Wednesday 30 September 2020

Book Review: Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)

 


Book: Troubled Blood (Cormoran Strike Book 5)

Author: Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)

Pages: 888

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~8-9 hours over two days 

Plot Summary: Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough - who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974.


Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. And Robin herself is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention, as well as battling her own feelings about Strike.

As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly. 


General Thoughts and a Disclaimer: JK Rowling has brought a lot of joy to our lives through her books. The Harry Potter series and the Cormoran Strike series have been books my sister and I have thoroughly enjoyed. 
In the recent past, JK Rowling has made some hurtful comments about transgendered people, which have caused hurt and anger. I would like to mention that this blog is a trans-safe/ trans-acceptance place and we believe that trans men are men and trans women are women. We are so sorry that JKR's comments have hurt you. 
I saw a lot of posts on Goodreads and elsewhere asking people to boycott JKR's books. On that, I have to say that we choose to separate the art from the artist and hope that in time, JKR learns to empathise more with our trans brothers and sisters and lives up to the values of kindness and inclusion that she so vociferously espoused in her Harry Potter books. 

Things I Liked: 

1. To start with, I loved the premise of this book! A 40-year old cold case! A young woman, a doctor (GP), leaves her practice to meet her best friend at a pub that's barely a five-minute walk and just vanishes without a trace! No one has heard or seen her ever since. 

The cop investigating Margot Bamborough's case was in the midst of a mental health crisis and he was fixated on a serial killer operating in that general area called 'The Essex Butcher'. He did not seriously look into other suspects. There is very little to go on- a lot of eye witnesses and people who knew Margot back in the day are dead. So, it seemed like Strike and Robin would have their work cut out for them to solve this one! Very interesting, indeed! 

I love cold cases! There is a British series called Unforgotten, which we really love because it involves a team of Met detectives solving cold cases! Cold cases are challenging because detectives can not rely on any of the trappings of modern technology that they can currently use to pinpoint last location or figure out who was calling someone one too many times etc. So, Strike and Robin taking on this very challenging case with so little to go on made for a very exciting reading! 

2. This book is very, very detailed. The main focus of it is, obviously, the disappearance of Margot and Strike and Robin's attempts to solve that case. Apart from that, there are 3-4 smaller cases that Strike and Robin's team is working on, which are also quite interesting. This book is 888 pages (on the Kindle) and 944 pages (hardcover edition) long and, I know, that is something that can put people off. I really enjoyed reading this book in all its detailed, immersive, atmospheric glory! JKR is a gifted writer and she successfully builds the world of 1974 where Margot lived and loved and worked. As a reader, you get pulled into that world as Strike and Robin painstakingly find and interview various people close to Margot back then. 
This book is a truly immersive read and I'd advise patience and many breaks as you dive into the world of 1974, which also includes the antics of a creepy serial killer! Trigger Warning for rape and torture- skip those chapters, if these topics trigger you. 

3. The investigative process is painstaking and very, very detailed. Nothing is very convenient and JKR/ Robert Galbraith does a great job in showing how difficult it is to find the threads of a life lived in the past with so little documented and so many dead. Robin and Strike follow each lead and find some leads to get to the bottom of what really happened to Margot. It is a slow process, but none of it is boring at all. I loved how realistic most of the investigative process seemed- it was slow-going, led to many blind alleys and many original theories had to be debunked and new ones had to be formulated!

4.  The way what happened to Margot was resolved was really nicely done! The case was solved due to how thorough Strike and Robin were- good old-fashioned detective work, which included even chasing down the multiple astrological signs and tarot driven leads of the original detective on the case! His notes were seemingly impossible to make sense of as he was in the midst of a mental breakdown, but Robin and Strike work together to figure out some sane police work out of all that- really nicely done in the book! 

Things I Didn't Like:

1. I know this book series also focuses on the personal dynamics and the will-they-won't-they romance angle between Robin and Strike. I am sure some readers are very invested in this aspect of this series, but not me! I found the multiple chapters on both their personal lives very annoying in this book! Robin's divorce, the tragic passing of Strike's aunt, their complicated feelings for one another and even Strike's ridiculously manipulative and toxic ex-fiancee- Charlotte! I was really annoyed when any of these topics rolled along and couldn't wait to get back to Margot's case! 

I mean, there was already so much ground to cover in the case from an investigative standpoint that these personal sub-plots, as they were, were not needed in the detailed manner in which they've been included in the book! 

2. At 888 pages (Kindle copy), Troubled Blood is a very large book for the thriller/ crime genre! This in itself may be off putting to some readers, who like their crime/ thriller books to be around the 350-400 page mark. Whilst I did not fully mind the length of this book, but the multiple personal narratives did annoy me! 

Rating: 4.5/5 
This is a really great book and I highly recommend you read it! 

Sunday 27 September 2020

Book Review: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman


 

Book: The Thursday Murder Club

Author: Richard Osman 

Pages: 382

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~4 hours 

Plot Summary: In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders.

But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?


Things I Liked:


1. A story about four senior citizen detectives sounded so good! A lot of times, people tend to dismiss senior citizens without taking into account the rich experiences that they've lived through and how they can still help/ guide us in so many ways! I loved that the very people, who are underestimated by society, decided to get involved and solve a murder that happened at their doorstep! 


2. All the characters in the book are nicely developed and we get to see both their brilliance and their vulnerability. 

Elizabeth is the leader of the pack. She is someone, who, clearly, was with the MI6 or something like that, given she has been all over the world and has contacts in the strangest places! 

Joyce is the chronicler of the group, an ex-nurse, she is a little too excited about solving a murder and feels that all her crime show dreams are going to come through! 

Ron is an ex-union leader. He was the bane of big companies trying to shut down their operations in the UK and now he takes his role as the defender of the defenceless pretty seriously at their retirement village! 

Ibrahim, a psychiatrist, keeps his mind sharp by going through his old cases and living in the fear of losing his own mind. They decided to start the Thursday Murder Club to go over cold police cases that one of their founding members, Penny- an ex-cop, shared with them.  


3. The crime solving process is interesting and, often, hilarious! I liked how the different threads of the case are untangled by the Thursday Murder Club and how they use their different skills, contacts and resourcefulness to get to the bottom of the crimes and find the killer. 


4. The book is really well written and fast-paced. I wanted to read all of it quickly yet savour it at the same time! 


5. The setting of the book- in a "luxury" retirement village- is quite unique as far as the thriller/ murder mystery genre goes! It is a unique environment in the sense that everyone who lives there has a past and secrets and so, it lends itself to much intrigue and future cases as well! 

The lives of these senior citizens in the retirement village are still quite interesting and full of drama and I, for one, am most excited for the second book in the series! 


Rating: 4.5/5 


Wednesday 23 September 2020

Book Review: The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

 


Book: The Lost and Found Bookshop 

Author: Susan Wiggs 

Pages: 384 

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: 4 hours

Plot Summary: Somewhere in the vast Library of the Universe, as Natalie thought of it, there was a book that embodied exactly the things she was worrying about.


In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative—not counting her scoundrel father.

But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem–Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.

After she moves into the small studio apartment above the shop, Natalie carries out her grandfather’s request and hires contractor Peach Gallagher to do the necessary and ongoing repairs. His young daughter, Dorothy, also becomes a regular at the store, and she and Natalie begin reading together while Peach works.

To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations, from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future, and her own heart.

Things I Liked: 

1. A book set in and about a bookshop! Hello? Do you know me at all?! This book had me at hello! I love books about books and bookshops because that is a bookworm's natural habitat, even if I have not been to a bookstore in 6 months! Sigh! This pandemic is taking away all the joy from our lives and that is exactly why we need to read books like The Lost and Found Bookshop to remind us that there are book stores and books and kindness and love in the world! 

2. The story is beautiful! This is a story about love, grief, overcoming tragedy, finding one's life's purpose and about the past- the treasures and secrets it holds. Natalie is devastated when her mum, her solo parent, dies suddenly in a freak plane crash. Natalie has a stable, high income but soul-crushing job at a vinery, but once her mom dies, she has to make changes to her life in order to look after her Grandpa- Andrew. Natalie grew up in the apartment above her mom's bookshop. She loved the shop, but the time, effort and struggles to keep it solvent and going were too much for her, which is why she chose a job that was stable. However, now, she has to make a go of running the shop and each day brings with it new challenges- the shop is in debt, the building itself is crumbling and her beloved Grandy is showing signs of dementia. 

The author beautifully brings out the struggles in Natalie's life back at the bookshop and how she deals with all of them. 

3. The book has lovely characters- Natalie, her Grandy Andrew, her two bookshop employees- Bertie and Chloe, Peach Gallaghar- the handyman, who her mother had hired before her death. All of them are just such lovely characters. 

4. The book also brings alive the story of Andrew's grandmother- Colleen- an Irish immigrant living and working in San Francisco in the early 1900s. I really loved the 'historical' bits of this book. 

5. This book is such a timely read now, when a lot of us are feeling hopeless and bogged down. This story and its characters are like a hug! Read it! 

Rating: 5/5 

Tuesday 22 September 2020

Book Review: One by One by Ruth Ware

 


Book: One by One 

Author: Ruth Ware

Pages: 384

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~4 hours 

Plot Summary: Snow is falling in the exclusive alpine ski resort of Saint Antoine, as the shareholders and directors of Snoop, the hottest new music app, gather for a make or break corporate retreat to decide the future of the company. 


At stake is a billion-dollar dot com buyout that could make them all millionaires, or leave some of them out in the cold. 


The clock is ticking on the offer, and with the group irrevocably split, tensions are running high. When an avalanche cuts the chalet off from help, and one board member goes missing in the snow, the group is forced to ask - would someone resort to murder, to get what they want?


Things I Liked: 

1. The premise and setting of the book seemed very atmospheric and interesting. I mean, let's face it, work offsites are shyte! Those are the facts! There are no fun work offsites! All of us grin and bear it and just go through the motions of each day, reluctantly participating in "team building" activities and waiting for the day to end so that we can go back to our rooms and watch TV! Seriously! So, the premise of this book, where an offsite goes horribly wrong and people end up being murdered just checked all the boxes for me! 


2. The book was very atmospheric and taut with tension. You can feel the oppressiveness of the impending snow storm- the still air, the dark, menacing clouds, ski slopes being slowly closed off. The tension amongst the team members of Snoop is also, similarly, palpable. There is, clearly, something big that is going to be discussed and decided upon in this offsite and every employee- senior to junior- is feeling the stress of it. It does not help that the former founders of the company are now divorced and each is on the opposite side of whether or not they should sell out for the big bucks. Loyalties are tested. It's all very nicely done and just the right amount of dramatic. 


3. Apart from the various Snoop employees, whose characters could be fleshed out a bit more. I mean, the lack of fleshing out of some characters makes it kinda obvious who the killer is, but more on that later! There are also two employees of the Chalet where the team is staying- Erin- the manager/ cleaner/ general helper/ in-charge of guest relations, who has her own secrets, and Danny, the chef. Their reactions and horror at what happens is also nicely captured. 


4. The book is quite a gripping read, even if one figures out who the killer is, because the motive is very unclear right up until the end. So, one stays gripped because of that. 


Things I Did Not Like: 

1. In books such as this where 10-12 people are trapped by an avalanche or on a deserted island (And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie), the most interesting and gripping bit is the reveal of the real killer. As people drop dead like flies and few and few survivors remain, the guessing game of who the killer is, is what makes the book interesting and gripping. In One by One, it is pretty obvious who the killer is! I mean, even if you are not a big crime/ thriller reader, you'd still guess who the killer could be, which, honestly, is no fun! I wish the author had made the killer less obvious. Yes, you stick around to learn the motive behind these senseless murders, but that is not the same thing! 


Rating: 3.5/5 

 

Sunday 20 September 2020

Stationery Sunday: Back to Journaling.

 Hello! 

A Stationery Sunday post after absolute ages. 

I recently, after months of a dry spell, went back to journaling. 

I hadn't journaled a single word or thought since May.

MAY! 

I just didn't feel like putting pen to paper or rather, if I'm being entirely honest, I didn't feel up to being alone with my thoughts. 

I didn't want to dwell on my feelings of confusion and anxiety and hence, I kept awake from my journals. 

In the beginning of this month, I decided to slowly, at a glacial pace get back to this old habit of mine. Journal this time, this extraordinary, unprecedented time. Just vent my feelings out and try to not feel overwhelmed all the time. 

So with this goal in mind, I set a new journal insert. It also helped that I recently got some gorgeous journals and notebooks from The Ink Bucket, I will share the whole haul soon. If you want to see a glimpse of my new stationery, I suggest you go see the Reels on my IG. 

Last weekend, I spent my Saturday morning just slowing down, letting the sun shine in and spent hours with my journals. I decorated it and I made long lists of everything I am grateful for, even during this horrible year, I tried to focus on things that aren't so terrible. 


It feels so good to find myself back here. 


Here are some of snippets of my new journal insert. 



A new pouch was also set up to hold some supplies like diecuts and stickers and sticky notes. 
The pouch itself is from Ali Express that I bought at some point last year. 


The front page all set up for autumn. 


The journal in all its floral glory. 
And a semi-matching bookmark. 


No such thing as too much floral print. 

:) 

Not in my world at least. 

Friday 18 September 2020

Book Haul: Books of August 2020.

 Hello! 


After months of not buying books, I allowed myself a little treat of sorts in August. 

I bought 6 books and was sent one by publishers. So a book haul after months had to be shared. 

I already shared my Harry Potter haul a few posts back, so I won't share those again. These are the other books I picked up and I have read all of these books already. 

Yay!

Love it when that happens. 

Buy books.

Read books. 


First up, I finally got my hands on this gorgeous children's book that I've had my eye on since it first came out. So pretty and DOGS! It's about a little puppy and Sudha Murty's trademark smooth writing. 
A delight! 


This beautiful book was sent to me by the kind folks over at Harper Collins, thank you muchly!
I read Bhaunri by the same author last year and loved it and knew I wanted to read more from her. I already own Daura, which I hope to read soon. 
I've already read and Loved this book. A full review is coming soon. 


A new Poirot mystery! 

We quite enjoy these Sophie Hannah Poirot stories and of course love the gorgeous editions they come in. 

The review for this one is already up on the blog. 

So, see that to hear more of our thoughts on this book. 



These are the new books I added to my shelves in August. 


My sun kissed beauties. 


BOOKS BOUGHT/// 


1. The Gopi Diaries by Sudha Murty 

2. Kintsugi by Anukrti Upadhyay 

3. The Killings at Kingfisher Hall by Sophie Hannah 

4. Harry Potter Books I to IV by JK Rowling 

Wednesday 16 September 2020

Book Review: Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

 


Book: Moonflower Murders 

Author: Anthony Horowitz 

Pages: 592

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: 5-6 hours 

Plot Summary: Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend. But life isn't as idyllic as it should be: exhausted by the responsibility of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, Susan is beginning to miss her literary life in London - even though her publishing career once entangled her in a lethal literary murder plot.

So when an English couple come to visit with tales of a murder that took place in a hotel the same day their daughter Cecily was married there, Susan can't help but find herself fascinated.

And when they tell her that Cecily has gone missing a few short hours after reading Atticus Pund Takes The Case, a crime novel Susan edited some years previously, Susan knows she must return to London to find out what has happened.

The clues to the murder and to Cecily's disappearance must lie within the pages of this novel.

But to save Cecily, Susan must place her own life in mortal danger. 


Things I Liked:

1. Two murder mysteries in one book! Are you kidding me?! What is not to love about that?! Especially, if it is written by Anthony Horowitz, who is wickedly clever and has written books that I have greatly enjoyed in the past! Colour me excited! 

2. I was very happy to meet Susan Ryeland again. She was our accidental sleuth and hero in Horowitz's Magpie Murders and I really liked her voice and her use of 'every (wo)man' logic to solve murders. It was nice to see the characters through her eyes and watch her catch inconsistencies and channel her inner Poirot or Miss Marple to solve the case of Cecily's disappearance. 

3. This book contains another mystery book in it. It is one written by Susan Ryeland's best selling author- Alex Conway and features his star detective Atticus Pünd, who incidentally seems to be modelled after Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. So, that is all kinds of nice! I liked how the two murder mysteries are connected, even though, at the face of it, the two stories are completely different. Atticus Pünd Takes a Case is set in a seaside town in Devonshire and involves the murder of a popular Hollywood actress in the early 1950s, whereas the murder in Cecily's hotel eight years ago was that of an advertising executive from Australia, who had a two-day booking. Yet, the way these two stories are connected is very nicely done! 

4. The enjoyed the 'book' within this book quite a bit! Atticus Pünd Takes a Case has interesting, well developed characters and a nice twist or two. It is really a treat to read two different yet somehow connected murder mysteries. 

5. There are several red herrings in both cases, which I always appreciate. The author keeps you guessing about the whys and hows of the cases right until the very end. 


Things I Didn't Like: Not one thing! 

Rating: 5/5 

This is a really wonderful book! Two murder mysteries, a great bunch of characters and really good writing! Read it! 


Saturday 12 September 2020

Weekend Reads: Yaa Gyasi and Anthony Horowitz. + Saturday Morning.

 Hello! 

How is the weekend treating you? 

Do you even realise when weekends begin anymore? I can only tell days apart because of my planner. Otherwise, it's all sort of blending into one. 

But this weekend we are doing things right. 

I've been up since dawn...well before dawn, I woke up properly at 5:00 AM and then after ambling around in bed till 6:00 AM I got up and got my day started. 

Made coffee. 

Took a shower. 

Washed my hair. 

Then I opened all the windows and let the breeze come in and bring in birdsong and light. 

I then spent around half an hour just writing in my journal and doing morning pages, it felt so good to just put pen to paper and let my thoughts out. 


This my journal at the moment. It's a field notes sized notebook from The Ink Bucket. Look at it's floral loveliness. 

So damn pretty! 

After journaling and a little bit of a planner catch-up, it was time to eat something. 

So I fixed myself some stir fried veggies and toast. 

:) 

Then I spent some time tidying up the house and washing clothes and airing out some cushions and pillows because the sun was just too darn bright to not be used to air out a bunch of stuff. 

Then I finally, sat down to read my current gorgeous read. 



Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. 

I read Homegoing when it came out and it was such a stunning read. I was blown away by the writing the stories and I knew then, I would read anything and everything Maa Gyasi ever wrote and finally that day is here. I am so excited to be reading  this book and I am about 30% in and I am quite pleased with the book so far in. 


Plot Summary: As a child Gifty would ask her parents to tell the story of their journey from Ghana to Alabama, seeking escape in myths of heroism and romance. When her father and brother succumb to the hard reality of immigrant life in the American South, their family of four becomes two - and the life Gifty dreamed of slips away.

Years later, desperate to understand the opioid addiction that destroyed her brother's life, she turns to science for answers. But when her mother comes to stay, Gifty soon learns that the roots of their tangled traumas reach farther than she ever thought. Tracing her family's story through continents and generations will take her deep into the dark heart of modern America.

Transcendent Kingdom is a searing story story of love, loss and redemption, and the myriad ways we try to rebuild our lives from the rubble of our collective pasts.

Book about family's, loss and grief are always heavy but oddly one of my favourite things to read and when penned by a incredibly talented writer, it gets even better. This book also deals with matter of race and addiction. Things that are so important to talk about and learn about. I am so happy to spend my weekend wrapped up in this story. 

It was easily one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. 

Now on to what my sister is reading this weekend. 


Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz. 

My sister is big fan of Anthony Horowitz and has read most of his thrillers, so this book was very high of on her list of anticipated reads for 2020. We got it last night and she had a hard time putting it down and going to bed. She hopes to do nothing else but read this over the weekend. 


Plot Summary: Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend. But life isn't as idyllic as it should be: exhausted by the responsibility of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, Susan is beginning to miss her literary life in London - even though her publishing career once entangled her in a lethal literary murder plot.

So when an English couple come to visit with tales of a murder that took place in a hotel the same day their daughter Cecily was married there, Susan can't help but find herself fascinated.

And when they tell her that Cecily has gone missing a few short hours after reading Atticus Pund Takes The Case, a crime novel Susan edited some years previously, Susan knows she must return to London to find out what has happened.

The clues to the murder and to Cecily's disappearance must lie within the pages of this novel.

But to save Cecily, Susan must place her own life in mortal danger...


So that is what our weekend looks like. 

I hope you are having a good weekend too. 

Stay In. 

Stay Safe. 

Get your reading on. 

:) 

Thursday 10 September 2020

Book Haul: A Very Harry Haul.

 


Hello!

Long time no book haul.

I don't think I bought any books since...March? Or was it February? I have been buying occasional ebooks but I just didn't think it was a good idea to get any physical books. One, I didn't really NEED new books. I felt like the one good thing of this whole lockdown mess would mean reading books that had been sitting on my shelves for ages. Also, in the earliest days of the lockdown, books weren't being shipped, since they weren't considered essential items. Well, ok. Secondly, even once they were being shipped, the idea of having to sanitize yet another thing seemed like too much work. 

So no books were bought. 

But by July was I beginning to crack. I missed book mail and I missed the sight of new books in my life. 

July is also Harry Potter's birthday and it is usually when I tend to re-read one or more of the Potter books. 

Now, before I go on any further, I feel like I need to talk about JK Rowling and her very controversial and hurtful takes on Trans Women and Trans Rights. I adore Harry Potter and I will always be very grateful to JKR for these books that mean the world to me, the comfort and joy they bring me is unlike anything else in the world. But her statements are hurtful, misinformed and cruel and I don't agree with them. BUT...I am not about to turn my back on books that make me happy no matter what. 

When I am anxious these books are one of the few things are always help. 

When I am sad they lift me out of my funk. 

These books, it's people and this world mean so much to me. 

I don't support her or her words, but I can love these books and not agree with their author. I am an adult who can do both. 

OK? 


Moving on. 

Now, I own a gorgeous set of first edition books that I have read and re-read a million times over. This year when I reached out to re-read the first book, I was heart broken to see that it was literally falling apart. Like a page flew out. It broke my heart and I gingerly put it back, not willing to risk to reading it and causing further damage. My editions are from Scholastic and are the American editions with cute little illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. I LOVE these particular copies so much. So I couldn't risk them getting damaged any further. :( 

I do own the gorgeous illustrated editions too, in hardback. Those while stunning are not most reader friendly. Also, my copies are stashed pretty deep in my bookshelf. :( So I needed new copies. But I felt kinda bad about getting new copies of books I already owned. 

Ugh! 

Then I remembered these house editions (is that what they're called?) and I decided to get these. I didn't need the whole set, mainly the first 4 books that I own have gotten frail with age. The rest of the books, all hardback editions are doing well. 

So I got the first 4 books in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor editions. 

I am Ravenclaw.

Sister is Gryffindor.

But I spiritually feel like a Hufflepuff. 

No Slytherin edition was bought because...why? 



Book 1. 
Yellow thing of beauty. 
I honestly could have just bought all the four books in the Hufflepuff colours. 
So cute! 





Book 2. 
Still stunning. 
The black and the yellow go so well together. 


Book 3. 
Finally, my house. 
What a gorgeous shade of blue. 
This is the next book I need to re-read. 
:) 


Wit.
Learning. 
Wisdom. 

All things I love best in this world. 


Book 4. 
Finally one in Gryffindor colours. 


Each book has a map of Hogwarts and some information about the particular house and it's founder. 


Go Go Gryffindor. 
:) 

I am so happy to have these very readable paperback editions in my life. I can read them in peace and not worry about them falling apart and my precious, precious first editions can stay safe and go into retirement. 
:) 


Tuesday 8 September 2020

General Whimsy: Flowers and A Quote I Love. (100th Post for 2020.)

 


Hello! 

This is my 100th post for this year. And like all things with 2020, this comes a lot later than usual. It's no surprise that blogging has been slow this year. One might think that given all else has come to a grinding halt, blogging and talking about books would just take off. I thought that too. In March, as the first phase of the lockdown was announced, I was all geared up for blogging more and clearing a long backlog of books I wanted to talk about. Alas! That just didn't happen. I ended up doing chores day in and day out and just not reading enough and definitely not blogging enough. 

Hell, I got to book 100 only in August, a feat I normally, without any issues accomplish in June. July tops. But mostly June. But man, it's been a task on somedays to find time to read. 

Cooking.

Cleaning.

Dishes. 

Worrying about the world. 

Sanitising every single thing...sure takes up a lot of time. 


But in the last month, I've found my reading mojo back. I have slowly found my way back to reading and hopefully this newfound spurt of productivity will leak into my blogging as well. 

*Fingers Crossed* 

Here are some beautiful flowers from back when a walk in a park was a thing we did and we did without worrying about death and disease. 

Sheesh!

What has life come to, eh? 



I miss being out in the world and taking a million pictures of flowers. 


Recently, I stumbled upon these lines, an old Arabic Proverb that has really resonated with me. I keep thinking of it and I think I agree with what it says. 

Here it is: 


"What is meant for you, will reach you even if it is beneath two mountains.

What isn't meant for you, won't reach you even if it between your two lips." 



These lines have brought me a lot of solace and peace. And it helps keep my mind still. There is no real value in fretting over things that aren't meant to yours in the first place. Or constantly spiralling into the what ifs and maybe. There is peace, in knowing that what is truly meant for you will come to to you in good time if its really, really meant for you in the first place. 

I hope you are well and safe and sane. 
:) 

All of these pictures are from my family's Tea Garden. 
I cannot wait to go back and breathe in some clean air and not worry about a damn thing. 

Sunday 6 September 2020

Book Review: Bombay Balchao by Jane Borges.

 


Book: Bombay Balchao

Author: Jane Borges 

Publisher: Westland Books 

Pages: 224

Read On: Hardback Edition 

How Long it Took Me To Read: 2 days 

Plot Summary: Bombay was the city everyone came to in the early decades of the nineteenth century: among them, the Goans and the Mangaloreans. Looking for safe harbour, livelihood, and a new place to call home. Communities congregated around churches and markets, sharing lord and land with the native East Indians. The young among them were nudged on to the path of marriage, procreation and godliness, though noble intentions were often ambushed by errant love and plain and simple lust. As in the story of Annette and Benji (and Joe) or Michael and Merlyn (and Ellena).

Lovers and haters, friends and family, married men and determined singles, churchgoers and abstainers, Bombay Balchão is a tangled tale of ordinary lives – of a woman who loses her husband to a dockyard explosion and turns to bootlegging, a teen romance that drowns like a paper boat, a social misfit rescued by his addiction to crosswords, a wife who tries to exorcise the spirit of her dead mother-in-law from her husband, a rebellious young woman who spurns true love for the abandonment of dance. Ordinary, except when seen through their own eyes. Then, it’s legend. 

Set in Cavel, a tiny Catholic neighbourhood on Bombay’s D’Lima Street, this delightful debut novel is painted with many shades of history and memory, laughter and melancholy, sunshine and silver rain.


General Thoughts: This was one my birthday book buys. I bought it back in February but I read it last month, five months into the lockdown and it was perhaps the best time to read this book and feel like I was out in the city and amongst it's people. 

Things I Liked: 

1. It's no big surprise that I am a little bit  partial to stories set in my city. I find it hard to resist a story set in Bombay. It's familiar, homey and, given how we've been homebound for the last six months, reading stories set in my corner of the world was a good antidote to this peculiar kind of homesickness. I am very much here, yet the city and its people, it's hustle and bustle all seem so distant. So, I pretty much read this at the perfect time. And in a small but significant way, this book took me back to a city I love so much. A city I miss so much and cannot wait to go back to once this madness is over.

2. As someone who is from Bombay and grew up here so much in this book felt like a chapter out of my own life and my own experiences. The retro Bombay feel just wafts in these pages and these people and characters mirror so many folks I grew up around. Deeply nostalgic and so damn relatable. The book gets a whole extra point for its sheer ability to make this place- Cavel- come alive and remind me so much of my own childhood. And I bet, anyone who grew up in Bombay, especially those of us who had Goan, Mangalorean and East Indian friends will feel the exact same way. 

3. I also love ,love, love interconnected short stories. It's honestly one of my favourite kind of book to read.  Characters weave in and out of stories and we see the same bunch of people in different capacities and at various different points in their lives and it, when done well as it has been done here, all adds up so this wonderful tapestry and narrative. So even though it's technically a collection of short stories, it ultimately feels like a novel. Plus, I love this whole idea that while you are a main protagonist in your own story and might even come across as a hero/heroine, you could easily be a minor, insignificant or even  the villain in someone else's story. 

4. I enjoyed the writing immensely. The author does a wonderful job of making this place, its people and the various time periods across which these stories are set come alive in a myriad ways. All of its seem real and believable and relatable. 

5. My favourite thing about this book were it's characters. So many wonderful, flawed, human, sad, stuck, messy and beautiful people live here and to see them over the years and root for them and feel for them was perhaps my favourite thing in this book. Apart from of course the food! :) Seriously, I was cravingggggg Goan food as I was reading this book. 

6. I also learnt a little bit of my city's history which is always, always a good thing be. I learnt about Dockyard explosion that killed hundreds of people and rendered a lot of people homeless. This explosion was a lot like the recent tragedy in Lebanon. And I knew nothing of it. Nothing! This book has also inspired me to do a deeper dive into my city's history. 

7. Not that it matters immensely, but this is such a beautifully made book. The cover is beyond gorgeous, the art is so apt and such a thing of beauty. I am happy to have to sit on my shelves. 


So freaking gorgeous. 





Rating: 4.5/5 

A book I highly recommend, whether you call this city home or not. Especially those who think this city is unwelcoming or unsafe or some such rubbish. 


Also, the Kindle edition of this book is available for free as a part of Prime Reading. So if you are a Prime member get this book now. 

Saturday 5 September 2020

Book Review: Parveen Babi: A Life by Karishma Upadhyay

 





Book: Parveen Babi- A Life

Author: Karishma Upadhyay 

Pages: 333

Read on: Kindle

Read in: 4 hours  

Plot Summary: Sensuous, glamorous and bold, Parveen Babi set the Hindi cinema screen ablaze during the 1970s and ’80s, breaking the ‘pious, nice girl’ mould of the film heroine and redefining it after her own style. On screen, she sizzled in unforgettable roles in blockbusters like Deewaar, Shaan, Kaalia and Amar Akbar Anthony – while, off-screen, her bohemian and unabashed lifestyle lit up gossip columns, and her appearance on the cover of Time magazine, a first for an Indian, created a stir nationwide. Yet, for all the sensational rumours and films her life inspired, Parveen has remained something of an enigma to generations of fans. 


In Parveen Babi: A Life, Karishma Upadhyay traces the journey of a shy but ambitious girl from an aristocratic family in Junagadh, Gujarat, to a life of merciless scrutiny that comes with being in the Bollywood spotlight. Exploring with depth and sensitivity the myriad facets of the actress’s life, she lays bare little-known details about Parveen’s doomed romances, her obsession with the spiritual guide who advised her to quit films, the tumultuous years of battling mental illness and her tragic, untimely demise. 

Rich with insights from the star’s friends, former lovers and colleagues, this compelling narrative captures the nuances of an extraordinary life – the highs and lows of finding fame, love and solace, and then, in the end, losing it all.

General Thoughts: If you grew up in the 80s, there was no way that you did not know who Parveen Babi was! She was the epitome of glamour and of the stereotypical "modern" girl/ leading lady in Hindi movies. She featured in a few of my favourite 70s/ early 80s films such as DeewarShaan and Namak Halal. However, for me (Pooja's older sister), the most defining moment that I can think of when it came to knowing a little more about Parveen Babi, than just as the pretty-modern-cool heroine, came in the year 1990. 

I was waiting at my neighbourhood salon for a haircut when I spotted the most recent edition of Stardust. Since we didn't subscribe to any film magazine at home, only to Life and India Today, never missed an opportunity to read whichever film magazine I could lay my hands on whilst at the salon. It was in this magazine that I read an interview of Parveen Babi, the famous one in which she accused Amitabh Bachchan of contaminating her makeup and adding something to her shampoo etc. I remember feeling very confused- why would he do that? I was quite young and didn't know enough about mental illness to see these claims for what they were- the rants of a mind in the grip of paranoid schizophrenia. I remember feeling sad for her because the journalist's tone was one of pity and condescension. I didn't have the language for it, but I felt she deserved some empathy and kindness because she was clearly unwell or, at any rate, very very scared. 

So, when I first heard about Karishma Upadhyay's book, I was very interested in learning more about Parveen Babi and her life- how did she end up alone and so isolated from everyone? Why did she not get help for her mental illness? What about her family and friends? Did they not help? I grabbed the ebook over the weekend and buddy-read it with my sister in one sitting. 

Things I Liked: 

1. First and foremost, I loved the tone of this book. It's not condescending, judgemental or pitying. The writer manages to share snippets of the starlet's life- the good, the bad and the ugly- without any sensationalisation (and God knows the scope of doing that in this case was pretty high). I really appreciated the balanced take on things and the, largely, neutral tone of the narrative. 

2. This book is very well-researched. The people and sources from where the writer gleans the information about Babi was fairly extensive. Family friends, old friends, colleagues, past lovers and several News articles and magazine interviews and self-written accounts by the actress make up for the bulk of the book. If there was anyone living, who knew the actress well at any point in her life, Karishma Upadhyay has interviewed them to learn more about Parveen Babi- the girl, woman, person. 

3. Therefore, this book paints a very vivid picture of Parveen Babi through the years- right from her  childhood in Junagadh to her teenage years at St. Xavier's in Ahmedabad to her journey via modelling into Bollywood in the early 1970s. At every stage, the author shows us Parveen as a person- not the image she came to portray or what was written about her in the magazines. We see the evolution of shy, quiet girl into the "modern", cool, glamazon that she came to be viewed as in the film industry. 

4. In the same vein, the author does an excellent job of showing the evolution of her mental illness- the small signs that were always there to the big actual mental breakdowns experienced by her. We get to read about her illness from the personal accounts of close friends, boyfriends, colleagues and family as well as by the author's own hand in the form of articles that she wrote for The Illustrated Weekly. It helps build a lot of understanding of what she went through and how hard she tried to overcome her mental illness, without medication. 

5. We also see how certain people exploited her struggles and trauma by not only talking about it to others in the film industry without her consent but also making a film based on her struggles with mental illness. Yes, I am looking at you, Mahesh Bhatt. Shame on you! I can never ever have any fond feelings for Arth after reading about how it impacted poor Parveen Babi! 

I cannot imagine what it must have done to her already fragile psyche, to have a film that laid bare her very personal and difficult struggles for everyone to see and draw inferences about her, her character and her mental state. It made me so mad to imagine a former lover, taking deeply traumatic and personal experiences and milking them for fame and getting some sort of a free pass at doing so, in the name of art. It's not art, it's not cinema, if it comes at the cost of someone else's tragedy. And the thing that really, really irks me is the total lack of consent involved in this entire process. From what I understand, at no point did Mr. Bhatt take Babi's consent for making said film. He only told her not to watch it, since she wouldn't like it or be upset by it. So what?! He gave her some kind of a trigger warning for her own life story? Really? 

When Arth was released, Babi was still very much working actively in Bollywood and she was trying to re-establish herself as a bankable leading lady. So, to have this film paint her as this unstable wrecker of homes was in such poor taste. And it undid one and half years of diligent effort put in by Babi to be seen as a reliable, professional, bankable leading lady after a very public and talked about mental breakdown. 

Just no. 
And to think this man went on to make two other films about her. 
It's not OK. 

I get that the time he spent with her and the experiences he had were a part of his story too, and perhaps those were his experiences to share as well. However, it still reeks of exploitation and opportunism and a desperate attempt made by a man to milk the struggles and tragedy of a vulnerable woman to prop up his failing career. 

6. The book also tries to piece together some parts of the five years in the late 80s when Parveen had fallen off the radar of her family and friends. What little we do come to know is heartbreaking. The last few chapters of the book, the ones dealing with her last years were also heartbreaking and poignant, and very well done. 

7. As someone who's a trained Clinical Psychologist and has worked in psychiatric wards, it was especially hard to read about how rapidly Babi's mental illness devolved and derailed her life. Schizophrenia is often made out to be this big bad wolf of an illness, a death sentence, a point of no return and that's not always true. Babi's biggest tragedy perhaps is her own unwillingness to trust modern medicine and doctors. Her refusal to take her medicines made her illness an all-consuming beast. Her life, her career, her relationships were all destroyed by the hellfire of her mistrust of medical science. Her life could have been so different had she let her loved ones get her proper help to battle her illness. 

Rating: 4/5 

I highly recommend this book and I enjoyed it immensely. 
So good!