Ash Talks Books

I was under the impression that this was the Sidney Sheldon book that had scarred me as a child. How wrong I was! That was 'Sands of time'. Just goes to show that over time, your memory can play tricks on you. Someone in my reading group outlined the story of 'The Naked Face' and I realized I hadn't read it yet and it seemed like something I would love! And I LOVED it. It was his first book, but in my opinion, his BEST! The story is about a psychiatrist who is caught in a web of murder. First, his patient gets murdered, then his secretary. To add to his problems, the detectives on the case seem to suspect him. In between all this, he has fallen in love with one of his patients! I will definitely re-read this book in a while. It also felt good to read the physical copy, instead of on the kindle. My issue with physical copies is that I need them to be new like this one was. I don't like dusty, mouldy old books.:P

Book Memory#3: Tintin comics and Enid Blytons played a crucial role in keeping me out of trouble in my childhood. They kept my overactive imagination engaged, along with numerous other hobbies like listening to music( everything ever sung by Madonna), generally monkeying around - climbing the gate of our house and holding on to the tree branch there for support; climbing up the pipes at the back of the house and landing on the sunshade, only to haul myself onto the terrace; constructing tents on the terrace and inviting friends over to cook dinner on a candle flame- the list goes on... My childhood was awesome!And books contributed, in a large part, to it. So both in the Enid Blyton series and in one of the Tintins, this concept of 'solar eclipse' was introduced where the protagonists convince the 'natives' that they have magical powers and are able to control the sun according to their whims and fancies. This gets them out of being cooked alive! I'd ...

Book Memory# 2: It was 1991. I remember lying in bed in Sahaganj and reading Gone with the wind. ( yes, I've always been a librocubicularist. And yeah, I was 14 when I read GWTW and not 12 as I'd erroneously assumed before.) The love story between Rhett Butler and Scarlett O' Hara drew me in like a bee to a honeypot. Scarlett was so unlike me at the time. I'd become rather reserved and diplomatic, a skill you learned to acquire when you were in a place surrounded by your dad's colleagues and their children.  I admired Scarlett's 'fiddle-dee-dee', her ability to say whatever she thought, her inner strength, her ability to not care about what people thought about her. And I LOVED Rhett: The perennial bad boy who loved Scarlett for who she was. And I despised Ashley for being weak and lacklustre; Melanie for being bland and boring. The love story drew me in and I also learned about the old south, Georgia, the carpetbaggers, Tara, the Conf...

Today, Tanu Shree Singh, the owner of the Readers' group I belong to, Senior Reading Raccoons, asked us all what our pet peeve was relating to books. She wittily listed a few pet peeves that were likely to bother us. Little was she to know it would trigger off a tsunami of  book memories from me. So I took myself off the thread and started writing on my blog here. Good Book Memory # 1: My dad had just come back from a trip to Los Angeles. It was 1994. As always I looked forward to his return not just for his presence, but also the presents, the greedy 17-year old that I was! :P He had bought Jurassic Park - Part 1, the book. I was in Class 11. It was a rainy day and I was lying in bed in the rambling bungalow we lived in then. The environs and mood matched that of the book. I was completely gripped by the T-rex that chased velociraptors in the rain. When I  went back to school, I remember narrating this to my friends, captivated. I also saw the movie, but I had alre...

This book was truly a breath of fresh air.  It's a must-read for any woman who is contemplating love and marriage or even being single in India. The hilarious encounters of Dia, the protagonist, as she navigates the path (strewn with stones and thorns) in her quest for 'the one' is side-splittingly hilarious! What I also liked is that the book doesn't have a distinct start, middle, and end, but let me not give away too much about how the book is structured. There were times I actually laughed out loud and my mom, who was sitting next to me, had to ask me what the matter was.  I will definitely read this book several times as a pick-me-up. Far better than reading self-help books:)

I highly recommend the book 'A man called Ove'. It's about a man who outwardly appears rough and tough but has a heart of gold as seen by his interactions with his neighbours and even the cat. He's the kind of man from our father's and grandfather's generation. You don't see men like that these days. There's of course a lot more to this story than i'm letting on but i dont want to give away too much of the story. JUST READ IT to feel all warm and fuzzy inside! WONDER 'Wonder' by R.J.Palacio is about a little boy with a facial anomaly that causes people to stare at him. He is home-schooled until class 5, then introduced to regular school. The book takes us through the perspective of August( the boy), his sister, and friends who surround him-- how he navigates school, bullying, and not only coming to terms with being 'different' but also recognizing his own worth. Friendship and the need to be kind forms the crux of this wonder...