Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2016

Character Interview (Running to Stand Still by Lauren Rosolino)

Title: Running to Stand Still Author: Lauren Rosolino Genre: New Adult Romance

Having read, enjoyed, and reviewed Lauren Rosolino's Running to Stand Still, I felt like I knew the characters. But I still had many questions for them.
Running to Stand Still is the story of Jaime and her family. Her family the very foundation of which got disturbed the night her mother, Amy left them.
Amy didn't get to say much in the book. Her point of view was never really explained. And yet, the author wrote about her in a way that I had a soft corner for her. 
Here are my questions to her and her answers.

Hi, Amy. I know it was not easy for you to leave. The very fact that you made your last evening with your family special, says a lot. Was it worth it, the leaving?
Yes. It took a long time for me to make the decision to leave. I didn't take it lightly. I struggled with it a lot. to this day, I regret that I had to walk away, that I had to hurt the people that I loved so much just so I could breat…
Post a Comment
Read more

Varied thoughts, Different Perspective (Book Review: Thousand Unspoken Thoughts by Prerna Khatri)

Title: Thousand Unspoken Thoughts Author: Prerna Khatri Genre: Poetry
Prerna Khatri's collection of poems, Thousand Unspoken Thoughts are truly many thoughts entwined.  These poems talk about varied topics, exploring introspection, love, silence, and more.
Prerna Khatri's poems are usually abstract, but there are others which almost tell a story. Some are very short (5-6 lines), others run for a couple of pages. Some poems talk of hope that lift your spirits, others have a lingering darkness that could haunt the reader.
The interesting thing about this is that you have no idea what you will encounter next. The poems go from sweet to passionate to introspective to spiritual to dark to self-congratulatory to inspiring, and even a soldier's voice.

The poems talk about love, finding self, looking within, spiritualism, and more. There are hope and introspection and darkness. The darkness was a surprise, I have to say. Surprising, and so well expressed too.
Love, passion, and silence are su…
Post a Comment
Read more

A touching story of struggle and hope (Book Review: Akash Verma's A Broken Man)

Title: A Broken Man Author: Akash Verma
A Broken Man is the story of Krishna and Chhavi.
Krishna, the guileless, Dalit boy, who has dreams. He has experienced too many harsh realities of life to be openly ambitious. But he has dreams, and sensitivity, and talent. "My dreams are like a fire burning inside my heart."
Chhavi, the daughter of a powerful politician, belongs to high caste. She has had a sheltered enough life to naively believe that she can change the world. (This perception of Chhavi is the realist/cynic in me talking.)
A Broken Man starts in the glittering world of Bollywood, soon to go back in time to Lucknow University.
Through the words of Krishna, the author has portrayed the convoluted issues of politics and caste and caste politics with a surprising simplicity. "It's only here unlike any other place in the world that you are born with two identities - your religion and your caste. You may not have a name, but you will have this identity sticking to you lik…
1 comment
Read more

Book Review: Wrong Means Right End by Varsha Dixit

Title: Wrong Means Right End Author: Varsha Dixit Genre: Contemporary Romance
The second story of love and friendship in the 'Right Wrong Series' by Varsha Dixit is Wrong Means Right End.
As I was reading the Right Fit Wrong Shoe, I was wondering what Wrong Means Right End would be about. I hadn't read the blurb. I had thought that had Sneha not been married, it could have been about her finding love. Well, Sneha was married. Now she is not.
Ok, back to the beginning...
Wrong Means Right End is the story of Sneha, a happily divorced single mother, and Nikhil, who made a fleeting appearance in the previous book.  When the two meet for the first time in this book, it is not a good start for them. There are antagonism and awkwardness. The apparent dislike between the two, and the obvious attraction make for a perfect kick-off for a story of romance.
Nikhil is good looking and filthy rich, just as Aditya in Right Fit Wrong Shoe.
Sneha's best friend, Nandini had been united with the l…
Post a Comment
Read more

A Fun Read (Book Review: Varsha Dixit's Right Fit Wrong Shoe)

Title: Right Fit Wrong Shoe Author: Varsha Dixit Genre: Contemporary Romance
Varsha Dixit's Right Fit Wrong Shoe is the story of Nandini Sharma and Aditya Sarin. The two share a history and are meeting again after over three years as the story begins.

Nandini's chemistry with her best friends, Sneha Verma is also an important and engaging aspect of this book.
The two friends work in an advertising agency.

Nandini seems to be content with her life.
"I just want to live my life the way it is happening. I do not want to expect, plan or steer it in any direction."

Based in the city of Kanpur, the author has given a truly Indian setting to this story.
Issues like sexual harrasment that affect us in our day-to-day life have been woven into the story.

Right Fit Wrong Shoe has been on my to-read list since I read Varsha Dixit's Only Wheat Not White. 
Once I had the third in the 'Right Wrong Series' - Rightfully Wrong Wrongfully Right in my hand, I just had to read the first…
Post a Comment
Read more

Introspective Quotes from Aarti V Raman's Kingdom Come

Title: Kingdom Come Author: Aarti V Raman Genre: Fiction (Romance, Thriller)
"He didn't believe in either heaven or hell... But he did believe, absolutely, in right and wrong. In truth. In justice. And in freedom. He believed in choice. He believed that we all got exactly what we wanted, because we chose it."
"The Woodpecker The bird that chipped and chipped away at the branch in a tree to make a nest for herself and her chicks."
"Kids who bounced from foster home to foster home, learnt the value of being grounded to places rather than people early on in life. Places that you had been to, places that you dreamed about, were something else altogether. They were permanent. They were forever."
"Serendipity. When all the stars in the universe conspired to give you the very thing you wanted."
Tibet:  "If there was ever a place on earth that whispered peace and serenity, it was here."
Click for My Review of Kingdom Come
Post a Comment
Read more

Fun Quotes from Kiran Manral's Once Upon a Crush

Title: Once Upon A Crush Author: Kiran Manral Genre: Fiction (Romantic Comedy)

"What do butterflies get in their stomachs when they get nervous..."
"Maybe we humans needed to take lessons from the animal kingdom where all females were busy playing Prove Your Love with the Hapless males of their species before they consented to get down and dirty with them."
"Maybe marriage was a communicable disease."
"Complicated happens when bodily fluids are exchanged on a regular basis."
"... the funny wigs that airhostesses wore as part of their uniform, making them look like they were the airhostess version of Oompaloompas having emerged out of some cookie cutter airhostess factory run by Willi Wonka..."
"The scariest thing about growing up must be the realization that one's parents are closer to their date with mortality than one would like."
Click for My Review of Kiran Manral's Once Upon a Crush
Post a Comment
Read more

Inspirational Quotes from Priyanka Sinha Jha's Supertraits of Superstars

Quotes from  Priyanka Sinha Jha's Supertraits of Superstars

Title: Supertraits of Superstars Author: Priyanka Sinha Jha Genre: Non-fiction / Self-help

"Success can be as difficult to process and assimilate as a failure and rejection."
"It is the little things we do that make a big difference in how people perceive us."
"Money is a by-product of one's passion."
"When there is intense criticism, people tend to either shape up or ship out."
"Only a person standing in a valley truly appreciates the height of the mountain before him."
"A true master is one who imparts his secrets without fear that his student might surpass him."


Click for My Review of Priyanka Sinha Jha's Supertraits of Superstars
Post a Comment
Read more