Top Reads

The Review The Awakening is the story of Edna Pontellier, a terribly bored housewife. She has unquestioningly followed the path defined for her sex. She married young, had two beautiful children and at the ripe young age of twenty-eight, she discovered she has nothing to live for. That is until she meets Robert LeBraun, the handsome and kind son of their lodge owner at Grand Isle. She begins to feel the hints of infatuation which …

Before I visit someplace I find reading something about it through travel guides, history books or simply novels really useful. You get a good sense of the historical and cultural context which deepens your travel experience. For a trip to Istanbul, my personal recommendations are- Fodor’s Istanbul’s 25 Best – A short travel guide that gives you the highlights on what to do Istanbul. Carry this along and you don’t really need your own itinerary. …

Winters are the perfect time to curl up in a stuffy chair and grab a glass of hot chocolate (or wine) and lose yourself in the pages of a good whodunnit. My personal favorite mystery novels are the ones with a closed room murder in a lavish country house somewhere, a fixed number of suspects and lots of motive! So basically, every other novel by Agatha Christie ? Since I am a big fan of …

Spend this thanksgiving weekend cooking and binge watching the Harry Potter movies. At the end of the seventh movie, I decided to re-read the books. Although I have re-read all seven books several times, it really amazes me that these are still as engaging as when I first started with the series. In this post I will attempt to analyze the first book and why it works. After all, fantasy fiction genre has a lot …

Winter is here. As temperatures plummet across the northern hemisphere and people scurry inside warm houses, it is the perfect time to settle into that recliner, grab a cup of hot cocoa and read a book. What else are you going to do?   (Yes, you can always binge watch Netflix, but is that what you really want to do with your life? What I read is  determined by how my day was, what I am …

Jet lag and international travel might have cut down October’s reading time, but a two-book round-up featuring Esi Edugyan’s powerful Washington Black and the classic correspondence of 84, Charing Cross Road made for a wonderful month.

Revisiting Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a stark reminder of why it remains an American classic. Stripping away all illusions of glory, it exposes the raw, painful psychological depths of the Vietnam War. What is the most powerful war novel or memoir you have ever read?

Can any writer match the linguistic genius and frantic farce of P.G. Wodehouse? 📚 Exploring Bertie Wooster, Jeeves, and a silver cow creamer in The Code of the Woosters. Read the full review !