• Many book stores available, I go in and loose myself
• Amazon UK, my basket always has items in them. It is hard to resist the click to order and have your items delivered within one week.
• Again my life style, when waiting for the bus, I can be waiting for upto 30 minutes and so I sit or lean against the wall and read. Since I’m not driving and I’m the passenger, I read while in the bus or train until I get dizzy
• Everyone around you is reading, it really helps and is an open source for book recommendations and a good conversation starter. “ohhh, I read this book, it is very interesting and a good read”.

I’ve read a lot of light books lately, when I’ve got so much going on, I need to ease and relax my mind a bit or it’ll explode. The three books were:

• His other lover by Lucy Dawson.”A crazy woman fighting for her sorry excuse of a man“. This novel proves that women are crazy when it comes to their man! They do not acknowledge common sense and they loose grip of reality.
• Getting rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon. I liked “Foursome” more, it was so much funnier.
• My best friend’s girl by Dorothy Koomson. I enjoyed this book very much, it was light and entertaining. I didn’t know how it’ll end till I finished reading the book.

And the last book was “Precious” by Sapphire, I just felt really appreciative of my life and the circumstances I live in. You’ll feel so blessed while reading this book.

On my to read list.

I picked this Stieg Larsson because of all the hype about the brilliance of his novels and I chose his first one. The second book by Kathryn Stockett, I just stumbled upon while Amazon-ing

It’s Jake birthday. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer’s.

This is one of my May’s book. I took a while to finish this book. It was a bit boring and strangely it was talking about Alzheimer’s and I was having this feeling when reading the book! A character appears in the storyline and I’m confused, was it there before? Then chapters later the character is introduced. You go back and forth in Jake’s memories leaving you unsure which part of his life you are in until further down. Some characters didn’t make sense leaving you with unanswered questions, like his daughter.

Alzheimer is a scary disease, I really hope they find a cure for it and not just medications to delay its effect. You really feel the sense of lost and confusion the character is going through and not only their own frustration and anger but of those surrounding them.

Link: Amazon

Rebecca, Daniel, Alex and Isabel have been best friends since university. Rebecca married Daniel, Alex married Isabel and, for twenty years, they have been inseparable. But all that is about to change… When Alex walks out on Isabel, Rebecca thinks things can’t get any worse. But then she finds out the reason why and she’s left harbouring a secret she’d rather forget… And there’s more upheaval to come in Rebecca’s life as her emaciated, neurotic, self-obsessed colleague, Lorna – her arch nemesis at work – suddenly becomes a regular feature in her social life. Rebecca’s once-happy foursome is now a distant memory and with hearts broken and friendships fractured, it seems that change is never a good thing. Or is it?

I kept seeing ads for this book all over London, so when I went into Waterstone’s I just picked it as part of 3 for 2 deal and was I glad I did.

It is a light funny novel that you can’t help but relate to some of the events that occur especially in the work place! I laughed and I couldn’t put the book down, it was filled with action all the way through. It even reminded me of how we make fun of our work day and I started reminiscing about my friend telling me about her day and I about mine, and the serious comedy approach we use, our eyes would tear up from laughter. And the nicknames we give out

The author has written two others, but I stopped myself from going in the book store today, because I’ve already got a couple of novels stacked unread. I realise I’m reading a bit more these days, just to give myself a break from studying and working on my assessments

Link: Amazon

A group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England. Narrated by Kathy, now 31, “Never Let Me Go” hauntingly dramatises her attempts to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, and with the fate that has always awaited her and her closest friends in the wider world.

A fresh book to read. As you read along, the plot unfolds and you come to grasp what the novel is about. At the beginning I was not quite sure what was happening, page by page it becomes more clear, that was a refreshing way. I don’t want to spoil the experience by writing what the novel is about, because the discovery and uncertainty was a huge part of me enjoying reading this novel.

The way the book is written as if someone is sitting in front of you over a cup of coffee telling you their story. I sometimes felt I should read this book out loud because this is the sense the book gave me. A life story being told.

My March book. I really enjoyed this book tremendously. It does not just tell you the story of Michael Oher who now is playing in the National Football League (NFL) but also analyses the game and its history as well.

I’m not that aware of the game and rules, just know some of the facts, the super bowl, the quarterback, tough game many player get seriously injured.

Michael Lewis drafted the book in a way you kept on reading and understanding the statistics of his analysis while providing snippets of Michael Oher life story, the transition was so smooth and clever, I was so caught up in reading it. I really liked it and decided not to go watch the movie because reading the book was good and I don’t want to spoil it by watching the movie, maybe watch it much later on.

Link: Amazon

On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon (“like the fish”) is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer–the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.

This is one of my February books. I started reading it on a train and that was a mistake! I got so emotional as I was reading the murder scene, I got chocked up and my eyes filled up!

It was a lovely beautiful novel, that follows the lives of the family and friends of Susie after she is brutally murdered and how they cope and move on. You have to keep an open mind about how heaven and the after life is portrayed in this novel.

I highly recommend reading the novel and it is not at all how you expect it to be, it is refreshing.

This is my January book, I picked it randomly.

Eve, the 34 year old daughter of recently deceased conman Alexander Weston, knows a good deal when she sees it – and this one doesn’t even come close. However, with vulnerable brother Terry being beaten in jail, she can’t afford to be fussy. She needs to organise protection for him, and fast. The intimidating and powerful con Cavelli seems the perfect solution, but how high a price is he going to exact? She may as well be forming a pact with the Devil. A break-in, followed by a vicious assault, soon makes Eve question the wisdom of her choice. Cavelli is leading her straight into Hell. Suddenly, her own life is in jeopardy; there’s a psychopath lurking in the shadows and he’s prepared to kill to get what he wants. With two men dead already Eve is forced to turn to the past to find the answers she so desperately needs. There’s only one problem. Time is running out.

This is one boring book, chapters and chapters of nonsense that I can sum up in a paragraph. Around 600 pages of pure agony and the ending WTH! I hated this book and I hated the main character Eve! I remembered the last time I hated a character in a book, it was “East of Eden” because the character was pure evil but at least I liked the book!

All Eve did was emotionally analyse every damn thing! Smoke cigarettes or as the British call them fags and drink. Think about something for ages, do something else in an instant… lawe3at chabdeee offfff.

I was waiting for the story to begin, terrible details, so many characters in the book, it takes me time just to remember who’s who and what the hell is their role in this awful novel.

I was glad I finished this terrible book and it is the last time I pick anything for this writer!

My friend advised me to throw the book when I was complaining to her about it and she said see how far a 600 pages novel will fly

I picked up this book because I wanted something different and indeed I found it when reading Kitchen by Japanese writer, Banana Yoshimoto.

It contains two short stories mainly about the loss of loved ones. It deals with the emotions of it all and human relations in a strange way that I am not familiar with which I found intriguing maybe because of the Japanese culture or something got lost in translation.

I became familiar with a new word, nostalgic and nostalgia,  it is widely used in this small book. I’m not sure if it was a direct translation of a single Japanese word used originally by the writer or it is the closest translation to different synonyms in Japanese that the author wrote.

It is a very light book and refreshing that I do recommend to read.

I find myself picking up books without any prior knowledge about its content nor about the author, actually I chose this book after I saw J.M. Coetzee comment on the back and he’s the author of one of my favourite books, Age of Iron.

‘A beautiful and often harrowing story.’ Observer Books of the Year ‘A sensitive and touching story of a child exposed too early to religious intolerance and the uglier side of the Nigerian state.’ J. M. Coetzee ‘Political brutality and domestic violence, religion and witchcraft all merge with subtle force in this memorable novel. Chimammanda Ngozi Adichie uses childhood innocence to write Nigerian history with the eye of a family insider.’ Hugo Hamilton ‘Purple Hibiscus is the best debut I’ve read since Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.’ Jason Cowley, Times journalist, literary editor of the New Statesman ‘This debut ensnares the reader from the first page and lingers in the memory!in soft, searing voice, Adichie examines the complexities of family, faith and country through the haunted but hopeful eyes of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood.’ Publishers Weekly

It is set in Nigeria about a family of four, a strict Christian religious father, an obedient mother, and two siblings Jaja and Kambili. The story is in three sections, when an extreme event changes things at home, then how things were, and finally how it continues.

A poor orphan, Ram Mohammad Thomas, participates on a game show and answers all 12 questions correctly to win one billion rupees, which is approximately six million KD! The show producers did not expect anyone to win this amount of money at this stage of the show, so he is arrested by the police on account of cheating his way. Ram begins explaining how he knew the answer to the questions by telling his life stories to a young lawyer who came to his rescue.

I really enjoyed this fast paced novel to the end. Each question is a chapter, that begins with a snippet of Ram’s life and ends with the show’s question and how he came to answer it. The surprises and unexpected turns are in each story line that keeps you flipping through each and every chapter to reach the show’s question answer roundup.

The great thing, it really added to my knowledge about the Indian culture and way of living. I do recommend this novel and maybe I’ll manage to see the movie, but I’ve always enjoyed the book version everytime.