As guest relations manager at the Grand Orchid Hotel in New Delhi, Aisha Bhatia meets people of means daily. If it were up to her mother, she'd put a sign that says, "29 and Single" on her desk and hope that one of the available men checking in at the hotel would ask her out. Aisha is desperate, but not that desperate.
29 year old single women in India are an anomaly. Aisha's cousins and one of her best friends, Anushka, have all crossed over into the land of holy matrimony. Anushka is crossing back though and Misha, Aisha's other best friend, has firmly stayed on the single side with Aisha, but not because she hasn't been trying to find a husband.
Like a scene straight out of a Bollywood flick, Aisha bumps into a handsome stranger in a country club parking lot as she's toilet papering a car and, again, when she catches sight of him, stark naked in his hotel room. And, of course, she continues to have frequent run ins with him, no matter where she goes.
This book was cute and funny, but had the potential to be more entertaining than it was. The author didn't do a good job of making the reader care about any of the characters. The interactions between Aisha and Karan felt very stiff and it came as a surprise that they considered themselves a couple, since those stiff interactions rarely happened when the two of them were alone.
Have you ever seen two people that you were sure were siblings or, better yet, perfect strangers, because there was no chemistry between them? That's how I felt the whole time I was reading And Laughter Fell from the Sky. While Jyotsna Sreenivasan has written several nonfiction books, this was her first work of fiction. I'm afraid that she has a lot more work to do before crossing into this genre.
What Sreenivasan has given us is the story of Rasika and Abhay, mid-20s Indian-Americans. Abhay is a friend of Rasika's younger brother, so while the two know each other from childhood, they don't really know each other. A chance encounter in a coffee shop gives them a chance to reacquaint themselves. From there, the road gets bumpy.
Rasika is expected to marry and if she can't find a suitable husband, her parents will find one for her. Raised with traditional Indian values, she's an American girl at heart and longs to be independent, but she still lives with her parents. She spends a lot of time sneaking around behind their backs, using her friend, Jill, as an alibi.
Abhay has recently returned to Ohio after living in a commune for two years. His parents would much prefer that he do something meaningful with his life, like go to law school or graduate school. He's unsure of what he should be when he grows up, but he knows he wants to make a difference in the world.
When Rasika and Abhay run into each other, you would expect sparks to fly. Instead, there's little to no fizzle. Readers will find themselves going through all 336 pages and not caring one way or another if the two of them end up together. At no point does the author give them enough dialogue with each other to convince the reader that they even like each other as something beyond friends. They could have picked random people off of the street and I would have been convinced that they had more in common with them than with each other.
336pp
Published: June 2012
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.
The first time I heard about The Brenda Diaries was when a twitter account by that name started following me. So, as I do when profiles or tweets interest me, I follow back. And then I stopped following because I was confused as to what the point of the tweets were. The person asked questions as if they wanted interaction, but never interacted with anyone. Eventually I realized that it was part of the author's new book, an experiment, if you will.
I'm not sure what road Margo Candela was traveling when she decided to write this book, but if there was a fork in the road, she went left when she should have gone right. The whole premise of The Brenda Diaries is to follow the day to day activities of a twentysomething temp and her encounters with employers, coworkers, her roommate, etc. Where I've found previous Candela heroines to be funny and sympathetic, there wasn't much to like about Brenda.
In addition to the unlikeable character, Candela writes the first three-fourth of the book in diary style and the last part as tweets. As you read through the tweets, you realize that the diary entries are based on the tweets. So couldn't I have just read the tweets at the back? And wouldn't it have made more sense to maybe integrate the tweets with the diary? Maybe use the tweets as the header for each entry and then elaborate? I don't know, it was just a very disjointed read.
Available in Kindle format only
Published: October 2011
It's supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be sexy. I missed that memo, because it's neither. Don't get me wrong, it's not horribly bad, it's just not fun or sexy. I get that authors and publishers are on the hunt for the next Sex and the City. This so is not that.
Set in the Midwest, Kansas City to be exact, Point, Click, Love is the story of four unlikely friends whose ages range from early 30s to mid 40s. And before someone accuses me of being anti-Midwest, let me point out that I live in St. Louis and I've been to Kansas City, Missouri AND Kansas. There is nothing sexy about Kansas City, though the barbecue is to die for. No really, check out Gates BBQ the next time you're there.
Recently divorced Katie is a banker who wants to get back out on the scene. While she doesn't miss being married, she realizes that she does miss sex. Armed with a laptop and a mouse pad, she takes on Match.com, Craigslist and a local dating site in hopes of getting her groove back.
A high powered PR guru, Claudia can be a bitch. She knows it and her husband knows it, but he's okay with it so why should she worry? Steve has been out of work for a few years and Claudia is tired of carrying the load by herself. To add insult to injury, not only is he not looking for a job, he spends hours daily on Facebook talking to other women.
East coast transplant Annie moved to Kansas City to work for Sprint after completing her education at Yale and Wharton. You would think she'd be bored with life in the Midwest, but she's enjoying it. The realization that she wants a child sends her to the Internet on a search for the perfect sperm donor.
Maxine has a gorgeous doctor husband, the perfect kids and a burgeoning career as an artist. Things haven't been very spicy in the bedroom lately. Browsing stories of celebrity antics on the web do more than keep her entertained, it's her newest obsession.
While each woman's story is okay, there was nothing to really tie them together. The author has them meet at a book club occasionally or at a bar, but there's nothing here to make you truly believe that these women are friends. For example, all of the other women are or have been married and have children. Annie has no prospects and no kids. The author explains it by saying Annie prefers to have friends with kids. Um, why? She doesn't offer to babysit her friend's kids. She doesn't seem to be into kids at all until she decides she wants to have one. So why would she go out of her way to friend women with kids? Makes no sense.
It was just hard to figure out why any of their paths would have crossed. Kansas City isn't THAT small. If you're looking for a quick and easy read that doesn't make you think too hard, this is the book for you.
I hate to jump on the bandwagon for anything. Twitter was all abuzz about this book earlier this summer and I refused to put it on my to be read list just because I'm stubborn like that. I'm a book snob at times and no one whose opinion I really valued had read or reviewed it, so I figured it might or might not be worthy of a read, but it could languish on my list until the library or publisher sent it my way.
Let me say that I neither loved or hated Bitch is the New Black. I read tweets from some people that said they wouldn't read it based on the title alone. I had no problem with the title. I did have a problem with the author's delivery. I'm a big fan of snark and I think she was going for snark, but fell short. It's almost as if she was trying to be the professional version of Angela Nissel (Broke Girl Diaries) and didn't quite make it. Broke Girl was hilarious. This was just meh.
Billed as a memoir, it's really a disjointed series of shorts about her being raised by a nomadic, lesbian mother and her conversations with her BFF. In between are stories about her dating adventures and the unexpected death of a close friend. Though some of the stories made me cackle lightly, none produced any laugh out loud moments.
What did you like about this book?
It wasn't my cup of tea, but I think it's important in that it gives readers a broader view of young, African American women. So many characters in popular lit are down trodden and living in poverty. With the book being optioned by Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy, it's nice to know that the story of the everyday black woman will be told.
What didn't you like about this book?
It didn't flow well at all.
What could the author do to improve this book?
It's her memoir. What can you tell someone? Live better?
241pp
Published June 2010
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As guest relations manager at the Grand Orchid Hotel in New Delhi, Aisha Bhatia meets people of means daily. If it were up to her mother, she'd put a sign that says, "29 and Single" on her desk and hope that one of the available men checking in at the hotel would ask her out. Aisha is desperate, but not that desperate.
