Divergent by Veronica Roth

Somewhere inside me is a merciful, forgiving person. Somewhere there is a girl who tries to understand what people are going through, who accepts that people do evil things and that desperation leads them to darker places than they ever imagined. I swear she exists, and she hurts for the repentant boy I see in front of me.

But if I saw her, I wouldn't recognize her.

Beatrice is nervous. She has a test coming up soon. The test. The test that will determine her future. On a particular day each year, all sixteen-year olds have to take a test that will find the dominant quality they possess and thus find the faction that best suits them. A day after the test, they have to make their choice. If they choose a different faction from the one they were born in, they cannot return back or meet their parents. Beatrice's test doesn't go as expected, forcing her to keep a secret, and she ends up making a choice that surprises everyone. However, when she begins to hear hints of a growing conflict, her secret becomes suddenly life-threatening and she has to do something to save herself.

Finally, the review I've been writing in my head for two months but have been really reluctant to translate that to paper (or bytes). I almost feel like I'm standing among a sparse group of people on one side of the fence facing a huge fanbase who loved this book. Honestly, I found just one other person on my Goodreads friends' list who rated this book at 2 stars, everyone else gave it 4 or 5. I'm bordering at 3. You see, I didn't get the appeal of this series. At all. And that was quite disappointing because it is being touted as the next Hunger Games phenomenon, and I loved the Hunger Games series! Just recently, soon after the release of the first HG book, someone in the publishing industry was asked what next after the entire HG movies were released. And he pointed at the Divergent trilogy. I could only look down disappointed. (I wish I had noted down who said this, but right now you only have my word here and it's true.)

Divergent is the first book in yet another YA dystopian trilogy in a market that now seems saturated with them. I love me some good dystopia. I love watching dystopian movies and I like imagining all the possible ways the world can reach a state of utter chaos and mismanagement. (That makes me better appreciate today's world as we know it.) Divergent is actually good. It invests in the concept of a test to determine one's true calling but hides that behind the idea that the individual always has choice in the matter. Quite unlike The Giver, in which what you were deemed good at becomes your job for life, but still not too different for me to not raise my eyebrows. There are five factions in Divergent - each valuing a particular trait - truth, insane daredevilry bravery, selflessness, knowledge, peace. Obviously, there are people who do not fit in either. They become the homeless who have to live on other people's kindness (usually those of the Abnegation faction). And then there are people who spoiler... mumble ... spoiler. As our heroine of this trilogy is.

My big issue with the book is that I felt the author was trying too hard to create the dystopian world. Unlike many other utopian and dystopian lit I have come across, this world never quite felt natural to me. A lot of the elements felt too convenient, and so much goes unexplained, violating the 'Show, Don't Tell' adage. I was reminded of too many other books while reading this one. I am by no means saying that the idea isn't original. It is, to a limit. I just felt that I had read other better similar books, especially The Giver and The Hunger Games. I ended up feeling that the world was standing on some weak stilts. Even the conflict at the end felt artificial and its motivation felt very weak. Although there were very vague hints of some impending danger, the conflict felt to me to have come out of nowhere - without sufficient buildup and anticipation. I guess I could say that it felt more like a terrorist attack than a planned war. But at the same time, knowing something about the coming conflict, spoiled the element of surprise that terrorism usually brings.

As is customary now in YA dystopia, there is some romance too. Actually, cross that. There is just a little more romance than I felt comfortable with. Which is okay. I've never enjoyed the fixation with romance in YA books, but its presence didn't really bother me because I expected it. What did bother me was how lame it all sounded. There is an unapproachable guy who is up to his forehead full of secrets and we have a heroine who is feeling somewhat attracted to that image. Ring a bell, anyone? At one point, the romance felt too sugary and eye-rubbing for me to even enjoy it.

I did like (a little) Beatrice's character. I didn't care for any of the other characters - almost all of them felt very flat to me. I initially felt guilty that I was again being too demanding of strong characters before I remembered that there are other YA books with strong characters. I liked Beatrice because of the reason I like a woman/girl character - she is independent, thinks for herself, can protect herself. I also liked the whole training session in the book - there are skills to be learned and the competitors are ranked by their performance. A little game in any book is always welcome.

I should probably end my review now, lest I get some tomatoes hauled at my face. If you haven't read this book yet, you may not need to take my opinion here. There are PLENTY of readers who loved it, which makes me the oddball, something that rarely happens with dystopia. Last weekend, I went and picked up Insurgent (the second book in the trilogy), because that's how confused I am about my reading choices, but I am yet to open a page of that book. I am thinking it is something I could read over the weekend in a couple of sittings, just to know what happens, but unless Insurgent does the Divergent formula a little better, I may not find my thoughts on that book any different.


I borrowed this book from the good old library.

Fleeting thoughts (Number the Stars / Bud, not Buddy / The Lonely Hearts Club)

Since I'm way behind on reviews and don't have much to say about these three books, I'm doing some blazing fast reviews, focusing on just what-it's-about and what-it-made-me-feel and did-I-like-it. Couple of them - Number the Stars and Bud, not Buddy are Newbery Medal winners and focused on a younger audience than The Lonely Hearts Club. They cannot be more different in theme and focus, but I enjoyed all three of them.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry: This is probably one of the most well-known Newbery Medal winners out there. (Maybe I say that because it's the first Newbery Medal winner that I heard of, but I do know that this is quite a popular book.) Number the Stars follows ten-year old Annemarie and her best friend, Ellen, who is Jewish. Their native country - Denmark - has surrendered to the Nazis and these two girls miss life before the Nazis' arrival. However, Jewish people in their town are slowly disappearing - relocated by the Nazis and Anne's family wants to protect Ellen and her parents from that option. Ellen soon moves in with Anne's family and pretends to be one of them. Except it isn't as easy as it sounds, because Nazi soldiers come knocking and want to capture the missing Jew families.

Number the Stars was a refreshing read. I didn't love it, but I definitely enjoyed reading it. The WW2 and the "relocation" of the Jews is an entirely different matter reading from the perspective of a child. The focus is less on hardships and more on a child's perception of the change in circumstances. The Afterword contained some valuable tidbits of history and I loved learning about how many Danes were involved in protecting and hiding several Jews and helping them to Sweden.

Number the Stars won the Newbery medal in 1990.

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Curtis: Set during the Depression era, Bud (not Buddy, as he keeps reminding people) decides that he has had enough of foster homes and plans to escape from his current one when the foster parents ill-treat him. He is never seen without his suitcase, in which are things that remind him of his mother, who died four years ago. In this suitcase are a bunch of flyers that mention a bandleader, who he assumes to be his father. On he goes on a journey to find his father, and on the way, he meets some really quirky interesting characters.

I listened to Bud, Not Buddy during my road trip to Raleigh couple of weeks ago. And I found that this was a perfect book to listen to. The narrator does a fab job of mimicking the characters and there are some really laugh-out-loud moments. It was funny, light and full of genuine innocence. I admired Bud quite a bit and loved how he has been creating a set of "Bud Caldwall's Rules and Things to have a Funner life and Make a Better Liar Out of Yourself". These rules are really gems - stuff we know instinctively but never appreciate, such as how when someone says 'didn't you hear?', they really mean 'I have some bad news for you', and so on. I was surprised that by the age of ten, he already had made a ton of rules, but then he has been living on his own or in foster homes for quite a while. Bud has a ten-year old's innocence, such as when he meets a man on the road and sees blood bags in his car, he assumes that man is a vampire. All in all, this was a terrific book! And fun to listen on audio, for all you audiogeeks out there!

Bud, Not Buddy won the Newbery medal in 2000.

The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg: Penny had all sorts of wonderful plans for a life with her boyfriend, until she walked into him cheating on her. Now she is sick of boys and has completely sworn off dating and boys. There are some of her friends who scoff at her initially, but soon most of the girls want a part of it. Soon, they are the new club - The Lonely Hearts Club - which is getting the boys frustrated and the girls more independent. Except, now there is this one guy that she really likes.

I won this book at Kathy's Bermudaonion's Weblog last year and have since been eager to read it, especially after the many raving reviews I've come across. After being disappointed by a string of young adult novels, I was worried that I won't enjoy this one either, but surprisingly, it worked really well for me. I guess the main reason is The Lonely Hearts Club features a genuinely strong female character, who isn't thinking solely about boys or obsessing about appearance most of the time. I know these two are pivotal themes of high school, but that sometimes tends to come out as shallow in books. I found this book very enjoyable - the kind of book that shows a lot of girl power and you love it for that reason and for everything else the characters do. No, this isn't any hard message kind of book - just a usual girl who's heartbroken after her boyfriend cheated on her, and then she decides to swear off boys. Her parents also happen to be crazy fans of The Beatles, as in, ultra- uber- insanely-crazy, and so there are plenty of music references too.

From the PIE list: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (Book n Movie Review)

(Beware... long review on the way!)

This is one of those books that languished in the famous TBR, and would have remained there longer, if not for the fact that suddenly I began to see this title all over the blogosphere last month. And so I picked this one, already well aware of the debate around this book - something about a shocker happening at some point, a genuinely moving perspective vs an outrageously immature narrator. So, I should admit that some of my motivation to read this book was to find out what the whole debate was about, the same way you go to read a controversial article just to know what everyone in Twitter is ranting about. And that probably ended up coloring my reaction to this book as well, or maybe I might have still received the book in the same way. I wanted to review this one right after I read it, but eventually I decided to unconsciously or semi-consciously let my mind dwell on this book and figure out how exactly I felt.

Bruno, a German boy, returns home one day to find his maid, Maria packing his stuff. His mother explains that they are temporarily moving to another house, a fact that saddens Bruno heavily since he will miss all his friends and his big home with so many floors. His parents, his sister, Gretel (who Bruno considers a hopeless case), and their support staff move to their new, much smaller house. Bruno is very disappointed with his new place - especially the lack of friends and the fact that there's not much to explore around. That changes though when he finds a way out to the distant camp that he can see from his window, where he becomes friends with another boy named Shmuel.

Bruno is a nine-year old child. Except, he doesn't act it. He was too innocent for his age, which is fine, because isn't innocence a good thing? Probably, he is too naive and there are kids like that too. So I was fine with accepting that Bruno acts younger than his age, except that there are times he acts too old as well. And that's when it started bothering me. I couldn't make sense of him. Even quirkiness and eccentricity are character attributes, but in this case, it just wasn't that. I didn't feel that the author did a great job with his character. It appeared to me that Bruno was just a tool to move the story along and he behaves differently each time based on how the story should move.

When Bruno moves into his new home, he is very happy that he has a window in his room, but when he looks out through it, he sees a "farm" in the distance with thousands and thousands of people, all wearing the same pajama clothes. But when he asks his parents about it, they are very tight-lipped. His father talks in circles about humans vs non-humans, while his mother is very disapproving. I found it very hard to accept that the two parents who wanted to shield Bruno from the great tragedy outside, would give him the room that provides a free first class ticket to the camp and its inmates. When I watched this on the movie, the camp is shown to be really far away and the inmates inscrutable, which was far more sensible.

Bruno loves exploring. That's what he wants to do when he grows up. And so, he manages to leave his home under the eye of his family and the many soldiers in there, and go exploring, until he reaches the camp where Shmuel, a Jewish boy is sitting, unwatched by anyone. This is clearly the Auschwitz camp. It's never stated directly, but there are plenty of hints pointing in that direction. The two boys begin a hesitant friendship and continue meeting each other at the same place almost every day. It's pretty hard to believe that there is a section of the camp unmonitored by the guards and where the shocker happens.

I have to say - this is a case where I truly enjoyed the movie and didn't like the book at all. For one thing, Bruno acts more his age in the movie. Many of the loose ends are nicely patched in the movie, while in the book, they are left to interpretation and in at least one case, made very ambiguous. I quite enjoy books with open endings, so long as they are presented as meant-to-be-left-unsolved-by-the-author. I did find that a good thing in the book, because we see things through Bruno's eyes who doesn't understand a lot of it, but we try to put things together based on his observations.

In the next paragraph, I drop a spoiler BOMB, so if you plan to read the book some time, I would advise skipping the next paragraph. (I usually don't put up spoilers in my reviews, but in this one case, it was hard to discuss this book without mentioning it.)

***Spoiler starts***
The shocker - I saw it coming very early. Once I knew there was something going to happen, I couldn't imagine anything but that happening. It still felt very sad and disturbing. As I said, it felt very unbelievable that there was a section of the fence that was open, that the two boys kept meeting each other for days without anyone finding about it, and that Shmuel could easily get supplies for Bruno. Still, it's a story. And then Bruno manages to get in, and right at that point, there's a march called. This somehow didn't go with what I'd read about how those going to be killed were chosen. Still, it's possible that exceptions were made or the kids entered the wrong group. I thought the movie again handled this particular scene better - I was able to assume that the selection (of who's going to die) was made and then the boys entered the group before every one was taken to the chambers.

Definitely a lot of assumptions.
***Spoiler ends***

I would be lying though if I didn't say that I was moved by this book. Even if I found the plot highly manipulating and unbelievable, the elements that the author meant to tackle were well presented - especially that kids, who were just beginning to understand the world and who had a totally different lens through which they looked at others and made decisions - kids like Bruno and Shmuel - were still victims of the war in different ways. I appreciated how he showed that their rules for friends is so very different from an adult's. That actually took me back to my war-free school years, when I would have arguments with my parents on who can or cannot be my friend. I basically liked how he put an everyday child into one of history's most tragic event and showed how the child will still remain a child.

But... there's only so much suspending of belief that I can do.

Over the past few weeks, after seeing this book on many blogs, I've read plenty of varying viewpoints. It's a great thing that a book can be discussed this much and raise different sentiments in different people. I did try to accept that this was a book written for a young audience and maybe some tightening was needed. But then I read Number the Stars the very next week, and that made that assumption moot. Besides, I would even question whether this book can be grasped all that well by a young audience, because there are a lot of assumptions made and nothing is told straight - some knowledge of WW2 and the holocaust is needed.

I borrowed this book from the library and rented the movie from Netflix.

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 grownups like me, she is too funny without even trying. You know how that goes? A kid comes and asks this seemingly challenging question about monsters because the kid really wants to know the answer, and all we can do is try not to laugh because we haven't heard something funnier in our life! That said, Kira-Kira is not a funny book, nor is it meant to be. Katie is finding her life slipping away - her sister, Lynn, is very sick. Her parents are trying to do everything for Lynn and working harder and longer to pay the medical bills, leaving Katie feel uncared for. She also has a younger brother who has to be looked after. But, she doesn't have a selfish bone in her body and wants to do all she can to help Lynn recover soon.

Kira-Kira (which means glittering in Japanese) spans a few years in little Katie's life, showing her troubles and challenges. Moreover, Katie's family is of Japanese descent. And in post-WW2, that means being at the very bottom of the social ladder. The Japanese families mostly stick among themselves, but we still see a lot of prejudice through Katie's eyes. Even though I mentioned earlier how much I laughed, her innocence is such that I felt truly indignant, helpless and angry at all the bad stuff this girl had to see. I loved this book a lot and although I'm not dedicating a full review to this book, I hope you'll all pick it up.

Kira-Kira won the Newbery medal in 2005.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman: I've never read a Neil Gaiman book before this, though I'd had plenty of opportunity for it. I picked a couple of his books from the library a few weeks back and this was the first one I decided to read. Possibly because it's reeeaally small? Which it is, and it reads real fast too. Coraline finds a locked door in her new home which leads to nowhere. There's just a blank wall behind it. But one day when her parents were away, she opened the door and what do you know, there's a whole passageway behind. So off she goes and discovers that the place looks just like her real home and that there are people there. People who are not really people but people-like people with button eyes. They also happen to have the same appearance as her mother, her father and her neighbors. There is even a talking cat that looks just like the cat back in the real world. She calls them other people (other-mother, other-father, etc). When she comes back to the real world, her parents are gone and she knows that the other people in the other world have hidden her real parents.

Coraline was a cute read and I know why Neil Gaiman's books sell. He writes about a magical world in a very intriguing way. There is some darkness but there is some innocence too. But, it didn't really hold my attention much - I guess because I always knew it was going to be a happy ending and the magical world didn't attract me much. Still, I do plan to read on more of Gaiman's works, because I quite enjoyed his witty writing.

Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten: I had read some good reviews about this one, and since I had a copy of it on my shelf and was looking for a light read, I thought this was perfect! Ellie's sister, Nina, has been missing for two years. Nina just didn't come home one day. In the present day, Ellie is hanging out with her best friend when she comes across a giveaway box in which there's a picture that's clearly drawn by Nina. In this picture, there's a clue hidden, and from there, Ellie starts an adventure to look for her sister. At the very start, she is accompanied by a guy she met at a party and along the way, she meets some really quirky characters.

Wherever Nina Lies was a fun light read, but it didn't hook my interest much. I probably was looking at it through grown-up lens, but no matter how much I willingly suspended my belief, there was a lot that seemed improbable to me. I'm sure that my teen-self would have enjoyed this. There are some classic teen-favored elements (without being stereotypical) in here - a strong teen girl character, some nice romance, an adventure road trip, a mystery to spur the storyline, and this handsome mysterious guy. I did like the way the mystery played out and I liked the characters in it, especially the guy who works with Ellie at the coffee shop. But it felt a little too sappy for me.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

"Those godless things are everywhere," he muttered. "Always listening."

Deryn rolled her eyes. The other Clankers were even more twitchy about beasties than Alek. They seemed to think that everything living aboard the airship was out to get them.

"Aye, sir. But lizards only carry messages. They don't eavesdrop."

"And how can you be sure of that?"

(If you have't read Leviathan but plan to, or if you wish not to be exposed to spoilers, skip the following paragraph. The rest of the review is just a plain write-what-I-felt review.)

Deryn and Alek are finally aboard the Leviathan. Alek is the heir to the Austria-Hungary kingdom, while Deryn is actually posing as a boy so that she can serve as a midshipman on the Leviathan airship. No one knows that Deryn is a girl, but one person eventually suspects. Those aboard the ship hope to bring the war to an end, but it's not that simple. The Ottomans haven't yet joined the war, but recent actions by the British (Darwinist) have tipped the Ottomans towards the Germans (Clankers). To prevent that, the Leviathan is making its way towards the Ottoman empire, so that they can make a gift to the Ottoman king and thus win his favor.

(Potential spoilers over)

The Leviathan series is set against the World War I. Except, this is alternate reality. Although most of the fundamentals of the WW1 are retained, the author has changed enough facts about the WW1 to make this a fictional event in its own right. I've said this before - I'm not a fan of alternate reality. Buuuuuut, I'll swallow my words just for this series. There's something about the way this series is written that makes me want to read more. I stopped making comparisons halfway into the first book. Leviathan shared a lot of similarities with actual WW1 events, Behemoth even less. One thing I truly admired is how well Scott Westerfeld has mapped events in this trilogy to real events without making them appear contrived or duplicated.

Deryn continues to remain my favorite character in this series. Scott writes his female heroines really well. I noticed this in the Uglies series also. Deryn poses as a boy, Dylan, because girls weren't allowed to fight. She's content being a boy and doesn't like any girly traits or behavior. On the other hand, just like any girl, she has deep yearnings that she struggles against. For instance, she's falling in love with a certain someone, and wants him to notice her. A moment later, she remembers he doesn't even know she's a girl, and that fact makes her sad. Yet another moment later, she's chiding herself for thinking like a maiden in distress who needs help, and shakes herself back to the boy she is pretending to be. If this was a real movie, she would have received accolades for her brilliant acting!

Even with all the Clanker and Darwinist jargon, I was looking forward to more "technological innovations" of that period. While I didn't want to support the Clankers (obviously), I could relate more to them than the Darwinists, with their "godless" (as the Clankers love to say) fabricated animals. My favorite highlight of this book is the fabricated loris, that can perceive your emotions so well, warn you about approaching sounds of people/other creatures/machines. That's a pet I would love to have!

Did I mention the awesome artwork inside the book done by Keith Thompson? It would have been so hard to imagine a lot of the creatures and machines otherwise!

I borrowed this book from the library.

Review: Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

Title: Climbing the Stairs
Author: Padma Venkatraman
First Published: May 2008
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Source: Library | Thank you Susan for recommending me this book! | I read this book for the Women Unbound Challenge.
247 pages



I really loved this book so much that I couldn't stop myself from writing a slightly long review. But then I've rated this WOW, so that's justification enough.

I think...

---

"Amma," I said tentatively. "I don't want to get married."
"What, Vidya kanna?" Amma said anxiously.
"I mean, I don't want to get married until I finish school," I said nervously.
Amma's expression cleared a little. "Don't worry," she said. "I'm sure we can wait a little longer. After all, girls are getting married much later these days. Even seventeen is not considered too old anymore."

---

For me, the essence of Climbing the Stairs was conveyed so expressively in the above conversation. Vidya is a fifteen-year old girl, approaching her marriageable age, not yet ready for it, but intensely desiring to go to college, instead. It was 1941 and India was still under the British rule. Vidya's father, Venkat, being a doctor would attend the peaceful protest marches to help those who were being beaten by the police. During one of those marches, a woman hoisting the Indian flag gets beaten by an English policeman and has her sari and blouse ripped off, revealing her stark nudity. Venkat lifts the limp woman to help her, but in the process gets beaten viciously.

In a few minutes, Vidya's life is transformed. Just moments ago, her father promised her proudly that he would send her to college. Bliss was rapidly followed by shock and tragedy, as Vidya witnessed her father's assault. Venkat was reduced to a severely mentally ill person, with no control of his mental faculties.

He became what the others derogatorily called "idiot".

Padma Venkatraman has woven a masterful novel, with very vivid characters, realistic actions and believable situations. The first quarter of the book reveals Vidya's life in Bombay with her parents, her brother, Kitta and her dog, Raja. She has a typical teenager's life, although she occasionally worried about the World War 2 and the protests within her own country. The setting is truly Indian, with many common customs lacing their everyday lives. In India, there is usually one religious festival each month. Traditional homes duly gear up for the festivities every month, and once that month's celebrations were over, they start preparing for the next festival.

After Venkat is disabled, Vidya's family returns to Madras, to stay with Venkat's family.

---

"My place is with my husband's family," amma said flatly. "A married woman must stay at her husband's home."

---

Vidya faces some of her biggest challenges at Madras, as she tries to battle the age-old beliefs that her family had managed to liberate itself from but were still prevalent back home. Her relatives do not fail to mask their disgust at Venkat's disability. Vidya does not like the school she attends, where she is almost vilified because her father is sick. We come across a mindset that evaluates a family according to the father's occupation. Occasionally, though, I found it unbelievable that someone would ridicule a child because her father is ill. There are rude people, but most of them know to keep their condemning remarks to themselves. Vidya's cousin, Malathi, who attends the same school, doesn't bother to support Vidya, but instead laughs with the others. Malathi is the epitome of a girl who wants to get married and brags about it saying she was "chosen" (by the groom). Soon as her marriage is fixed, she wants to stop going to school, and her parents are even proud of her for that.

The second half of Climbing the Stairs is a poignant description of life in a traditional Indian household. The women folk sleep downstairs while the men folk sleep upstairs. They usually get to meet only during mealtimes. There is only one other bedroom in the house, which the couples take turns to use. When food is served, the men have their fill first. The women eat second.*

*I hate to say that this custom still persists. I have had long arguments on how useless this particular custom is. I can't say I managed to change anyone, but I made sure I always ate first, even with the men if need be, deliberately oblivious to any angry glances I ever got my way. I'm sure that's the wrong way to do it, since it smacks of disrespect, in others' eyes. But of course, people are more accepting nowadays, so they just attribute it to a "child"'s arrogance and ignorance.

When Vidya realizes that she has no avenue for learning in the house, because of the tons of chores that are cast her way, she asks her grandfather for permission to use the upstairs library, where no woman has set foot before. She breaks an unwritten rule in the process but she gets what she asks for. The simple journey to the library, reached by "climbing the stairs", sets in motion an incredible saga that transforms Vidya in so many ways. Vidya is an amazing character. She has oodles of dreams and doesn't want to be dependent on any one. She manages to break free of the conservative mold that envelopes every other woman in her household and does not fail to ask for what she wants. I loved her!

It's been almost a week since I read this book, and I still can't stop raving enough about it. There is so much more that I want to say, but then I would have to write another post. What I appreciated the most about the book is that it is truly Indian. I had previously read mostly books about Indian immigrants, whose life is as different as possible from a resident Indian. I have read reviews where the readers were bothered by the verbal cruelty between the characters. Believe me, been there, done that. I have had a family friend, of all people, who pinched my cheeks real bad because her daughter would pick an argument with me. I can safely say that the customs and behaviors described are quite accurate, to the best of my knowledge.

But I have to warn that there are plenty of references to Indian customs and festivals, without giving much information about them. So if you are not very familiar with the Indian culture, you can get a bit lost. If you don't mind looking up references once in a while, which is how we sometimes read books set in a country we are not familiar with, then I strongly suggest that you try this. Climbing the Stairs is geared towards the YA audience, but can be enjoyed by anyone, since the themes addressed are universal.

What did you think?
Have you read this book? I'd like to know what you thought about it. Please leave your review link in the comments, or a brief opinion, if you hadn't reviewed it.

Did you love it or were you bothered by anything in or about the book?

Did you sign-up for the Glorious giveaway?

Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
First Published: October 1999
Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre
Source: Library | Some one recommended this book in one of my Goodreads book clubs
198 pages



In a nutshell
Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

I'm usually not a big fan of YA lit, though I love reading YA book reviews and also indiscriminately add them to my TBR. Speak surprised me. I actually connected with this book.

I think...

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It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate and a stomachache.

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Melinda is starting high school, but all her friends have deserted her after she called the cops in at a party and a few of them got arrested. All her ex-friends avoid her, with one mouthing "I hate you" at her. Not exactly the kind of first day you'd like, at a high school especially. But Melinda expected it, and if anything, she takes it with courage, telling herself that she will not cry.

Speak unravels Melinda's one year at high school. Considering that high school is usually hard, it is especially a nightmare for Melinda. Speak also addresses a lot of important issues, but mainly about communication. Melinda's family communicates through Post-It notes stuck on the refrigerator.

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I write when I need school supplies or a ride to the mall. They write what time they'll be home from work and if I should thaw anything. What else is there to say?

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What else is there to say? That mis-communication or rather lack of it causes Melinda to grow distant over time. Melinda has a secret, something that has upset her enough to withdraw from everyone in school. There is a certain "it", who triggers fear in her, each time "it" passes by her. Her grades suffer. Her teachers talk with her parents. Her parents shrug with exasperation and ignorance. The author brings about these sentiments very well through the book. Considering this is a very short read, every word counts to the story and is not wasted.

Speak takes a funny note occasionally. Melinda describes the education system at her high school, which occasionally makes for snorting moments.

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We are studying American history for the ninth time in nine years. Another review of map skills, one week of Native Americas, Christopher Columbus in time for Columbus Day, the Pilgrims in time for thanksgiving. Every year, they say we're going to get right up to the present, but we always get stuck in the Industrial Revolution. We got to World War I in seventh grade - who knew there had been a war with the whole world? We need more holidays to keep the social studies teachers on track.

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I enjoyed the writing style in this book. Though occasionally, I got lost and confused between paragraphs, I quickly caught up. What fascinated me most was the names of the chapters. I liked how they appear to be conceived from a teenager's mind and how they are not too trivial.

Overall, this is a good read. It is written well from a teen's perspective, but this is one of the books even adults (esp old adults like me who struggle to connect with YA) can enjoy.

Title Demystified
Before starting this book, the title was a total mystery to me. But it made perfect sense on completion. Interesting how one word captures the whole idea. Initially I connected the title with just Melinda, who struggles to speak ever since the party. On reflection, I felt that the title can be applied to her parents as well, who fail in almost every parenting test in communication.

Cover Art Demystified
The tree superimposed on a girl's face forms a huge crux of the story. One of Melinda's classes is Art, in which she excels. Her assignment is to create a tree using any medium. The cover art really envelopes Melinda's troubles and her mental state very well.

What did you think?
Have you read this book? I'd like to know what you thought about it. Please leave your review link in the comments, or a brief opinion, if you hadn't reviewed it.

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