regular, multiple updates, loads of ideas and colourful displays! Have gone to many many interior design blogs and this is by far the best. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">www.brooklynlimestone.com</span><br />This is the blog of Stephanie (Mrs Limestone, as she styles herself) and its all about how she and her husband are redoing their heritage Brooklyn home. Very interesting and inspiring.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">www.makingitlovely.com</span><br />Similar to brooklynlimestone, this blog chronicles Nicole Balch's home reno. It's mostly done by this point, but people new to the blog will have fun with the archives.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />www.swastanimasta.wordpress.com, www.educatedtatya.blogspot.com</span><br />Mitali is the woman behind both these blogs as well as styleperdiem.com and I'd like to think that we are alike, serious enough to appreciate poetry, frivolous enough to love fashion. The first is a regularly updated series of budget fashion finds from Mumbai (it makes me want to shift there immediately), the second is her personal blog written with a mixture of irreverence and gravity. Style per diem is devoted to daily ensembles. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">www.garancedore.fr/en </span><br />French blogger and artist who has become a fashion industry insider thanks to this blog. Loads of eye candy pics, fashion events, and above all Garance's own wry and very Parisien take on things.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">www.the-leaky-cauldron.org</span><br />Is this a blog or a website? Either way its a favourite and the best Harry Potter relates site IM0. I do occasionally check www.danradcliffe.com too.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Honourable mentions</span><br />www.sepiamutiny.com - the desi voice<br />www.compulsiveconfessor.blogspot.com - a very famous blog by a very famous writer - and- dare I say it - overrated. <br />www.zannyleo.blogspot.com - blogger oormila is a writer, painter, musician and mother <br />www.whatay.com - Sidin Vadakut, fraud mallu, blogs on this Domain Maximus<br />www.trickmybrick.blogspot.com - Another home reno blog<br />www.thesartorialist.com - Photographer Scott Schuman's blog<br />www.sandeepmakam.com - ads from around the world. Hasn't been updated in a while.<br />www.designspongeonline.com - A lovely interior decor blog...I never miss the sneak peak section.<br />www.aamirkhan.com - Aamir's humour and intelligence make this a delight to read<br />www.firth.com - A must for all Colin Firth fans<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Blog Modus Operandi</span><br />I check these blogs every 3-4 days usually so that I have enough updates to read. Except Apartment Therapy, which i catch up with every day, since it has at least 5 pages of updates daily.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Favourite websites</span><br />www.salon.com<br />www.people.com<br />www.neimanmarcus.com<br />www.facebook.com<br /><br /><br />and of course, can't live without google or wiki!shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-28536653832897987802009-10-28T23:34:00.000-07:002009-10-28T23:35:54.239-07:00Loving Sea of Poppies! Not as much hard work as I thought... wonder why it took me a few days to get around to starting? Love and hate that it's a trilogy - Im sure to have forgotten this one by the time the next is out.<br /><br />About 2/5ths to go.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-32738412097550163522009-10-23T23:39:00.000-07:002009-10-24T00:04:39.570-07:00from the libraryFinished Amanda Eyre Ward's <span style="font-weight:bold;">how to be lost</span> last night. Frustrated. Not because it wasn't good. Oh no. It was a lovely read, but Ward was crafty enough to stop the story just as it reached its crescendo. We do know what happens, but unfortunately, we aren't invited for the final pay-off. Which is frustrating considering how involved I got over the course of the book. And then to be denied that last reward - very clever indeed. Will definitely be picking up more books by this pretty woman. (yes, of course, I googled her)<br /><br />Am now officially booker updated. If of course, you don't count the large chunks from the 80s, 90s and 00s - well every decade - that i've missed. What I mean is I've at least gotten around to reading the last two. 08 and 07. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Arvind Adiga's The White Tiger </span>and <span style="font-weight:bold;">Anne Enright's The gathering.</span> The White Tiger was an interesting tale at least, marred by two things - I thought the writing pedestrian and the concept very pandering. Although there is a very true and resounding note struck with the incident of the accident - for lack of a better way to put it. Sounds like that would really happen and it's a powerful moment in the book. <br /><br />As I've mentioned elsewhere I love most things Irish. Here the story didnt feel new. Dysfunctional family - gathering at a time of crises - opening a can of worms - the abuse angle... her style however is a redeeming feature and the blurring of fact and fiction is nicely done. How many people, if at all, did the abuser mess with - this little ambiguity tucked away at the end that makes the story a lot more piquant. <br /><br />Now on to <span style="font-weight:bold;">Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh.</span> Read the opening page this morning, and thankfully, it doesnt seem as daunting as I thought.<br /><br />We moved to our own home a few months back. And this has brought me of my biggest pleasures: to sit in my beautiful living room (or so I think) or well lit balcony on a saturday afternoon, with a cup of tea and a bowl of something crunchy, while my children are either asleep or playing below. What bliss.<br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><br />Update: Amanda Eyre Ward has written for Salon. As always, amazed.</span>shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-7865394946330193662009-09-29T00:17:00.000-07:002009-09-29T00:26:39.923-07:00Anita Shreve's The Weight of Water is a disturbing book. Gripping. Well written. But very very disturbing. All books where children die are.shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5611377653499084191.post-69974587391351864182009-09-08T03:39:00.000-07:002009-09-08T03:41:48.155-07:00Thankam's diaryI have been reading my great grandmother’s diary. What a privilege! I have decided to transcribe it on a word file so that it is preserved. The original book has survived 77 years, but it’s always better to have some back-up (a word she would never have understood, incidentally!)<br /><br />Before I transcribe this diary, I would like to set down a few facts, as I recall them. <br /><br />* My great grandmother Tachat Devaki Amma or Thankam as she was better known was born in July 1898 in Chittur. The Tachat family was an old and distinguished one which while no longer in its heyday, commanded enough respect for my great grandmother to contract a respectable alliance with HH Ravi Varma, Prince of Cochin. Thampuran, or T as he is referred to throughout the diary, was 21 years her senior, and it was his second marriage. His first wife was a reputed beauty who bore him at least 2 children, Leila and Murali. Leila, unfortunately also passed away before she hit her teens – when she was 12 I believe. Murali went on to become an IPS officer. He passed away in the 1970s after having lived a full life. <br /><br />At the time that this diary was written, 1932, my great grandmother already had two children, Meenakshi (my grandmother) and Leila (named for her short-lived predecessor). A third daughter, Vatsala was on the way, to be born in December 1932, although there is no direct reference to her pregnancy anywhere in these diary entries. A few clues are to be found when she talks of dizziness, of doing ‘Bhajanam’ and ‘Neysevikkal’ in the 7th month as was customary and conducting a pooja towards the end of her term. In that particular entry she talks about having lost two sons (in infancy) and her hope that she may have a son, but it is couched in general terms with nothing to indicate that she is pregnant. However the diary ends on 14th November and Vatsala was born less than a month later. <br /><br />A daughter, Padmaja and the much longed for son Balagopal, were born in 1935 and 1937 respectively. Thankam’s life was tragically cut short in 1939 because of a botched D & C, a mere two months after her eldest daughter, Meenakshi was married. <br /><br />Thankam restricted herself to a page or less per entry, though every once in a while she would end up writing a few lines extra. Her English is simple and she is obviously completely at home in the language. Her intelligence shines through and her sense of self and strong opinions seem quite remarkable to me accustomed as I am to thinking that women of her day and age were not emancipated. How much of this can be attributed to my great-grandfather I don’t know. He was quite obviously erudite and liberal and it is possible he inculcated a love of reading in her. She speaks of her children but her whole life is not consumed solely by them. She takes a lively interest in the politics of the day and is staunchly patriotic and Gandhian. <br /><br />Freed from the burdens of domestic work that consumes much of our modern life - cooking and cleaning - for which her privileged status accorded her servants aplenty, she was free to make visits, shop at the Swadeshi Stores, go to the club, the temple, palaces of various Thampurans and for music recitals. She speaks of having completed A Passage to India (I wonder if she ever read my favourite Howard’s End). The diary begins when she is in Tinnevally, a judge’s wife, and documents her shift to Thripunitura following her husband’s retirement on being refused an extension. Her personal emotions seldom come through and she seems to be a good and dutiful wife, if a little westernized in her longing for romance!<br /><br />Familiar names show that nearly a century on, our family’s social circle has not changed much: a great deal of it still revolves around names like Ambat, Ambady, Kuttikat and Thottekat. When the diary ends on November 14th , it ends too soon for me. The narrative is unfinished and I wish someone would take it up and tell me what happens to all the brother and sisters she was so concerned with, what books she read, what she thought of Hitler who was yet to rise to power and a hundred other things! Of course I know I can always find out what happens to the players in her story, but I would much rather have heard it from her. <br /><br />Please excuse any factual errors. All of this is hearsay or from half remembered conversations. In transcribing the diary I would dearly love to provide footnotes but do not know if I can trace all the people...shaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01986515358486550392noreply@blogger.com1