It’s not Summer yet and the heat is already blinding!

The last week has been a packed one, loaded with fun, drama and excitement. My brother got married and the whole family turned up. (See the Wedding Pics on Chenthil’s FB Page)

I love it when my family comes together, it makes me so so happy. Che loaned me his Instax Wide and I had such fun taking pictures for a day. (sometimes he’s just chosweet) 😉

With all that’s been happening, I stuck to my running schedule and that made smile all the way though my weekly long run. I’m enjoying running, especially once I get into a stride but have got a nagging pain in my heel to be figured out. 🙁

We also harvested some potatoes and tapioca this week. 🙂

I also got two hampers this week. 😀

I got this from the Burrp guys at the food tasting they organised at Horn Ok Please – a desigastro pub. The decor was fascinating and I really liked their posters, milk can seats and tiffin lights.

Each of their cocktails has a desi twist and a found a couple quite appealing – do try the Kala Katta and Spice Trade

I also got a hamper from the ITC guys. A collection of four delicacies and two chutneys from their ready to eat Kitchens of India line. We’ve tried out the Yakhni Palao and Awadhi Halla and enjoyed both. Can’t wait to get started with the chutneys.

I haven’t been keeping up with the news in the middle of all this, so, got some catching up this week.

Some #TBR Additions

Longbourn by Jo Baker
(Get Booked #20)

I had found The Help by by Kathryn Stockett fascinating, the story from the perspective of the house-help is an different tale. In Longbourn, Jo Bakers goes belowstairs and tells the Pride & Prejudice story from the view of the maids and footmen. The Help meets Pride & Prejudice, this one, I can’t wait to read…

At Home by Bill Bryson
(Get Booked #20)

I’ve read Bill Bryson’s A Brief History of Nearly Everything and I’m a fan. This one’s about the history of rooms in houses – bedrooms, dining rooms, drawing rooms,… Sounds interesting, nah?

Not many books this week and not much reading either. I’m hoping to fix it in the coming week. How has your reading week been? What are you reading? What have you been up to?

This week has been a rather quiet week on the books front. Rather it’s been a binge of House of Cards seasons. I don’t understand politics much, not Indian, not American but I’m watching in the hope that I’ll understand the US Presidential Elections this year, better, if I can glean something from House of Cards.

In between all that watching though, this week I did finally finish How to Get Your Heart Broken, caught-up with my podcasts and, cleaned-up and re-potted most of the garden.

The garden has been needing a lot of my time and attention, so for this season, I’ve toned it down and re-planned so I won’t have to spend lots of time in there and yet will be able to manage it. Got to focus on my running for the next few months, May isn’t to far and I want to do the TCS10K in under an hour.

I started listening to The Readers Podcast last week and have listened to only two episodes but I’m quite enjoying listening to Thomas and Simon. This week Simon did a special on the ‘Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction’ long-list. (It’s odd but not one book hit the spot for me, maybe their review after reading might help and something might get added to my #TBR.)

It was on their first podcast I ever heard, Ep. 148, that I first heard of the Bailey’s Prize, formerly known as the Orange Prize. It’s pretty cool that women are getting attention in various spheres, we need the push. Gender Equality is something close to my heart and it’s what I’m fighting for, it’s not about women being on top or being more powerful, it’s about men and women being equal.

And frankly we aren’t, we are still a long way to go to get there. That’s why the only piece of news that interested me this week was what Lionel Shriver had to say about the Bailey’s Prize. This bit of news I read in an article by Vanessa Willoughby and also heard on the BookRiot Podcast. Here’s what she said,

“This whole thing of treating women specially, as if they need special help and special rules, is problematic and obviously backfires.”

Lionel Shriver has a point, and I’d be inclined to agree with her but if she had maybe said this 20 years from now, or at least at a time when gender equality was actually real and true, or almost true. Not now, not at a time when we have just started out working towards equality!

#TBR Additions This Week

 
Moving on, here’s the list of books I added to the TBR this week. 😉 I’ve been vacillating the last couple of weeks but I’ve finally taken the plunge. I’m taking up the BookRiot Read Harder Challenge for 2016. (More on it in the the coming weeks, click on the link to know more)

I am not much of a horror person, both in books and movies, too vivid an imagination I guess, I have weeks of nightmares but Amanda Nelson convinced me on the show to give it a try, when she talked about how she has similar fears and nightmares to mine and yet is also now a horror fan. So, here’s my two picks to try.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman
(Get Booked #19)

Considering my fear of horror, this one seems appropriate as it has no visual of the monster. It is just Something, something that if seen drives people to kill themselves. So people have to keep their eyes closed all the time.
In this craziness, Malorie must blindly navigate 20 miles downriver with her two children and she knows she’s being followed, but by what. Sounds scary and yet maybe, it’s my entry into horror.

Hexed by Michael Alan Nelson
(Get Booked #19)

A graphic novel might make it easier to deal with horror, since it would take my imagination on to the picture by providing visuals. It would also help me check-off my graphic novel to-do. 😀

The Year of The Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

It was the authors Indianish name that first got my attention, then the premise clinched the deal. This is supposed to be the story of three young Indian men living in Sheffield and trying to make a life in a new country. One of them even has a visa-wife. Add to this Sheffield, I’ve been there and reading a story about a place I’ve been to sounds exciting.

Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg

Now this one’s a book on productivity; not my usual fare but it got lots of praise in one of the podcasts (not sure which) and considering this year I want to do sooo much I thought it would help.

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
(Get Booked #19)

I missed adding this book in last week but the ladies reminded me again this week. The premise of the book is an interesting tangent to the usual Sherlock fare coming out these days. This story is about Sherlocks Grand-daughter and Watson’s grand-son, who land up in the same school and in the middle of a murder mystery.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King
(Get Booked #19)

And continuing with the Sherlock frenzy here’s another I liked. This one’s about a girl who stumbles (literally) into Holmes who is living a retired life in Sussex. Holmes takes her under his wing and starts training her. Sounds interesting right, what also caught my ear, was Amanda Nelson’s brief complaint about Watson not being portrayed well. Got to check it out.

So, what have you been unto this week? What are you reading? Got some new books?

This year along with reading I want to spend more time getting to know the book space, exploring it to see all that happens it, how it works and learning it’s pulse.

One part of this project is tweaking my Twitter feed for this and getting more active on it. With this in mind, I’ve been pushing myself to spend more it on it and this week it paid off big. I came across Pratham Books StoryWeaver Project.

StoryWeaver offers a range of books for kids at different learning levels and ages, it even offers them in a large number of Indian languages. The cherry on it all, though for me was the bilingual books they offer. I printed off one to see how my househelp’s kid enjoys it. I’m excited to hear about her experience.

If you have kids at home, you should check out the StoryWeaver project that apart from books also offers ways to create your own books and help translate others.

In other news this week I heard of another book site BookSlut shutting down on TeleRead. It’s sad to see and there’s speculation as to why Jessa Crispin is doing this but she says she doesn’t want to comment on it right now and that all the content will stay available ever after the last issue publication date of 14, May.

On the podcast front there wasn’t much news this week, though I did find a couple of new book podcasts to try out and see if I like them. There were two pieces of news though that did catch my eye. One was about an open ebook program for low-income groups in the US (crazy coincidence that I found StoryWeaver in the same week).

The other piece of news Jeff and Amanda talked about over on the BookRiot podcast was about how Middle Grade books have gotten bigger after Harry Potter, almost as if HP opened up new possibilities. Amanda’s point about fantasy becoming popular that that age group being a reason and HP helping the cause stood out.

And on the reading front, I made progress with ‘How to Get Your Heart Broken’ by Rose Fall. It’s slow going, I guess coz it’s not really my kind of story. 🙁

TBR Adds This Week

 

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
(Hush #86)

I came across the book on the Hush Podcast, a new podcast I listened to this week. The Titanic has always been a fascination for me, so something to do with it’s sister ship immediately caught my eye. Thad, Lissa and Julie discussed the book with spoilers but I don’t think that would spoil the book for, especially since its as Narrative Non-Fiction as Julie called it.

The story of the role The Lusitania and The German Uboat play in getting America into the war, should be interesting. Plus it’s been a while since I read non-fiction.

Pandemic by Sonia Shah
(BR The Podcast #147)

Another non-fiction on my list this week, this one’s about tracking Pandemics. Epidemiologists are in agreement that we are due for a pandemic and Sonia Shah explores Cholera (one of the deadliest diseases) from it’s source to it’s current state to reveal how a new pandemic might develop.

The last book I read about something similar was Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond many years ago and I remember enjoying it. Can’t wait to get started on Pandemic.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
(BR The Podcast #147)

The story of a slave trying to escape the horrors bondage via a secret underground railroad caught my ear. That Colson Whitehead comes highly recommend by Jeff O’Neal helped and that he is excited about this book releasing in September 2016 was the clincher. It’s on my list!

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
(Get Booked #18)

This isn’t really an addition as it’s a book my already reading (had stopped somewhere and have got to pick it up again) but it’s a cool moment for me to have the Get Booked https://bookriot.com/listen/also-some-camels/ guys mention a book already on my list. It’s like that ‘pat on the back’ saying ‘yep girl, right direction’. 😀

This books a memoir, self-help and life hack guru, all mixed into one, and I’m enjoying it.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
(Get Booked #18)

I like fairy stories and the premise of this one sounds soo interesting. The story of the eldest who gets cursed by a witch and then goes on an adventure to get the curse of becoming an old woman removed. There’s also a fire demon and a witch war to clinch the deal!

This week I seem to have picked a lot of non-fiction but it’s been a long time since I read some good non-fiction.
What did you read this week? What have you added to your TBR this week?

This week I didn’t get much reading done, but I did finish Sherlock Holmes The Missing Years: Timbuktu by Vasudev Murthy and my review is up. It’s long one for the book as heavy and detailed, but do check it out. I’m looking forward to reading How To Get Your Heart Broken by Rose Fall in the coming week, and who knows if all goes well, I’ll be able to squeeze another one in too.

But it’s been a good week, I managed to catch up with a lot of old podcasts and I am now back on track and listening to the latest ones. I had a fairly huge backlog, actually I still have a few pending but those I’m not very keen on so it’s ok.

That’s been one of by big learnings last year – saying no. I’m pushing myself to say no to books I don’t want to read, ignore podcasts that don’t catch my interest, say no to things i don’t want to do, and be ok with it, i.e. not feel guilty. Usually the guilt drives me nuts and I land up feeling miserable.

Twin edged sword that since doing it also leaves me miserable. So, now I’m working on saying no and enjoying it. 🙂 Anyway, like I was saying I got a lot of podcasts out of the way but that means lots of news and books. So, here’s the stuff that caught my eye/ear this week. 😀

News That Caught My Eye

 
It’s pretty old news now, that Harper Lee died but I’m still grieving her. To Kill A Mockingbird had made an impact in my mind and I still remember it. I did get Go Set a Watchman but with all the drama surrounding it I’ve been putting it off. Time to get to it now. Have you read it?

Lee’s death was big news, such big news that I completely missed out on the death of Umberto Eco, and he passed away on the same day Feb. 19th. I’m not a huge Eco fan but I do know of him and even own a copy of Foucault’s Pendulum. It came highly recommended so I’d picked it up but couldn’t get past 20 pages. It’s a heavy book! His most popular/famous book though is The Name of the Rose, which you should read if the things in DaVinci Code by Dan Brown intrigue you, for this ones way better.

In other big news Simon and Schuster is launching an imprint for Muslim-themed Children’s books – Salaam Reads. This is a big deal and it’s been a long time coming. With all the nonsense the world media (read US) has been putting out about Muslims, a balance for future generations can only be struck if we teach them about the Muslim culture at a young age. Understanding other cultures and religions will only lead to more tolerance. (I hope.)

“We have a chance to provide people with a more nuanced and, in my estimation, a more honest portrayal of the lives of everyday Muslims,” Zareen Jaffery (executive editor at Simon & Schuster)

Jeff O’Neal on the BookRiot podcast also had an interesting point, which was that the imprint shouldn’t become the only place where such books get published. These ideas and themes should become a part of regular publishing. Inclusion and diversity is the way forward and it should happen everywhere and all the time.

And the last bit of news that stuck with me was that Banned Books Week (in Sept.) this year is going to focus on diversity and books written by people of colour. This is such awesome news and a big step forward. I’m looking forward to this and I’m going to try and read at least one of these banned books. Are you?

Books Added This Week to My TBR

 

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(Get Booked #17)
This book called out to me for a couple of reasons –
Culture and how as people we create and deal with it is a topic that interests me. This books seems to be about life in a different country and culture and how the main character Ifemelu deals with it’s challenges. She even has a blog about it.
Another strong reason is that in our area we have a large population of Nigerians who come to study in a college near by. The culture clash is making for an almost tangible tension here, and I’m hoping this book will help me understand them better.
And lastly I’m looking to add more diversity into my reading and this book will do just that. 😀

Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer
(Get Booked #17)
This book got on my list the minute Amanda (or was it Jenn, hmm) talked about the heroine’s wig flying off and leaving her there bald and nak-head [couldn’t resist that 😀 ] for the world to see. It was a plus that the story is also about people, who are clearly not of the societal-mould, trying to fit in and their struggle to appear normal and have a normal family life. Hit’s close to home, me thinks.

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente
(Get Booked #16)
A story about a fantasy world that you can get to only by sleeping with someone who has already been there and then getting marked for being there by a tattoo that is a a partial map of the place. That’s the premise I absorbed on the show. How can I not read this!!!

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
(Get Booked #16)
I’m going through Indian books/authors phase right now, so imagine my astonishment when the guys at Get Booked talked about a book based in India by an Indian author. I actually stopped by the side of the road and rewound to listen again. The mention of this book was like the universe telling me, ‘Read This!’.

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
(Get Booked #16)
This book has been mentioned so many times now on podcasts I listen to by gushing hosts, that this time I figured I must add it to my list. I’m not really sure if it’s my kind of book but it’s reviews have me wanting to definitely try it out.

In the coming weeks I’ve got to get more active on twitter, the idea being that I would like to stay on top of book news while the news is still fresh. Lets see how that works out.

Have you read any of these book I chose? Got any of these on your TBR? What book news was most interesting to you this week? What did you read this week?