MellowDrama

The book and its author try to make these Heroes accessible to one and all by telling their stories in brief. This itself becomes a pro as well as a con for the readers. While the simplification works, add to that Fry's trademark sense of humour, the length at times seemed jarring. 

Dread, Short Stories by Aseem Rastogi is a very small ebook published last month by Blogchatter during the month long e-book carnival. There are five stories in the book, of varying lengths. The thread tying them together is the emotion that finds an echo in each one of them. That emotion is FEAR. A young couple at a safari, a man who had everything working for him in life, an office goer and more make up the cast of the stories.  I can hardly write anything about the stories here without giving up the gist but I can definitely say that Aseem knows how to keep his readers glued to the pages of the e-book. Aseem is a passionate blogger  and traveller. You can get a glimpse of his well travelled soul in the various stories which take place from New Delhi to Grasslands to London.   The stories are written well, the language playing in its author's hands to instil exactly what he aims at, dread. I am no brave-heart but continued reading the 35 paged book in one sitting even though my h

A dysfunctional family drama that is full of all the usual suspects and Marian Keyes' unmatched wit. Grown Ups makes or a lighthearted read that will keep you laughing out loud from time to time while looking closely at your own family and imaging how many of you did actually grow up over the years. Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together - birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they're a happy family. Johnny's wife, Jessie - who has the most money - insists on it. Everything stays under control until Ed's wife Cara, gets concussion and can't keep her thoughts to herself. One careless remark at Johnny's birthday party, with the entire family present, starts Cara spilling out all their secrets. In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it's time - finally - to grow up? Keyes writes with a certain sincerity and

I haven't read as fantastic a book as Karma Brown's Recipe for a Perfect Wife in a long long while. Also not this fast. The book oscillates between the tales of a current day wife Alice Hale and the life of Nellie Murdoch a homemaker who lived in the house that lice now occupies with her husband, during the 1950s.  Alice stumbles upon an old cookbook of Nellie's and not just finds recipes to try but a window in Nellie's life. As she discovers her cooking skills with the help of recipes in the book and Nellie's garden she also discovers the stories from Nellie's life hidden in between the pages of the book. While Alice struggles with finding her own identity within her marriage and life, she finds herself immersing and adopting some of Nellie's choices. Does Alice find herself or does she lose herself further while trying to become a perfect wife? This book must also be praised for the format. Every chapter on Alice opens with hilarious advice for women on ho

Why you should read it?  Three women discover than they were being duped by the same man in the name of love and dating and the discovery leads to flowering of a beautiful friendship between the three. Reading this in 2020 and the fact that a woman is writing this story, and the fact that she makes sure that this friendship stays as one of the main threads of this novel makes this book so good.  Samiha is a coder and developer and she has realised via Twitter that the man she is dating is dating two other women. She walks on him and meets these two ladies, both very successful in their own right. The night which should have been a painful one spent sobbing about lost love is instead spent on getting drunk, making a pact about life and boyfriends and laying the foundation of a friendship that sees you through thick and thin. Of course, there is a man who might be just too attractive to ignore! The Cast The characters and situations are identifiable and like me I think most of us  know h

The Book Elizabeth I- The Making of a Queen by Laura Brennan isn't exactly what you call a biography. Yes it does talk about Elizabeth and somewhat about her reign as the Tudor monarch but what it also does and does very well is talk about how Elizabeth reached the throne. It talks about the circumstances in England that led to her crowning, the people involved and also about what was happening around England at that point in. time to give you a complete perspective on things. Why You Should Read It? What this does is let you know what an astonishing feat she, Queen Elizabeth I of England, managed to pull off what with being a woman who ascended the throne. She not only managed to keep her head on her shoulders but also proved to be an astute ruler warding off conspiracies to malign her name and conspirators to take away her throne. The Writing Brennan writes with quite a command over her subject. Her writing makes for an easy reading on this heavy subject and though it not really

The eerily atmospheric novel, Harrow Lake by Kate Ellis is a book set in the fictional town called Harrow Lake. Lola Nox is sent to live here with a grandmother she has never met after her father is attacked and left to die in their apartment in New York. Lola's father is a famous film director. He specialises in making horror films and had made a film called Nightjar in this small town, some twenty years back. The book opens with Nolan Nox being interviewed for a magazine article. As soon as the questions begin about his wife's and then his daughter's disappearance in Harrow Lake, he gets miffed. From here on the camera kind of shifts its gaze to his daughter Lola and we are brought in to see her character closely. Lola is a very lonely girl, the price she has to pay for Nolan's fame, who takes pleasure and thrills in creating and burying her secrets written in paper slips  everywhere and anywhere. the other thing that Lola is very good at is making stories. Some say,

We are in the third phase of the Corona virus induced lockdown. While in the first phase we all probably did not know where we were headed and were probably treating the lockdown as a respite from life in general, this time around we are almost pro at what we can and how we can do in these demanding (or maybe far simpler) times. Today was the birthday of a dear friend's daughter.  Since we have known them almost every year this day has been a huge celebration because my friend takes the kids out and treats them to whatever their hearts desire, no bars. When I called her up during the day to congratulate her and wish the child, I was sent the address of the party venue. The only difference was that this time around the kids were to meet virtually and not physically. They were all to Zoom in from their houses. Hats off to my dexterous friend for arranging an hour filled with games, jokes, banter and fun between this bunch of girls.  How liberating it must have been as

I participated in the Blogchatter A2Z on almost the last minute. I was not confident about my ability to write a blogpost everyday. I have been at blogging for donkey's years now but consistency, well, who knows what that is. I signed up with a lot of trepidation for sure and made no promises to myself yet when I uploaded my last post on alphabet Z, I could not but smile at the journey I had undertaken via these posts. They say that you should write about something that you are a master of. I have been parenting for more than a decade and having really not studied anything dedicatedly in my whole life ( Jack of all trades was coined for yours truly) did not actually have a subject to write upon. Well, so I set out with the first alphabet- A . As could be expected with my first alphabet I woke up to the need of being organised and prepared for the herculean challenge. Anyway, that is the way things are with me. Always in the retrospective. But finish I did the 26 alphabets

नानी तेरी मोरनी  को मोर ले गए बाकी जो बचा था काले चोर ले गए (O grandmother your peahen has been carried away by the peacocks and whatever was left has been taken by the thieves) You must have heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child. If you are bringing up a child/ren you will know exactly what this means but if you don't have children of your own yet take my word for it. Raising a child can't be done single handedly by anyone. You need emotional and physical support, you need advice, you need a sounding board and most importantly sometime you just need someone else to take charge. Grandparents play a huge role in our Indian homes in helping raise a child. Whether it is teaching them values and morals via stories, or enforce good habits, they have extremely important roles to play. My children have been very lucky to have a set of doting grandparents on both the sides. On   the paternal side my mother-in-law is always ready with her bag of exciting sto