From suicide to growing up...

...Nick Hornby write about it all :) I have to admit, this writer has found a fan in me. As of now I
have read (almost) three of his books ( he only has written four) and i definitely liked two of them, and thought the third one was ok.

I reviewed one before. Inspite of my mixed opinions on that one, I checked out " The Long way down".
Its a tale of four people who meet on the roof of "Toppers House " on New Year's Eve. Maureen,Jess, Martin and JJ have all decided to end their lives at that particular moment, for various reasons.
Its not a miraculous story of how they find love and will to live. In fact, at the end of three months they are not really all that much better into sorting their lifes out. Like Jess says if you expect two of them to fall in love at the end of the story, then you should know its not that kind of a story!

Its actually a very straight forward tale of the screwed up lives of these four people. Their common bond being that they all wanted to end their lives. And in their own strange ways they are helping each other out. How they do this is for you to find out, by reading the book.

The book is in first person, so its each of them relating their story in pieces. In some ways its like an interview, of a band as JJ might put it.

The other book is About a Boy. I had seen this movie and liked it. And of course the book is even better. Quite honestly I am about two thirds into the book but I just had to say out loud that this is fun. The book is the tale of a thirty something Will and a 11 only Marcus. Will has never worked in his life and never filled in the shoes of responsible adult. Which makes him the person Marcus can speak to. Since Will knows all about "Kirk O Bane" (as Marcus will tell you) and fashion. The book then is about a boy, two of them really. There is a thin layer of humor all througout making it into a tough one to put down.

Maximum city

First, let me introduce myself. I was invited by the great Ligne to this blog. I have been blogging on the fringes of blogspot for more than 2 years. Mostly for self amusement and venting. I like to read and once in a while like to talk about what I read. So, let me start off by linking to a review of Maximum city by Suketu Mehta on my other blog. This review was written last year, much before the tragedy that struck on the Tuesday of this week. Still, I wish to dedicate this first post to the city I love the most and its people.

Trial and Error

I know this blog was supposed to be mostly about books which I had a positive reaction to. But I felt this urge to write about a few books I read recently.

"The adventures of the salsa goddess" by Jonas Hornak is about the difficult task of a successful 40 something single woman getting married. Its funny in parts and may be a good travel companion. I guess its on the lines of Sex in the City or Bridget Jones Diary. If you want a book to read on the bus, there you have it!

"Mail" by Mamewe Medwed is about a woman with a crush on her mailman. She is a Harvard graduate and he has never been to college. Its a simple tale of class issues. The lure for me was I was living in Boston (Somerville actually) at that time and it had a very girl next door feel to it. The conincidence was there is character called Jack Barnes in it.
And I happened to be reading Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also rises at that point.

Which brings me to Hemingway. I have to admit, I have no idea what the book was about. I dont meant I dont understand his English but I have no idea what he was trying to say. The main character in " Mail" mentions something about Jack Barnes having a war wound. I seem to have missed that fact while reading the book. Lady Brett is hardly your everyday heroine. It was not clear to me why she cannot be with Jack! If you guys have read it,then please I would love some feedback on this book.

Moral Blues

I know this blog was supposed to be a venue for to talk about books we like. But I have to talk about this book " How to be good " by Nick Hornby because I need to know if anyone has read it.

I have tried convincing my friends to read it so I could talk to them about it. But I have a feeling it may not work as well. The title does give an impression of a self-help book. In fact, its a lesson on what such a self-help book might do!

The book is perhaps about a dysfunctional family. Really it could be any normal couple. A couple who over the years have forgotten why they got married in the first place and are bound together by their children. A family where the woman is the bread earner and is supporting her husband's not so rewarding career as a writer.

What do you do if the man, you have slowly starting to resent, because of his rants on the world, this anger towards everything good and bad suddenly turns over a new leaf? What if he is suddenly the epitome of all the goodness in the world. Wants to set the whole world right.
What if all this goodness becomes so disgusting and irrational that you want your angry unhappy husband back? What if you are failing at every role you are playing at the same..the role of a doctor, the wife, the children and you are not winning any moral points?

What is morality really? Is being good natured moral? Can we even really stand people who are always good natured and happy and smiling. Who talk about giving awya their wealth to the poor? About making friends with all those people they have been bad to?
Are we moral only to please ourselves? To score some points to balance the "bad"things we do?

I have to tell you that this book was hard to read..because it was so plainly normal and realistic that it was put off :(

But it still did make me think and ponder. So isnt that what a good book is about? The one that makes you question? Of course with all the goodness in the book..you might start wondering about that question too!


PS: So if you have read it..lemme know what you thought of it!