Reading on a Rainy Day

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Showing posts from January, 2013

The Week in Books (1/14 - 1/27 2013)

Last week has been one of the busiest for me at work. I usually never find the need to work more than eight hours a day, but I ended putting in more than that each day this past week, after one of my colleagues resigned. That cut into my blogging time, but I managed to read a good bit. This week I read... - The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis: I picked this one up after all the hype that has been following this book ever since it was chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one much. There were just too many narrators and the ending felt too weak for me to appreciate this book. - The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal: A month after popping the first disc into my car stereo, I finally finished this book. Being a long book and being about a character I fervently disliked, The Man in the Rockefeller Suit turned out to be a challenging book to listen to. Although I enjoyed the book as a whole, I felt that the execution could have be

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Children don’t require of their parents a past and they find something faintly unbelievable, almost embarrassing, in parental claims to a prior existence. Sixteen-year old Laurel Nicolson had just gone up to her tree house, to get away from the bustling household and to dream about her crush, when she sees something terrifying - a strange man walking up their driveway, greeting her mom and then her mother kills the man with a knife. Fifty years later, Laurel is a successful actress and the second most popular face in the country when she returns back to her ancestral town, where her mother is dying in a hospital. Revisiting the home that she grew up in brings to surface all those memories from that dark year when she witnessed the crime. Now, more than ever, she wants to find out what happened that day and why her usually cheerful mother committed an act she couldn't fathom. What she discovers, however, is a whole strange world of the 1940s about which not all she learns put

The Week in Books (1/1 - 1/13 2013)

So far 2013 has started out well for me. At least, for the first time in over a year, my Goodreads reading challenge widget tells be that I am 1 book ahead. I randomly set 50 as my target for the year, but I expect the actual number may be higher because I am listening to a lot of audiobooks currently. I'm beginning to love listening to nonfiction in the car, especially narrative nonfiction, so I've been eagerly looking at my library catalogs for the next read. This week I read... - The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton: I know Morton has many fans and I've always wanted to read one of her books, but it took a book club monthly read to finally get me to pick one of her books. I have to say - I absolutely loved The Secret Keeper , which has quite an intriguing suspense and managed to be a page-turner right to the last page. - Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool: I picked this one mainly because Vanderpool won the Newbery Award a year or two back and I have pretty good

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

The doctors don’t actually know how it began for me. What’s clear is that if that man had sneezed on you, you’d most likely just get a cold. For me, it flipped my universe upside down and very nearly sent me to an asylum for life. It all probably started with a bedbug scare, Susannah Cahalan feels. One day, she sees bite/itch marks on her arms and that makes her obsessively fear that the parasites have taken up residence in her New York City apartment, even though thorough examinations by a licensed exterminator turned up nothing. Gradually, her persona changes subtly, when she starts exhibiting excessive mirth alternating with fear and gloominess. She begins to feel incompetent and diffident in her career and feels that the colors in her vision are enhanced. Then she has a seizure. What follows is a month of wrong diagnoses, almost-schizophrenic symptoms, aggression, while the doctors almost give up on her. More than two years ago, when my brother was hospitalized after suffe

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Above the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition in fact became an almost Calvinistic undertaking. The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace. Ever since the idea of conquering Mount Everest rose in the minds of adventure-seekers, there have been countless number of people who have either attempted or even climbed this Hulk among mountains. Many have died too, chasing this risky dream. But among the many tragic incidents that happened up there, one of the most infamous was that which happened on May 10-11, 1996 when eight people died during summit attempts under worsening blizzard conditions. There were multiple expeditions attempting to climb the summit during

Ten non-pressure bookish hopes for 2013

As usual, towards the end of 2012, I started thinking about what I want to do in 2013, from the bookish perspective - resolutions, challenges, reading projects. I love making resolutions, especially resolutions that involve making lists and plans and charts and notes. It is just fun spending some time and brain on making a list of books to read for a challenge. Unfortunately, that's where the fun ends. Once the list is made, I get eye sores from having to peer at it to figure out my next read. It becomes homework. Or housework. Ever since I started doing challenges three years ago, I have done poorly on completing them. The only times I did do a reading project well was when it didn't involve schedules (been on three readalongs and failed in them) or lists (my failed attempts at reading Orange Prize winners). My only favorable statistic is that of reading double the number of books for a Graphic Novel challenge. So rather than deciding on a huge list of things that I w

Five books I read in 2012 (that I want you to read!)

2012 has been one of my slowest reading years, but interestingly, it has also been one of my best in terms of the quality of books (by my yardstick). I guess when you have reduced time to read, you are probably "wiser" or choosier in deciding what to read. Also, you tend to be more willing to give up on a book, if it isn't working for you. I stopped counting the number of DNFs last year, because unlike in previous years, I was quick to put down a book, even 5 or 10 pages in. As a result, it was very hard to come up with a list of favorites. I eventually managed to whittle down my list to five books I really want you to read - four favorites and one special mention! The Favorites Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer: I haven't reviewed this one yet, but I promise to do it soon! This real-life narrative about a tragedy that unfolded on the peak of Mt. Everest intrigued, shocked, frightened and educated me so much that I still think about its "characters" a

Happy New Year!

I hope you all have a wonderful, happy and safe 2013! 2012 has been a mixed year for me - it has been a year of firsts and changes for me but there have been plenty of sad moments too. I hope 2013 has no frown moments and only great times. Plus, I hope to read more. :) I can't wait to resume blogging after enjoying a nice long holiday!