A Walk Across the Sun by Addison Corban

I just loved the cover of the book...it was kind of 'Pick me up, I look so glam' kind of cover...and yet when I read the blurb, it was anything but a glam book...the first one by the author, set up in Indian background, which coming by an author who isn't Indian, deserves accolades (in fact, I did wonder, why can't the Indian author pick such serious stuff about Indian background rather than concentrating on love stories and collage romance gone right and wrong)...

It's not a happy novel...child trafficking and molestation never is...being a novel it does give everything a believable but happy ending (as happy as it could ever realistically be), but then again, it was honest in a couple of parts...where it clearly said, trafficking isn't something that would stop by stopping the sellers...you can stop one, hundred new would arise...it is going to go on till there are buyers...sex is a commodity, till the buyers exist, people would sell...and there is no way to eliminate all the buyers...not in our lifetime...that's the harsh truth, a truth none of us can change...

I liked the way it moved...at points it made you understand that it's not just India...any country, no matter how advanced, has its own section of people who are living a life worse than hell...simply because there are people in every country who are well-off, rich and still sadist enough to take pleasure in putting someone through hell...it showed the red light areas not just of Mumbai, but went on till France and New York...and they aren't just Asian gals...there are Russians, there are Americans...what started from India, what centered in India, took the global picture...

This is one thought provoking novel (which really tempted me to write a couple of more philosophical posts...I am somehow trying to hold that temptation back...because somewhere I feel I've already turned life too serious and I need happy thoughts not things to ponder and wonder over...the book is great, my timing to read it was wrong)...and then again, no matter how much I liked the novel, I still would say, it's one, one should think twice before reading...for it would leave you feeling helpless...it would make you cringe..it would make you wish you could help change thing...but in the end you 'll know, there is nothing you and I can do (or at least nothing we would really take up to do)..

After coming with all the cons of reading a novel I really would recommend, I'll have to say it has its pro too...it shows you the faith of two young girls..it shows you what being human is...you come to detest life...you want none of it...you count days and minutes of agony...and still you don't think of dying..because there is someone you want to live for...even when it looks like nothing is worth living...it shows love too...not the romantic one, but the bond two sisters, who lost everything in moments, share...none of the cruelties life served them weakened the love they had...

It shows the healing power of memories...living in past doesn't help...but sometimes our past gives us the courage to live through our present...it's just up to us, which past we chose to think about...the happy one or the sad one..and how we perceive the past...

It shows that growing up corrupts us...the sweetest and most angelic person in this book was a ten year old kid...who really didn't care how the world of elders work...even after having a set of parents who were as far as one could be from being role models, the child remained pure at heart..he showed the selfless caring, without a reason...

The two sisters, Ahalaya and Sita (I loved the names), weren't larger than life characters...though at places I really wondered how can they survive through all this...the protagonist, Thomas was very much human...and wasn't made a larger than life character...he had his shortcomings...and he wasn't made a hero turning miracles..things happened, and thankfully they didn't give him the entire (or even little) credit of being the reason behind those things happening...fighting for the gals, he somewhere found peace in his life...his wife would probably need a little more analytic to be understood...

All in all, a nice read...at around 380 pages, coming towards the last 100, I did feel it could be trimmed a little...there were too many details about the combat operations one could have done without...but then again, for most part of it, it was a page turner...even if a sad, heart-wrenching one, it was a page turner none the less...

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

First things first, I am a new fan of Diane Chamberlain...if I liked 'Keeper's of Light', I loved 'The Midwife's Confession', and I for sure am infatuated with 'The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes', and mind you, to me infatuation is stronger and more forceful than love...after all, love expects a little love in return...infatuation knows no logic, and doesn't even dreams of being reciprocated :D (okie that was some uncalled for philosophy...but that was just so me :) )

The first two novels that I read by Chamberlain, dealt with people who had already died...they were about how after the death of someone so close to us we realize that we never the person who died...while it is gripping to know the truths of a person who no longer exists, it is more grappling to read how a very much living person confronts the secrets they have hid and concealed in their heart for years...how do you really come out in open and confess to the truth which can ruin the entire life you had built in years...

As said, in the earlier post just a while back, teenage is the time, when you are expected to do everything wrong...it is so very easy to succumb to all the temptations...hold on to things that really seem right (though hardly are)...it's an age when you are old enough to hate taking someone's advice..and still young enough to make wrong choices..and so very often we do make the wrong choices...I am sure almost all of us have some secret relating to the teenage which we can't confide in anyone...something we did that's impossible for us to tell the world...it's just that most often, we do things which really don't change the course of our lives, just make us feel guilty...but then, there are few unlucky ones, who end up doing something which makes them change the course of their lives...so much so, that they have to become a new person to carry out with life...

Some choices made at teenage, changes who we are as a person...erases our identity, and forces us to take a new one...something similar happened to CeeCee...it was a book of hopes...hopes in the first part, because it showed even after doing the worst kind of mistake one possibly could, life gives you a second chance to make it all right...that you really can have new beginnings and a happy future...for CeeCee had one...

But can we really change identities and have a happily ever after...true that no one in this world other than us knows who we really are...but at least we do know...and can you yourself kill the person you were...sooner or later, to live and thrive in your own eyes, it's time to go back to who you were...accept the repercussions of your actions..it's easy to ignore what other think of you, but it's tough to fight the demons within you...so CeeCee reveals herself after a decades...

I kind of liked almost all the characters in the book...they were believable and not overboard...a perfect blend of grey...in fact the only character going on the 'it can't be true' side was the character of Cory...she did get a lil unbearable...and I really could never understand how pampering can really hamper someone's growth like it did to her...but then again, even her character makes you realize that generally it's just in happy times that the people we love become strangers...in times of tragedy and need, the estranged ones come back...and maybe that's the beauty of love...one might forget your love during the happy times when all is well...but those you truly loved would sure be there for you when things take a downturn...and maybe that's why life needs a blend of both good n bad times...good to have fun and enjoy the ride...bad to get the ones we lost in happy days back to us again (philosophy fir se...I know)

I am definitely smitten by the way she writes...attracted to the twists and turns she brings around...Diane has turned out to be an author with aces her sleeves...and she definitely can make the simplest of lives a perfect story to engross you for hours to come...

My personal ratings..4 and that one point is lost all thanks to Cory...Dru was so much more likable than her, honestly...all in all, it's a must read...and now I will go back to find the fourth novel of Chamberlain...after all, I need to know what's greater than infatuation ;)

I'm not twenty four...I've been nineteen for five years....So very TRUE

Of course, I am not 24, just been 19 for 5 yrs...and coming June, I won't be 25, just 19 for 6 yrs...though yeah,while picking the book, I was wondering, why 19 and not 16..aren't girls supposed to stick to sweet sixteen..but then to think of, nineteen is the last of teen..and teenage is probably the age where you can even kill someone and come out innocent because, "Oh! but she was just a teenager...we all know how confused and terrible teenage is...one can never be sure of what they feel and do at that age..."

So yeah, when a murder is excusable, a wrong turn or two in love life are definitely forgiven (and forgotten too!!) Now that's one reason, I am going to be a teen till I end up marrying (or who knows even after that...after all who said I will stop making errors once married...seven rounds around the fire doesn't result in instant wisdom, right?? )

Anyways, even after being the self obsessed person that I so often am, I should probably come to this book,  'I'm not twenty four...I've been nineteen for five years by Sachin Garg'...The background of how this book reached my hands...of late to kill time, I have started ordering books online (now I can't always be in front of laptop, and then it's very tough to find e-books of Indian authors...and then again, when Flipkart offers you book within 100 bucks, you really shouldn't waste efforts finding an e-version)...And after reading the new books from two renowned and pretty hyped Indian authors (I probably shouldn't name them because I am bickering and not praising them, but common, just because your first novel was best-seller, you can't give everyone a crap to read every next time!!), I was giving up on Indian authors...but then thankfully, I had to order a home appliance, and in the whim of the moment, I ended up ordering both the released books of Sachin Garg (now seems like I had confidence on this guy...after all I didn't try and test, but ordered all that was available :D )

Starting with the book, well the best and the unique part was the book being written from the girl's POV..If I end up writing anything from a girl's perspective, it's understandable, but a guy actually doing it..."WOW" specially because we all know, 'Guys never can understand Gals'...and I won't say Sachin actually does, but let's say, he has done it better than most guys would...and that in itself deserves an applause...the tone of the book was a lot fun...I don't think there was much place for sad or vulnerable emotions here...even when at places it got a little emotional, it was quickly moved ahead...ahead enough that you won't really feel the pain related to the accident...and somehow I prefer it that ways (there is too much to worry and cry about in real life in any case :| )

I won't say that the book was perfect, like I said...it was a fun read...pages passed by...what I liked the most was, the story moved on...things happen, life gives crap...we do have the right to feel low, but we owe it to us and those who care to keep moving...so thankfully no character was crying or ruing over something lost...there was no exaggeration...all believable, other than the idea of someone spending a life in the welfare of others, that too after forgoing all the riches and a perfect career life could have offered..honestly, I am yet to find such people...but well, one can always hope (and in case one does know, please tell me a way to reach out to those people...sometimes, ok a lot many times, even I am inclined to do that...not in all goodie goodie selfless way, but in the way of I want to get rid of my job and do something which can make a difference so that I feel good types ;) )

Honestly, I don't know why I liked the book enough to have told everyone around me in last couple of days to try n read this author...because I frankly wasn't left in tears (and yeah it happens as much reading a novel, as it happens while watching a movie...n u know I am someone who can shed a tear or two...or tens even in animated movies...sighs), I wasn't even left deep in thoughts (my thoughts were provoked by the beginning of the author's second novel :P )...it in fact had an open ending (and I so detest open endings...it leaves you a lot to imagine, and then it of course forces you to buy the sequel whenever it comes...marketing gimmick!! )but then I still liked the book....maybe for it's simplicity...maybe since it tried something new (love stories aren't new, but writing from gal's perspective is new in India...and then of course sending a gal to a remote corner, even if for a kind of HR job is pretty new as well...) 

And then, of course, this was a book I could relate to...at least as far as the title goes...but since it's not perfect, what more can I ask for...well, it would have been great to have a little background and past perspective of the character...only Shubho had his past revealed...rest were the way they were, no reasons given...and maybe that's one thing I appreciate the foreign authors for...the attention to details is something I find only from the authors of west...and maybe that's the reason none of their novels are less than 400-500 odd pages whereas we hardly find novels over 200-250 pages in India...

All in all, a pretty decent attempt, in fact a more than decent attempt...the book delivers what it promises...a good couple of hours read...of life which you can identify with in bit and parts...and best of all, this one won't make you think...and definitely leave you with at least a couple of smiles at places....

My ratings: 3.5 (oh I gave 4 on Goodreads..in fact I even rescued the book on Goodreads (now that's a long story about whole rescuing thing), but the only reason is, I like getting into the skin of the character and have inside out on their lives...which I couldn't in this case...and of course the open ending...) And yeah, I forgot, I loved the cover image of the book (how can I not with my craze for high heels...and the best part, the author sure gives the story behind the image...true or not is for readers to decide :) )

PS: After all my non stop talks, in case one does reach this point, please do suggest me a few other Indian reads that I can order from Flipkart...

The Pact, which never should have been...

It wasn't something new or surprising...Jodi Picoult does it time and again...puts you in a place and makes you choose one side...shows you the two sides of a coin n then asks you to disjoin them into the black and white...the problem is, the coin is a whole, and you really can't break it into two...

The Pact, I picked up this novel quiet long back...but then I didn't pick it up in the hardbook form or even in the ebook forms, maybe that's one reason it took me so long to really read it...with nothin to do while sitting in a really uncomfortable flight (yes IndiGo, I 'll think at least ten times before booking into yet another flight of you guys, after I finish my journey back to Hyd), I popped open the mobile version of The Pact, a novel resting in my iPhone since almost 2-3 months with barely 30 pages read...

I can't really review the novel...for Picoult makes sure you never can pick a side completely...all I know is, given the tragic beginning, she for a change surprised me with the best ending one could have asked for...after all the unfair things that happened in the novel, at least the end was a little fair, though unbelievable...

But the novel again makes me go back to the much used, abused and still never understood topic of love...I don't know how Picoult finds it...she comes up with a side of love none of us could imagine...I probably still can't relate to it even after reading through that impossibly long novel that I couldn't keep down, because I had to know what had happened...would be rather melodramatic, but as a fact, it did hurt to read a lot of what was in it...but it wasn't possible to let go off reading it..

And now, I don't want to think about it, but can't help thinking...there are quiet a lot many flaws in the novel...there are parts I still won't accept...are we so strong that we decide to end life even when it holds almost everything perfectly for us and still so fragile that we can't talk about things that are killing us from inside...can you love someone so much that you would do all they say, but never expect them to love you a little and tell you what really is disturbing them...can a million happiness be overlooked by an incident that happened way back and probably bears no scar in your present...and most of all, what really love and truth is, rather than being a matter of perception...Everyone's Truth is different...and so is everyone's Love..

There is not much I can really say about the book, it definitely is no literary masterpiece...but it does what it was meant to do...play with your emotions, put you in turmoil...

I can't help but be jealous of the girl, she had it all...probably not exactly the way she wanted it...but life never gives it all to us...but she did have the parents to whom she meant the world, she had the friend she could talk all with, she had love which probably exists only in novels (and yeah this was a novel too)..a few detours, few things going wrong, doesn't mean you get to kill yourself...or make someone else's life even worse than death..

I can't help but be amazed by the guy...how do you do that..how does love really make you do things a sane person would never understand...you can hurt yourself for the one you love, but how do you let the one you love give up everything...do you really play God, believing that you can handle it all yourself...

I simply won't be able to comprehend it all...for the book is about three things I never have understood...

Love, a different perception for every individual,

Truth, no one really knows if there is an eternal truth;

Death, more specifically suicide; it just is not imaginable...for someone to choose it as the last option, specially when life gives you a plenty of better things to choose from, Always...

Anyways, I need to get back to read some light, romantic, cute, funny novel....and get some peace for myself...

And hopefully, by the time I am back with something else to blabber on, I'll be in happier mode....Adios...

PS: And I so happened to go by her site and read what the lady herself had to say about her piece of work, in case you are interested to read more..Jodi Picoult's words about The Pact

iReview: "Other Words for Love" by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

Pre-Script: How I wish my arms were long enough to reach my back and I could pat myself...for a simple reason...it's the third book I'm finishing in as many days...that's the benefit of being at home...and I'm even more glad because I am reading, rather than watching the re-re-reruns of the serials on TV...Last but not the least, I am hopeful that one fine day, I actually will gather the skills of reviewing a book in the nice proper manner...but till then, I'll keep writing at least about the books which really touched me...Thirteen Reasons Why was one...and well Other Words for Love is yet another...

In fact these two books have made me wonder if I ever grew up...these are the books based on teen characters...and I'm like 5 b'days ahead already...but still...I can relate to them...I can feel what the character are feelings (okie never the suicidal part of the previous novel)...Either I'm stuck to being a teenager (And I will be happy...after all which sane gal wishes to age after 16?? ) or maybe we Indians experience at the age of 24 what gals of West experience when they are like 16-17...

Coming to the novel...It didn't have much of a back cover note kind of for me to determine if I would like  it or not...I didn't check the GoodReads rating before opening it (I guess the forgetful me always does it somewhere in between her reads)...just having the word "Love" in the novel is often an incentive enough for girls my age (or rather in teens lets say :P )...and the starting of the novel scared me...It was set in 1985 (I still wonder why?? maybe because the author didn't feel like using cell phones or internet chats :-/ ) and I never have been good with classics (yeah to me anything before the time I was born is a classic!!) 

To be honest, the starting few pages weren't all that encouraging...the only thing that kept me going was that the chapters were small, made you feel that you are making a good progress and the number of pages in the novel were less...added advantage :) And the author being a first timer (another common feature between this n previous novel) I actually never expected much...

So the story is about a 16 year old gal, generally referred as Ari (please don't ask me the complete name, it was complicated :P )...it's about her life, her family, her school, her friends, and of course her love life...what I loved in the novel is the fact that it revolves around just a handful of people, and every character has a depth to it..they are all well defined and shaded out...and well, the novel shows all the facets of love...casual love, affairs, love for someone who is dead, love for your child, love for the spouse, the dream of love and happily ever after...every character of the story is interesting as per me...and none has been comprised for the sake of highlighting Ari...

It's the story of Ari who never found acceptance in her peer group (though I don't know why...but let's just accept it she doesn't and it's not very hard to accept for me..) it has bits about Evelyn, Ari's sister who as per her mom failed in living up to the expectations...it has Evelyn's husband (who I don't know how come attracted so much female attention but eventually like for loving his wife)...it's about Ari's parents (her mother mostly...the father is not much mentioned but I loved a couple of scene between him n Ari towards the end...they sounded so real :| ) and then it's about two completely different friends of Ari...and finally about two guys in Ari's life...her dreams of settling down and happy ever after (and don't you dare ask me since when American gals think of settling down at the age of 18..yup the novel traces her from 16-19 about ...)

I won't go on saying how much I accept the ending, how much I don't...it's a person to person perspective..some would love it, some would hate it and some would just hope it could have had an open end...Goodbyes are never easy, and to some people like me, there never is a final goodbye...the novel has some really sweet moments (the ones a gal like me can absolutely fall in love with)..it has some real heart breaking moments...love isn't always about happiness and love doesn't always motivate you to move ahead...at times love leaves you crushed...and that's the time your stamina and strength is tested...again, I don't accept the part where Ari actually fell into what looked like an abyss...but then it's realistic...it probably is what generally happens and I am so thankful that the novel didn't end before getting things right (I wouldn't have stood by a second suicidal novel :| )

All in all, an amazing read...just keep the patience for the first 75 pages...take whatever the crap is happening as infatuation (and we know it actually happens!!)...after that it's a compelling read....

My Rating: Definitely a 4.5/5 ...this one deserves it...at least from all the young readers (yeah I like to call myself that and I'm sure lot many else would like to call themselves young too :P )

Post Script: I realized at the end of the novel that the writer is a psychiatrist...maybe that's hoe she understands and brings the emotions and feelings of every character so alive...I never felt an over-drive of emotions are a lil bit too much of melodrama...give it a read, whenever you get a chance... :)