How does society value #marriage? In One Part Woman it's by your childbearing abilities; not by your love for each other. Though lost even in a good translation, Perumal Murugan's "self-banned" book is a peek into our two-faced #society. On festival day, when all rules are lax, a childless #woman can have consensual sex with any man to beget "God's gift". Why should she? How is sex suddenly not a taboo? #getyourhandsonthisone if only for the questions it raises.Rating: 3/5#bookstagram #bookreview #perumalmurugan #onepartwoman #books #fictionhead
"Hey! Can't make it to work today. I'm in the last couple of pages of a lovely book!" Do you think that's a #validexcuse i could use?#bookstagram #fictionhead #books #onepartwoman #booknerd
English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee is a truly Indian story of Agastya Sen, an urban drifter, beyond the staples of partition, communalism and cricket. This urban child of #Delhi gets posted in the Indian hinterland, as an #IAS trainee. I found his brand of humour, emptiness, restlessness and indecision very relatable.#mustread because such a sharp criticism of our corrupt administrative system wouldn't be possible in today's ban-crazy monolithic culture.Rating: 4/5#bookstagram #fictionhead #books #bookreviews #penguinindia
Favbook #2: I read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar five years back, almost to the day. My favorite part: the rush of seeing my thoughts in print. Plath also happens to be one of my fav authors, esp her confessional style of writing. #happywomensday#bookstagram #fictionhead #mustread #booksofinstagram #books #harpercollins
Esme is a young British scholar at Columbia. Mitchell is an old-money #NYC douchebag who gets her knocked up. This is the story of their relationship as their kid is born. My fav part is the collective decency of the people at the bookstore where Esme works. They'll surely reinforce your faith in humanity. I love @deborahmeyler for getting the voice-in-Esme's-head just right! The Bookstore's brand of love is irritating, sweet and guessable; just as intended!Rating: 3/5#bookstagram #bookreviews #book #fictionhead #thebookstore #esmegarland #goodread #deborahmeyler
Last month, I was at a friend’s book launch. That’s when it struck me how useful it would be to have a list of authors who live in Bangalore. Of course I googled it! But couldn’t find a good one. So here is my attempt. This is a work in progress. I will add to this as and when. Leave a comment if you find this useful. Brownie points for adding to this list.
Check out my first novel Every Thing We Are being written 1000 words a day in November 2020 as part of #NaNoWriMo. It’s FREE!
Fictionhead is getting real! If you’ve been to my blog before, you know how reluctant and lazy I have been about the whole writing thing. I am trying to change that. 2015 is the big three zero year for me. At least, I am trying to make it sound like a big deal so that I can push myself to write more, in a more organized manner.
Instagram is amazing, so fictionhead is now on it as fiction_head! Come on over and check it out! And if you like what you see, don’t forget to like it. I review books there. I’ve got 6 posts so far. It’s more fun than sitting down to write, it can be done on the go and brevity means hard work! Eventually, I do plan to supplement these with long form reviews on this blog!
Now on instagram as fiction_head
I’ve taken 5 big steps in the first 2 months of 2015:
1. I (it was T actually) organized ALL my writing on Evernote: This means stuff i’ve written in e-mail drafts, send as e-mail to friends, notes on Google Keep, files and folders on Google drive, notes on my diary app, notes saved/sent as text messages etc. It’s a huge success for scatterbrain me!
2. I entered a writing competition: I rarely do this sort of thing. The results are out in the next week or so. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.
3. T bought me this domain: fictionhead.in He also moved my stuff here because he is the best!
4. I started my instagram account: fiction_head. I could use all your support here.
5. I started a twitter account too: _fictionhead. This is yet to take off. I haven’t found time to do this yet. It’s the next item to tick off my list 🙂
I hope this excitement lasts! If you’ve got tips on how to make this work (or not), leave me a comment!
#nowreading The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler set in #NYC! Anyone out there with good things to say about this one? Happy weekend folks!#bookstagram #fictionhead #books #happyweekend #thebookstore #deborahmeyler
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of my favourite books. I love the idea, the illustrations, the simplicity and above all the attitude– #yougottadowhatyougottadoFirst in the series of my favourite books. Leave a comment if you like them.#books #fictionhead #bookstagram #mustread #theveryhungrycaterpillar #favouritebook #puffinbooks
I discovering #goodreads. Soulmates, Kanchana Ugbabe’s first collection of short stories, is a 13-part study in the notion of belonging. Her stories are steeped in intuition, gullibility, life-lessons and unassuming wit. Not terribly new in concept, #mustread if you enjoy writing that triggers springs of thought somewhere in your mind. My favourite is Exile, the tale of figuring out which side of the insider-outsider line you are.Rating: 3/5
