Bookish Fancies

I won't be attempting to write much about this book because this one is pure entertainment. Taylor Jenkins Reid has a way with weaving stories about the world of glamorous actors, musicians and models-- something that not many of us are familiar with. She is careful about showcasing not just the glittery facade but also the dirty laundry which is always kept away from public eyes. The book is centred around the the Riva siblings- Nina, Jay, Hud and Kit. Alternating chapters also provide a backstory about how their parents June and Mick met. Their marriage started out as a fairy tale but quickly disintegrated following Mick's rise to fame as a singer. The glamour and the constant attention quickly got to him and he soon left his young children with an alcoholic mother without a second thought. While June's forgiving nature and big heart definitely won my sympathy it did get irritating after a point. Nina's character was the one that stood out. Her transformation from a...

  TW: minor spoilers ahead I have been looking forward to read something by Amy Tan and so when I came across this tattered copy of The Hundred Secret Senses in a thriftstore, I bought it without any second thoughts. I am unsure about what exactly did not work out for me. Maybe I was expecting the story to take a different trajectory. This book's weakest point was the character development. I waited and waited to know more about Kwan as a character and how the relationship between the sisters evolved over the years but sadly that never happened. The book had a lot of potential. I have not read many books exploring the relationship between two half sisters (or not? No more spoilers here). But it remained largely unexplored and the few conversations that they had, were always centred around Kwan and her peculiar abilities to interact with dead people because she believed she had "yin" eyes. A number of chapters were dedicated to a certain Mrs. Banter, her friend who had die...

 The book opens with Oorja, who has returned to India seeking answers and desperate to understand the meaning of her life. Its not very difficult to imagine ourselves in her place-- we have all been through phases in our life where we have doubted the purpose of our very existence. We look back at our lives and suddenly all those regrets buried under years of oblivion rises to the surface. It is something we can't let go of-- we learn to trade our sanity from time to time to bask in the warmth of what could have been. Oorja's character held a lot of promise. The beginning of the book actually held my atrention and I was expecting something along the lines of an immigrant coming back to India and the wave of nostalgia forcing her to rethink the choices she made in life. The mystery surrounding her father's disappearance and her setting off to look for her father so she could make amends were written in exceptional detail giving attention to the storm blowing inside Oorja and...

 When I first read the blurb I knew I had to get myself this book. I have always had a thing for romances in the backdrop of a war since I read Atonement and this book ticked off all the boxes.  Roya meets Bahman in a little stationery shop in Tehran and fall in love Bollywood style. Their romance was not unlike those of high school children who exchange poetry, steal glances and exchange letters through books. Their courtship was proceeding smoothly and they got engaged in a few months. By this time my sadist mind was already cooking up situations which would seperate them and yes I am not disappointed. Bahman's mother disapproved of the match and had already fixed his marriage with someone else (yeah I know, Bollywood again). The marriage didn't fall through eventually and as the political situation in Iran worsened, Roya and her sister decided to emigrate to America in the hope of a better future. The book doesn't offer any surprises. I pretty much guessed the ending whe...

 Belonging is written from the perspective of three characters- letters of Cecily to her sister Mina, Cecily's son Henry and Henry's daughter Lilian (Lila). In spite of having three main characters Umi Sinha never underrepresents any of them. Their emotions, fears, apprehension were detailed meticulously and I found myself living the pre-Independent era through their eyes.  Much of the Partition literature that I read was written from the perspective of Indians. Belonging shows the other side of the story-- it talks about three generations of an ordinary British family living in India. Throughout the book each of the characters struggle to find a sense of belonging in their lives. In spite of being English by birth, India has always been their home and they never thought of their servants as anything less than family. When Lila falls in love with a native, they both knew that it was not to be. Her aunt's dislike of the natives coupled with the possibility of War looming in ...

 Wrapping up July with this short read about the musings of an ageing widow living in a Haveli all by herself. COVID has taught us that we crave human touch more than ever-- something that no amount of social media and virtual meetups can ever replace.  The novel portrays how powerful loneliness can be and how it cripples everyone eventually.  Amma Bi reminds me of my grandparents who would not let go of their homes even if it means being alone for the rest of their lives. With her son away in the US, Amma Bi only has the company of her servant and her memories. For her, giving up her Haveli is equivalent to give up her soul. Her loneliness has driven her to the point where she is willing to pay her servant extra just so he would spend the nights in the Haveli.  Pankaj Kapur portrays loneliness as something tangible; something that can drown you if you are not careful. The sounds of anklets on her roof which scared Amma Bi every night was nothing but her mind playing...