From all of us at BookMeABook, here’s wishing you a Happy Christmas and a Very Joyful and Successful New Year!
We hope 2010 brings for you all you wish for!
I was struck by the number of book titles in our library which have the word Christmas in their title. Of course, the word conjures up visions of festivity, family time, holiday making and good old Yule tide cheer! So, not surprisingly, most of the books which have these titles are romances, meant to be read all curled up in a nice warm comforter or razai, with your heater nicely warming the room.
Here are some of the more popular Romance titles that I can recall immediately:
Janet Dailey’s Let’s be Jolly! and Mistletoe and Holly
It Happened At Christmas, by Penny Jordan.
Mrs. Miracle, by Debbie Macomber.
Christmas with a Latin Lover, by Lynne Graham.
Eve’s Christmas, by Janet Dailey.
Blue Christmas, by Mary Kay Andrews.
Some Detective fiction also has a good dose of Christmas:
Carole Higgins Clarks’ A Holiday Mystery at Sea.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding.
The Seven and Father Christmas
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.
The Christmas Thief, by Mary Higgins Clark
And of course, the all-time seasonal favourite, Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Books.
We even have A Christmas Carol, in graphic novel form.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Some thoughts on Maxine Hong Kingston's "A Woman Warrior"
Maxine Hong Kingston's "A Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" was first published in 1976. It merges real details of her life with fantastical elements which Kingston draws from memory and imagination. In its six sections, it combines myth and personal experience to form a collection that starkly portrays the experience of growing up within two conflicting cultures. Each section deals with a separate memory--the story of the narrator's anonymous aunt, the narrator's vision of herself a as a female warrior akin to characters in the stories she has heard in her childhood, her mother Brave Orchid's education as a doctor in China, her aunt Moon Orchid's unsuccessful attempts to unite with her husband in America and finally, the narrator's own experience, particularly in school.
Kingston attempts to express the Chinese American language by rendering the rhythms and cadences of the Chinese 'talk-story' in English. It is almost as if she finds the conventional genres inadequate to present her perspective. Thus, she combines myth with memoir to shape her narrative.
Add "The Woman Warrior" to your queue and read this splendid novel about racial and cultural identity.
Kingston attempts to express the Chinese American language by rendering the rhythms and cadences of the Chinese 'talk-story' in English. It is almost as if she finds the conventional genres inadequate to present her perspective. Thus, she combines myth with memoir to shape her narrative.
Add "The Woman Warrior" to your queue and read this splendid novel about racial and cultural identity.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Our Plans
Reading Plans, silly! We have no other plans in the near future. After Diwali, its just been a huge rollercoaster of a time. As always, the rest of the year will whizz past for us, as with many of you, with unending social events, celebrations, weddings, and other fun happenings with friends and family!
Since we set up our site—and it’s been more than two years now—the commonest question we have encountered is regarding our tariffs.
Although they are tabulated on our site under the section “Our Plans”, here’s a quick overview.
We have five plans, with different monthly tariffs based on the number of books you order. The refundable security deposit we take across all plans is the same—Rs. 500. Apart from this you have to make a monthly subscription which ranges from Rs.600 down to Rs.100 according to the plan you choose to take. The plans are as follows:
SUPER READER- gives you an unlimited number of deliveries of SIX* books at a time. Monthly Subscription Rs. 600. This is by far the most value you can get for your money.
REGULAR READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 3 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs 400. Our most popular plan!!
RELAXED READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 2 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs.300. This is a plan which most people begin with, and then jump to Regular Reader from it.
CASUAL READER- gives you 2 books a month. At Rs 150 a month, this is a JOLLY GOOD DEAL.
TURTLE READER- gives 1 book a month with a fee of Rs. 100. We only recommend this for those who really are hard-pressed for time!
Apart from the monthly subscription plans, our readers get interesting offers for subscription from time to time. For instance, we ran our 1+1 month offer with Yo! China earlier this year, which was a great experience. Our Book Fair membership offer got our new readers a choice of free books, and currently we are offering readers who give the entire year’s subscription 2 complimentary months! So you get 14 months reading for the price of 12.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Alright, so its an open secret now!! Yes, it’s true that our Super Readers have been receiving 6 books in one go for the past two months or so. Since it has been such a success, and has seen so many of our regular readers moving from Regular to Super reader, we shall soon make it official on our site too! In the meantime, Happy Reading!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since we set up our site—and it’s been more than two years now—the commonest question we have encountered is regarding our tariffs.
Although they are tabulated on our site under the section “Our Plans”, here’s a quick overview.
We have five plans, with different monthly tariffs based on the number of books you order. The refundable security deposit we take across all plans is the same—Rs. 500. Apart from this you have to make a monthly subscription which ranges from Rs.600 down to Rs.100 according to the plan you choose to take. The plans are as follows:
SUPER READER- gives you an unlimited number of deliveries of SIX* books at a time. Monthly Subscription Rs. 600. This is by far the most value you can get for your money.
REGULAR READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 3 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs 400. Our most popular plan!!
RELAXED READER-gives you 2 deliveries of 2 books each in a month. Monthly subscription Rs.300. This is a plan which most people begin with, and then jump to Regular Reader from it.
CASUAL READER- gives you 2 books a month. At Rs 150 a month, this is a JOLLY GOOD DEAL.
TURTLE READER- gives 1 book a month with a fee of Rs. 100. We only recommend this for those who really are hard-pressed for time!
Apart from the monthly subscription plans, our readers get interesting offers for subscription from time to time. For instance, we ran our 1+1 month offer with Yo! China earlier this year, which was a great experience. Our Book Fair membership offer got our new readers a choice of free books, and currently we are offering readers who give the entire year’s subscription 2 complimentary months! So you get 14 months reading for the price of 12.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Alright, so its an open secret now!! Yes, it’s true that our Super Readers have been receiving 6 books in one go for the past two months or so. Since it has been such a success, and has seen so many of our regular readers moving from Regular to Super reader, we shall soon make it official on our site too! In the meantime, Happy Reading!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Dire Straits!
Dire Straits!
Ever noticed the similarities between Charles Dickens and our very own Munshi Premchand?
Yes, Dickens was English and Premchand was Indian, but they both were prolific writers and have reflected the harsh reality that marked their times in their work. Both have brought up common social issues in their body of work, and have left heart-rending imprints of their characters in the minds of their readers.
Dickens was born in 1812 in Hampshire in England, Premchand was born in a small village called Lamahi near Banaras. Both had relatively carefree childhoods which were rudely disrupted by incidents in the family. Dickens’ family sank into debt sometime after he turned five. Premchand’s childhood came to a sudden end at the age of 8, when his mother died.
Both of them had responsibilities thrust upon them early in life. Dhanpatrai (Premchand’s real name) had to manage his family, which included his wife, his step-mother and 2 step-brothers when his father died. He first took up a job as a private tutor and then became a teacher. Dickens was sent off to a blacking factory even earlier, when his father was taken away to the Marshalsea debtors’ prison. He managed to go to school later, but left at the age of 15 to work as a clerk and then became a reporter.
Both raise social issues that dogged their society. Both effectively use children as protagonists in their work. Both writers now have an iconic presence in the literature of their country.
What made these great writers so prolific? Dire straits I think! Here were great minds yes, but the drive to write came from a much more basic need—material needs that were required to be fulfilled. Most of us today, tapping away on our keyboards, cannot even imagine the compulsions which these authors operated under.
Who would you rate as the better chronicler of his times?
Ever noticed the similarities between Charles Dickens and our very own Munshi Premchand?
Yes, Dickens was English and Premchand was Indian, but they both were prolific writers and have reflected the harsh reality that marked their times in their work. Both have brought up common social issues in their body of work, and have left heart-rending imprints of their characters in the minds of their readers.
Dickens was born in 1812 in Hampshire in England, Premchand was born in a small village called Lamahi near Banaras. Both had relatively carefree childhoods which were rudely disrupted by incidents in the family. Dickens’ family sank into debt sometime after he turned five. Premchand’s childhood came to a sudden end at the age of 8, when his mother died.
Both of them had responsibilities thrust upon them early in life. Dhanpatrai (Premchand’s real name) had to manage his family, which included his wife, his step-mother and 2 step-brothers when his father died. He first took up a job as a private tutor and then became a teacher. Dickens was sent off to a blacking factory even earlier, when his father was taken away to the Marshalsea debtors’ prison. He managed to go to school later, but left at the age of 15 to work as a clerk and then became a reporter.
Both raise social issues that dogged their society. Both effectively use children as protagonists in their work. Both writers now have an iconic presence in the literature of their country.
What made these great writers so prolific? Dire straits I think! Here were great minds yes, but the drive to write came from a much more basic need—material needs that were required to be fulfilled. Most of us today, tapping away on our keyboards, cannot even imagine the compulsions which these authors operated under.
Who would you rate as the better chronicler of his times?
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Dan Brown's latest!
And so we have now read Dan Brown's 'The Lost symbol'. twelve happy members of BookMeABook are currently reading the book. We haven't been able to get too many copies in circulation simply because it is a hard-cover, and a bit highly priced. but i am sure we shall be able to circulate it to all our members in due course of time.
The book is as gripping as his last one, 'The Da Vinci Code'. With the thrill of the chase, and the nerve-wracking situations he puts his protagonists into, Brown has a sure-fire winner here!
order your copy of the Lost Symbol from www.bookmeabook.com
The book is as gripping as his last one, 'The Da Vinci Code'. With the thrill of the chase, and the nerve-wracking situations he puts his protagonists into, Brown has a sure-fire winner here!
order your copy of the Lost Symbol from www.bookmeabook.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Stock Up On your Weekend Reading!
BookMeABook is the best online library in Delhi and NCr. It gives you the latest books, as well as older, rarer copies, to read and savour.
I am sure all of you are looking forward to the long weekend! We are closed on Sunday, our weekly off day, as well as Monday, since it is Id.
I had selected two books to be my reading material for the weekend, but have unfortunately finished both already, so will just have to read my collected A.A.Milne!
The two books I have just finished reading are Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, and Ravi Kapur’s The Sacred Secret. The Lost Symbol is a constant page turner, and just the thing for a lazy weekend! Each chapter ends with a thrilling bit of information which brings the protagonists, and us, the readers, closer to the end of the quest. As with The DaVinci Code, this book also uses symbols—theological, alchemical, scientific, astrological, pre-christian—to unearth and decode a fantastical secret.
Must stop now, or will find myself revealing the entire plot!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)