Reading on a Rainy Day

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Showing posts from May, 2011

The Long Weekend beckons

Where I'm going to be this weekend... ( Picture Source ) What I'm going to be doing... ( Picture Source ) Well, not really - I thought it will be more snazzy to show a surfer than a smiling tourist. Even though I love beaches and the vast expanse of water, I'm mortally terrified of going more than a few feet past the shore, unless I'm cocooned safely in a boat that's not the Titanic. I should say though, I am looking forward to some jet skiing and parasailing. Couple of my friends and I are heading down to Myrtle Beach on Saturday, where we'll spend the next 2-3 days. I'll be back home only by late Monday, which means I'm going to be off blogging for a few days too. I don't have any blog posts scheduled, since I don't usually do that, so I might just be offline until Tuesday/Wednesday. What I'm going to read... Oh and books! Is it even legal to go on a vacation without books? I've checked out a few ebooks from two of my

The London Train by Tessa Hadley

Without asking, he put on the news on the television in her bare white sitting room, stood watching it while swallowing his gin, swishing the ice cubes round in his glass, grunting ironically at something political, which of course he would know all about from the inside. Was she supposed to stand around waiting in her own house, while he caught up on the latest scandal? Even before Tessa Hadley's The London Train got on to the Orange Prize longlist, I told Trish of TLC Book Tours that I simply had to read it. And as I sat here waiting for my copy, I found that made it to the longlist and even though I hadn't yet read it, was hoping to see it on the shortlist as well. That didn't happen, but I was still glad to finally start reading this very literary book last week. The London Train is actually two short stories in one book. Or as is the trend now with short stories - two seemingly unconnected stories which are irrevocably connected.

Armchair BEA Intl giveaway (Catherine Fisher's The Dark City)

(This giveaway is closed. Thanks for stopping by!) I happened to receive two ARCs of Catherine Fisher's book one of the Relic Master series - The Dark City and ONE copy is looking for a new home. So, as part of Armchair BEA , I have decided to give this copy away to one lucky reader. To enter, simply fill the form below. I'll be closing this giveaway on Saturday Monday 11.59 p.m. US Eastern time, and will announce the winner using the always-dependable services of random.org. To enter, You don't have to be a follower of my blog. You must be over 13 years of age. International . Enter by May 28, 2011 , Saturday, May 30, 2011 , Monday, 11.59 p.m. US Eastern time. Fill the form.

Grooving in my Armchair during BEA

Welcome to the second Armchair BEA ! Last year, I participated in this awesome event and am even more excited about it this year. This is where I primarily blog about the books I love - mainly literary fiction titles - and occasionally, it's also the place where I share my bookish thoughts. The organizers of Armchair BEA want to know more about me and how I armchair! I can rattle on and on, on my blog (do I even know what a full-stop is?) about anything under the sun, but talking about myself. Gulp! Aren't we humans a really grand bunch of modest people? Why would we ever want to talk about ourselves? Guess what the toughest essay I ever wrote was? Yes, the About Me section of this blog. I wrote it at the beginning of last year and then quietly ignored that portion of the blog where it is nestled. Ignorance is truly bliss! This year, I tackled it once more. Let me tell you the number of coffee cups I had to devour just to get through it. Two... Three... Fo

The Sunday Salon (To read or not to read) -- May 22, 2011

Around evening yesterday, I just received this email from the Overdrive department of my library. The following title is now available for check out and will be held for you for 4 days from the time this email was sent: A Visit from the Goon Squad by: Jennifer Egan Adobe EPUB eBook Yay?? I don't even remember when I requested the book. It probably was during the time when this book was beginning to be talked about and it may or may not have won the Pulitzer. There was still a lot of buzz around it and I imagined then that it may not even be a theme that I'd feel intimate with. But I was all for exploring beyond my reading boundaries and so I requested this ebook from my library. I believe the waiting list on overdrive was about 7 or 8 at the time; at my library, it was much more than that. Not one to willingly be in the dark when the whole world was "apparently" reading a much-talked about book, I jumped into the pool. And then the dra

Five books that have me gaga-eyed right now

It's been a while since I did a Mailbox Monday kind of post. Mostly, it's because I gave up on regularly tracking books. I love coming home every evening to packages at my doorstep, and then I spend some time staring at the book, reading a page, and trying to remember how the book came to land at my door. But opening my spreadsheet and keeping track of the books... yawn! Spreadsheet? What spreadsheet? I eventually do get to it, but by then the moment has passed, it's all business and schedules then, so blogging about the books doesn't come to mind. In addition, an overdose of ARC titles sends me off to the library often. I do end up doing a better job of reading the library books probably because they aren't restricted by schedules and usually I just read them right away. That said, I was looking at the books in my immediate pile and decided that I was in a mood to showcase them. I won't be getting to any of the books for another two weeks (because their rel

Leif Reads: Rounding up a fun farm read

Every month, Ash and I are going to focus on one eco-related book for Leif Reads. To see what this feature is all about, visit this page . Our current read is Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry . I wrote this post for last Friday, but Blogger's epic meltdown made the posting impossible and then I was out most weekend. Besides, I typed up this post on a laptop with a dead battery and an adaptor that's terribly quirky so this post is pretty short. This is mostly a round-up post. Much has been said over the past few weeks on this book - Ash has already posted on her thoughts about this book and about visiting a farm or farmer's market . As for the city-dwelling yours truly, I talked earlier about how novel it feels for me to read a book about farming and agriculture and about the wonderful topics the author, Michael Perry, talks about. For a memoir and a farming book, Coop is certainly entertaining, funny, and also, interesting

Announcing.... Shantaram Read-along

At the start of this year, I made a commitment to read at least 5 books from my PIE list . Since that's not going too well (yet), I won't bring your attention to that just now. One of the books in that list is Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts . My first introduction to that book was when I saw my roommate in India read that HUGE book at a bookstore. She eventually completed it and raved about it, enough to make me curious and still petrified at the thought of going through such a huge tome. So then Helen mentioned that she would be interested in reading it too, and soon we made a pact to read it over the summer. So, tada, we're holding the Shantaram read-along this summer! Helen made this reading schedule that I have posted below: June 1 to 8--Chapters 1 through 4 June 8 to 15--Chapters 5 through 9 June 15 to 22--Chapters 10 through 14 June 22 to 29--Chapters 15 through 19 June 29 to July 6--Chapters 20 through 23 July 6 to 13--Chapters 24 through 27 July

Breezing through with some quick reviews (Kira-Kira, Coraline, Wherever Nina Lies)

In April, I started squeezing in some short reads or books worthy of being branded guilt-pleasure by the likes of me who see mainly huge or deep tomes on my nightstand every day. I often feel a craving for something light, but I rarely give in to it because, I would already have about 10+ books on my to-read-next list. I quite enjoyed this branching out, besides it did put me sooner on track for the next big book! But since they are mostly light reads, I figured a quick short review would suffice. Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata ( WOW! ): I first heard of this book on Candace's Beth Fish Reads . I already loved the sound of this book when I saw it a few days later at my library. And I think it's highly unfair of me to write a mini review for this one, since I absolutely LOVED this book. The main character, Katie, is probably one of my favorites among young bookish characters. Her innocence is so characteristic of children her age, which essentially means that for grownu

Yet another Monday! (May 16, 2011)

Sheila @ One Persons Journey through a world of Books wants to know what we're reading. I'm only too happy to oblige! Last couple of weeks, I barely read a word, mainly because there was a lot happening at my end , and also because I did get into a reading rut (could be the wet weather or the reading pressure ). So, rather than brood about it, I just let myself take a break. I may still not be ready to be back, but I sure as heck am excited about some of the books that I want to read. Books completed since the last update The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg : Teen-angst is the best medicine to reading ruts, in my case. I definitely enjoyed this read a lot. Though some parts were a bit cheesy, it was still entertaining. Vietnamerica: A Family's Leavetakings and Homecomings by GB Tr

The Sunday Salon (Getting into the swing of things) -- May 15, 2011

It's been a while since I blogged. Probably not that long since I checked out my Google Reader, but I do feel that I've been absent for a week at least. There has been quite a lot of things happening over at my place, starting with the death of my laptop battery. I have to keep shaking the laptop, move the lid forward and backward, do some funny dances once in a while, change my seating position, maybe even yell in frustration because I can ooze some charge into the battery. While I'm waiting for the replacement to arrive, it is no fun doing any antics on this screen. ( Picture source ) And then, it was a Spring Cleaning week. I can't believe the stuff that comes out of every corner of my house. Stuff I never knew I possessed. Taking a leaf out of Ash 's book, I bagged a lot of clothes that I haven't worn in a year. There's still more that I expect to bag later. But I already feel better about my slimmer fitter ap