by Chetan Bhagat

***~~ (3/5)

Fiction / Light Reading

Click to buy Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat with free delivery

Book Synopsis:

3 friends, Hari, Alok and Ryan, are students at IIT, India’s most prestigious technological university. Instead of mugging their lives away like the rest of the cohort, they decide to have the time of their lives.

All the things not to do at university and more: mess up your grades, drink vodka on the faculty rooftop, date a professor’s daughter…

A funny and dark story of friendship and trying to survive IIT with a five-point something GPA. Will they make it?

My Book Review:

I picked up this book at a bookshop in Mysore, India, when I was attending a wedding there last week. I thought, I’ve experienced this country, so I should experience more of its contemporary fiction. Chetan Bhagat is apparently a lauded writer in India having written 4 novels to date:

Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT

One Night @ the Call Center

The Three Mistakes of My Life

and

2 States – The Story Of My Marriage

He is among the ‘trio of modern Indian writers that have re-written Indian publishing rules and brought a new scale to the Indian publishing landscape with previously unheard of book sales’ (courtesy of Wikipedia).

So I thought… Promising…

Chetan Bhagat is a humourous, down to earth writer, with a flair for writing identifiable characters – as I read, I kept thinking that parts of one of the characters reminded me distinctly of my boyfriend.

Set at India’s premier engineering school IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Delhi, 3 students decide that they want to actually experience life whilst in college and not just mug 4 years away (Apparently unheard of in IIT culture). There’s the ring leader Ryan with crazy his schemes, Alok the responsible cry baby and Hari, whose point of view this novel is written from, a bumbling yet extremely likable guy.

I find I value stories about friendship and loyalty. In stories, despite the huge mistake a person is about to make, if the decision is based on loyalty, it makes it all okay. It’s like they’re making the right decision, even though they are making the wrong decision.

Halfway through reading Five Point Someone, I described it as Lad-Lit, Chick-Lit for Men. It got deeper as it went along, and although it’s not great literature it’s definitely a quick, fun read with heart. I enjoyed it.

I have 2 more of Chetan Bhagat books on my shelf, so I will be reading and reviewing them in the near future.

x Julie

Online Bookstore and Book Reviews

Reading Like Rabbits

Nanny Returns

Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin

(Sequel to The Nanny Diaries)

***~~ (3/5)

Click here to buy Nanny Returns by Nicola Kraus & Emma Mclaughlin (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Nan from the Nanny Diaries is back in New York twelve years after the ill-fated nanny-cam night, the night Nan was fired. She is now married to HH (Harvard Hottie) who how has a name, Ryan. Nan is finally settling down and renovating her new (falling apart) home, and is trying to get her consulting business up and running. But is surprised at Ryan’s sudden desire start a family. What startles her the most is her resistance to the idea.

Then, Nan gets a drunken visit in the middle of the night from Grayer X, now 16 years old. He has found the nanny-cam tape…

Because of Nan’s guilt and soft heartedness, she ends up helping Grayer and his younger brother Stilton though Mr and Mrs X’s malicious divorce. Nan finds herself yet again caught up in the vortex of the venomous Upper East Side world of power, money and dysfunction.

My book review:

I absolutely loved The Nanny Diaries. It was absorbing in its humorous yet cringe-worthy portrayal of the rich and the spoiled mothers (a more accurate description would be: a woman who once gave birth, handed her miniature-self to a nanny, then recuperated at a spa for the net 18 years) of Upper East Side New York. Nanny’s experiences in The Nanny Diaries, plus the love story going on with Harvard Hottie, induced both wide-eyed shock and butterflies in the tummy.

Nanny Returns, set 12 years after the disastrous end of The Nanny Diaries, doesn’t contain the warmth of new love, but the commitment of a 12 year old relationship, in which Ryan (HH) and Nan are working through the idea of whether to have children, as well as trying to renovate their brand new dilapidated house. I think the idea of family-planning is a natural and obvious-yet-interesting path for the writers to take Nan on after her experiences with her ex-employers The X’s. And Nan is freaked out– what if she doesn’t make a good mother? What if she screws up her children? However, the readers know she’d make a wonderful mother, she just needs to realise it.

I didn’t enjoy Nanny Returns as much as I loved The Nanny Diaries. But it does make for a fun light read. The reader (at least I did) still gets the feeling of incredulity at what the rich and powerful feel they can get away with, and I loved the character of Grayer’s younger brother, Stilton, who is charming, delicate and quirky. It’s interesting to see what Grayer has grown to up be, as the last time we saw him, he was four years old. Nan seems to be surrounded by screwed up people with their head in the clouds, and it’s a breath of fresh air when she encounters the few down to earth people in the book.

Nanny Returns is quite funny, and if you enjoyed The Nanny Diaries, you may have fun reading Nanny Returns to see how things turn out for Nan, Grayer and the daunting Mrs X.

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

P.S. I was listening to the’ B&N Meet the Writers’ podcast from iTunes and found out how Nicola Kraus and Emma Mclaughlin write their books together.

They share every idea and talk though the story a lot, especially in the beginning. They said they share every idea because sharing every other idea in such a collaboration just didn’t work, they’re not mind readers!

Then they divvy up the scenes within chapters and write them individually. They said they were lucky that their writing styles and voices matched really well. They also used their strengths, one would be better at writing Mrs X, while the other had Grayer down pat. They also said they do A LOT of editing.

a play by Yazmina Reza

Click image to enlarge

ART is an hilarious comedy about three men and a white painting.

Starring: Jason Chan, Andrew Keegan and Glynn Connop

Black Box at Centre Stage 15 Woking Road (off Portsdown Road), Singapore

Playing from April 8th till 24th. Thurs to Sat only. 8pm.

Book your tickets now at: http://www.tix.com.sg

How much would you pay for a white painting?

Click here to buy the play ART by Yazmina Reza

Have a great night of theatre with your friends. It opens real soon, so book your tickets now. I’ll see you there!

x Julie

Book Reviews – Reading Like Rabbits

by Andy Riley

Adult Picture Book / Gift

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Little fluffy rabbits who just don’t want to live any more. This adult picture book, and its sequel, Return of the Bunny Suicides, contains endless ways for a bunny to kill itself. From smoking out of every hole in its body, to flushing itself down an aeroplane toilet, to kicking an alien in the balls, this ridiculously funny book is a fountain of knowledge on rabbit self-killing.

Book Review:

This is the sort of picture book I can pick up again and again (with a little time to forget in between) and marvel at the creativity of the bunnies (and the author – sick sick man) in designing their own deaths. These books which can come combined as A Box of Bunny Suicides would be a great present for a male or female friend with a sense of humour (a bit of advice: do not give this to a depressed friend with no sense of humour). My favourite bunny suicide is a bunny about to turn on the switch of hand mixer. The blades are placed inside its mouth. The idea of what the next moment may look like is gruesome yet oddly thrilling…oh dear…

x Julie

Book Shop and Book Reviews

-Reading Like Rabbits-

by Wendy Holden

On the grand scheme of good books: **~~~ (2/5)

On a fun light-reading  level: ***½~ (3.5/5)

Fiction / Light Reading

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Synopsis:

Jane is an ordinary journalist. She has love-life stress, stress from work and she just can’t seem to shed those extra pounds. Then, the gorgeous celebrity-for-celebrity’s-sake social butterfly Champagne D’Vyne is thrown into her life. Champagne is as different from Jane as could be. As their worlds become strangely entangled, Jane discovers that this busty blond goddess will do everything to get what she wants. She lets nothing get in her way. Including Jane.

My Book Review:

I think this is a book you will either love or hate. It’s very very fluffy, and centers on a most foul and fabulous celebrity-for-celebrity’s sake character Champagne D’Vyne . She is truly horrid, and frustratingly beautiful. She is a piss take on all the ridiculous celebrities like Posh Spice, Paris Hilton and Jordan – multipiled by about 5000.

However, there are also characters you empathise with, Jane – the Bridget Jones-esq, muddled protagonist who does her best to keep her life ordered amidst the whirl-wind of Champagne. And the young dowdy aristocrat Tally who is doing her best to save her crumbling family estate.

So, if you hate the glorified over-privileged (untalented) celebrity, and want a bit of fluffy weekend reading, and to have a bit of a laugh, this chick lit is for you. I have to say, it didn’t enhance my life in the slightest, but it did give me a giggle.

This is definitely a chick’s book, but surprisingly, my friend who lent Simply Divine to me said that her brother found it in the bathroom, started reading it, and got hooked, thoroughly enjoying it!

x Julie

Light Reading Chicklit Book Review

- Reading Like Rabbits-

By Pat Hutchins

Children’s Fiction, Picture Book

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Children’s Book Synopsis:

A little boy is sent on his way to buy the groceries. His mother tells him what he needs to buy and especially says, “Don’t forget the bacon.”

The boy remembers his list by saying it to himself over and over again. But on his travels he is distracted by the sights and sounds on the street.

Will he remember the bacon?

My Book Review:

I loved this book as a child, it’s very funny. The little boy chants his little shopping list as he is sent down the street to the shops by his mum. But as he goes along, what he sees replaces the food on the shopping list. Like ‘six farm eggs’ become ‘six fat legs’. It’s very funny for child as they witness the disastrous consequences. Will he remember or forget the bacon?

x Julie

Children’s Book Reviews

-Reading Like Rabbits-

by Helen Fielding

***** (5/5)

Fiction

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Book Cover Synopsis:

Bridget Jones wants to have it all – and once she’s given up smoking and got down to 8st 7lbs, she will. Bridget Jones’s Diary is about a year in the life of a single girl on an optimistic but doomed quest for self-improvement. A dazzling urban satire of modern human relations? An ironic, tragic insight into the demise of the nuclear family? Or the confused ramblings of a pissed thirty-something? Bridget Jones is everyone’s favourite Londoner. This is your chance to reacquaint yourself with the funniest, most heart-warming young lady ever to grace the pages of a Picador book.

Why I love Bridget Jones’s Diary:

I do love Bridget. She’s gawky, clumsy, does insanely stupid things, doesn’t look perfect, is terrible in love, kind, loyal and therefore adorable. Her quirky language and desperate measures to improve her love life, career and general appearance are both identifiable and amusing. There are some priceless moments of humour in that book.

I rarely read books twice over, but I have read Bridget Jones at least three times. I read it when I want to feel better and have laugh. A curious thing happens when I am reading her diary – I tend to start thinking like her, seeing things from her point of view. It’s weird but rather fun, and I feel safe with the knowledge that though I understand her, I’ll never be quite as ridiculous.

The movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary is just as good, one of the few adaptation films that I think lives up to the original. With the charming Colin Firth, dashing Hugh Grant and a Renee Zellweger with a decent amount of flesh on her, what’s not to like.

The sequel, Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason, is also enjoyable, though her first diary is still top of my light reading book list.

So if you need cheering up or just want a bit of a laugh, I highly recommend reading Bridget Jones’s Diary.

It would be great as a gift for a girl friend (if she hasn’t already read it).

x Julie

Book Review

- Reading Like Rabbits

by Edward Gorey

Fiction, adult picture book

Click to buy this book (free delivery)

Wikipedia Synopsis:

The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing is an abecedarian book written by Edward Gorey that was first published in 1963. Gorey tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhyming dactylic couplets, accompanied by the author’s distinctive black and white illustrations.

My Book Review of The Gashlycrumb Tinies:

The Gashlycrumb Tinies was given to me as a present from a friend. I loved its macabre nature but had to wonder what in MY nature had caused him to think of me when he saw this book.

This book is gleefully horrible as through rhyme, picture and alphabetical order, we expectantly follow 26 children to their deaths. Gross, I know. But funny too. They die of amusing, unexpected things. The pictures are the best part about it, they often depict the moment before or just after death, so you are squirming with anticipation with the imagined horrors.

For example:

“P is for PRUE trampled flat in a brawl”

with the picture depicting Prue alone on a street about to open the door to a saloon.

I have to say, this adult picture book is deliciously sick. But do make sure whoever you give it to has a good sense of humour!

[If you enjoy this type of humour, have a look at other books by Edward Gorey at The Book Depository]

x Julie

Book Reviews

- Reading Like Rabbits