The Rosie Project: A Book Review

Hello to my readers. And welcome to another book review post. Today I bring to you a book that made me smile (after rolling my eyes multiple times). The book is called The Rosie Project. I purchased this book way back in hard copy. I shifted from Mumbai to Delhi and the book was packed in the book rack, never to see the light of the day till I realized I have 85 unread books (I was crazy enough to count that!)

So finally after more or less 5 years of purchasing the book, I finally managed to read it. This defines my reading life as well. So let us roll with that.

Book Name: The Rosie Project

Author’s Name: Graeme Simsion 

Summary

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don’s Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.

What I Enjoyed

1. Humor: The book made me smile. I was going through a difficult time when I read this. I was down with fever and needed a pick-me-up, and this book was perfect for that. The story was very simple, and most of the time, I already guessed the way the story is going to take. So it didn’t require any extra efforts.
2. Male Character: I have not encountered a lot hetero romances with male characters as the main voice of the story. So this was a different experience altoghether.

What I Disliked

This is going to be an essay. I did not dislike anything a lot when I was reading the book itself. I was recovering from flu and weakness that comes with it. The book supported me well during that time. But there was something which made me uncomfortable about the whole story. I could not pin-point it at that time, but now I can. My initial rating to the book was 4, but that has been revised to 3 since that time.

I think, at many points, the book generalizes and glorifies the Asperger’s Syndrome. I am not very well acquainted with the condition as I have not encountered it personally or in friends/family (At least not that I am aware of). But I do think that the easy acceptance that the main male character, Don has about people not liking him, of not responding to everything etc. is not usual. A lot of people who are not easily accepted by the society have self-doubts. So this book oversimplifies that situation.

But this is my perception. I hope to read more stories to understand the symptom and how people deal with it.

Overall Rating

My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time: A Book Review

There are things we always keep for ourselves, and this blog is one of those things. I might not be a regular, but I still love it. It still is my space.

Today I want to talk about a book (surprise, no surprise! :D) This is the first book review post of 2021 with not a lot of promise because past two years have taught me that actions speak louder than words.

Book Name: My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time

Author: Liz Jensen

Backstory of the book

On 15th August, I was celebrating the independence day weekend at a heritage palace hotel in location called Patan. The place was amazing and had some bookshelves. That is where I discovered this book. The name of this book leaped at me. Having never heard of author or book, I expected it to be a YA novel.

But after reading the back synopsis, and some pages of the book, I realized I had been pleasantly mistaken. The story revolves around 25 year old protagonist, Charolette, who works as a prostitute in Copenhagen. She is trying to survive the harsh winter of 1827 by cleaning a house of a widow where there is a room of oblivion, and then she is transported to 21st century. What an interesting writing and premise, it sounded. Such fun book. I had to check out in 2 hours, but I wanted to finish the book too.

So, I purchased a kindle copy for myself after return from the hotel.

Book Review

How does one review such a book which makes you smile days after finishing it? I have set myself for a daunting task. But first I would introduce my readers to the synopsis of the book.

Charlotte Schleswig, the delightful narrator of Liz Jensen’s latest novel, supports herself and the lumpen Fru Schleswig (who may or may not be her mother) as a prostitute in 1890s Copenhagen. While she is no small success at the trade, she leaps at a new job opportunity for herself and Fru Schleswig, as cleaning ladies for the wealthy widow Krak. But mysteries abound at Fru Krak’s dark old mansion. The basement appears to be haunted, townspeople claim to have seen the dead Professor Krak walking the streets as a ghost, and there are stories of desperate souls who paid the professor a visit and never emerged. In fact, as Charlotte will discover, there is a simple explanation for all this: the basement is home to a time machine. When their cunning investigations land them in trouble, Charlotte and Fru Schleswig find themselves catapulted through time and space to modern-day London, and there their adventures truly begin.

As clearly evident from the synopsis, this is a book about time travel– one which is very different. This is a typical masala-book, medley of all spices. There is our lead female character, working as a “whore” in 1800s and shoplifting and earning money through most “immoral” trades, when she starts working in a mansion which has “room of oblivion”. Being of curious bend, she and her mother get sucked in time after which they move back and forth in time, along with few other people. During this back and forth, there is action (which is funny!), there is romance (which I didn’t care for a lot), there is drama, and there is suspense as she tries to figure out a solution.

Things I Enjoyed

• Writing Style: The book is written as journal with direct communication to readers. It calls the readers, dear ones and compliments them how pretty they look. It just made me smile throughout the beginning till I got used to being talked to like that in a book. I enjoyed the tone of the book, very unique and new for me.
• Sense of Humor: This book (and its author) seem to have their own sense of humor throughout. I loved how the book didn’t take itself seriously and made me smile many times.
• Description of Denmark: I have not read a lot of books about Denmark. I liked how earlier Denmark was described and I felt like going there and having some delicacies from there.

Things That Didn’t Appeal to me

• Sexism : The book has some very casual sexist reference thrown in trying to convince the readers about character-being-from-1800s, which made me make a face while reading. While the women of the book are resourceful, I still felt bad for them.
• Romance: I didn’t enjoy romance a lot because I didn’t feel the butterflies character was feeling. In fact, that was one part of the book that felt rushed.

Overall Review

Overall, a very light read which took my mind away from heavier stuff. Very hygge-ish, as the book says, and a very fortunate holiday find.

I would like to end this review with the quote:

I reflected that accidents will happen, & oft those accidents may turn out to be happy ones, despite initial appearances to the contrary. That however ill appears the hand that Fate has dealt you, such as being burdened with a creature such as Fru S, a sprinkle of imagination can transform pumpkins into carriages & pellets of cat-litter to precious stones, & lavatory-cleaners into African queens. That wishing upon a star is not the most foolish thing a girl can do in life. And that there is nothing on this wide earth, & in all time, as important as Love. It is worth dying for. But better, it is worth living for, too.

Total page count: 309 only

My Rating

Top Ten Tuesday: 2021 Goals

Days ago, if you back to blog, there would be links to Top Ten Tuesday. It is a bookish meme where we share a list of 10 as per the topic. These days, it is hosted by That Artsy Girl. Then, past few years happened. I underwent through A LOT of changes. Things took backseat. Today, I missed those lists, so I went back to find if the meme was still active, and I was so happy to see that it is something which is still followed.

So the first Tuesday for me with the list is about my goals and aspirations for 2021. I do not have many, you know. This time, when I was filling my dream book in my planner, there were not any goals. It all felt so bleak and tiring. I did spend almost 45 days trying to think of them, and yet there I was, so totally blank. But maybe not the dreams per se, I think I can find 10 things that I think I want, bookish or not.

1. Focus on mental and emotional well-being. Past few years have been very, very tough. I have tried to battle a lot of negative thoughts and feelings, which isn’t like me. And 2020 was particularly bad. I hope there is no further bottoming out than that and that worst part of my life has already passed now.
2. Flush out toxicity. This, I think, is self-explanatory. Toxic cycles of action and reaction, toxic relationships– this just needs to end. Is it my target for 2021? I am sure that it is not at all feasible.
3. Write regularly for more than 150 days. That is a lofty target for someone like me who has almost given up on writing. But my love for writing hasn’t diminished. The ideas in my mind are still chattering around like birds returning back. It is just the words which are lost, and maybe it will be possible to find them.
4. Read 52 books. This is a small target, and it is something which is absolutely feasible. But, this is one goal I will give up if need be. The S. No. 1 trumps this goal.
5. Find kindness again. This is associated with S.No.2. I have been around people who have so much of vitriol in them in past few years. The politics, the religion, the region– everything has been an issue for these people. Even though I have tried to distance myself from these thoughts, it would be wrong to say that I have not been impacted. These days, I am afraid of getting a door repaired because some words come to my mind. I just want to find that strong vein of kindness which has helped me navigate everything in past.
6. Find a stronger social support system. Again, very self-explanatory.
7. Travel more (Very vague, but Covid means no or lesser goals)
8. Save more (Again, very vague, but that’s it)
9. Focus on health.
10. Explore more regional cuisines.

And that makes it a list of 10. I feel like giving a hug to myself because I was able to think this much. See you all, on some other day, with more book related post. 🙂

Monday Musing 11.01.2020– Bookish Miracles in Real Life

Today is the second Monday of the month. I am writing my Monday Motivation again, and hence this needs special mention. Two weeks in a row, you see!

Anyway, I want to talk about my miracle today. I finished my first book of the year– The Midnight Library, which is the story of how Nora Seeds finds will to live her life. She is helped in this quest for will to live by her school librarian, Mrs. Elm, who had been her big support during her school time. I enjoyed the book, and it made me think about my school days, but I couldn’t find any Mrs. Elm in my memory of the school.

Yesterday, I joined a walk with local meet-up group. Basically, a ground where different people come together. This walk was to appreciate the wall-art in the local area. Can you imagine who I met? My computer teacher who taught me my senior secondary school. I haven’t been in touch with lot of fellow-students or anyone else for that matter, and I had had no contact with her for 13 years. During the introduction, she said that she was a teacher. We all were like masked, so only thing I could see was her eyes, and they seemed quite recognizable. I hadn’t fully recognized her, but when she told the name of school and subject she taught, it all clicked. She was my computer teacher, one thing that I enjoyed during the two difficult years of my school. And what’s more wonderful is that she remembered me. She could recall who I was. In fact, she could recall how I solved the puzzle she gave me too.

It gives me such a warm, fuzzy feeling. It reminded me in a way that I have roots that go deeper than what I could even imagine. I am known by a lot of people, and there must be some people who are happy with the fact that I am in the world, right?

Books do come to life, sometimes! Without knowing, without trying, I found my Mrs. Elm.

WELCOME TO 2021: Monday Musing dated 04.01.2021

It has been almost a year since I wrote here. But that is not really surprising. What is more surprising is my last post of 2019. I came here to update my blog and to check on stuff that is happening, and I read my post of 2019 again. I am now wondering how naïve I was a year ago. Let me explain.

It was an emotionally challenging year as I had a brush with that feeling of “extreme loneliness” after a decade again. This is not the regular loneliness which comes and goes, this feeling of loneliness is razor sharp, cutting in your happiness and hope. It took months to pass. I am still not sure I am over it, but I am doing much, much better. 

These are the lines from the last post. And I am surprised that on 31.12.2019, I felt that I was doing much better. On 14.01.2020, I felt disintegrated (I have no other words to explain that). And then it kept going on and on and on till there was no hope, no dream, no faith left. My relationship with food took a wrong turn. My writing went sideways, and my reading has been almost very, very slow. I talked to a therapist, and I tried to find some help (and despite what some of my “friends” have tried to tell me, I am not going to be ashamed of this). It still feels useless. There still does not seem to be an end to these feelings though. I feel angry and bitter, and more importantly, I feel like there is not going to be any sense of fulfilment/happiness in future. There are days when I feel like that everything, including life, is not worth the efforts.

I know I am struggling. But there are good days and bad days.  Right now, bad days are more than good days, but they are getting less worse, if it is possible to explain it. I seem to be making peace with certain things and situations, and their pressure have decreased. I still cannot make peace with “people” though. I have given up on almost all the people around me (and the thing is that they keep on trying to prove me right.)

I understand this is not the right or healthy way to live, so I am working through this. But I want to come here and reaffirm that I have not given up on reading or writing. I have not even given up on my blog. It just has been so difficult to live that this hasn’t been a priority in a while.

So, for now, the stats of 2020. I want to record these to see if they will be better in next year.

2020 books read= 13.

2020 Audiobooks=2

Stories written= 3

Poem finished=0

Drafts developed and destroyed: Countless.

My first book of 2021 is almost finished too, and I will be back with the review soon for the same.  (Hopefully! Fingers crossed for being more regular this year. 😊)

Book#1 of 2020: The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry

The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

A.J. Fikry owns a failing bookshop. His wife has just died, in tragic circumstances. His rare and valuable first edition has been stolen. His life is a wreck.

Amelia is a book rep, with a big heart, and a lonely life.

Maya is the baby left on A.J.’s bookshop floor with a note.

What happens in the bookshop that changes the lives of these seemingly normal but extraordinary characters?

A few days ago, I was going through difficult times, and in my Facebook group, I asked for the book suggestions—the kinds of books that give you a warm and snuggly feeling. This is one of the books that was suggested, and I think it was a good suggestion.

The story starts with a reclusive bookseller and a sales representative trying to sell some books to him. The initial chapters hook you in with different specific likes and dislikes of the bookshop owner. Slowly the story changes and morphs into a place where bookshops make a difference in the life of the people. A recluse bookshop starts getting more involved and the community starts coming together because of this. Life has not been easy for A.J. Fikry, but despite this, he manages to find the second chance, love, and a reason to live for. He manages to stitch the community together with his books and his big, grumpy heart.

What I loved

1. The Positivity: As I wrote above, I picked up this story because I wanted to feel joy or warmth or some kind of positive feeling. I have been down for days now, and this book was supposed to be a step up from that depressed feeling. This book did not disappoint me in that respect. That makes it a very good book for me.
2. Literary References: There are so many of them throughout the book. I am going to make this a mission for this year to read all the stories referenced in this book. That’s a 15-January kind of resolution.
3. The feeling of connectedness: You know sometimes, you come across the stories where you feel a strong connection to the characters. This was that kind of book. I connected with so many lines in the books. Like this one sentence is going to be an answer for all the stupid excuses people try to make:

“A.J. nods out of politeness, but he doesn’t believe in random acts. He is a reader, and what he believes in is narrative construction. If a gun appears in act one, that gun had better go off by act three.”

Another one of the sentence that stood out for me was this:

“He has read enough to know there are no collections where each story is perfect. Some hits. Some misses. If you’re lucky, a standout. And in the end, people only really remember the standouts anyway, and they don’t remember those for very long.”

I can quote the whole book here, but the point is that I enjoyed reading these small nuggets of life wisdom.

What I did not Like

1. Romance: I know it is essential for the story and all, but the chemistry didn’t flow out of the page for me, and that’s the kind of romance that doesn’t interest me.  
2. Predictability: There are parts of the story which are predictable. I didn’t mind them while reading mostly because I was in a different frame of mind, but this is something that could be added to the unlikeable parts of the book.

Overall Opinion

This was a perfect first book of the year 2020. It lifted my spirits and made me smile while reading. I am thankful for this. I am rating it 3-star, but it would be half star extra just for making the beginning of the year better.

2019: Year End Musings

Today is 31st December, and it has been too long since I have been on this blog.

2019 has been a difficult year for me– a year which flooded with me so many changes, it felt like I am being de-puzzled and rearranged.

I shifted the cities. Again. Returned back to Delhi from Mumbai. Those who say coming back home is easy, they are wrong. For months, I have felt without any roots. I have moved in my house, and it is better than changing the houses every year in Mumbai, and yet, it has been so difficult. Some days, I felt like just giving up. It isn’t the pace of city (people have given me this reason), but it is the pain of not knowing where you belong.

It was an emotionally challenging year as I had a brush with that feeling of “extreme loneliness” after a decade again. This is not the regular loneliness which comes and goes, this feeling of loneliness is razor sharp, cutting in your happiness and hope. It took months to pass. I am still not sure I am over it, but I am doing much, much better. And yes, I understand the reason behind it. One of them is the shift I mentioned above. Another reason is the people around me. I don’t have better words to explain this. So, I will leave it here.

Book-wise, this year might have been worse than any year in past. If I count correctly, the number of books I have read is less than 20 books, which is a very small number compared to my regular reading habit. This is all linked with the above two points, but mostly, it was because I just could not delve into the stories. Even the comfort books became too heavy and difficult. Most of the books I have read have been read in the beginning of the year. The past six months just degenerated me into a non-reading sloth. I could cite lack of time as an excuse, but I know it wasn’t so.

Writing wise, I am doing better than last year (Yay me!) I managed to write one very ambitious story that I started with. I have the ideas in my head again, and I am on this topsy-turvy ride to find the words for these ideas. Maybe they will translate well in terms of words, or maybe they won’t. But I am just happy to be able to write. Some days, it feels like the words are angry with me, and they refuse to come to me, but I am hopeful that they aren’t going to stay angry forever.

I have watched A LOT of movies and shows– Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, and Theater. But the most interesting thought about these is that most of these shows have been meaningless, background chatter. I am sure I have given chance to a few “interesting” movies in theater, but mostly it has been the regulars. Here is hoping to drifting towards substance again. (And no, I do not consider the background chatter as wrong, but sometimes, it can drown your thoughts. Hence, the break from them is essential.)

I have not clicked many photographs on my camera in the year (I actually cannot remember even a single photo clicked, but maybe I am forgetting something).

This looks like a bad year overall, but the good thing that happened, the most memorable thing that happened is my drive from Mumbai to Delhi. That kicked off one thing off my bucket list.  The second good thing about the year is my swimming lessons. They were only 22 days long, and I was absolutely terrified of water, but at the end of the day, I managed to cross the pool.

So that’s 2019 in nutshell, the year which drained me completely. I was this distraught once a decade ago (exactly in 2009). This time, it looks more arduous; the pieces feel more brittle. I am actually glad that 2019 is coming to an end.

It feels like I should write my resolutions too, but that might be too much of a stretch at this point of time, so I will end this very longish update here. Here is hoping this year be better than the last. Here is hoping better, healthier, stable us in 2020. Here is wishing for more books and less drama in real life.

U=US(South) from Gone With the Wind

U was a difficult letter for me. I almost gave up on writing for U because I couldn’t find a book which described such a place. But then, I realized that USA starts from “U” too, and there definitely is a book which had made me aware about US and the civil war is “Gone With the Wind”. I have talked a lot about this book already in my past posts, so I am not going to explain the virtue of the book in this post. So, with “U”, I am going to talk about US, especially Southern US.

I wasn’t aware about much of the history apart from what is told in history classes. I had known about the civil war that happened in US, but while reading history books, one is not able to imagine the pain of losing so many young men, the hunger that must have been perpetual, the fear of the women etc. These are the factors that you see in the stories only. This story brought US-South of that era alive. I could see the parties, the tiny waists, the corsets, the plantations, and even the wars.  

The South of that time felt overloaded with formalities. There is a quote in which Mammy tells Scarlett to eat before the party because “you can always tell a lady by the way she eats in front of folks like a bird”.

The setting is such an integral part of the story that it is a bit difficult to define it in a post. But it does cover the horrors of the war and one of the quotes I love is:

“All wars are sacred,” he said. “To those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn’t make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight? But, no matter what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for a war. And that is money. All wars are in reality money squabbles. But so few people ever realize it.”

T=Tamil Nadu of Poonachi

For T, I want to talk about Tamil Nadu from a book called Poonachi. This is state which I have seen quite closely because of various visits in different parts of the state. Most of these visits were official. Only a few personal visits have been to Tamil Nadu. Poonachi is a book which I read very recently. I got this book as a part of the Prime program and wanted to see what is so special about the book. The book did not disappoint me as it explained the life of female goat from its birth to its death.

The setting in this book is not very strong, but it is inherent in the story itself with some fantastical elements weaved in. The story starts with a pondering of rain, wherein the narrator observes that people crib when it rains too much, and they complain when it doesn’t rain as well. This is a true enough sentence, but with my travels and my friends, I have learned this is quite commonly spoken dialogue in Tamil. The story moves further and explains a sunset that the narrator sees while the goats are moving around and frolicking nearby. Then he is given the gift of a very feeble goat called Poonachi, whose story this is.

The description of setting is mostly limited to parts and pieces afterwards, but still, the story carries in it the aroma of the south India in it. The words like dhooyi, ayah etc. roots the story in southern part of India, while the people’s taunts about dark colour and puny shape are like social commentary.

As I said, the story veers in a bit of political foreplay by showing a regime which likes to number the goats and is made out to be quite oppressive. But despite the non-matching of these political situations, the story does transport you in Tamil Nadu. And for a moment, you wonder whether you want to live as a woman in one of the interior villages of Tamil Nadu or not.  

S=The Romantic Scotland

This post is the proof that I am not ready to give up. I might not be consistent, but I am determined. And I am going to finish all the alphabets

I am writing about today’s alphabets, and rest of the alphabets I will catch up slowly and steadily. Please cheer for me as I fight for my time to write.

“S” is such a common letter that it can represent millions of things. When I started thinking about the places, I thought of writing about Shire from “Lord of the Rings”. I dreamed about it, you know—peaceful expanse of land, greenery, flowing rivers, and hobbit-holes. It is like one of the dream places. But there is something else from “S” which is special for me—Scotland.

This also comes from reading a lot of romance novels. Like Ireland, I know every inch of Scotland. I know there are glens, mountains, standing stones, and their English is a bit different from ours. What else I know about Scotland? That there are times when the ground is covered with purple flowers of heather and that there are castles. I know more about the war between England and Scotland from these romance novels than from my history books. I also know that there is a falconry somewhere in Scotland.

Like Ireland, this is my dream place. Someday, I will visit the Scotland. I don’t know whether I will find the Scotland I read of or not, but I am sure it will be magical still. And, now I realize I did not mention any author here. There are many, actually. But the very first author who introduced me with Scotland is Julie Garwood. She taught me a lot of things about Scotland. Then came Diana Gabaldon with her Outlander series. There have been many more books and authors in between, but these two are the most influential authors for me.