Ash Talks Books

The first time I read ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’ by Lynne Truss was over a decade ago. I had written about it on another one of my blogs here.   I was thrilled that a book on punctuation was so darn funny, but I was also pleased with myself for having discovered an ‘error’ in the book. On the cover, it said ‘The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation”. As an enthusiastic copy editor, I insisted it should be ‘The Zero-Tolerance Approach to Punctuation’. Then I found numerous other word zealots like me had discovered this very ‘error’. Now, of course, a search on the Internet for this ‘error’ on her book throws up articles both in favour of and against the presence of that hyphen. Not too long ago, I had a heated exchange of words in a Reading Group I belong to, with a 70-year-old man, no less, about this. To be fair, I hadn’t known his age, else I might have been predisposed to be more polite. Anyway, coming back to the book, when I re-read it now cover to cover,...

When I was working in an e-learning company way back in 2004, my colleagues had asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I quickly said ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King. And it is this copy of Stephen King’s  memoir that I re-read after all these years in 2018. “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”, says King.  He then goes on to say that every writer needs a writers’ toolbox. He says the commonest tool is vocabulary, which goes on the top shelf of the toolbox. The next tool is grammar, followed by the elements of form and style. He argues that the paragraph, not the sentence is the basic unit of writing—"Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe."   #StephenKing's #memoir 'On Writing' takes us to his childhood when he wrote stories and collected rejection slips. Some of the anecdotes shared also give us a peek into his rebellious...

‘Wonder Girls’ by Varsha Adusumilli by Juggernaut Books was a splendid read. I highly recommend it to all girls and women, regardless of age. This book outlines the childhoods and choices of 15 remarkable young women who are from fields as diverse as rugby, neurosurgery, rock climbing or the film industry and the media. Many of these young achievers featured here had several qualities in common. They followed their heart, were strong, persistent and often had to face challenges such as a lack of money in their childhoods. Some of them are introverted, some of them from small villages and towns, some of them extroverted. What stands out is their commitment to their careers, their strength, their ability to go out of their comfort zones and excel. Each story is preceded by a statistic. For example, the story about the rugby captain leads with the statistic that only one per cent of Indian girls have played any kind of organized sport in their lives. But what follows each stat...

I first heard of 'A wrinkle in time' only in 2016 when I worked with Ogilvy and used to write content for the Amazon Books page. This was one of the featured books for science fiction. Later, i read that it was being made into a movie. Today, I found out that Oprah Winfrey played a part in the movie. This was one of the three books I chose for my #bookbingo with my #bookclub. I chose it for the category 'Time travel' although it is not strictly a time travel book. The children travel to other planets in search of their father. They "tesser" from one planet to another and all's well that ends well. The book only has around 200-odd pages, so I finished it in a day. I found the book okay. At least it kept me turning the pages. But I'm not exactly dying to read the other four books in this quintet. Also, was surprised to read that this children's classic has been banned more than once. Didn't find anything ban-worthy in the book. And no, I...

 I started #HyperboleAndAHalf one morning and finished it by late noon. It was one of the three books I chose for my #bookbingo under the 'Based on a True Story' category or 'BOATS.' First, it had those cute illustrations that I've seen in memes based on the book. Second, it was laugh-out-loud funny in places. Of course, there were a couple of serious chapters on #depression, but they ended with me laughing out loud, so I guess that's cool. I recommend this to people who think a lot, are introverted or are self-indulgent. Ooh! And to dog-lovers!

'Between you & me - Confessions of a comma queen' by Mary Norris was on my must-read list for a long time. I finally ordered the physical copy from Amazon and it coincided with the start of my book bingo. I chose it for the 'Memoir' category of my book bingo although it is only part-memoir. Written by a copyeditor who worked with the New Yorker for over 30 years, the book was bound to be a class apart. There were several instances of the author finding an error in some great writer's work, and she lists the sentence and error. She comes across as a real nerd who devotes one whole chapter to pencils and a museum of sharpeners. She writes to a pencil manufacturer to lodge a complaint about a particular batch of their pencils showing how persnickety she is. Yes! The company does write back with a detailed explanation, which she prints in this book. Her chapter on gender is accompanied by the story of how her brother started identifying as a woman an...

#NamesMySistersCallMe by #MeganCrane is a book that has been on my list since 2010 or so. But now that I have finished it, I'm a little underwhelmed. What made me put this author on my TBR list and keep her on it for close to eight years? I found #EnglishAsASecondLanguage by the same author hilarious, but I was in my early thirties when I read it. I doubt if I would react to it the same way now. I certainly am not going to try to re-read it. 'Names my sisters call me' is an average book with stereotypical characters. It is the story of three sisters, one a 'free spirit', another a 'control freak' and the third a self-loathing cellist. The cellist gets engaged and then decides to bring about a family reunion. Her freespirited sister created a scene at the control freak sister's wedding six years ago and took off with the cellist's boyfriend. After that they have remained estranged ever since. Over the course of the story, we find the cellist ...

I read Twinkle Khanna's latest book 'Pyjamas are forgiving' last evening. Since it had only some 200-odd pages, I finished it in a couple of hours. Plot spoilers ahead: The book is about a woman who goes to an ashram for a detox only to bump into her e x-husband, who is there with his new wife. Predictably, she has an affair with him, while going back in memory lane and remembering what it was that drew her to him. However, as she finds out womanisers never change. She also faces a moral dilemma when his cousin does something shocking that merits an FIR. How she handles situations that present themselves right through from the husband hitting on her to his cousin's unspeakable act form the crux of the book. I like the way she has written this book. She has created a word portrait of a womanizer, complete with the charm, the lies, and the heartbreak in a believable fashion. Since it is set in an ayurvedic retreat, the book is laced with vata, pita, kapha references ...

I’ve just finished reading ‘It must have been something he wrote’ by Nikita Deshpande, and I’m immediately sitting down to review it on my blog. The cliché goes ‘Never judge a book by its cover.' In this case, the book has a lovely cover, and if you were to judge the book by it, you would imagine a humorous read. And you would be spot-on. ‘It must have been something he wrote’ is India’s answer to The Devil Wears Prada. Giving readers a peek into the world of publishing, this book is a must-read for all bibliophiles and writers interested in the craft. Whether it’s the boss in the novel who says ‘This team is a family of gut-tearing birds of prey. Think of me as the mother eagle. I’ll kick my babies off the ledge if I have to. The question is – are you an eagle? Or the sparrow that gets eaten up by the eagles? Or Amruta, the protagonist, who says of good books, ‘I want to know if it does something to you...'Like, when you’d read with a flashlight under the b...

Last Saturday, I listened to a webinar by Andaleeb Wajid, author of 14 novels, as she talked about ‘How to write romance’. Andaleeb is known for blending food with love in her books. She says romantic fiction is a world of escapism. The first point she makes is that one need not be embarrassed about reading a romance, but one must ‘own’ it. She says in order to write good romantic fiction, one should enjoy reading romantic fiction. You can’t write if you don’t read. Andaleeb’s favorite romance writers: Nora Roberts, Marian Keyes, Diana Gabaldan, Sandra Brown, and Sylvia Day. She asked us if we liked the character or plot in the romantic fiction we read. Romances are character driven. She feels the plot is important, but it is secondary. That’s why sequels happen. Readers have to root for the characters in your novel. The characters have to be fleshed out. Before doing that, some questions you might want to ask include: Who are your protagonists? What are they like? ...