The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larrson

This is the second in the series of 3 by Stieg Larrson. The first book took me a while to get into, but I was really enjoying by the end. This book, I was into right from the beginning. For all the neurosis and problems that the character of Lisbeth Salandar has, you can't help but cheer for her and wonder if there isn't more to be found to her. This book has a slightly different theme than the first one, which I enjoyed too. I don't want to give too much away. It's a pretty big book, but the reading isn't hard and it won't take you that long because you won't want to put it down.

Verdict: Very enjoyable. Better than the first - read it.

I'll be back when I finish the third and final book of this series - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

The Secret of the Nagas - Amish Tripathi

This is the second book of Amish Tripathi's series. I enjoyed it more than the first one, my husband did not. The writing is basically the same style, but the plot thickens. My husband couldn't get over the bollywood style writing and the unreal interpersonal relationships between people, but my opinion is that since this is meant to be like a mythological story, the language will be different. I really enjoyed a little deeper delving into the mechanics of right, wrong, stereotypes and enforcing your morality on others. To be honest, most of the morals int he story are a bit obvious, but the author did manage to throw in a few curve balls. I enjoyed it and am planning to read the third book whenever Mr. Tripathi is finished writing it.

Verdict: I still think it's a worthwhile read if you can look past the hyperbole.

The Immortals of Mehlua - Amish Tripathi

Daddy G and I decided to read this book and the next together with our Justbooks membership. I'll get into some of the problems with Justbooks in another post.

This book is a novel by an Indian author that weaves together a story with some religious folklore. It starts out a bit slow - it took me a while to get into it - and slowly reels you in and gets deeper. It is also curiously absent of all the pathos that I usually notice from Indian authors. It's a pretty light read unless you pause to contemplate some of the good vs. evil themes that become apparent later in the book, which I totally recommend. That's part of the fun. I'll have a review for the second book, The Secret of the Nagas, when I finish it also.

Verdict: I'm recommending this one. It's a good time pass and an interesting way to look at religion, morality, and good vs. evil. Read it and contemplate.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

I'm not going to post a review for this book either. It's popular enough and has been around long enough that I'm sure there are more than enough for you to find if you want one.

I enjoyed reading this. It's not spectacularly deep or complicated to read, but it is a nice fiction time pass. My husband read the next one in the series - The Girl Who Played with Fire - and liked it a lot more. I'll give you my reaction after I read that one. I like the occasional murder mystery and this one was nicely written. I felt too much attention was spent developing the supporting actor's character and not enough on the main character, but maybe that will happen in the next book. Since this book was written about Swedish people, I spent most of the book seeing Kurt Nilsson, although I don't think he's even Swedish. Weird. Perhaps because both Kurt and Nilsson were used in the book.

Verdict: If you have time to pass, read it. 

Stupid Guy Goes to India - Yukichi Yamamatsu

I recently finished this book after getting it from Just Books. I didn’t realize it was a manga book (an adult version of a cartoon, mainly from Japan) until I got it, but I read it nonetheless.

The author is a Japanese man who speaks neither English nor Hindi. He decides to come to New Delhi India and try to sell manga, which pretty much doesn’t exist, and all the hilarity that ensues. He actually lives in Delhi and goes about getting a book published and struggles to get the idea to catch on.

This is a great book for those who understand how things work in India. I found myself laughing because it reminded me so much of when we landed up in India to live. The difference was being married to an Indian who speaks Hindi, having common sense, and understanding the culture. You can almost predict how much trouble and nonsense this guy is going to get into just because of how innocent he is. India is just not a place for the naive.

You have to give this guy credit for taking a huge leap of faith. In the end, he doesn’t achieve his goals, but still ends up with some pretty huge bragging rights. Hats off Yukichi Yamamatsu.

Verdict: Read it.

The Hunger Games – An Update

So I have finally finished the Hunger Games series. I don’t have much to add to the first installment of this book. The second two weren’t really all that surprising, but they also weren’t as suspenseful as the first. They devolved into a mainly action based plot, leaving all of the contemplation for the first book. As I said, read it if you can’t bear to leave a series undone (as was the case with me), but don’t expect anything out of this world.

Becky

Malgudi Days - R.K. Narayan

I have circled back around to R.K. Narayan - again at the advice of my husband. Again, Mr. Narayan didn't disappoint.

Malgudi is based on a fictional (or so they say) village somewhere in South India. Tamil Nadu if I remember correctly. This book wanders around some of the adventures that Narayan has written about this famous place, including some essays written by and sometimes about himself.

I loved it. As one who grew up in the US in a mid size town, village like continues to fascinate me. I really enjoyed learning more about Narayan through his essays and getting a broader view of his writing style.

The book did drag in certain places, but for some reason, I felt compelled to just plow through those parts and see what was next.

Verdict: Read it

I have been wasting vast amounts of time reading romance novels also, but I'm not going to waste anyone's time listing them, because I haven't come across any home runs yet.

Fifty Shades of Gray - E.L. James

Moving right along with the poplit – Fifty Shades of Grey. This one however, has my complete and utter support.

This book is a romance novel with some serious heat included. It has all the right material for a romance novel – flawed hero, vacuous plot, non realistic situations and solutions. So don’t be expecting a brain buster here.  In its defense, the book has some very hot scenes.

BDSM has a central role in this book. While it doesn’t delve into anything too deep or disturbing, if this type thing bothers you, it’s probably best for you to skip it. This particular thing floats my boat, so I enjoyed it.

There are three books to this series. I will have to say the first one was the best for me. At the end of the third one, I was ready to be done as the plot had tapered off into nothing.

My husband about popped a gasket when he found out how much I spent on Amazon for “trash novels” but I’m not sorry I did. I look forward to reading through the first book again for the hot scenes.

Verdict: Read it if you are open to a different flavor of sex.

Becky

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Why yes, my head is hung in shame – thanks for noticing. I had no plans what so ever for reading this series because I usually avoid touching pop lit with anything but a 10 foot pole. However, my husband bought it for me to read and I find his encouragement of my literary adventures beyond cute – so we both read it.

I’m not going to bother giving you a review – you can feel free to look at one of the 10 gazillion other reviews floating around.

I will say this for the writing – the subject material is difficult to process if you’re the contemplative type – but that’s one of the major draws for the book. For material written for a teenaged reading level, it’s incredibly deep subject material. I’m actually curious as to how some teens have reacted to it after reading it.

Verdict: If you’re up for some contemplative thinking about humanity, dig in. Don’t expect the reading to be difficult, but take it for what it is and spend the extra time contemplating the what ifs of the world coming to this type of behavior.

Becky

The Most Excellent News

Listening to: Where Would I Be – Cake

Mood: Joyous

Ladies and gentlemen, I am uber excited.  Not in an over-caffeinated-I-must-clean-all-the-bathrooms –right-this-second type way, but in a victorious way that celebrates getting back something I dearly, dearly missed.

Since I left on an airplane for India, I have been bemoaning the fact that libraries don’t exist. I’ve been kind of floating around in a black hole for fresh books. I’m not really the type to buy everything I want to read and have been utterly spoiled by some amazing libraries in my life.

Cue my excitement. We discovered a company called Just Books. They have store fronts full of books all over Bangalore, including one in a neighborhood near mine! They function exactly like libraries, only it’s a private endeavor so you have to pay a membership fee. The membership plans range from paying an as-you-read 1 to you may have 4 at a time and 2 magazines. Sorry, let me just gather up all of the pieces of my head that just exploded. I HAVE A LIBRARY PEOPLE!

A few things to note if you are interested:

1. The choice is impressive, but not quite the scale you would be used to from a library in the US. Still, at 4 books at a time, I could read straight through the next 5 years and not exhaust their supply.  They have fiction, nonfiction, kids (from touch and feel simple – elementary aged),teen, magazines, and Indian authors section.
2.  The place is quite a bit skewed towards Indian authors as this is in fact India. This doesn’t bother me a bit, but not everyone likes Indian writing. They do have plenty of non Indian authors too.
3.  They have an awesome online catalog and will deliver your books if you take the 4 book at a time plan. If the store is not next door to you, this is something to really consider. The site is not the best for filtering to find specific things, but if you don’t mind a little digging, you can find lots of cool stuff. Magazines, unfortunately are not delivered.  Customer service/support is offered through live chat once you sign in. It’s a little slow, but they are helpful.
4. As with US libraries, all of the branches in a city share their books, so even if you did go through one entire branch, you can order books from any other branch, opening up your choices tremendously. It may take a little longer for them to deliver, but hey, you have more choice.
5. As I mentioned, if you pay for 4 books at a time, they deliver and pick up. There is no charge for delivery and pick up and you could theoretically get them to come every day with quick reading and a little planning, but this would be difficult. Typically, your closest branch delivers within 2 – 3 days. You can order books to be brought while they pick up the old ones – no lag time!

Hopefully I’ll be visiting this blog more often to leave notes on the info settling into my head now that I have books to read again.

Becky

Where in the World?

Listening to: Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

Mood: Happy

Today is not the day that I discovered Blogger’s stat features. I have been occasionally throwing an eye around there for quite some time. 

As of late, this has especially fascinated me. I’ve found out that I have readers from Latvia (!), Malaysia, Iran, Russia, Romania (!!), Slovenia (seriously?!), Turkey, China, The Netherlands (holla back Dutch folks!), France, Nepal (!), Ukraine, Brazil, and Laos (again, really?!)

All I can say is wow folks. I appreciate every single last one of you. Please, please, please come back often. I’ll do my best to continue providing you with entertaining reading. I also love comments, so let ‘em fly people. There are convenient following options also if you want me all up in your email inbox or RSS feeder. All of my goodness delivered to your (virtual) doorstep. The email following instructions are on the left, the RSS subscription at the bottom of the page.

I have some options for those who want to read something different. I regularly keep 6 blogs. Some get written in more than others, but the content is all different. Check out the links below for more of my content.

Politics: While I don’t get around to blogging here nearly enough to suit my taste – I feel that some of these articles are my best. Since I grew up in the US, but live in India, both will be included:

http://becky-politicalrants.blogspot.in/

My take on a mommy blog:

http://guardingthecouches.blogspot.in/

Life in India – good fun with pictures:

http://followingthemasala.blogspot.in/

My main blog with life musings:

http://beckyispassingthrough.blogspot.in/

For all things related to marriage and all of its tomfoolery (there may be posts about sex, you’ve been warned):

http://beckysballandchain.blogspot.in/

Thanks for reading!

Becky

From the Archives: What We say Goes – Conversations on US power in a Changing World - Noam Chomsky.

A caveat about this archive - this was a long time ago, I'm not sure I'm still so excited about Chomsky. Agree with him, hell yes, but not quite so big of a fan.

 

 

Listening To: Scooby Do

Mood: Happy

Rolling the book train right along, I’d like to move on to some Chomsky. I have recently become a huge fan of Noam Chomsky’s political commentaries. This book did not disappoint. Chomsky does a fantastic job of examining the power structure and government in the United States and how it affects worldwide relations without resorting to bitterness or cynicism. Chomsky always has a way of encouraging people to use their own heads and examine the reality of things rather than just accepting how they are. I love reading interviews with Chomsky because he calls things how he sees them, even with the person interviewing him. If he doesn’t agree, he politely, but firmly, disagrees. Right then and there. He takes on most of the important issues of today.

Verdict: I love Chomsky. If you need any type of perspective on the US and the world today, this is a great place to start. If you have any illusions on how the US works in relation to the rest of the world, Chomsky will relieve you of them. Read it!

 

Becky

From the Archives: I am America (And so can You!) - Steven Colbert

Listening to: Still more Scooby Do

Mood: Happy

So I’m a big fan of Mr. Steven Colbert. In fact, I’ve been going through withdrawal symptoms lately with the writers’ strike, but that’s a different blog altogether. He made a big deal out of the book that he wrote and endlessly (and indeed shamelessly) plugged his book on his show, so I decided to pick it up at the library when I saw it. Mr. Colbert, I know I am not a true patriot because I use libraries. Sorry about that, but that’s how I roll.

I was a bit disappointed by this book. Steven wrote the book with a whole list of other people. He added his style, viral name, and image to the book, but I was left wondering how much he actually wrote.  It’s a bit heavy on Steven’s style, and borrows a lot from his show. It’s also a little fragmented if you read all of the side notes in with the text, like I did.  I know most of us don't look to Mr. Colbert for brain science expertise, but still. This book is just fine if you want a shot of humor and irony, ala Steven Colbert, but don’t expect him to say anything different from what you’ve heard on his show.

Becky