Monday 29 August 2016

Book Review: The Optician's Wife by Betsy Reavley




Book: The Optician's Wife

Author: Betsey Reavley 

Pages: 225 

Read on: Kindle via my Kindle Unlimited subscription 

Read in: 2 hours 

Plot Summary: Can you ever really know someone?

When Deborah, an unpopular seventeen-year-old, meets the charming and handsome Larry, he sweeps her off her feet. The trouble is Larry has a secret.

Then a series of grisly murders cast a shadow over everything.

As Deborah’s world starts to fall apart she begins to suspect the man she loves of a terrible betrayal. And to keep their marriage alive, sacrifices must be made.


Things I Liked: 

1. The premise was interesting. It hinted that secrets people kept, even within a relationship as intimate as marriage is. It also hinted at one of the two people- Deb or Larry- being a serial killer or being involved in some way with serial killings. So, I thought this book would be quite interesting.. perhaps some kind of a spin on how the serial killer's spouse knows about his killings but keeps a secret..?! But, pretty early on in the book, I was quite impressed with the direction in which the story was going. 

2. The misdirection in this book gets a C-. It was not very well done or successful. The author tried very hard to include a few red herrings but was really unsuccessful. But I am giving her points for trying! 


Things I Didn't Like: 

1. Poor character development. You, as a reader, can't make any sense of the motivations and drivers underlying any of the characters! Deborah seems like a mousy, timid woman and there is not much context provided about the events that make her who she is. So, it all seems a bit disjointed and weird. 
Larry- I couldn't even begin to understand what the author was trying to do with him! He starts off as someone oddly stalker-ish and I don't think "charming" comes close to his creepy, domineering behaviour with Deborah. 
Deborah's sister- for a while you think she is this breath of sanity in Deborah and Larry's crazy life.. but then she does something bizarre! 

2. The killer was SO OBVIOUS!!! It was obvious from the first kill. I don't know the author would make the killer so obvious, unless she is trolling us and it was totally on purpose. 

3. This is a very pointless book. It is like the story of a spineless, bored, vapid, moral-less woman. Deborah had no personality or spunk and it was really boring to read about such a character. You can't connect with someone like her and the writing is so soul-less that you can't even empathise with her. Really awful! 

Rating: 1/5

Avoid this book like the plague! 

Friday 26 August 2016

Friday Favourites: Owl Bag + Books + Stickers + Fox Necklace & Sunsets.


Hello! 

It's Friday and it's time to list some of my favourite things! 
This Friday has been a rainy little day.
:)))
Yay! 

Let's jump into some of my favourites shall we...



1. Sun-kissed Books! Both by Ruskin Bond.  Both signed. Both I need to read soon!




2. Owl Bag/// She is precious but way too tiny for me to carry out and about as a bag, so I use her to carry jewellery when I travel. 


3. Mr. Fox//// A cutie to boot! I got him from Claire's. Love him!


4. Sunsets the colour of Marmalade.


5. A bunch of adorable stickers I found in an activity book for children. Gah! These are almost too cute to use...but I have used a couple and they are lovely. This is from Accessorise.

Happy Friday everyone. 
Mine has been an eventful one..well full of misadventures for sure. 
My bedroom fan randomly turned itself off last night at about 3:30 am. Even though the AC was working fine...it's just odd without the fan. I just couldn't go to sleep! #firstworldproblems 
I was wide awake till 9:30 am,  by then I had moved to the living room. I slept fitfully till noon when our electrician arrived and fixed the fan.
 Ah! The unmitigated joys of adulting. Seriously though, I am so happy to have a working fan in the bedroom again. :) #muchblessed 
After the electrician left, I had to clean up the mess he made fixing the fan and updated my Dad on all the activity. 
Then it was time to head back to my now perfect bedroom and take a nap! 
Ah! 
Napping!!!! 
I may have even had an ice-cream to celebrate the blessed fan working again! :) 

Hope your Friday was funner. 
Have a lovely weekend folks! 


Vignettes/// Wandering in the Woods.








Hello! 

Oh! Take me back to the hills. 
Back to the lush green hills.

I am feeling all nostalgic today. Not just for the hills. But for other things too.
I was just going over the places I went to Bangalore...trying to remember all the cafes and restaurants I went too. 

It's just one of those days. 
:) 

All of these pictures were taken in Dhanolty Eco Park in Landour. 
Seen here, apart from the magnificent views, my Fossil Sydney Satchel, my sister's Chic Sparrow fauxdori and a fern I foraged from the woods. 

:) 


Wednesday 24 August 2016

Book Review: The Detective's Daughter by Lesley Thomson {Kindle Unlimited}


Book: The Detective's Daughter

Author: Lesley Thomson

Pages: 470

Read on: Kindle (as part of my Kindle Unlimited subscription)

Read in: Over 2-3 days

Plot Summary: Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many. Her murder shocked the nation. Her husband never pressed charges and moved abroad under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his only daughter. The young Stella Darnell grew to resent the dead Kate Rokesmith for capturing her father's attention in a way she never could.

Thirty years later, Stella is dutifully sorting through her father's attic after his sudden death. The Rokesmith case papers are in a corner gathering dust: the case was never solved. Stella knows she should destroy them. Instead, she opens the box, and starts to read.

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise of the book seemed interesting. A police officer's daughter starts, unwittingly, investigating the cold case that her father seemed to be obsessed with solving. I liked the element of an old crime with no real clues or witnesses or anything useful for Stella to go on. I liked the idea of a non-professional detective solving a cold case- the author certainly spent a lot of time (and pages) showing Stella's slow and gradual process of trial and error as she went on piecing together the events of that day 30 years ago. 

2. The bare bones that we get to see of the cold case was also interesting. Kate Rokesmith's life, priorities and relationships were also interesting. Some chapters from her perspective would have been useful. 

3. The process by which Stella ends up solving the cold case is quite interesting and logical. It is grounded in reality, so there are no sudden magic leads or a witness who suddenly remembers something. So, that was good. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. The book was way too verbose and descriptive! It could have been edited down to 300-odd pages and that would have made it a much better, tauter book. I got so bored reading pointless descriptions and long-winded chapters that went nowhere! 

2. There were also some chapters from a mysterious couch surfer/ house crasher's perspective. It is not difficult to guess who this is but these chapters were an utter waste of time! 

3. There were also some chapters from the killer's perspective and those were utterly unnecessary! 

4. The identity of the real killer was a bit too convenient! There were way too many coincidences, which annoyed me no end! I hate it when books end like this! 

Rating: 3/5 

Monday 22 August 2016

Monday Moods/// Roses + GoodReads Reading Challenge Achieved.







Hello! 

For this week's Monday Moods...I want us to stop and smell the roses. 

These roses were all rain soaked and gorgeous in the gardens of the tea garden bungalow. 
I spend a good amount of time just walking through the rose garden taking in the beauty. 

:) 

Have a wonderful week ahead folks. 

I started this week on a bit of a high note. 
I reached my GoodReads goal of reading 100 books! 
Yay! 
It took a little longer this year. Normally I get to 100 books by June. But this year has  been full of travel and other distractions and books have taken the slightest of backseats. But still, 100 books read already in the year is a good thing be. A good thing! 
So excited to make my challenge. 
Now I am free to read what I want to. Re-read and read big, fat huge books! 
Ah! 
Good things all. 


Saturday 20 August 2016

Weekend Reads: The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund & The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed

Hello! 

The weekend is upon us. 
This weekend the plan is to read, read and read some more. 
:) 

For this edition of Weekend Reads, I also want to include what my sister is reading. 

She is reading...The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund.
A dark, psychological thriller that is  garnering a lot of good reviews and hype. 
And it has a cannibal element! 
:0
My sister is a few pages in and she is sufficiently creeped out :) 
It's good she says, dark and creepy and good! 
But it's a chunk of book. So find a comfy spot before you embark on this book! 





As for me I am still making my way through The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed


A book set in Kashmir. About two lovers against the backdrop of violence, conflict and strife. 
I am only 62 pages in and really enjoying the writing and the story telling. However it is a little slow. Like there is a lot of descriptions and it's a slow burn of a book...I wish something would quicken the pace a bit...I think it's coming. But so far it's a little bit glacial in it's pace.


If I manage to finish this book, which I don't think I'll end up doing...it's quite long.
I'll pick up a book to re-read from my shelves. Maybe something by Sudha Murthy.
Or I might pick one of my many Ruskin Bond books!
Ah! That sounds like a plan.

:) 

Happy Reading folks.
Have a great weekend. 

Book Review: Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbag.


Book: Ghachar Ghochar

Author: Vivek Shanbag

Translated By: Srinath Perur

Pages: 115

Read On: Hardback

How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days

Plot Summary: 'It's true what they say - it's not we who control money, it's the money that controls us. When there's only a little, it behaves meekly; when it grows, it becomes brash and has its way with us.'

From a cramped, ant-infested house to a spacious bungalow, a family finds itself making a transition in many ways. The narrator, a sensitive young man, is numbed by the swirl around him. All he can do is flee every day to an old-world cafe, where he seeks solace from an oracular waiter. As members of the family realign their equations and desires, new strands are knotted, others come apart, and conflict brews dangerously in the background.

Masterfully translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur, Ghachar Ghochar is a suspenseful, playful and ultimately menacing story about the shifting consequences of success. 

General Thoughts: I am always looking to read more regional literature. And this one came highly recommended and there was so much buzz around, I just had to get it. 

Things I Liked: 

1. This is more a novella than a full fledged novel. I was kinda surprised when this came in the mail and was this skinny. But it was a good thing..it meant I could jump right into it and read it pretty much in one sitting. 

2. The writing was lovely. And even though it was translated, I didn't feel like it was stilted or lacking in any which way- something that sometimes sadly happens with translated fiction. The translator did a bang on job! 

3. For such a short read this books leaves an amazing impact. It manages to squeeze so much within it's 115 pages. 

4. I love stories of changing fortunes. If a book shows the changing fortune of a family or even an individual, I am all about it. Normally, this happens in one particular way---from up to down---a story of falling from grace or prosperity. A mansion in ruin..that sort of thing. But this book was the other way around. A family goes from living in virtual penury, in a rat invested home to the lap luxury. I loved. LOVED reading about their journey and how it changes them. 

5. I loved seeing how this family changed. As a whole and even on an individual level. And I found it very believable and real that not every one takes to wealth in the same way, even within the same family. 

6. I really liked reading about how the basic value system  (of this family) changes with a change of fortune. It was shown so well and so subtly. 

7. Money is important. The one making the money is even more important. I LOVED and really appreciated how is simple and irrefutable fact was shown throughout this book. The uncle...the main brain behind the business and success...was now the most important person in this household. His word was the last word. His opinion was the opinion that mattered and counted. This happens all the time and I found my self nodding along furiously when these bits came up in the book. 

8. The ENDING...it freaking blew my mind. BLEW it! I was lying in bed with some 10 pages left in this book and I was all ready to go to bed...and I was a little sleepy and BANG! The last 2 pages had me sit upright and gasp! OK may be not gasp but I did sit up re-read the last page and just collect my thoughts. 
I won't be spoiling anything here.
But if you've read this book, you know! 
That ending is golden. 
It is an open ending...so you are free to draw your own conclusions. 
Normally that is something I don't like. I like being told what happens for sure. But in this case it just works. 
It comes out of nowhere but it is so incredibly believable and just SO GOOD! 

Rating: 4/5 

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it. It's short and quick and leaves you with so much to think about. 

Friday 19 August 2016

Friday Favourites/// Bookmarks + Harry Potter Colouring Book + Notebooks + Colour Pencils.


1. First Pages of New Notebooks. 
I love doing some minimal decoration and using stickers to brighten up the first pages. 
:) 


2. Three New Agatha Christie Books added to my shelves. 
Aren't these just things of joy?! 


3. New Colour Pencils. 
These are the Staedtler Luna Water Colour pencils. 
I am so in love with them. 
:) 


4. Harry Potter Colouring Book.
:) 





5. Adorable Little Bookmarks. 
This one is made from recycled elephant poo! 
Also Sondhoo might be my spirit animal. 

:)


Have a lovely weekend folks.
I intend to read a lot, my reading has been a little slow and I would like to amend that. 
:) 

Tuesday 16 August 2016

Monthly Favourites/// July 2016.

Hello! 

July is long gone and now it's time to list all the things I've loved in July. 
July was a long month where there was a lot of cleaning and getting used life back in Bombay after a month long holiday in my parent's hometown. 

It involved a lot of reading.
Hobbling on my torn ligament leg...no fun in the least. 
Enjoying the rains.
July was a good month. 

Let's see some of my favourite thing in July. 



1. Chic Sparrow Traveller's Notebook in Joy/// Ah! I am in love with this fauxdori. I love how well made it is and I love the colour. This one stays in my handbag and is a nifty place to take notes and make lists. So much in love with this! 



2. Bagh-e-Bahar Colouring Book/// I finally got my hands on this gorgeous colouring book in July and have coloured in a few pages. 
It really is utterly gorgeous and a great to relax and unwind. 


3. Bombay Rains//// The monsoon in Bombay really is a thing of joy.
For me at least. I know a lot of people don't feel this way. But to me the rains are thing of solace. I love how things just look so ethereal in the rains. I love cloudy skies and I love the sound and smell of rains. 
Ah!
July was wonderfully rainy and it made my heart so happy! 


4. Favourite Bag-- The Cord Hemi Cycle Bag in Echo/// My sister got this bag last year and I just fell in love with it's unique shape and of course an indigo element is always a good thing in my books. I carried this in July and I adored how it made every outfit just a little bit better. 
You can get it from Cord. 


5. Ice-Cream from Naturals/// I had a lot of ice-cream in the month of July. 
:)
And most of it was from Naturals. I especially loved the choco-almond flavour. It is so good. 
I also love the tender coconut and the kesar pista is good too. 


6. Klever Cases for the Kindle//// Oh Joy! 
Aren't  these just beauties :) 
We got 3 new covers for our Kindles. 
And I love all of them. These are the ones we have on our Kindles right now.
I am using the Book of Spells one and my sister is using the Wuthering Heights one. 




7. Domino's Pizza..Burger/// Another food favourite! 
When I first saw the ads for this new concoction, I was kinda skeptical. It sounded a little weird. But I tried it and I loved it. It's really nice. I get the chicken pizza burger which is filling and fairly affordable. :) 



8. New Bookmarks from Fabindia/// I got 3 of these bookmarks from Fabindia. The indigo ones came together and the owl one came with a matching notebook. 
I am so in love.
If you haven't browsed the stationery section of your local Fabindia I urge you to do so. I love the treasures I find there. 
:) 



9. Garnier Ultra Blends Shampoo/// I couldn't resist these shampoos! :) 
I've tried 3 of these shampoos, this one and the Lavender one and the one with five essential herbs. I really enjoy these shampoos. And want to try the other ones too. I love trying new shampoos, they make baths a little more interesting than they already are! 



10. Stranger Things/// Like everyone else in the world I am in love with this show!
It is so good.
80s.
Sci-fi.
Thrills.
Friends.
Just everything about this show is so good.
The thing I loved best about this show is how accurate and real the 80s look and feel in this show. It genuinely looks like the 80s. 
And the kids in this show are golden. Their dynamics and bond is just lovely. 
If you haven't watched this yet...do it do it now! 



Monday 15 August 2016

Book Haul/// Books of August 2016, Part- I.

Hello! 
Happy Independence Day. 
Happy day of birth to my glorious country. :) 

I've been slightly MIA on here. 
My home was under some semi-serious duress. 
We had plumbing work going on in the entire wing of my apartment building. So there was drilling, clanking and dust everywhere. Ugh! Not fun! 

But what is fun is a book haul.

I got these books from Amazon and I ordered them in end of July but they arrived in August. So it is technically my August book haul.

I loved these books, I've already read 2 of these books and you can find the reviews right below this post. :) 

Let's see the books I've added to my life....









Books Bought...

Before We Visit The Goddess--- Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee 
The Bones of Grace--- Tahmima Anam 
My Childhood--- Maxim Gorky 
The Crow Girl--- Erik Axl Sund 

Happy reading in my future. 
I am especially looking forward to Crow Girl...it is a massive book. I can't wait to delve into it in September. 

Have a smashing week ahead folks :) 

Wednesday 10 August 2016

Book Review: The Bones of Grace by Tahmima Anam



Book: The Bones of Grace

Author: Tahmima Anam

Pages: 404

Read On: Hardback

How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days

Plot Summary: 'Anwar told me that it wasn't until he almost died that he realised he needed to find the woman he had once loved. I've thought about that a lot in the last few years, that if Anwar hadn't worked on that building site, he might never have gone looking for Megna, and if he hadn't done that, I might still be in the dark about my past. I've only ever been a hair away from being utterly alone in the world, Elijah, and it was Anwar who shone a light where once there was only darkness.'


The Bones of Grace.

It is the story of Zubaida, and her search for herself.

It is a story she tells for Elijah, the love of her life.

It tells the story of Anwar, the link in Zubaida's broken chain.

Woven within these tales are the stories of a whale and a ship; a piano and a lost boy.

This is the story of love itself.
 

General Thoughts: I love Tahmima Anam's writing. I really love how lyrical her prose is. I loved, absolutely LOVED the first two books in this series. The Golden Age blew my mind when I first read it back in 2008..I re-read it a few years ago and I even reviewed it on the blog, you can read it HERE
I read The Good Muslim, the sequel, in 2012 and loved it too. Funnily, when I picked it up I didn't realise it was a sequel! Silly me. It took me a little bit to figure out it was the same family! 
With this book too, it took me 75 pages to make the connect. You see I saw that Tahmima Anam had a new book out and I got it. Not even realising it was a continuation of the same saga. It was a happy little surprise to find this was the third book in the trilogy. I think this might just be the end of trilogy, the book ends on that note. 

Sadly, like really SADLY, this was a disappointment. Such a let down. It broke my heart to not enjoy this book. I went in with such expectations and they were dashed! 

 Things I Liked:

1. The writing as always was stellar. Anam's language and her way with words and sentences is flawless. I love her style of story telling. 

2. It was nice to visit with characters I have loved in the past. Maya and Rehana were women I loved getting to know in the previous 2 books and it was delightful to see them after all this time. 

3. I love the anthropological aspect of this book. I loved reading about Zubaida's job, especially the dig in Pakistan and the descriptions of the work that went on there and the everyday goings on at the camp. Plus I also really appreciate the amount of research the author must have had to do about whales and evolution and Palaeontology. 

4.  I love books that teach me a little something. Apart from a great story and characters, I love it when I learn something new from books. In this book there was plenty of learning. I loved learning more about the evolution of whales and about whales in general, I find them fascinating to begin with and reading more about them was rather fun. 
We also got to learn about ship breaking. Something I knew nothing...not a thing about. I found it fascinating and terribly heartbreaking all at once. Majestic ships being pulled apart and sold for scrap. 

5. All of the characters, even ones that we don't see a lot of are so well etched out and memorable. And all of them seem real. 

6. There is a little bit of mystery going on in this book and a nice and surprising resolution in the end, something I hadn't guessed--as to who Zubaida's birth family is. 

7.  I liked Rashid...which is strange considering he the man Zubaida doesn't love and has to marry him out a sense of responsibility. But I did like him and how accommodating and adjusting he was with all of Zubaida's wishes. I also liked how kind he was to her family. 

Things I Didn't Like: 
This might be a longggggggg list! 

1. Zubaida- I DID NOT LIKE HER AT ALL! 
I really, really did not like her. Her angst. Her confusion. The way she treated her parents. The appalling way in which she treats Rashid. Hated how passive she in her own life but boy she loves complaining about it but not doing anything about it. I didn't warm up to her or grow to care about her in the least and that for me was the biggest grouse with this book. I just couldn't bear to spend any more time with her or in her head. She is so negative and unhappy and frankly bloody annoying. Ugh! By the end of the book I wanted to reach inside the book and shake her and maybe even punch her in the face. 
This was particularly sad because in the previous two books we meet two wonderful women, Rehana and Maya and compared to them Zubaida is just insipid and unspectacular. 

2. There is so little of the older characters in this book and that to me is a failing. We see Rehana only twice, Sohail makes one appearance and Maya and Joy are only barely there. 

3. I hated what Maya has turned out to be. Gone is the feisty woman, in her place we have a very typical desi mother, who wants her daughter married and settled! WTF! You would think a woman like Maya would make a phenomenal mother, someone who is easy to talk to and someone who will understand their kids. But this Maya is none of those things. 

4. The whole Anwar narrative was just....too long and frankly unnecessary in such excruciating detail. Really not needed. 

5. There was so much going on in this book...like wayyyyy too much and after a while it was jarring and a little bit too chaotic. 

6. Insta-love....Goddamned Insta Love! Zubaida and Elijah's big love...is an acquaintance of 3 days! 3 days! She meets him. They hang out for 3 days and then she flies to Pakistan for the dig. Goes back to Bangladesh. Gets married and keeps pining for him. 3 days! They don't even talk or text or Skype or anything. They only communicate via song titles! WHATTT?!!!!! As cutesy as that sounds I really don't think it qualifies as love. It just didn't ring true to me. 

7. The book was too long and honestly I almost didn't want to finish it. I wanted to leave it unfinished. 

Rating: 1/5 

I hated this book. It made me mad. I expected so much and was thoroughly disappointed by this book. But I recommend the first two books in the series. 

Tuesday 9 August 2016

Book Review: Before We Visit The Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.


Book: Before We Visit The Goddess

Author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Pages: 208

Read On: Hardback

How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days

Plot Summary: A beautiful, powerful new novel from the best-selling, award-winning author of Sister of My Heart and The Mistress of Spices about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another—a masterful, brilliant tale of a family both united and torn apart by ambition and love.

The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family’s situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover—but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she’d imagined. As the marriage crumbles and Bela is forced to forge her own path, she unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak, and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.

General Thoughts: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (CBD) is one of my most loved authors. I buy every single new  book she comes out with. She is definetly my auto-buy author. I wanted this book when it first came out but I was on holiday and had to wait a few months to sink my teeth into it. :)
I went into this book with my expectations in check. I knew I'd enjoy it. I always enjoy her (CBD's) books, but I didn't exactly love her last book--- The Oleander Girl--- you can find my review of it HERE.

So I went in my expectations in check and reading this book on it's own merits.

Things I Liked: 

1. As always and as expected I loved the writing and CBD's style of story telling. If you've read her, you know what I mean. I love entering the world she creates and spend time with the people she breathes life into.

2. This is basically a story about three women, three generations of women of a family and I adore stories of this nature. A story that takes me through decades and see how different the lives of these women were. Also Bengali women centric stories are favourites of mine---for obvious reasons, I a Bengali woman myself! :)

3. I found all three women compelling and didn't prefer one  over the other. I liked spending time with each of them and seeing their world and how different the world, times and struggles were in each time period.

4. The book takes you so many places from rural Bengal, Assam, to Calcutta in the 1960s, the US in the 70s and 80s and the present. And I love how the place and set-up also add to the story and shapes these women.

5. This book is mainly a book about mothers and daughters and how abysmally we often treat the people we love best. Aren't we all a little guilty of treating our mothers a little badly? Not taking them or their advice seriously and  thinking we always know better than them. I know I do this a lot and this book made me think of my relationship with my mother and even her relationship with hers. CBD does a fantastic job of getting the intricacies and complexities of mother daughter relationships.

6. The book also has so many other great characters apart from our main ladies, Characters that show up briefly but really leave a lasting impression. Mrs. Mehta a seemingly cantankerous old lady who is there for only a chapter is very memorable and  heart warming character. And I utterly loved Sabitri's manager who has silently loved her for ages. And Bela's gay neighbour who pushes her out of her alcoholism and on to bigger and successful things.

7. This is a super quick read. When the book first arrived in the mail, I was surprised to see how slim it was. At only 208 pages, it might be the smallest book CBD has ever written. Yet it manages to pack so much within it's pages.

8. In spite of being relatively small there are so many people and so many stories in it. And these stories are kept concise and succinct but still as a reader you feel like you get the whole story about each of characters. It isn't hurried or haphazard at all.

9. Tara's confusion, angst and her wholely American identity was shown very well. She isn't Indian at all and I think is an apt example of NRI kids really are, especially those who've never come to India. Some books show them overly Indianised and this sometimes rings so false and unbelievable.

10. I loved Sabitri. Loved her grit, determination and also how incredibly human she was. She is my favourite character in the book and I just wished there was more of her. In fact I would enjoy a 300 page novel just about her life in great detail!

Things I Didn't Like:

I really loved this book and I highly, highly recommend it. But there some very minor things I didn't like about it.

1. Honestly, this book would have made a for lovelier long read...something around the 400 page mark. Because there were so many people and their complicated lives, there was so much more fodder for this story. 208 pages felt a little too less.

2. I didn't like Tara at all. There is nothing redeeming about her. She to me is just a hollow little person. I just didn't care about her at all! Also, I didn't quite understand her rage against every damn thing especially her mother. I didn't empathise with her and her unnecessary angst.

3, I felt the Assam section of the book and it's aftermath were a tad bit rushed. I felt like this portion and big things that happened here ought to have been fleshed out a little bit better.

4. This book does a lot of tell and not show...which isn't necessarily a bad thing but sometimes it took a sentence or two to convey some very big things that happened and didn't delve into it further, which to me felt a little disappointing.

Rating: 4/5 

Saturday 6 August 2016

Haul/// Nykaa Make-Up Haul.







Hello! 

Today I want to share a make-up haul on here.
I got these a few months ago now form Nykaa. 
The Nykaa nail paints were popping up all over my Instagram Explore page and I really loved the creamy, very summer appropriate colours. 
I went over to the site and put a couple of colours in my cart.
And I am so glad I did. The colours are lovely. Creamy pastel-y delights. They are opaque and last for nearly a week on my nails. I really love them. And I might go and pick up some more colours.
:) 
And I couldn't resist getting a Make-Up Revolution eye shadow palette. I love eye-shadows.
I love the colours and even the staying on power is pretty decent.
Sadly I haven't used this palette nearly as much as I should have because shortly after buying it, I bought a MAC palette which I am obsessed with and which I use allll the time!
But I do love the colours and I can't wait to play around with it some more.

Hope you guys are having a wonderful Saturday.
Mine included lots of art (well my dinky kind) and lots of writing.
And doing a ton of chores around the house.
A good day.
:)