In Priya Kumar’s The Calling, we meet Arjun, an overworked marketing manager on the brink of divorce. A near-fatal accident and a chance encounter with a sadhu sees him set off on a journey to Hemkunt Sahib. As he climbs the mountain with his guide Chandu, little does he know the mysterious turn his life is about to take.Continue reading
Why I’m thrilled I read fewer books in 2016 + my 5 favorite reads
As I go through the books I’ve read this year, it’s immediately evident that the count is much lower than in the last couple of years. Since about 2012, I think, I’ve been averaging about 60 to 70 books each year. This year, the count is at a measly 26. And I’m thrilled! Because it is tangible proof that I’ve been spending my time doing more art, more soul work, and a whole lotta more blogging!
Reading has always been something I love – and don’t get me wrong, I love it still. But in the last few years, it had become an unhealthy, obsessive sorta love. I used it as an escape route – from life, from inner work, from my fears and hopes and dreams. Because if I was spending every free moment reading, I wasn’t doing much of anything else, was I?Continue reading
Book review: Two Graves by Zoe Kalo
Doesn't that sound nice and spooky for a short novella tagged as a dark psychological suspense?
"Seven years ago, he shattered her life. The town eventually forgot the headlines and the nightmares. But 23-year old music student Angelica hasn’t forgotten.
For the past seven years, she’s contemplated payback with as much intensity and unwavering faith as she puts into her violin playing. Finally, all the pieces are in place. Over the course of one night, disguised for a masquerade ball,
Angelica orchestrates a journey of revenge."
Book review: The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith
What happens when “happily ever after” has come and gone?
On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven’s wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. Things could not be better except for one thing: The king is dead.
The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old. It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what “happily ever after” really means? Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.
Ebook review: Got me for life by Chandni Moudgil
Women. Are they complex creatures or the simplest of beings? The answer is perhaps not as simple.
In a series of 26 short stories, explore the world of EveryDay Women with me. They aren’t the superheroes who claim to save the world. They are the ones who form a part of your world.
They can create magical moments, make or break people, manipulate relationships, slip in and out of roles or refuse to fit into one at all. They are the real women in our lives. But the common thread that binds these fascinating women is , they don’t need anyone to make their world better – they have themselves for life.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you find a bit of someone you know in each of them.
Let the stories begin?
Ebook review: The Other Side of Love by Richa Singh
“Twenty seven is the last age to get married an in style.”
So begins this short novella, which was was penned by Singh during the month-long Ultimate Blogging Challenge.
The story follows 27 year old Radha, who, of course, is not yet married. She lives a rather lonely existence. She’s friend zoned by Sushant, the man she loves; her sisters are married and settled; and her mother is worried about Radha’s future. But instead of being forced into marriage, Radha accepts a teaching job from a coveted institute.
Ebook review: 26 by Aditi Kaushiva
26: 26 Stories. 26 Colours. 26 Emotions, is an anthology that strives to explore the myriad hues of life by painting 26 bite-sized stories, each based on 26 colours which commence with every letter of the alphabet from A to Z. The themes developed in these stories range from marital despair to urban city-life blues, from love to loss, from child abuse to infidelity, divorce, and much more.
This short eBook is a collection of 26 pieces of flash fiction. Kaushiva wrote each story in a day, in an attempt to show that short, swiftly written and transient narratives can be as powerful as complexly-constructed prose.
Book Review: Sweet Breath of Memory by Ariella Cohen
Life is in the telling.
When Cate Saunders walks into Amberly’s Italian grocery store Vitelli’s, little does she know how her life is going to change. Weighed down by the loss of her husband John in the Iraq war, having lost the house they bought together, and all dreams of the life that they wanted to build, Cate has accepted a job as a caregiver.
Book review: Five Roses by Alice Zorn
A young, naive girl with no social graces; an aging hippie whose baby daughter was kidnapped; a hospital operator whose sister committed suicide; a young, talented pastry chef who hides her talent behind the counter of a patisserie. All linked, somehow – as friends, neighbors, blood relations.
Book Review: The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer
From the back cover:
Kat Lind, an American expatriate living in London with her entrepreneur husband and their young son, attends an opening at a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and is astonished to find her own face on the walls. The portraits are evidence of a long-ago love affair with the artist, Daniel Blake. Unbeknownst to her, he has continued to paint her ever since. Kat is seduced by her reflection on canvas and when Daniel appears in London, she finds herself drawn back into the sins and solace of a past that suddenly no longer seems so far away.