Culture

‘Winterfell’ marks the beginning of the end of the journey that Games of Thrones has been for millions of viewers worldwide. The wait for the first episode for the last season has been long, painful and highly expected–it’s been over 2 years since Seven 7 aired and left everyone hanging for the fate of this imaginary world. At the end of Season 7, all the players are in Westeros with the Night King on the…

Enjoy lake view dining at The Boathouse at Forest Park The Boathouse – isn’t that a lovely name? Located at the edge of the lake in Forest Park, this restaurant is more than just a place to eat. It offers rental boats to paddle around the lake, a deck with rocking chairs where you can sip your beer and stare at the ducks flapping around the dock, and some live entertainment in the evenings. In…

I know what you are thinking, “Yet another mediocre fantasy-fiction trilogy? Do we really need more magical worlds?”! No, we don’t need more mediocre trilogies (this is anything but that). And yes, we always need more magical worlds! The City of Brass was one of my top reads in 2018. The 2019 sequel The Kingdom of Copper cemented my love for The Daevabad Trilogy. And I can’t wait for the third book – Empire of…

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…

As part of my Around the World in Books Reading Challenge, my pick for Albania was the Man Booker International Prize winning novel by Ismail Kadare.  The General of the Dead Army is a dark and depressing work of fiction. It chronicles the journey of an Italian general who goes to Albania with an important mission. He and a  priest travel across Albania exhuming bodies of dead Italian soldiers who died fighting in Albania during…

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…