Books
When Varsha is not writing or dancing, she’s probably reading a book for children. She reviews books she reads and enjoys.
A Mouse Called Wolf
Whenever I read Dick King-Smith, I think about C.S. Lewis’s oft-quoted “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” How true it is!…
Simon the Coldheart
What is it about Georgette Heyer that she can turn imagination into language so brilliantly? I reread another Georgette Heyer, before reading Simon the Coldheart, and found myself skipping large sections of it. I think…
The Worry Tree
I remember having a conversation with a friend about the challenges faced by each generation. “Our grandparents had to work hard – physically,” I said. “My grandmother has so many stories of how difficult…
Pegasus
What a mixed bag of emotions! Pegasus was wonderfully imagined. I loved the ideas of feather-tip fingers, strong human hands and flexible wrists, being bound to the pegasi of the sweet green land… Beautiful!…
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club fits so perfectly under the heading ‘unusual’. It’s unusual in every way. The language is unusual. The structure is unusual. The name is unusual. I love the idea…
On Two Feet and Wings
I’m a slow reader. Despite the fact that I love reading, I take my time over books. Sometimes, I take weeks to finish a book, even one I enjoy. On Two Feet and Wings was…
Indian Summer
As I read Indian Summer by Pratima Mitchell, I kept oscillating between approval and disgust. There were parts that were so real that they reached out to me and made me think, “That’s exactly,…
A Cup of Coffee
I was relishing a cup of coffee this morning and thinking about its history, both a personal history and the history of coffee itself. Personally, I disliked coffee. I did not like the smell…
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is the kind of book that I could read over and over again. It was written in just a few months and it’s less than a hundred pages long. I was revolted and…
Chalkline
I recently read Neil Gaiman’s views on escapism: I hear the term bandied about as if it’s a bad thing. As if “escapist” fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the…