Saturday Snapshot: August 31, 2013

Krishna Janmashtami (Lord Krishna's Birthday) was celebrated on 28 August 2013. I took a few photos in a temple near our place.

Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy now. It was started by Alyce of At Home With books

Booking Through Quality or Quantity

Which is more important? Quality for your reading? Or quantity?

Quality wins hands down. I prefer good books even if that means reading less. Why should I waste my time read trash? Some books do help in increasing the numbers but are those books worth it? 

I say, NO!!

Teaser Tuesday/Tuesday Intros: Robert Ludlum's The Ares Decision

Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where  participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.

Robert Ludlum's The Ares Decision

The roar in Craig Rivera's ears combined with the darkness to make everything he knew--everything real--disappear. He wondered if astronauts felt the same sense of emptiness, if they wondered like he did whether God was just the edge of their vision. 

He looked at a dial glowing in faint green on his wrist. The letters were Cyrillic, but the numbers tracking his altitude and coordinates were the same as the government-issue unit he trained with.

Rivera tilted his body slightly, angling north as he fell through fifteen thousand feet. A hint of warmth and humidity began to thaw the skin around his oxygen mask, and below the blackness was now punctuated with widely scattered, barely perceptible points of light.

Saturday Snapshot: August 24, 2013

Water logging in front of brother's place after heavy rain. And we (I) made paper boats!! Come rains, Delhi becomes water logged. I and my mom had to wait three hours for the water to recede so as to get back home.

My niece floating one of the paper boats

Posting this for Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy now. It was started by Alyce of At Home With books

Saturday Snapshot: August 17, 2013

Celebrating Independence day, 15 August 2013....

Posting this for Saturday Snapshot, hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy now. It was started by Alyce of At Home With books

Booking Through Tragedy Or Comedy

All other things being equal (good writing, enthralling story, etc), which would you rather read—something serious, angsty, and tragic? Or something light, fluffy, and fun? Or a blend of both? (Since, really, isn’t that how real life works?)

I prefer serious stuff. The kind of books which arouse my emotions. Angst is part of life and we all identify with it. Reading about it touches us.

Fluffy may make us smile but it does not make us think.

The header on my blog says:

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us." Franz Kafka

And I do believe in that. Period.

Top Ten Books I Wish Could Have Had Sequels

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, we get a theme to list our top tens. 

This week's Top Ten pick : Top Ten Books I Wish Could Have Had Sequels

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë 
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
The Road by Cormac McCarthy 
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Tempest by William Shakespeare 
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Teaser Tuesday: A Criminal Defense by Steven Gore

Diane at Bibliophile By the Sea hosts this weekly meme. The idea is that you post the opening paragraph (sometimes maybe a few ) of a book you decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Since matter is neither created nor destroyed, in one way or another the isn't done with Mark Hamlin.

The words had come to Harlan Donnally as he disconnected the call that wrenched him from sleep at four in the morning. And others had followed as he walked from his bungalow near San Francisco's Ocean Beach through whorls of fog and mist toward his street-lit truck.

Under ideal conditions, bodies in motion remain in motion and bodies at rest remain at rest.

But it was only now, gazing at the criminal defense attorney hanging by his neck from the Fort Point lighthouse, that Donnally realized these thoughts were reverberations from the last case he'd cleared as homicide detective a decade earlier."

The Rome Prophecy by Jon Trace

Title: The Rome Prophecy
Author: Jon Trace
Publisher: Sphere (February 1, 2011)
ISBN: 9780751543018
Pages: 464 

The book opens with  Cassandra – the ancient Greek priestess -- being driven through the streets and accused of treachery and then has her hand cut off in the mouth of truth. As she lies there dying, the book comes back to the present day where a hand is found at the mouth of truth but there is no body to be found. Who does the hand belong to? Where is the body or the person? 

Then a woman is found, covered in blood and roaming the streets with an ancient sword in hand. Italian carabinieri Captain Valentina Morassi is assigned to solve the case. The woman found on the streets  has a multiple personality disorder and Valentina is helped by psychiatrist Louisa Verdetti to unravel the mysterious woman.

Tom is an ex-priest and is involved with Valentina. He helps in solving the mystery using his knowledge of religion. He shares a great chemistry with Valentina.

As the story progresses, we learn about a secret cult that has lived in the catacombs beneath Rome that has gone back for millenniums. It is definitely a fast read if you like books with history, religion and archaeology thrown in a good measure. 

Monday: Mailbox/What Am I reading?/Musings

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. August host is Penelope @ The Reading Fever.

I received one book from the publisher

1) A Criminal Defense by Steven Gore:

Over three decades, Hamlin's practice devolved into just another racket: intimidating witnesses, suborning perjury, destroying evidence, laundering money. But is he the victim of murder--or of a dangerous sexual encounter gone wrong? And when law enforcement believes justice has already been done, who can be trusted to find out?

Once again in the city where his career came to a shattering end, former detective Harlan Donnally resolved it wouldn't be him. He had no desire to immerse himself in the deceit that was Hamlin's career . . . nor entangle himself in the corrupted loyalties that turned the dead lawyer's associates into both co-conspirators and suspects . . . nor make himself the proxy for the hatreds and betrayals Hamlin left behind.

But the presiding judge demanded otherwise--and that might cost Donnally his life.

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Hosted by Sheila @ One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. We discuss the books that we've read and what we're planning to read for the week.

I finished reading:

The Roman Prophecy by John Trace

I am in the midst of reading:

A Criminal Defense by Steven Gore

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Monday Musing asks you to muse about something to do with books and reading each week…

•You just want to ramble on about something pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I will ramble about LESS reading.  CSR (blurred vision) in my left eye is back, like the proverbial prodigal son. My eye specialist had told me to reduce my stress but that is an impossibility. So I am back to square one. Visibility has reduced and I can't read e-books!

The Sunday Post/Sunday Salon: July Reads and CSR is back!!!

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It's a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

I had started out with BIG reading goals in July. But it fizzled out. School reopened after summer vacations and I was up to my gills in work. I am still NOT free.

And then my middle brother was in the hospital for 8 days. We were SO worried. Now he is back home and has resumed his routine work. We are much relieved.

To boot it all, CSR (blurred vision) in my left eye is back, like the proverbial prodigal son. My eye specialist had told me to reduce my stress but that is an impossibility. So I am back to square one. Visibility has reduced and I can't read e-books!

BTW, I miss Google Reader. Do you miss it too?

I did finish the following books though:

Asterix and the Gladiator

Asterix and the Banquet

Asterix and Cleopatra

The Rockin' Chair by Steven Manchester

The Roman Prophecy by John Trace

I posted the following on my blog: (a very SLOW week)

• Crime Fiction Alphabet: Q is for The Mysterious Mr Quin
• Monday: Mailbox/What Am I reading?/Musings

Booking through Persons

Do you have a preference between “person” in the books you read? Do you prefer third-person to first-person? Or don’t you care? And … why??

I do not really have a preference for third person, first person or alternative persons. If the story line is good, I can read any of the above. If the narration is good, then I can read it any way. It really depends on the plot and the characters. 

Having said that, I like Historical Fiction in third person. Somehow it makes more impact for me.