Top 5 Books I Wanted to Start Yesterday

This blog post is where we, I, candidly confess how terribly I've been slacking on my book challenges.
 Mentioned will be some books that will for sure generate some gasps and 'haww' from all my readers. Trust me when I say that I WILL get to them this year.

5. Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare

This book series is what was all over the booktubing and book blogging community for all of 2014 and me, the attention deficit that I am decided to read the Infernal Devices trilogy instead. Again, LOVED IT. Probably one of my favorite series ever, so by default I should probably keep an eye out for Cassandra Clare's work. We are almost done with April and I haven't even picked up the first book yet. And I intend to finish this series this year. Talk about being realistic.

4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I only recently acquired this book from the local second-hand book store for a steal. A lot of people have quote this book enough around me to make me annoyingly curious. I am hoping my TBR Jar will spit out the 'Catch-22' chit soon enough.

3. L.A Confidential by James Ellroy

Everyone knows of this stellar Russell Crowe starrer and the enticing mystery movie it was. Unfortunate for impatient me, I watched the movie in fast forward with minimal interest. For longest time, I had absolutely no idea this was book till I spotted it at a thrift market. Now I intend to give it a fair chance.

2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The most shameful act of my life ever. I bought this book in a massive book fair at Holiday Inn Muscat when I was in the 8th grade and have not read it yet. 9 years or so and it lays abandoned. Fail, would not even cut it. A must-read for a feminist writer for me I'm aware and I am determined to get to it. Soon.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

An iconic book and a pioneer in civil rights era based literature. Just recently my father watched the film and said it's worth every word of the hype. As a literary enthusiast, missing out on this book would be like a cardinal sin in the book blogging community. however I do feel I would want to spend a good amount of time reading this.

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What books have you been eyeing to read ?

Book Review: Learning to Live Again by Dori Lavelle

Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one.

Okay, so it has been years since I read something romantic like the series I am about to review.
Do you remember in your school days, when you'd be ill in bed, reading Mills & Boon. Yup, nostalgia hit me pretty much right in the face.
  Since this is a trilogy, I will divide my review in three parts within the same post.

Book 1 - To Live Again

Read on: Kindle

Pages: 93

Goodreads Rating: 3.97/5

Review: Kelsey moves to a quant little Irish town to start her life afresh. Little does she know, that her next door neighbor is this elusive and handsome stranger that might make her a hot mess (Literally!). And that's where it all goes tumbling.

Considering that the series are fairly short, It was a good break for me to get into something moving that my regular reading challenge which you'll know I'm doing poorly at if you follow me on Goodreads. I didn't have an issue with the pacing of the book, however I did feel that for a keeper of secrets and supposedly being so discreet, Shaun was more forthright and oncoming than Kelsey herself. I expected Shaun's past to have a huge looming shadow on his personality, someone majorly flawed yet irresistible.
Maeve is a local girl who befriends Kelsey and is often her go-to person when she has to endure Shaun's hot and cold moods. Thankfully, Maeve isn't a typically shallow girl, she gets straight to the point without hesitation. She's probably my favorite character in the whole lot.


Book 2 - To Love Again

Read on: Kindle

Pages: 101

Goodreads Rating: 4.42/5

Review: After striking a 'deal' with Shaun and assuming the fact that she can handle the situation well, Kelsey tries to flout in and out of Shaun's life, hoping for him to still open up to her despite the adversities.

This one was my favorite in the series. We get a good look into Shaun's past and the darkness that lures in it. His first wife, Carmen is such a prominent character. The incidents that ruin her life keep following building up her trauma. Shaun tries his best to do as he can but he kind of has a clue as to where it would all lead to. Carmen's actions are justifiable in their own way and the consequences endured by the one left behind, i.e. Shaun, was expected. Their story is well detailed and narrated. Again, like I mentioned before, all that Shaun had to deal with should have left him all the more scarred, something I had a hard time believing in the first installment of the series.


Book 3 - To Breathe Again

Read on: Kindle

Pages: 101

Goodreads Rating: 4.68/5

Review: The final book was a bit of a let down because it was so rushed. The point of Serendipity's anger towards Kelsey, Carmen's family's hostility and the scenes that follow were expected but not in such a predictable way. Kelsey's pain is heightened by her natural female instincts, she loves a man who may no be able to shed his past and she has to accept it as it is.
After paying homage to his first wife, Shaun tries to go through life with Kelsey realizing that he wants to be with her. He starts proposing to her, I say starts because he's done it twice already and continues to indulge in her which I found was a bit corny for a man who endured so much. It made me feel unsettled.
Instead if they had a quiet or solemn proposal or decision and ended on that not, then it would have been a perfectly natural ending. This would have been perfect so that there was be an unspoken reflection of all that they had gone through earlier and the seriousness of Shaun's decisions would come through. It would seem genuine to take it further with Kelsey.

Having read the series rather quickly, the author's style of writing is descriptive and witty. It's what make it so easy to read through and I thoroughly enjoyed those bits. Fair warning: this book does contain graphic adult content.


All in all, I enjoyed the wave of nostalgia it brought me. I would ideally recommend this to people on the go, who don't have much time to devote to reading since it's such a quick light read and ardent romance novel lovers.

Final Rating: 2.5/5

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These Constellations We Call Scars

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” 

― Rumi

Take off my clothes and stand in front of a full sized mirror. I can't even observe my body for a good 5 minutes without complaining.  Stripped down, not even a speck of concealer or mascara, I stare at my face and body, my imperfections glare back at me.
He doesn't miss a chance to call me beautiful, even when I'm scrubbed down of makeup. I have a hard time believing him. He could be saying this to keep my heart, sweetheart that he is.
My teens have marked me. I thought they would stop right there but I kept accumulating them year after year. My back is so stained, there's isn't an inch of plain skin. Backless clothes are off-limits for sure.
On my quiet days he declares back rubs. I cringe a bit. He doesn't say a word like absolutely nothing is wrong and here I am, lying face down, losing my sanity. ' FOR GOD'S SAKE, SAY SOMETHING!!!' my mind shrieks.
Décolletage. So delicate, so feminine. Not for me. I'm stained there too. I wear plunging necklines nonetheless, but I know when someones gaze does drift to my bosom its because they are staring at my marks.
In queues or crowds, people standing around whose eyes couldn't miss scars so prominent, would wince or randomly ask me what happened, followed by advice and dermatologist reccomendations.
Trust me when I say this, there's no fun living with insecurities.
Teenage Mehreen would have tried everything possible to get rid of the scars. Everyone said ' Time will fade them '. Fade them. Not erase them.  It takes a lot to be able to finally accept your imperfections as what defines you. In my younger days, I was surrounded by people who aimed to be flawless and just like sheep in a flock, I thought that was the only way to be.
Self loving came from a unprecedented corner. Months ago, a taller stranger stood behind me and exclaimed quite loudly. 'your scars are beautiful!'. I turn around to source the voice. ' they're absolutely amazing ' *snap* he immediately takes a picture and shows it to me.  I gaze at the camera screen, completely bewildered. ' You shouldn't hide them, you know. Show them off more often '
What a strange piece of advice! Such peculiar compliments.  I stood there stammering and stuttering unable to decide if I should thank him or deem his as moronic.
Days go by, drenched in my heavy schedule with minimum time devoted to beauty rituals. The scars on my body are the last thing on my mind and in the past few months, I didn't do much to them either. If they were the last thing on my mind, then what does that mean? It really isn't that important.
Self acceptance had begun for me even before I realized it and I fully intend to keep it that way.
Our scars and imperfections are our character. It's what makes us different. They design us, define us, enhance us, complete us.
How can you get rid of something if it's such an integral part of you? The fact that we aren't so perfect is what makes us human.

So now if anyone has a problem with my flaws, it's going to be their problem. Not mine.

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Book Review: The Silent Scream by Siddhartha Garg

Pages :  199

Read on : Kindle

Goodreads Rating : 4.43/5

Review: Anyone and everyone who knows me, knows that one of the core themes of my writing is feminism. Women's and children's issues are something I bleed for with words. Although I must admit, I haven't put my foot into something as raw as 'The Silent Scream'. 

Whatever I know about feminism and child rights, comes from my formal education in journalism and everything I observed during my trips in India. We are stringently told how vile child abuse is, we write stories on them, we read stories about them, we hear of them, yet we fumble when it comes to handling them because of how fragile the victim is. It's like trying to erase angry permanent marker lines from a whiteboard. Rub, rub, rub but it still leaves the stain.

'The Silent Scream' is a compilation of similar gruesome tales of the unimaginable adversities no child should ever face, yet it happened. I have ever so often mentioned on my blog, how crimes are not as simple as they seem. Reading this book felt like repeated punches in my gut. There were times when I would get chills and urge to put it down, just so that those heinous crimes would be out of mind but I couldn't. This is reality and this exactly what it feels like. May be even worse. For the sake of knowing more, I had to go on.

It's a fairly quick read, the stories are short and gripping enough to concisely address the severity of the issues looming currently. The author tries to address the concept of abuse from every possible angle there is. However, its known to us that if we were to get into the different forms of abuse that follow, a never ending series would be in order. The language is simple enough, with ample introductory explanations of all the possible crimes a young one might be exposed to. The author tries to delve into how and why people commit such crimes. The conflicts that push these perpetuators to carryout the impermissible, how to identify the possible perpetuators and the first signs of abuse that show in the behavioral shift of your child. Everything that you need to know first-hand is in the book.

 What I find as a major plus in the book are the last few chapters that focus on how parents can shelter their children from such harm, what can be done to avoid the lurking risks and most importantly, how to be open and available to your children when they reach out to you. I say this because till the 90s, Indian parenting was pretty hard. If we look back to our younger days, we are now better equipped to assess what was right or wrong or how we should have handle it.

On another note, even though 'The Silent Scream' is written in third person, I did find it a tad bit more opinionated than how it should have been. Too many opinions at times could be seen as assertive and angsty. Also, as far research content goes, I was expecting stronger and streamlined sources. Details are graphic in places required with which I feel is necessary just because the nature of the crime is so.

I wouldn't call the book a novel or self help. It could probably fit the category of long-form journalism. Just an FYI. 

Nonetheless, I urge people, yes, everyone. Read it. Have an understanding of how simple thing escape our eyes. Its definitely a good place to start.

 Final Rating : 3/5

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