It’s been a while since I posted something here because things have been crazy hectic on my side. But I’m trying to get back on track and for that, I’m working to get a bunch of posts ready to upload. To ease back in, I’m here with a short blog post, a quick reading update in which I’ll tell you a little about the books I’ve been reading, those I am reading, and those I will read soon.
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid | Book Review
Sometimes there comes along a book, like Carrie Soto is Back, that addresses such a specific set of issues and questions, that it makes you wonder why you’d never thought of it in detail before. Questions like: Why is it okay for a man in the public eye to be aggressive but not for a woman? Why is it okay for a man to be unsmiling and intense but when a woman does it, she’s labeled a b*tch? Why is it that an ambitious man is seen as just that but an ambitious woman becomes callous and unfeeling in the eyes of the public? And this sexism is turned around and slapped back onto the woman’s shoulders, calling it her overreaction, that she can’t take a joke. Carrie Soto is Back is a smack in all these faces. Taylor Jenkins Reid, through Carrie Soto’s story, takes us through the unfairness that the world pulls out every time a woman takes center stage. And it is proof, yet again, that even though things have gotten a lot better, we still have a long way to go.
Can You Say You Enjoyed Reading Sad, Grim, or Unsettling Books? | Monday Melodramatic Musings
If I look back upon the past few years and my modern reading, I see books that made me cry become my favorites more than those that made me laugh. I see books that talked about unsettling topics become my favorites. I see books that dig up some long-buried emotions and reactions from deep within me. How can I say that I “enjoyed” reading them? And if I said that, does that make me some kind of a sociopath? Do I thrive on sadness? On the dark? Surely not!
Heresy by Yashesh Rathod | Book Review
Yashesh Rathod, in his short, aptly titled nonfiction book called Heresy shares his opinions on a range of topics. I say ‘aptly titled’ not because I think what he’s saying is heresy, but because these are thoughts that to some will be nothing but heresy.
Cosmos to Consciousness by Sekar Manickam Retd IPS | Book Review
One thing that leaves everyone in awe is the utter vastness and versatility of the universe. Questions of where everything came from aren’t unanswered, but those of how it works are – at least some of them. Different cultures and religions across the world have their own explanations about why certain things like eclipses happen and how life came into being. In this new book called Cosmos to Consciousness by Sekar Manickam retd. IPS, he aims to explore many of these cosmic level topics, including quantum physics and mechanics, with a generous mix of opinion and fact.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone | Book Review / Thoughts
If you’ve been on Book Twitter over the past few weeks, you’ll know that an account called Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood tweeted about a book called This is How You Lose the Time War. The tweet blew up, so much that there are now cosplays involving people holding up huge mockups of the book. This became, for me, a case of wanting to jump on the bandwagon, especially since I’d seen this book on a few lists by this point and made a mental note to get to it someday. The tweet came as a final push.
My Panicky Reading Habit & Truth of Being a Bookworm… And Eventual Resignation
It would be a cliched, self-important, tone-deaf thing to say if I said that being a bookworm isn’t easy. Quite contrarily, it is one of the easiest things in the world. All you have to do is have a reading habit, no matter the genre or the frequency of the books you read, and you can be called a bookworm. Over the past 1.5 years or so, however, I’ve discovered a new dimension to my reading, to my existence as a bookworm, which probably says more about me as a person than about me as a bookworm. But since both are intricately linked and interwoven… That’s a whole conundrum in itself.
Life, Living & Livelihood: Short Poems on Life by Santosh Nair | Book Review
I’ve always been entranced with words and the way they come together to make rhythmic sense. When I wasn’t reading them, I was bringing them together, even as a child. My writing journey started when I was around 10 or 11, when I decided to start writing poems. I didn’t know Frost or Dickinson or Gill at the time. All I knew about poetry was that the lines had to rhyme. So it began, with me maintaining notebook upon notebook of these poems. And then came a time when I stopped. Maybe because I grew up. Santosh Nair’s poetry collection, Life, Living & Livelihood: Short Poems on Life, took me right back to that time, to that corner, to the pages of that notebook.
The Treatment of Book Influencers – A Little Rant
If you write a book, people will show their awe for you. And fittingly so, because writing a book is no mean feat. It doesn’t matter that the reviews for the book aren’t what you thought they would be. Completing a book and putting it out into the world is a huge thing, an achievement in itself. And who knows, maybe years down the line, this very story might age well and catch on? So that isn’t something that you should worry your storytelling brain about. When the public is this supportive of the world of books, I wonder why every person in this world doesn’t get the same amount of respect.
Dear Girls by Ali Wong | Book Review
A few weeks ago, I borrowed Dear Girls from my local library, thinking about how Ali Wong was a badass woman, an inspiration, and wanting to see what she had to say. Dear Girls, her memoir, is a letter to her daughters in which she recollects things she’s done in her life. She warns them not to read the book before they turn 21 and I agree one hundred percent because boy, oh, boy, there’s some stuff that’s not share-worthy at all. Especially not to one’s daughters. But going into the book, I had some really high expectations – from the book, from actor Ali Wong, and from comedian Ali Wong, and from writer Ali Wong.
The Melodramatic Bookworm 