REVIEW - SIDEWAYS ON A SCOOTER - MIRANDA KENNEDY

I like travel memoirs and this scooter business has always fascinated me. In Sri Lanka no women ride sideways on a scooter or a motorbike - and if they do you could bet your last rupee they will be Indian. I always used to think shouldn't they slide off specially since everyone is in sari or salwar kameez.  Getting back to the book - we have Miranda thrown into the deep end - a journalist wanting to make a career out of foreign news based in Delhi with excursions to Pakistan and Afghanistan and at the same time being a single female in India.

Miranda's story is from the heart - everyone has read at some stage of the poverty, the slums of India, the lepers, the beggars, the water, the food too spicy for most but at the same time India is so vast that it can offer you a myriad choices. Whether one seeks the urban cosmopolitan style of Bombay or Delhi or the toned down life of Chennai or the agricultural communities which thrive all over India, there is something for everyone.

Miranda Kennedy embraces what India has to offer - she tries to understand the huge and I mean gigantic differences that exist between her American upbringing and those of girls of her own age around her. The double standards that prevail in society in the East for single, professional women is hard - specially hard when you do live in a family environment and where your actions can hurt the entire family. You have to think twice - there is also very little forgiveness or forgetting and what would be such a small, insignificant thing or behaviour would be totally unacceptable in India. The importance of family, extended family and obedience, sometimes blindly accepting what parents rule as law may be baffling to a Western mind taught from the cradle to think independently.  Here one is just a cog of a wheel - and practically everyone toes the line however educated you may be or however broad minded you may appear to be.


Miranda's career takes off on a shaky note but she does establish herself after her rocky start. After a successful term in Delhi she returns to America happy with what she has done. That was the nice part. The author took it as a sojourn from her everyday life and that this was an experience that was different and enjoyable - uncomfortable experiences and all.

This was my last read for 2011 - I have a stack of books to read this weekend. Everyone gets back to work only on the 3rd of January so its a long weekend as well.

A very happy new year to all.

REVIEW - FOXEY'S HANGOUT (THE BOOK) BY CATHY GOWDIE

I am not making this picture bigger because it was explained to me about pixels and by increasing the image I am making it blurry. I do not know the technicalities of this but agree with what was said!

I picked this book as I am right now in Melbourne - my daughter is visiting the Mornington Hill Peninsula for the weekend and my interest is always piqued at how so many people make the change from city dweller to country dweller easily. I know there may be many who have failed, but the ones who have succeeded seemed to have done a 360 degree turn and made such a success story of their lives that I am a bit green with envy.  I seem to have one leg in the city of Colombo (hot, humid, crowded)  very firmly planted there and one leg in Rozella which is our equivalent of country (read tea/vegetable gardening and cool) but I have not made the transition completely (as yet).

This story deals with a young Melburnian couple and their friend and partner who decide to plant vines, open a winery and a restaurant (they call it a cellar door here) and do it very well. Finding a property suitable for their needs, getting the local planning authorities permission which turned out to be difficult, time consuming and filled with objections (???) from all and sundry and finally being able to do so makes this a very enjoyable read.

Filled with beautiful photographs of their area in Victoria, as well as receipes from the author the book is a very pleasant introduction to rural Victoria. Added to their personal story is quite a bit of history of the area including the background story of how Foxey's Hangout got its rather quizzical name.

REVIEW - MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND BY HELEN SIMONSON

Why are my images so blurry??? This book was finished in a day - reading at the bus station/train station/waiting for my daughter - just had to finish it today. The anticipation of would he or would he chicken out had me on edge so very much now it seems laughable!!!

Major Pettigrew very English (if there could be a description as such) with immaculate values and views lives in an idyllic English village complete with village shop now run by Mrs Ali - effacing, wanting to fit in with the neighbourhood, never been quite accepted, cultured, pretty, educated and widowed. We have miscellaneous characters like the greedy son Roger, the religious bordering on fanatic nephew Abdul Wahid who is inheriting the property as he is the nephew, we have a separate love triangle of George and Amina and Abdul Wahid (nothing is as simple as it looks) and we have the hierarchy of the English village ranging from the Lord of the Manor and his daughter, to the rich American who is intent on making a fast buck (I would like to see this stereotype of Americans being brash with their money removed from books. It is not fair!), and we have a Vicar whom I did not like when he sided with the conservative rather than for what was right when it suited him.

A beautiful story, descriptive of an age and of the characters of a typical (what we think) an English retired Major of the Army should be like - loved the chivalry and politeness of this character along with his strong sense of values and of what is right is might. A love story which did not turn soppy. The book was also very insightful of the characters of people - how insular we all could be and all it needs is a slight provocation to get us all rattled.

Wonderful read and so right for this time of the year. I am still smiling.

MAILBOX MONDAY/IT'S MONDAY WHAT ARE YOU READING?

 

Coming to these memes a bit late. Our library in Carnegie was closed till today. I arrived late on the 23rd night so it was a nightmarish experience with no books!!!  Mailbox Monday is being hosted for this month by Let them Read Books.

It's Monday what are you reading is hosted  by Sheila at Book Journey.

The books that I picked up from the library are a rather nice mixed bunch of books.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. On my last visit to Melbourne this was permanently reserved!







Penelope Lively is an old favourite.

The blurb says the story of one family's vineyard dream. Let me live vicariously!

My copy and paste has not done much for this cover. Haunting Bombay by Shilpa Aggarwal. A debut novel by this author - love books with extended family - even in my country of Sri Lanka becoming rather rare these days.
















I have started reading the Major Pettigrew book and am already sixty pages in!!! This is quite an achievement as it has to be done in between laundry, cooking and the myriad chores which seem to pile up in this house.

Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends from down under.  So different and yet so nice from a Sri Lankan Christmas I am enjoying the company of the children but missing husband and extended  family and my dogs especially Googly  back home.

REVIEW - SISTER BY ROSAMUND LUPTON

The entire blog post disappeared and I don't think anything is more frustrating than this. I had been looking out for this book for over a year. It just fell into my lap a couple of days ago and didn't I just love it.

The story is about the relationship between two sisters - Tess and Beatrice. Beatrice the older sister is always on the look out for her siblings - being the elder sister she feels not just responsible but also protective. As Beatrice grows up she becomes confident, self possessed and affluent. Tess remains according to Beatrice from a rather condescending point of view - bohemian, an art student, involved with her married tutor, insecure and pregnant. Tess is happy, settled and secure but Beatrice sees it otherwise.

A horrendous mid story crisis and Tess is dead. Beatrice takes charge. A verdict of suicide under the influence of drugs, related to post natal depression is ruled. There is no way Beatrice is accepting this verdict. Despite the pitying responses of the Police, even their mother, friends and colleagues Beatrice battles it alone
knowing that a clever murderer is out there, trying to outmaneuver them all knowing that he is the plausible one and that Beatrice is being looked at as almost mentally ill, depressed and raving.

How the story flows out of the love of a family - how an unwavering faith in a sisters character holds the story to the end - though I would have liked the end to be a bit more concise and not hanging in the air as it were.

The story telling is superb - the history of cystic fibrosis, the gene therapy involved in the treatment of the illness, the relationship of Beatrice and Todd and how her Dad's separation has affected her even in her adult life is beautifully told.

I am very glad that I eventually got to this book.  

Additional Mailbox Monday

I had a delightful addition to the above today. This was such a nice surprise as I did not realize I had collected points on my credit card which I utilized  at the bookstore. And all for nice, crisp, clean, sparkly new books.

The books I picked up were ones I had been eyeing for ages!

Rosamund Lupton's SISTER

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Mark Haddon's book has got intriguing reviews on several blogs.

And for a taste of history. Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose

I have been in such a reading slump these last two weeks but hopefully these new additions will get me back on track.