South Asian Challenge 2011 Wrap-Up

I’m a South Asian Guru!

Hosted by Swapna at S.Krishna’s Books, the South Asian Reading Challenge is one of the challenges that I have managed to complete rather well this year. It worked great for me since I want to read more authors from the region and there have been some wonderful new books and authors that I’ve discovered this year.

In my sign up post, I had set a goal of over 10 books to become a South Asian Guru. And what do you know, I am one! I read 18 books by South Asian authors this year! It feels good to reach my goal and complete this challenge successfully, but what I’ve really enjoyed are many of these books. It’s wonderful to discovering new authors that I love and I’ll keep an eye out for new titles by all these authors.

So here is my complete list of books read and reviewed for the South Asian Challenge 2011. You can read my reviews for all of them – just follow the link.

A Circle of Souls by Preethan Grandhi
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
A Nice Quiet Holiday by Aditya Sudarshan
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy
Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi
Climbing The Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
Five Queen’s Road by Sorayya Khan
Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy
New Miss India by Bharati Mukherjee
Show Me a Hero by Aditya Sudarshan
The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy
The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair
The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam (review on 6 Jan 2012)
The Monochrome Madonna by Kalpana Swaminathan
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna
Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

My favourite South Asian titles this year:

All of these books had beautiful settings, characters you could really like or dislike and beautiful writing which makes the story that much more enjoyable.

I’ve decided to participate in this challenge in 2012 as well, but maybe I’ll take on fewer books, since I know I’m going to be rather busy with university this year.

Historical Fiction Challenge 2011 Wrap-up

This challenge was hosted by Historical Tapestry.

For this challenge I signed up at the Daring & Curious level. This meant I had to read 5 books in the genre to complete the challenge successfully. I’m really glad to announce that I read double the number I signed up for. Here is my list. Follow the links to read my reviews.

Ancient History

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

The Gates of Rome (Emperor #1) by Conn Iggulden

Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick

Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner

The Traitor’s Wife by Kathleen Kent

In the not-too-distant-past

Five Queen’s Road by Sorayya Khan

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

Smuggled by Christina Shea

I have not been too good at keeping track of these and have not update the monthly posts Linky at the host blog in many months now. Will try and get that done over the next few weeks.

I’ve almost decided to sign up for this challenge again. I’ll probably stick to the same level as this year, just so that I have some chance of completing this challenge.

TwentyEleven Challenge 2011 Wrap-Up

The TwentyEleven Challenge required participants to read a total of 20 books – at least 1 from each of the categories below and 2 in most of them. I have to say, I didn’t do that great in this challenge. It sounded like a lot of fun and I could have completed it better, but life was too busy to manage it. For more details on what each of the categories mean, take a look at my sign-up post. To read my reviews, follow the links below. I don’t have reviews for all these books and for some of them won’t be putting up any reviews.

So here is my roundup:

1. To YA or not YA
The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

2. With a Twist

The Map of Time by Felix Palma

3. Hot off the Presses

Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy

4. It Wasn’t Me! (aka Bad Bloggers*)
I have a long list of books for this one that I wanted to read, but really, didn’t get around to reading even one of them. #fail

5. Show it Who is Boss!
The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk are two books that I’ve heard such great things about. They have been sitting on my TBR shelf for over a year now and unfortunately, I still haven’t read them. And now that they are stuck in a box back home, I don’t know when I’ll get round to reading them.

6. Bablefish

Seven Years by Peter Stamm: Translated from German by Michael Hofmann

The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto: Translated from Japanese by Michael Emmerich

7. Will-Power? What Will-Power?

The Secret of the Nagas by Amish

The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose

8. Mind the Gap

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. This completes the Robert Langdon series.

9. Back in the Day

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

10. Way Back When

Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

11. Slim-Pickings

The Changeling by Nancy Jane Moore

The Virgin and the Gypsy by D.H. Lawrence

So out of the required 20 books needed to complete this challenge, I only read 14. Not utterly shameful, but not great either. I will be taking a break from this challenge this year though.

Hello from London!

Just a quick note to say hello to all my readers and to explain my long absence: I’ve been rather busy setting up in London, UK. I’m here to do my MA in Publishing and it’s been a whirlwind of things.

My apologies to the publishers, publicists and authors who’ve sent me review copies. I have been reading and making notes and I will be putting up my reviews anon.

I have the following books to review (and hope to start publishing them in the next few days and weeks):

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson
Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon van Booy
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes (audiobook)
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
This Burns My Heart by Samuel Parks
The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
Love Child by Sheila Kohler
The Legacy by Katherine Webb
The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker
The Halo Effect by M.J. Rose

Some of these books really delighted me and I can’t wait to share my views, and others didn’t quite do it for me. A lot of catching up to do, then.

P.S. Any of my bookish peeps in London? Give me a shout – would love to meet or exchange information about book events.

Cheers, and talk to all soon.