Books I would like to read by June 2011

These are some of the books I would like to complete by June, 2011. Some books I have and some I don't...As I got a job, my reading has been put on hold for sometime. I hope I would soon resume it..


1.The Time Travelling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky


2.Playing with Fire by Susan Moody


3.They came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie


4.The mysterious affair at styles by Agatha Christie


5.Digital Fortress by Dan Brown


6.In the Line of Fire by Pervez Musharaff


7.Anne Frank - The diary of a little girl


8.To Kill a mocking bird - Harper Lee


9.Lost Symbol - Dan Brown


10.Deception Point - Dan Brown


11.Angels and Demons - Dan Brown


12.Where are the children - Mary Higgins Clark


13.The adventures of Huckleburry Finn - Mark Twain


14.The Devil wears Prada - Weisberger Lauren


Is the list too short?
 

I won ' The Time Travelling Fashionista' by Bianca Turetsky

Hi buddies! 

I have got a good news to share. I won an international copy of ' The Time Travelling Fashionista' by Bianca Turetsky- a give away fromhttp://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.com/ for YA lovers. I am so glad that I won it.I got acquainted with this genre of fiction very recently. I have not read any of it. I am really excited about this one. I will give its review very soon in my blog and also in goodreads and amazon.

 Thanks a lot. I have received the copy and I will be reading it soon.

Here is the description from Goodreads.

    "When Louise Lambert receives a mysterious invitation to a traveling vintage fashion sale in the mail, her normal life in suburban Connecticut is magically transformed into a time traveling adventure.

    After a brief encounter with two witchy salesladies and donning an evening gown that once belonged to a beautiful silent film star, Louise suddenly finds herself onboard a luxurious cruise ship in 1912. As Alice Baxter, the silent film star, Louise enjoys her access to an extensive closet of gorgeous vintage gowns and begins to get a feel for the challenges and the glamour of life during this decadent era. Until she realizes that she's not just on any ship-- she's on the Titanic!

    Will Louise be able to save herself and change the course of history, or are she and her film star alter ego, destined to go down with a sinking ship in the most infamous sea disaster of the 20th century?"

I want to interview 'YOU'

It's been a year since I started this blog. Usually a year does not appear too long. But for me, it does. I  learnt a lot in this one year. The experience has been great. When I started this blog, little did I know that I would complete one year and that too with love and support in great deal from this blogging fraternity.I had grown a lot. I did not know how to post, in the begnning. I was too ignorant that I would start a new blog for each post. I went on creating blogs.I had about 15 blogs and I deleted them all. Hey! You learn from mistakes, right?

I did not start this blog as ' Passion Drops.' It was ' Shalet's Creative Impressionzz' before. It used to carry my works as a copy writer. You could see my captions and copies in the 'older post.' When I left my job, I had  nothing to flaunt. I liked that blog and I did not want to delete it. I kept it without any updation until I transformed into a blog for books. It was a wonderful experience. I post small reviews of the books I read. To be honest, I was not too greedy for followers for this blog for I knew it would take time. I was like a child who was enchanted with this book world and I was ready to take my own time. Now I have 14 buddies in my 'followers' widget – a pleasant surprise. Debra, http://shewhoseeks.blogspot.com/kept me motivated with her comments.Kate,http://kateevangelistarandr.blogspot.com/ MedeiaSharif, http://www.medeiasharif.com/...the list is endless...A big thank you to everyone. For the  first time in my life, I learned that my cup of tea is mysteries and thrillers and hope that there are lots to come.

As this is my first blogging anniversary, I would like to venture into something new. I want to interview the writers, aspiring writers and bloggers. Though it sounds  a bit clichéd, it is not so. I do not want to put the same questions to each and every one. I would take my own time to go through the blogs and frame questions according to it. It would be a great experience to be a part of the journey undertaken by my fellow bloggers. When I started this blog , I was an utter illiterate about various genres. Gothic Fictions, YA fictions etc. are not known to me before. Hence, I want these interviews to throw light on various features for all those starters like me, who are completely unaware of the meticulous details of this enchanting book world.

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie (I plan to read)

Shamsie’s complex fifth novel, spanning the years between August 1945 and September 2001, is a story of two inextricably connected and politically impacted families. Berliner Konrad Weiss and Hiroko Tanaka, his translator, meet in Nagasaki and plan to marry. But after he is incinerated by the bomb and she is left permanently scarred, Hiroko journeys to Delhi, home of Konrad’s half-sister, Elizabeth Burton, and her British husband, James. Hiroko bonds with James’ assistant, Sajjad. With Partition between India and Pakistan looming, the Burtons return to England, where their son Henry is in boarding school. Hiroko and Sajjad marry, but they’re not allowed back into India, since Sajjad is a Muslim who “chose to leave.” Shamsie takes up their story 35 years later in Karachi, where they have one son, Raza, after bomb-related miscarriages. Henry appears, searching for his past, and offers to assist with Raza’s education; by 2001, they’re working together for the CIA in the U.S. Shamsie offers a moving look at the “complicated shared history” of these two families, an increasingly common facet of globalization. --Deborah Donovan(review from amazon.com)

Nmesis by Agatha Christie

 Agatha Christie has always had her own way of creating a plot. This story starts from nothing and then ensues the real sinister incidents. I loved it all the way. She gives a lot of characters that either you end up judging everyone or you rather stands blinking at them for her characters are not that explicit. That's why I really like reading her.

If I am not wrong, ' Nemesis' is the last of her Marple series. 

Marple is surprised when she gets a letter from Mr. Rafiel, who is dead  a few days back. He is talking about something very vaguely which became rather a nerve racking job for her.Besides it, he has kept a handful amount of money for Jane Marple to undertake this task. What is the task? That is the mystery. Mr. Rafiel's letter does not give her much clue. She is quite certain that something sinister has happened and Mr. Rafiel, who is a just man wants the justice to be done, at the earliest The story really gains momentum when she sets on an expedition that has been arranged by the late Mr. Rafiel. The mystery gets unravelled slowly.

 Robert Weaver in the Toronto Daily Star of December 4, 1971 said, "Christie richly deserves the loyalty offered up to her by devotees of the traditional mystery. She is readable and ingenious, and in Nemesis she has going for her the amateur lady sleuth Miss Jane Marple deep in a murder case as she tries to carry out a request that comes in effect from beyond the grave. Beyond 80 Miss Christie remains unflagging."

The Madman's diary by Thom Racina

" Pulse - Pounding suspense...an excitement winner."
                                                               - Harriet Klausner
" Harrowing...a suspense lover's dream."
                                                      - Romantic Times

 My thought

Judy never thought she could be one of the reason for all the killings that was happening around her. When she realized it, it was too late. She thought that the deaths of her close friends were just a coincidence until she learned the death of her mentor and boss, Norman Lempke,, which made not only Judy apprehensive, but also her dear friends Skeet and Anne. The way he was murdered  offered

enough proof that a lunatic was lurking in the darkness. When it should rear its ugly head was not known to anybody. 

Judy was an architect who lives with her room-mate Skeet. The relationship started when they were quite young, but soon it gave way to a relationship beyond that. They ceased being lovers and became soul mates and their balanced atmosphere takes a twist when Judy's boss was murdered brutally. Death has also occurred to her other friends, but she dismissed it as natural deaths. It was her friend Anne, who was a mystery writer got a hunch for the first time that it was nothing but cold blooded murders.

It is a diary that takes the story and gives us the creeps. There was a Shaman, who believed himself as an Indian was killing people. Who was he ?

  Dear Diary:


Dead, the man who desired her for his own. I will grieve for him, for what I have done, for what I had to do. But this is my duty...

The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths

 

" Forensic archaeology has become a fashionable sub- section of crime fiction. Elly Griffiths has produced a particularly good variation on this theme....this is a cleverly plotted and extremely interesting first crime novel, highly recommended" Literary Review 

Forensic expert Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate, when a skeleton was unearthed in Norwich. Some builders while demolishing a large house dug out a skeleton underneath its doorway.It was of a child and had no skull. Dr. Ruth Galloway plunged into action. She was a forensic archaeologist.

DCI Harry Nelson had to find out whether it was a cold blooded murder or something that happened many years ago as a part of some ritual as the mansion's history could be traced to the remote past.

The house was once a children's home and while investigating, Harry Nelson found out that there were two children missing who were siblings. The investigation got intense as somebody was also trying to scare Ruth out of her wits. 

My thought

I do not call it a chilling suspense that could send shivers down your spine. But it was a good read and gave a good suspense as I keep on guessing ' Who done it.' I  pinned my hopes on each character that he or she did it. But all my efforts were in vain, which definitely was one feature that made it a good read. The other highlight of the story is the baby of Ruth and Nelson who is yet to be born. It was just an accident and Nelson is a married man and Ruth did not like to be in a relationship. I kept on guessing that a chemistry would soon develop between them. I just kept on guessing and nothing happened. 

This book is the third one in the Ruth Galloway series, the others being ' The Crossing Palace,' 'The house at Seas End.'

I would give 6/4

Chak de INDIA, JAI HIND

 PROUD TO BE AN INDIAN

India beat Srilanka by 6 wickets.

We won the World Cup, 2011.

Three Cheers for India.

Hip, hip......Hurrah,
Hip, hip......Hurrah,
Hip, hip......Hurrah.

India bagged the Cricket World Cup after long 28 years.

'Parippuvada and Tea'

I have read from blogs that, most of the avid readers prefer a coffee cup filled with brewing coffee alongside a wonderful book. I tried to sip coffee while reading. But it was not that easy. I do not mind the big cup but not with brewing coffee, but South Indian tea where we mix milk with the decoction. My day begins with it, so why am I going for a coffee.

This is what I really liked to have while reading books ' Parippuvada' and Chaaya(tea). Though Parippuvada(s) do not look that attractive, it's crispy and it is readily available anywhere in Kerala.

Woman who dared ( edited by Ritu Menon )

 

' Woman who dared' is a book that talks about 21 successful Indian women who had made their mark in their respective fields. It's too late to introduce this book. But I go with the axiom' better late than never'. It's a book, I think every Indian women should read. I can vouch that there are many personalities among these 21 women, whom today's generation is totally unaware of.

The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi

  I have not read this book.But I have read a lot of reviews and heard many interviews on this book. Since I have not read this book, I cannot give my review. So here is a synopsis from the Flipkart.com

 Book Summary of The Pleasure Seekers from Flipkart.com

It all started in August 1968 when Babo, with curly hair and jhill mill teeth, became the first member of the Patel family to leave Madras and fly on a plane all the way to London to further his education. His father should have known there would be trouble: on the morning of the departure he had his first and only dream, in which strange ghosts threw poison-tipped arrows and all his family was lost...But off Babo went, and now here he is, in a flat off the Finchley Road, untraditionally making love to a cream-skinned girl from Wales, Sian Jones, who he fell head over heels for as soon as he saw the twirl of red ribbon in her hair. Ba-ba-boom, ba-ba-boom, ba-ba-boom-boom-boom. Theirs is a mixed-up love in a topsy-turvy world, and their two families will never be the same again. Meet the Patel-Joneses: Babo, Sian, Mayuri and Bean, in their little house with orange and black gates next-door to the Punjab Women's Association. As the twentieth century creaks and croaks its way along - somewhere out there Charles and Diana get hitched; Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her own bodyguards; cable TV arrives in India - these four navigate their way through the uncharted territory of a 'hybrid' family: the hustle and bustle of Babo's relatives, the faraway phone-line crackle of Sian's, the eternal wisdom and soft bosom of great-grandmother Ba, the perils of first love, lost innocence and old age, and the big question: what do you do with the space your loved ones leave behind? In this tender, lyrical and uplifting debut, Tishani Doshi, a prizewinning poet, effortlessly captures the quirks and calamities of one unusual clan in a story of identity, family, belonging and all-transcending love.

Coyote by Linda Barnes

The story starts when a mysterious women asks Carlotta Carlyle who was once a cop, to help her find her missing Immigration card and gave her a five hundred dollar bill, though the woman did not looked as if she could afford such a huge sum. Though it seemed a straight forward task in the beggnning, Carlotta sooon realised it that is just the other way round. The mysterious woman suddenly disappears and the card ends up with other woman, who is dead. An immigration agent who follows carlotta is the other mysterious character. 

I do not have much to write on it as I did not find it quite interesting to read..

My hands are full

There was a time when I was searching right, left and centre to read a book.I've already mentioned in my previous post that how I would fall short of books and how I managed to get some books. But today my hands are full. I liked this sudden and pleasant twist. My only worry was how I was going to read all those books.

I'm currently reading " Atlas shrugged" by Ayn Rand. My room mate gave this book. She was an elderly lady who was a retired professor.

" If you read this book, you will definitely be going after her other books." That's what she told me when she gave me this book. I think I am going to take this whole month to finish it as it has more than 1000 pages. 

Ayn Rand was famous for developing a philosophical system called " Objectivism". I googled for objectivism but could not grasp its essence. I hope I would get to know after going through the whole book. I am wishing myself a happy read for I was always scared  of such  intense topics.

I also wanted your suggestion on Dan Brown. I haven't read any of his books. Today I was watching " Angels and demons"and it seemed quite an enjoyable watch. But I did not complete watching it as I wanted to read the book first.

I have Angels and demons, Deception point and The lost symbol ebooks. But I do not know how far I can go with these novels in a pdf format. If I do not have any other option, I would definitely resort to ebooks.