Repost - 2011 South Asian Challenge

I had posted in April about entering the South Asian Challenge, this is an update:

There are six levels,

South Asian Encounter - 1 book

South Asian Wanderer - 3 books

South Asian Explorer - 5 books

South Asian Adventurer - 7 books

South Asian Hero/Heroine - 10 books

South Asian Guru - Over 10 books (you can set your own goal)

I'm aiming for South Asian Heroine - 10 books

My potential list of books,

1. I'm not Twenty Four...I've been Nineteen for Five Years - Sachin Garg - Read
2. Single in the City - Sushmita Bose - Read 
3. Tales from Firozsha Baag - Rohinton Mistry - Read 
4. Chanakya's Chant - Ashwin Sanghi - Read  
5. The Diary of a Social Butterfly - Moni Mohsin - Read  
6. Balloonists - Rajorshi Chakraborti 
7. The Mistress of Spices - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni - Read
8. Secret of the Nagas - Amit Tripathi - Read
9. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh - Read
10. Revolution 2020 -Chetan Bhagat - Read

Oh ya! I forgot, my friend Aparna has asked me to review the Kaam Kahani series.. might have to read that! Will update soon!

BLOG AWARD

I have recieved an award for my blog!! It is for people who have less than 200 followers!

Thank you Jeanz :) (to check out her blog, click here)

 

These are the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link back to their blog:

Thanks Jeanz for giving me award and your link is up above :)

2. Leave your top 5 picks for the award and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog:

                1. Aparna @ A Bangalore Girl in Mumbai

                2. Demetra Brodsky @ WHY I YA 

               3. Freelancer @ A Lot of Pages

               4. Heather @ nightly reading

               5. Alyssa @ The Book Blog Experience

3. Copy and paste the award to your blog if I picked you.

4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to the other bloggers.

5. Most of all: support each other and have lots of fun!

Review: Impetuous

Book Details:

Author: Lori Foster

Publisher: Harlequin

Book Summary:  Grade school teacher Carlie McDaniels trades in her frumpiness for the look of an exotic harem girl, at least for one costume party. So long, spinsterhood--and hello, tall, dark and handsome Tyler Ramsey....

Even after the best night of their lives, Tyler hasn't guessed the identity of his harem hottie...and Carlie plans on keeping him in the dark. After all, a gorgeous guy like Tyler would never fall for his smart-talking best friend. And Carlie's not sure she wants to know what would happen if he ever unveiled the naked truth!

My Review: This is Lori Forster's first book, originally published in 1996 and reissued in a new hot avatar in 2009 by Harlequin. I read this as a part of an event on Goodreads, where we were to read one book by Lori Foster in August. I don't know why I always end up (unknowingly) picking up the author's first/second attempt. This book had a new looking cover, and turns out.. it was old wine in new bottle! 

Anyways, back to the story, the book is about Carlie (I kept thinking of her as Charlie :) ) and Tyler. She is a school marm, who has been hurt in the past and has gone through a bad divorce. He is a yuppie lawyer, who is apparently a Casanova. The book starts with Carlie's BFF Brenda coaxing her to wear a harem costume to her costume party. She comes in the costume, wig and mask.. he (dressed as a pirate) sees her and its lust at first sight! They end up having a very hot encounter in the pool house after which she disappears.

After this, the book is all downhill. Carlie comes across as a bitter and mean person. She is also a wimp! There were times in the book when i felt like shaking her and telling her to stop behaving like a loser and start living. The author has given undue importance to facts like, a) Carlie dresses in dowdy clothes to avoid male attention; b) Carlie has gone through a bitter divorce; c) Carlie dresses in dowdy clothes to avoid male attention; d) Tyler had a troubled childhood; e) Carlie had a troubled childhood; f) Carlie dresses in dowdy clothes to avoid male attention after her divorce... you get the point.

Tyler is OK I guess, just don't understand what he sees in the woman. This is clearly a older Harlequin romance, evident by the amazingly verbose dialogue and use if PG rated words in most of the book. the sex scenes were obviously updated as they were hot, but just didn't fit with the rest of the book.I have read Lori Foster before, but don't recall her as being so bad. Well, I might just pick up one of her newer books to find out for sure.

As an aside, while seeing her page on Goodreads, I just read that her latest blog is about " Should authors update books before they're reissued?" .Yes, Lori, you certainly should.

I rate this book as a 1.5/5 as it was an OK romance, just a little lacking in well-written characters. I read it as a part of my 100+ books in 2011 challenge, 100 E-books challenge and of course as part of the Lori Foster event on Goodreads.

Rating: 1.5/5

Review: Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone & Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and I believe that the series, is one of the finest books written. J.K Rowling has written the series so well that you can see it and feel it as you read. It  is one of the highest compliments paid to what is essentially a Children's/ YA book, that people from all age-groups are able to enjoy reading it.

The release of the final installment in the Harry Potter Movies (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), led to HBO airing thhe entire series (1-6) again. This made me want to read the entire series again, as I had read it as the books were released and didn't particularly take my time with them (I remember reading it like a starved man faced with a feast.. I literally devoured each book as it came!).

Anyways, like I do with most series, I have started reading them in installments, rather than at a stretch, and read through the first two books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets again. I found that I still like the series as much as I thought, though this time, my mental movie reel showed Daniel Radcliffe and the rest of the movie cast as different characters, as opposed to letting my imagination fill in the gaps. I suppose this is what happens when you see the movie version of any book, your imagination becomes limited by that of the director's. Good in my case that  Chris Columbus has a great imagination and manages to be true to the book most of the times.

Harry's adventures are fascinating and the change in character's mindset is also great, you can see them evolve with every book in the series. As an adult reading the book, I am struck by the "Save the World" mindset and the main character's strong dislike for anyone with shades of black. This brings to mind the fact that probably, as children, we tend to have very set boundries between black and white which shift as we grow up and become more cynical.

All in all, it it a great series and reccommended to all. For me, it creates a nostaligia of my childhood reading days, when I got lost in my fantasy world of books. Have any of you read the series? What to you think of this? Also, speaking as adults, which is your favourite childhood book, The one you re-visit time and again, dreaming of simpler days. Mine's Tom Sawyer, what is yours?

And.. I'm Back!

Its been soo long since I updated my blog. Most of you must have already forgotten about me. In the last month, we purchased our first house (Yippiiieee) and have been busy getting settled in. We are also being very brave and having some renovations done right away, as we stay here, so things are a little chaotic to say the least! 

So, currently, we are living out of a suitcase, in one room, with a house-full of stuff boxed and stacked across our parent's and relatives houses (finding clothes every morning itself is a huge chore!). Anyways, after a few weeks, I have finally come to terms with the chaos and have decided to get back to my blogging and reviews.

The good news is that I have kept up with my reading (no television, you see), but the bad news is that I have almost forgotten the details of most of the books. So, will only be posting reviews of the recent ones.

Hope to find time to post more often now!