I am happy to have successfully finished both the silver and gold levels of Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt 2024 @ My Reader's Blog. Here are the books read: Gold #1: Musical Instrument: The Drum by A.E.W. Mason (Drum) 2. Any Piece of Furniture: And Death Came Too by Anthony Gilbert (a chair) 3. Any Other Animal: Cressida: No Mystery by … Continue reading Sign-Up and Wrap-Up: Vintage Mystery Scavenger Hunt
Category: Reviews
Successfully Scaled: Pike’s Peak
I am very happy to have successfully finished the 2024 Mount TBR challenge hosted @ My Reader's Block. I had committed myself to scaling the smallest peak which means I had to read 12 books that I owned prior to 2024. I have read 12 + 1 more. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren If We … Continue reading Successfully Scaled: Pike’s Peak
Clearing the Shelves: Four Novels
In April, I donated a few of my books to a book event. Here are those books among them that I had read but not written about. So in alphabetical order: The Information Officer by Mark Mills (2009): I had not liked Mark Mills' The Savage Garden yet bought this book as it was set … Continue reading Clearing the Shelves: Four Novels
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Rope to Spare by Philip MacDonald (1932)
Colonel Anthony Gethryn is convalescing at an inn called The Spanish Guardsman at Ford-under-Stapleton when he receives a letter from an anonymous person stating that Gethryn cannot put wool over their eyes and that he is actually there not because of his ill-health but because he wants to save a woman whom the letter-writer refers … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Rope to Spare by Philip MacDonald (1932)
#Classic Club: Neerja by Rabindranath Tagore (1934)
Neerja and Aditya are a happily married couple who run a small floriculture business. Both of them are passionately fond of their gardens and spend many happy hours with their flowers and plants. Though married for a decade, they have not been blessed with a child. Besides the flowers, Neerja pours her maternal affection on … Continue reading #Classic Club: Neerja by Rabindranath Tagore (1934)
#Classic Club: The Burden by Mary Westmacott (1956)
Early this year, I had this great wish to read Agatha Christie. So not only did I read The Caribbean Mystery but also The Burden which she wrote under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott. While I would write about The Caribbean Mystery later along with other books of Christie that I have reread in the … Continue reading #Classic Club: The Burden by Mary Westmacott (1956)
War Anxieties: Spies by Michael Frayn (2002)
Michael Frayn's Booker-nominated Spies immediately went on my wishlist when I came to know that it was inspired by Hartley's The Go-Between. Later, when I won a Reading Challenge, I claimed the book as my prize. And now as a GR reading group, I am a member of chose it as one of its reads … Continue reading War Anxieties: Spies by Michael Frayn (2002)
Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder on Bag Hill by Clive Ryland (1945)
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned an obscure GAD writer, Clive Ryland. By a stroke of good luck, I was able to borrow another of his books, at around the same time. Though published in 1945, Ryland's novel begins just before the war. Jim Erroll is taking leave from his hostess Lady Mounteney and … Continue reading Friday’s Forgotten Book: Murder on Bag Hill by Clive Ryland (1945)
Big Bhishma in Madras: In Search of the Mahabharata with Peter Brook by Jean-Claude Carriere (1997)
The Mahabharat is the longest epic in the world. In the eighties, legendary theatre and film director, Peter Brooke decided to stage it in the form of a play. To get a feel of the place it is from, he travelled with his team to India. In that small team was another legendary person, novelist … Continue reading Big Bhishma in Madras: In Search of the Mahabharata with Peter Brook by Jean-Claude Carriere (1997)
#1970 Club: Six Mysteries
As the 1970 Club draws to a close (and what a fulfilling event it has been) here are short notes on the mysteries read of this year. In alphabetical order: Beyond This Point are Monsters by Margaret Millar Devon, a young woman from the East coast does not feel at home in California. She had … Continue reading #1970 Club: Six Mysteries
a hot cup of pleasure