What I Read: A Gentleman Always Remembers by Candace Camp
Rating: 4/5

Before i start writing about this very cool novel, i would like to take the time to apologize to you all out there for being a lazy bum and neglecting this blog for a while. I have actually read three books since my last post but i will only review the first one because i think it deserves a blog post all on its own.

The novel A Gentleman Always Remembers is actually the second book in a trilogy following Candace Camp's first novel of this series titled A Lady Never Tells which i have already reviewed in my last post.

Unlike the first novel in this trilogy the heroine, Eve Hawthorne who is a widow, does not have any sisters and has to deal with a very infuriating step mother who you want to strangle from the get go. ( I had to restrain myself there for a while since i was thinking of much worse words to describe her and if it hadn't been for Erin, i think i would have had to put a rating of 14+ on this post). Whats so cool though is that she manages to get away from this horrible step mother by agreeing to become a governess to the Earl of Stewkesbury's cousins which are the four American sisters that we were introduced to in the first novel. But, being a governess can apparently open up many doors... one of them being able to meet the Earl's brother, Fitz :)

Fitz to me can only be described as a British 18th century version of Chuck Bass.....and for all of you out there who don't watch Gossip Girl, he is pretty much a Ladies' man (Erin just happened to glance over at this moment and read this and we just died laughing. So.... i moved her sofa and told her to stop reading since i wasn't done!) lol anwayz back to our novel; so yeah we have this very proper nice woman who wants a life of quietness and everything in order and a man who doesn't want to settle down..... don't get me wrong he is nice and charming but he just does not understand the big deal about marriage.... and if you want to know what happens from there then you have to borrow, buy, or steal (Joking....or am I? lol) this book and figure out what happens in the end. Oh and i promise that it is a good ending and you wont be disappointed!

Intrigued? not yet? I forgot to add that there is also something about a mysterious watch, an attempted murder, jail, a maze in the backyard, threatening letters, being a widow and a virgin at the same time, a snotty neighbour named Sabrina who sleeps with about anyone out there and many many more random yet mysterious things you will understand once you read the book!

Overall, a really good continuation and i cannot wait until the third one comes out so i can get more mystery and romance and hopefully be satisfied? never! lol....Anywayz enough rambling and hope to blog soon about the other two books i read but for now.....

Toodles!

Rasha :)

A Fine Balance

What I Read: A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry.
Rating: 6/5! :)

So, I've never been really good at math (i.e. I was beyond terrible and the bane of my math teachers' existence), but for some reason when Rasha and I started this site we chose to use a fractional scale to measure our like, dislike or indifference to a book. Why would we do such a thing? Does it suit either of our natures to say that we love a Salman Rushdie book with four fifths of our being? That out of our capacity to like we only like Breaking Dawn to the second degree of five? I think not. I bore myself just writing those two lines. So with Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, I chose to break the laws of math and fractions and maybe even of book reviewing and give this book a 6/5 because, to put it in language that suits me, I really really REALLY love this book and think that every literate person should be given this book for free to read. I love this book so much that I would volunteer to be the supplier of said free books, if my bank account didn't just reprimand me for even thinking such a thing.

There was SO much pressure on me to love this book. Everyone I met, from family members to friends to random strangers who approached me and wanted to talk about the book I was reading, said the same thing: this book would change my life. Which was kind of dramatic, I thought. Don't get me wrong, books have changed my life before, but usually because they caught me by surprise and opened me up when I wasn't looking for it. It seemed too easy to get a book that promised to change my life that actually would change it in some way. Am I making sense? In any case, I won't tell you that this book will change your life. I don't want to put the fear of letdown in you, or make you skeptical and guarded. But even if I do, even if you approach this book the way I did, extremely on guard against life-changing influences, then this book is hard to resist.

Mistry writes so cleanly and elegantly. The book is full of vivid description, yes, and of complex characters, scenes and stories, but the writing is never flowery or pompous or self-aware of its life-changing potential. Mistry tells stories, Canterbury Tales-style; he tells the histories of four people living in India in the 1970s, and then weaves together their lives to show how their stories change on contact and how they run parallel and intertwined with each other. Through four stories Mistry takes his readers on a carefully constructed but seemingly effortless whirlwind tour of every possible facet of humanity; we see the depth of the human heart, with all its capacity for anger, hatred, cowardice, cruelty, courage, love, hope and faith.

AND (I promise, no spoilers follow), the last five pages... talk to me when you've made it to the end, and you need someone who understands how you feel. Seriously. :)

In other words, think about reading this book. (It just took all my willpower not to write REEEEEAD THIS BOOOOOK, but I don't want to pressure you.) (I guess I just did by telling you what I really wanted to write. Sorry!) Thank you to those who finally talked me into tackling this 700+ page book! :) And thank you, Mom, for the too-brief debriefing session after the last five pages were read.

So, while you all get on A Fine Balance, I'll be working on Jan Wong's Red China Blues and James Clavell's Shogun, both of which are currently making my bus rides very enjoyable. Happy reading,

Erin