Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is a meme which is being sponsored by I'm Booking it for the month of March.
Please visit the links and you will be so pleasantly surprised by not only the books and authors you will get to know through fellow bloggers but the lovely blogs out there as well. The meme deals with books which came into your house either through purchase, library a gift or a win. Mine are all purchases from my second hand bookstore.


The blurb says three strangers are thrown together by chance! that was enough for me.



One of my all time favourite authors. Love Susan Howatch and the doings in the Anglican church!


East Lynne by Mrs. Henry Wood. My copy is a hardback ancient, moth eaten one and with a small font but I am looking forward to this.



A River Sutra by Gita Mehta. Another book for the South Asia Challenge being sponsored by S. Krishna. I had not heard of the book or author before so thought I'd pick it up.


Please visit I'm Booking it and link to the meme as well.

Review - Good Wives by Louisa M. Alcott

If you go through my book reviews you will see that I seem to be alternating older books with newer ones and this is due to the fact that older books are more readily available here. The latest books are beyond reach, also physically reach us so much later that the thrill of getting it hot off the press is never really there. Not complaining though because I do get to read a fair amount of books of so many genres anyway.

This is a book which I read for school literature! it was quite nostalgic going back to it after such a long, long spell. Reading it now I think its a bit too idyllic to be true - everyone is holier than thou, everyone is very good, no one steps out of line but then as you go deeper into the book you realize that thank heavens everyone is weak - Jo will write muck and get it published all for the filthy lucre! Amy is vain and Meg hankers for every little thing that her richer neighbour has. So there is human weakness and of course the moral here is how everyone gets over their weakness and good prevails. I wish it could be that easy in real life.

A very pleasant read, taking you back in time to a more sedate, easier past. Enjoyable for a weekend read.

This meme sponsored by Crazy-for-books.com has enabled me to meet so many new bloggers and most importantly to diversify my reading interests. Please follow the links and enjoy the reading.


This weeks question comes from Mia who blogs at Girl about Books

Who's your all time favourite book villain?

This was a difficult one for me to answer. Unlike the other blogs I have another
villain! Mr. Wickham from Pride and Prejudice would be my choice.


Have fun blog hopping!!

Review - Romesh Gunasekera's The Match

This is my third contribution towards the South Asian Challenge being sponsored by S. Krishna. It is also my first contribution from a Sri Lankan author.


For those of you unfamiliar with cricketing parlace - Cricket widely played in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is a fever in the blood for the average man on the street. I felt the book was timely because though cricket is just a strand in the story, we are right now in the middle of the World Cup and half the matches are being played right here in Sri Lanka. There are fights and fisticuffs over tickets, black marketeering, counterfeit tickets, counterfeit promotional items and everything thrown in. Quite an exciting time. The big matches have still not started but the smaller matches have thrown up huge surprises. Ireland thrashing England for instance!!!

The story starts with one cricket match a group of young men versus the older hotch potch of Asian men. It finishes with the sensational matches of 2002. In between we get the story of Sunny.


In this story Sunny begins his story in the streets of Manila where his father is one of the expatriate journalists who have made it his home. Sunny only knows tidbits of life in Colombo as his father is not one to indulge in idle chit chat. Sunny's mother has died when he was a young child and his remembrances of her are vague. Sunny short for Sanath seems to be typical of the Sri Lankan diaspora scattered around the world. He unlike most is not a economic or political refugee and once he goes to England for higher studies has no problem at all in settling down as part of the English landscape. He does not hanker for a Singhalese identity like so many and has no hang ups of who and what he is.

However, as he grows older he seeks for an identity that has never been his. His return to the country, his search for whoever remains out of his family or father's friends (only Hector and Brandon and Lillee) are somewhat sad. At times it seems he does not know what he is seeking but that one thing he is sure of, is that he should have a closer and better relationship with Mikey his only son and not leave it too late of things that should have been said and shared.

The book is about relationships - the deteriorating one between Sunny and Clara, the monosyllabic one shared between Sunny and his son Mikey and the sadness that he failed to communicate with Lester his father, and left it too late for amends. Woven into this is the Sri Lankan expat's story in a diluted form. Sunny is quite comfortable of who he is unlike a lot of immigrants who never seem to know which is a more comfortable fit for them.

This was my first read of Romesh Gunasekera. I will be looking out for more.

Review Rowan Coleman's The happy home for broken hearts

This was part of my last Mailbox and I liked it as it looked like a happy cover. I had read some heavy stuff over the last two weeks and was looking for light reads. This fitted the bill.

Ellen also known as Ellie was facing crisis after crisis. Her husband had died in a freak accident just over a year ago and Ellie was now beginning to face a financial crisis with no money to pay her mortgage. Never having gone to work and totally dependent on her husband for everything, she started taking in three lodgers. A more unlikely trio you couldn't find. There was Matt a good time boy just starting his career with Bang It (a men's magazine), there was Allegra in her 70s an author of bodice rippers who treated Ellen as a servant almost from the word go, and then there was Sabine from Germany on assignment just after a break up with her pig of her husband (her words not mine!).

Ellen starts off as a timid woman correctly diagnosed as being agoraphobic by her 12 year old son of all people. Ellen has not stepped out of her house not even to her garden or lawn for a year since her husband's death. She ignores the fact that even her groceries are ordered from the supermarket and that she has not attended any school function of her son Charlie and that she seems to be sliding further and further into burying herself in her house. Circumstances force Ellen to change her stance. Her sister Hannah bursts a bombshell on her , Charlie goes missing and Ellen is forced to face her personal devils head on with Matt, Allegra and Sabine firmly supporting her all the way.

Again this book also dealt with relationships. The one between siblings was particularly well done in this book. Apart from rivalry and jealousies, the protective feeling of an elder sister towards her younger sibling was very well written about. The difficulties of dealing with a clever 12 year old is the other relationship which is very well dealt with here. Handling grief, coming to terms with it, not letting it override you for the rest of your life is another poignant part of the story.

I liked this book.

Review - A Desirable Residence by Madeline Wickham

The book is not very much like its cover. It has a bit of adultery for sure but it is more a light hearted read about relationships than anything else.

A family is in financial trouble. They have been able to take out two mortgages (I wish they would tell me the name of the Bank!) on an undertaking that they would sell one property as soon as possible. With the recession the sale of the property is not happening and adding to the tension and pressure between Liz and Jonathan. Actually its Jonathan who takes the pressure on full force whilst Liz seems to be drifting along, not actually being supportive to her husband. Seems very commonplace - where an attractive woman gets fed up with her long suffering husband who is not assertive enough or "masculine" enough for her. Invariably Liz gets involved with Marcus who has also reached the end of his tether with his wife Anthea. Anthea's only focus in life is to "get on" generally better than anyone else and with this view in mind she seeks to push her son Daniel who is already a gifted boy, to the utmost to win a scholarship at a prestigious college. She does not care how she gets there and who she hurts in the process as long as she gets it.

This story set in a small town of Silchester is a place where everyone knows everyone else's business. Marcus is the real estate agent for Liz and Jonathan's property and in turn Jonathan is the brilliant tutor who will teach Marcus and Anthea's son and coach him for his scholarship exam. Add to this a disgruntled 14 year old Alice Liz and Jonathan's daughter who has started to rebel as well as turning her nose up at anything and everything her parents do or say.

The characters are all linked to each other by a series of almost coincidences. Liz and Jonathan's house is rented by Ginny and Piers who befriend Alice. Alice is overwhelmed by the kindness and friendliness shown by the couple and feels that they are so "hip" and "cool" in comparison to her own parents whom she thinks are old and staid. I had a feeling of deja vu at this point! Doesn't every teenager think at some stage that their parents are downright old and staid??

This book dealt mainly for me with relationships. One the deteriorating relationship between husband and wife in two marriages, and the other the breakdown in communication between a 14 year old and her parents. The difficulty of this teenager to find herself and to fit in was also apparent in the story. Add to this the pressures put on a rather simple, naive boy like Daniel by a bullying over ambitious mother. These form the main part of the story.

It was a very quick read for me - read mainly whilst waiting for appointments today!! The font was extremely easy to read for me and this is always a plus point for me. A simple story but with quite a few pointers for lots of us. We are all guilty at some stage of being over ambitious where children are concerned, maybe some of us take partners for granted, some of us may overlook warning signs where teenagers are concerned. This book would be an eye opener for us all.

Mailbox Monday 28th February 2011

I have come to this rather late as my Mailbox was purchased by me (all second hand) only on Tuesday. The sale is only on Tuesday and this time I hit the jackpot!!! I am delighted with my wins all for the total equivalent of 20 US Dollars!!!

Mailbox Monday is sponsored by the Library of Clean Reads and is on tour. Please visit the links and you will be so pleasantly surprised by not only the books and authors you will get to know through fellow bloggers but the lovely blogs out there as well.

The Regency by Cynthia Harrold Eagles will satisfy the historical fiction fix I generally need once in a while.

Going to be my first read for the Sri Lankan author part of South Asia Challenge. Very timely considering that the World Cup (for cricket for you non loving cricket fans) is on right now here in Sri Lanka as well.

Looks a good one. The Adventures of a Trailing Spouse by Brigid Keenan.

Patrick McGrath's Asylum. An absolutely new one for me.

Stepping out of my comfort zone!!! I am glad I am doing this.

Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize. by A S Byatt. Has been on my TBR list for quite a while.

Never heard of this author before and it looked a light hearted cover. You need that at times.

Sexy, spooky, stylish! - can anyone better that description!

Russia 1854 Rose Barr, young headstrong and beautiful travels to the battlefront to save as many of the wounded as she can.

For a change of genre, the inimitable Margaret Atwood - This time its Cat's Eye.

Not just the title but the author's name Anura intrigued me. It is a very Sri Lankan name, and one that has not surfaced amongst bloggers. I will have to find out more about this author. I am delighted as this is going into my South Asian challenge and my second Sri Lankan author.

I was very keen to read some historical fiction. This fitted the bill. This last book is repeated in this post and all attempts to delete it have failed!! so please excuse the duplication.

As a non book tidbit, Sri Lankans are cricket mad and we are right now in the middle of a circus! we have all the cricket playing nations coming over at sometime this month for the World Cup. Today Kenya vs Sri Lanka are playing and all work has stopped to watch the match, including work in our office!