Love Letters

Love Letters is the chick lit version of a long, rambling walk in the countryside. Accompany twenty-six year old Laura Horsley, as she moves from being a behind-the-scenes bookshop assistant to a hands-on organizer of a fledgling literary festival that is set in a quaint pocket of the English countryside. One of the biggest tasks entrusted to her is to pull in the Irish best-selling author, Dermot Flynn. The tempestuous wordsmith is suffering from a raging case of Writer’s Block and has become a recluse in his Irish hometown of Ballyfitzpatrick. Shock-and-Awe Dermot could prove be the turning point of Laura’s cloistered existence. She’s in danger of losing not only her inhibitions but also her heart.

Laura is a lovely heroine. She is shy, talented, soft-hearted and with an ability to laugh at herself without being maudlin or Bridget Jones-y. Dermot Flynn reminded me of Gerard Butler in P.S.I Love You . If you liked the rakishly handsome, Irish brogue talking Gerry, you’ll be quite enchanted by Dermot. In fact, if they make a summer rom-com based on this movie, I am pretty sure that the casting director will be imagining Butler stomping around the Irish countryside…playing the temperamental, womanising writer to the hilt.

The book appealed to me for it’s whole ‘book-lovers’ angle. I understood Laura’s love for the written word. I also enjoyed the peek into the coming together of a literary fest with it’s entourage of harried organizers, demanding sponsors, frightening agents and nervous first-timers.

Katie Fforde’s books are light, the epitome of breezy and ideal for those times when you just want to read a love story without making your brain go into overdrive.

An Urgent Message Of Wowness

I picked up this book purely for the Cover-Art. The summary was hardly informative, but the lovely shiny cover with it’s zany artwork and quirky title yelled out to the impulsive buyer in me. I am happy to report that the story was charming and wholly engaging.

Heather P. Smith is an imperfect 13-year old in a perfect family. Her handsome dentist dad, her elegant mum, her talented and stunningly good lookin’ elder brother Jo-Jo and her l'il fairy princess of a sister, Tallie make a circle of "wowness". And then there’s Heather, who is scruffy and prone to eccentricities and short-term hobbies. The one that has lasted longest is her habit of collecting abandoned soft toys from the pavement, washing them up and giving them a home in her room. The Wombat, as she calls herself has made her peace with her dreary existence, accepting the fact that she’s the abnormal glitch in her perfect family vehicle.

But then one day, her dad drops a bombshell. He is leaving home and the family, and in a flash, everything unravels. Suddenly Heather seems to be the only sane person in a house where everyone is coping with the shock in their own distinctive (and batty ) way. Heather’s mum goes from staying cooped up in a darkened room to taking Salsa Classes. Perfect Jo-Jo is managing an Indie band, wearing eyeliner and providing shelter to a displaced Goth Girl who stores her vivid nail-polish bottles in the cheese counter of the fridge. Pink Princess Tallie has decided to embrace her feral side and has taken to punking up her teddy bear and doing quite a slap up job on herself.

The subject of separation and it’s far-reaching emotional consequences has been handled with some poignant thoughts and bucketloads of humour. The characters are zany and lovable for their distinctive shades of whackiness. In all a fun read and something that made me glad that I 'judged a book by it’s cover'.

Twenties Girl

My reading of this book was interspersed with regular visits to Google. I looked up all things twenties. From crooning saxophones to flighty flappers to shingled hair to the Charleston to Cloche hats to Broadway (nicknamed Satan’s Circus)…all things insane and outrageous caught my fancy. The Roaring Twenties was the stop-gap between two World Wars and the ladies of the day were rebellious and spirited. World War I had decimated a generation of young men and in it’s aftermath, the young girls refused to sit around, waiting for the existing gentlemen to make a formal indication of their intentions. Instead, the Flappers (as they were called) slipped into shimmery frocks, stuck jaunty feathers in their headbands, stepped out of their cloistered existences and had a swingin’ time!

Say hello to Sadie Lancaster, one such Flapper from 1929. Only now, the year is 2009 and Sadie is a ghost…a ghost who has decided to haunt her frazzled grand-niece, Lara Lington. Lara’s plate of woes is overflowing. She is a corporate head-hunter of a sinking firm and has a business partner who is cooling her heels in Goa. Lara has also been dumped by her boyfriend, Josh. And to top it all, she’s seems to be a constant source of disappointment to her parents. So, when a screechy, pushy and temperamental ghost starts telling her to find an antique dragonfly necklace, Lara is convinced that she’s finally gone round the bend.

But co-existing with a ghost from the 1920s can be quite nifty. Suddenly, she’s dressing up in drop-waists and cloche hats and indelible makeup and dancing with sullen but rakishly handsome men. She is getting a chance to make up with her old boyfriend and find out what made him run scared. She’s caught up in the mystery of a missing necklace and is playing amateur detective with a vengeance. And amidst it all, she’s having a rip-roaring time.

Twenties Girl is one of Sophie Kinsella’s better offerings. Lara Lington is a heroine who runs true to Kinsella form. She’s a bit batty and frivolous, has an interesting fashion-sense, an almost non-existent business sense and the tendency to whine and whinge and land herself into embarrassing situations at the drop of a hat. But also true to the author’s style, she develops a backbone, business acumen, the ability to “get-her-man” and set things right by the time you hit the last few pages. Sadie was an odd character. I oscillated between immense irritation at her self-absorbed shrill fits and a sense of sympathy for her disappointment at never having accounted for much in her 105 years. And although the book was a tad on the long drawn out side, the only thing that kept me hooked was the interesting premise of getting a glimpse into the glorious twenties. I enjoyed scouring the net for tiny peeks into an era which was glorious, uninhibited and most definitely “the bees-knees”!

We Are ~ (Ana Johnsson)

I *heart* this song....the mere fact that I am resorting to the dubious *heart* is testimony to the fact that I can hear this song on repeat for an hour or two or...well, you get the drift. I also like the way it has been neatly incorporated into key-moments from Spidey 1 & 2 (who, I also *heart*). I will refrain from further pretentious twaddle and enjoy the video. I advice you to quit the eye-rolling and do the same.

Ten Things I Hate About Me

At her Aussie school, she is Jamie: a (bottle) blonde with blue(courtesy contact-lens) eyes. She is neither a member of the popular brigade nor a reject of the nerd-parade. Hovering between the two, she’s just trying hard to fit in.

At home, she is Jamilah: a brown-eyed, Lebanese-Muslim girl who has to deal with a widowed traditional father, an activist sister and a brother who knows he’s God’s gift to the ladies.

No one at school is aware of Jamilah’s ethnic background. Wary of peer pressure and the scathing rascist comments peppering the school corridors, she decides that blonde Jamie is a safe way to coast through school with minimum mental turmoil. And when the most popular boy in class starts paying attention to her, she feels that the subterfuge is paying off.

Jamilah also has to deal with her strict, composer-of-curfew-charters father. Paranoid about raising his youngest daughter in the right manner, he has effectively brought Jamilah's social life to a grinding halt. His only concession is to allow her to attend the Madrasa where she plays the darabuka in an all-Muslim band.

Her two worlds exist parallel to each other, never colliding; never clashing…..Jamie makes very sure of that. But all the angst and secrecy is getting to her. Her only confidante is a smart-talking chat friend called John. With John, Jamie can vent and rant and rave, totally secure in the knowledge that John will never spill into her everyday life.

But double life’s have a way of meeting up when you least expect it. Jamie’s Year10 Formal is coming up and true to form; her father has forbidden her to partake in the festivities. But Jamilah’s Muslim band has also been hired to play at the party. Suddenly the train-wreck waiting to happen seems very close and very very likely.

10 Things I Hate About Me is a sensitive story of many Muslim teens facing the travails of a crime they never committed. While some have the gumption to stand up for themselves, others like Jamilah prefer to keep things under wraps. Jamilah admires her friends like Ahmed who don’t take the racist cat-calls with an uncomfortable wince. Instead, they retaliate, risk alienation and ensure that their voices are heard. Jamilah wants to have an identity too. She wants to be proud of her hijab, her big family dinners, her inquisitive but caring relatives, her darabuka, her Arabian music and myriad other factors. But she also wants to sail through school with minimum friction.

The book is about Jamilah/Jamie’s mental and social growth. Randa Abdel-Fattah handles the culture issue with the insouciance of a native. Splashes of wry-humour and a chatty writing-style make it appealing to teens without appearing preachy. My only grouse is that certain situations were glaringly obvious (e.g. the real identity of chat friend, John) and I wondered why the sharp Jamie couldn’t put two and two together. Moreover, things were tied up a tad too neatly in the end. I feel a sequel would have done more justice to Jamilah’s conflict-resolution.

On the whole, a charming read which gives you fodder for thought.

The Carrie Diaries

‘Who am I supposed to be again? Just be yourself. But who am I?’

Much before Carrie Bradshaw was blazing a fashionable trail through Manhattan; she was just an ordinary small-town, high school teenager in Connecticut.

She has her own “un-clique” consisting of the prone-to-dramatics Maggie, the sarcastic guy-with-a-secret Walt, the super-smart Roberta better known as The Mouse and the frenemy - Lali. Soon, Carrie finds herself drawn into a tumultuous relationship with the most-sought after bad-boy in school - Sebastian Kydd. She also has to deal with the family dynamics of a widowed father bringing up three fairly-troubled teenage daughters.

But Carrie has another all-encompassing dream…a dream to become a Writer. After receiving a rejection letter from an NY writing seminar, her confidence is shaken and she begins contemplating the uncertainties of the future. Does she have the potential to make it as writer? Or is she destined to end up at a nearby university resigned to becoming a scientist like her dad?

And then the betrayal of a friend speeds things up drastically. Decisions have to be made…relationships are to be mended/ severed…and the future puts it’s insistent foot in the door.

On the face of it, The Carrie Diaries can be just another coming-of-age story fraught with the usual issues of growing up. But what makes it an interesting read is that IT IS the coming-of-age story of the iconic Carrie Bradshaw, immortalized in the critically acclaimed ‘Sex and the City’. A younger Carrie has been portrayed as a fun, intelligent and whacky teenager. She has the smarts to stand up for herself but is enough of a teen to be pummelled by doubts and insecurities. She has all the makings of a budding feminist and then shows an equally humbling tendency to succumb to peer-pressures.

We get glimpses into the fashionista-in-the-making. From the first day of the new school year when she arrives in white patent leather Go-Go boots to the time when she goes nuts with a bottle of bright pink nail-polish and emblazons her name on a classic bag handed down by her mum, Carrie is quite the style-guru. This is the fledgling stage of her love-affair with vintage clothes and it’s a treat for all Carrie and SATC fans to see their favourite character’s formative years.

The cast of supporting characters is pretty clichéd, complete with the nasty queen-bee cheerleader(Donna LaDonna), the entourage of empty headed Jocks and Jens and a love interest that leaves much to be desired. But the sole shining beacon of this book is Carrie Bradshaw. Her tale is that of every small-town girl trying to break the shackles of a go-nowhere suburban existence. What makes this story special is that at the end of the day, we know Carrie succeeded and got a well-shod Jimmy Choo foothold into her bright and exciting dream of New York.

It’s the time to waka waka, world- Hindustan Times

It’s the time to waka waka, world- Hindustan Times

The Hobbit

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“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him…”

…AND it does not do to leave The Hobbit out of your list of fantasy must-reads.

Bilbo Baggins is a typical comfort-loving hobbit. Happily settled in the pastoral land of The Shire, life is a relaxed cycle of smoking tobacco, guzzling ale, attending parties and having innumerable (and delicious) meals all day long. But Bilbo also has Took blood running through his veins. The Took family members were famous for disappearing on mysterious adventures. Bilbo however, is content to suppress the thrill-seeking side of his nature and curl up happily in his Hobbit-Hole.

But then the powerful wizard, Gandalf (making his first stalwart appearance) asks…infact…informs Bilbo that he needs the hobbit for an adventure. Bilbo promptly declines but soon finds a motley crew of dwarves descending upon his home. Gandalf and the dwarves are headed east, n a perilous mission to the Lonely Mountain. They intend to recover their ancestors’ treasure from the clutches of a fiendish dragon called Smaug. Initial reluctance gives way to the thirst for adventure and thus begins a quest that transforms a cushy, quivering jellyfish of a hobbit into a legendary hero.

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The Hobbit is a delightful prelude to the magnum opus - The Lord of The Rings. It introduces us to the house-proud Bilbo Baggins who gets dragged along on a magnificent adventure fraught with danger, deceit, wit, bravery, unlikely enemies, friendly foes and mythical creatures galore. J.R.R.Tolkien’s language is rich and deliciously ancient. He makes you feel like snuggling up for buttery scones and a pot of tea at Bilbo’s hobbit hole…and then…..just as easily makes a shiver go down your spine as you venture into the unknown and perilous dangers of Mirkwood.

All of us have the spirit of adventure lurking within us. While some leap in with both feet, others hem and haw and dawdle incessantly. Bilbo belongs to the latter group. But when good ol’Gandalf pushes the wary hobbit into action, he rises admirably to the task. The book is a winner all the way. From odd named creatures to near-fatal encounters to dastardly villains to enticing obstacles, The Hobbit keeps you hooked.

How To Be Popular - when you're a social reject like me, Steph L.

‘ Way to pull a Steph Landry’

…and that cruel taunt has been burning Steph Landry’s ears since the time that she was a clumsy twelve year old who accidentally upended a Red Super Big-Gulp on Lauren Moffat’s white denim D & G skirt. And although Steph bought Lauren a brand new skirt…prima-donna hag-extraordinaire Lauren has never let Steph or the rest of Bloomville High School ever let the unfortunate memory fade. Ergo, whenever anyone commits a faux-pas or does something remotely dorky, it’s ‘Don’t pull a Steph’ or ‘That’s so Steph’ or ‘Don’t be such a Steph’ or the ever popular ‘Way to pull a Steph Landry’.

But now, after five years of fading into the background and being content with mocking the in-crowd from afar with fellow rejects Jason and Becca…Steph is ready for a change. She has laid her hands on a book titled ‘How-To-Be-Popular’ and is ready to implement all the guidelines that the author has cheerfully spelt out. So, it’s a new hairstyle, a spanking new (yet, tastefully put together) wardrobe and a sociable personality. She’s ready to grab the eyeballs of the popular kids with her new assertiveness. No more wallflower-impersonation. Steph Landry is ready to shine and dazzle and poke-one-in-the-eye of uber-witch - Lauren Moffat and attract the attention of handsome quarterback - Mike Finley.

But in the quest for fitting-in, she’s in danger of alienating her best friends; Jason (who interestingly enough has gotten taller and noticeably hotter) and Becca (who has never really left behind her scared-witless, farmgirl-in-a-new-setting persona). Does getting a shoe-in into the elite pack mean compromising on things that Steph strongly believes in? Does it mean hurting the people who have always stood by her through the rough patches?

Meg Cabot is the literary equivalent of comfort-food. Her books are frothy, funny and wholly enjoyable. Her heroines are gutsy teenagers. While they are generally practical individuals, all of them have occasional spasms of self-doubt and flashes of insecurity to keep them real. Cabot also manages to handle teen-issues with her usual brand of sparky dialogue and a down-to-earth approach.

How To Be Popular is a fun read. It has a likeable, non-whiney heroine in Steph and a cast of oddball characters who while they might be a tad predictable are still engaging. Don’t let the title put you off. It’s not…I repeat…NOT….a self-help book. What it is, is another of Cabot’s sassy yet serious takes on the quintessential teen girl.

Shrek Forever After

Happily Ever After can get a tad tiresome. For Shrek(Mike Myers), atleast. Whatever happened to villagers running scared or alternatively chasing you with pitchforks and torches? Whatever happened to making mud angels in the squelchy swamp mud?? Whatever happened to just putting up your toes and enjoying an eyeball martini?!?

The now fully domesticated Shrek is missing his old lifestyle. The midlife crisis has hit early and the present seems to be nothing but an endless rote of changing diapers, burping three babies and playing much-loved ogre to his large group of adoring friends. When he finally snaps and storms off from his kiddies’ first birthday party, he unfortunately (and conveniently) runs into the magic deal-maker; Rumpelstiltskin(Walt Dohrn). The wily creature, having witnessed Shrek’s outburst offers him a deal. In exchange for one day as a real ogre, Rumpelstiltskin asks for one day from Shrek’s childhood.

But beware of midgets bearing curlicue-scripted deals.

Unbeknownst to Shrek, ol’Rumpy has been nurturing a long-festering grudge against him. When a harried Shrek signs on the dotted line, he soon finds himself in an alternative reality. What he doesn’t know is that Rumpelstiltskin took the day Shrek was born.

So sure, the villagers scream and run at the sight of him now. But it’s also a place where his home has never existed. Rumpelstiltskin is the king of Far Far Away and is a dictatorial ruler to boot. Fiona(Cameron Diaz) is not his wife. She’s a fearsome warrior heading an underground resistance against the monarchy. Donkey(Eddie Murphy) doesn’t recognize Shrek and the suave Puss in Boots(Antonio Banderas) has degenerated into an obese, pampered pet. And as a final twist, Rumpelstiltskin declares that within 24 hours, Shrek, having never been born, will cease to exist altogether.

I ♥ The Shrek Franchise…shamelessly and unapologetically. I don’t care how many sequels they churn out. I don’t care if they are not exactly cinematic masterpieces. I will always love Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Dragon, Gingee, The Three Pigs, Pinocchio and the rest of the enchanting cast. I don’t care if people find the wordplay tedious…it’s funny and a delightful poke-in-the-ribs of all the fairy tales that I have grown up reading. So maybe the makers couldn’t recreate the magic of the original SHREK. But they did do their fair share and should be applauded for creating characters that remain fresh with every new inning.

The last (or so they claim) instalment in the series is quite entertaining and has a healthy dose of reality stitched in. Even the most content amongst us wish for something more. Never happy, are we? And Shrek is no different. A loving wife, three beautiful kids and a crowd that adores him are not enough. And so begins the misadventure. The characters are achingly funny….whether it’s a crooning Donkey playing pack-mule cum radio or a wheezing Puss sliding inelegantly down his cat-pole. Fiona is still the soft-voiced feminist that puts all prissy princesses to shame. And the wonderful Shrek still manages to make you smile with his portrayal of a frustrated main-lead.

In all, a great soundtrack, whip-smart dialogue and an ensemble cast that almost always makes you break into one of Donkey’s signature grins.