The Pig Did It

Book titles intrigue us all. They are of course the first impression we have of the book. Some of them might be to apt that we know exactly what to expect and then there are others that might be talking about world peace, while the title screams 'Pencils and paper', what???

Well, The Pig Did It, by Joseph Caldwell sounds like a book I'd like to read. It is about a guy who goes to his aunt's house to get through the rejection he faced by one of his students. He happens to cross paths with Mr. Pig who insists on following him around. The story continues as he embarks on a murder mystery.

I can't share more yet, but I envision it to be a charmingly, funny and thrilling murder mystery. What with a title like 'The Pig Did It', I hope it truly is just that.

Read & Return

If you are one of the regular travelers and enjoy reading, then you probably know about this already. The Read & Return program offered by the Paradies Shops is really cool. It offers travelers a great way to save money. You can buy a book, read it, and return it within 6 months to one of their many stores and still receive 50% off. This program has apparently been around since 2003, but I haven't tried it as yet.

I mean a library definitely beats this model in terms of price, but I think it may just cater to a separate audience, the ones that probably don't have the time to go to a library.

A Long Way Gone

By Ishmael Beah is a book I haven't read as yet, but it is on my list ot must reads. Even though I did not own the book, the story sounded interesting, different and thankfully from all the reviews there was no James Frey kind of 'fake' element attached to any words. I knew then that Ishmael had to be one strong fellow, and 'strong' being a speck of dust, while what I actually mean is strong = all the specks of dust to have ever flown in Sudan.

So a few months back I made my way to Barnes and Noble at Astor Place, and realised that I was one of over about a hundred fans. Ishmael is a short guy, very personable, with a hint of accent, but terribly clear in thought. I loved the way he paraphrased a question from the crowd for everyone, and answered it directly without losing his train of thought , or moving to another string of words. He even had a sense of humor...yeah yeah eligible guy you say. In this day and age when single people have a tough time finding a companion, I say that you should send your mom to a book reading and make a case! Some young things mom, did exactly that much to Ishmael's discomfort.

Anyways back to the point - Will write back when I have read the book.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

The NY Times has gathered the list of books that writers have just read. Check them out HERE!

The World Without Us

What will the world be like without people?

This book by Alan Weisman is unique and although I haven't read it, ever since I heard about it on John Stewart's show, I knew this book I must have. I think it is totally my kind of book, my kind of questions which are often unanswerable. Thank you Alan Weisman!

What are YOU so grumpy about?

I am quite intrigued by children’s books, no, actually love children's books. They are simple, fun, and normally include an underlying theme, which is often subtle, but sometimes right in your face. A book can become your companion and help you be in a particular mood when you choose to. There were so many that adorned our little bookshelf. I’ll never forget ‘The Monster at the end of this book!’ which was an all time favorite. Over the years of course, you progress to older genres of books. Starting with the still basic ones, for me, I loved The Faraway Tree. This fantasy tree/land and its inhabitants were my favorite people for many years - The Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot, Mr. Whatsisname and the Angry Pixie among others. This book made fantasy a reality and made me want to skip school, my home and everything around me and head to the Faraway Tree.

One of the books that I happened to come across online today, is a book by Tom Lichenheld, the author of ‘What are YOU so grumpy about?’ The title caught my eye, and the illustration peeked my interest even further - so cute!

This book is meant to cover the many possible causes of grumpiness in a child’s world. For e.g. stubbing a toe, being touched by a sibling (me me me, I experienced this all the time!), or having to cope with gravy that touched the peas on the dinner plate (this I know!). This book is designed to get your child out of his or her grumpy mood by redirecting his or her attention to something humorous and forgetting about the grumpiness altogether. Think about it, how often have you listened to stand–up comedy and really felt better when the comedian describes a situation that you can relate to, or better still, think they HAVE to be talking about you coz noone else does a jig while waiting for the water in the shower to reach the ideal temperature, or counts the steps to your home on the way back from work for no apparent reason.

Read more of reviews. I don’t own the book, but would welcome it for my child…in about 12 and a half years. Yes, please put it on ur gift list. Ill expect to have it when I am facing my grumbling toddler.

Review excerpt: Side comments add to the fun ("Oh Poop," says one child when he gets underwear in a birthday package). Another page talks about the "dangers" of a big hug from Grandma and shows a newspaper story with a big-bosomed blonde granny and an arrow pointing to her rather-endowed chest, claiming that her grandson was "last seen here." Kids are sure to snicker with glee, feeling that they are getting away with seeing/hearing something a bit risqué.

Queer wizardry

Wizardry itself is queer! No not the type you are thinking in your head, but the type that a dictionary would explain. It means, odd, unconventional, curious, unexpected, remarkable, astonishing, perplexing, odd…the list goes on. Have you ever read a page of a Harry Potter book, or caught a movie clip and not found it astonishing? Come on, the stairs keep moving, characters in paintings sing (albeit, not so well), and the law of gravity takes a huge hit.

In any case, I am not sure what to make of Dumbledore’s (DD from now on) outing. I mean, if you think about it, there seems to be SO much more in JK Rowlings mind that none of us know. Firstly unfair! But then, when you read books like Life of Pi, and from what I hear Kafka on the Shore (its on my book rack at home), the whole purpose of unanswered questions is to keep them that way - answered. This gets the reader thinking, allows them to make decisions for themselves! As you will see in one of my previous posts on Life of Pi, I probably wanted answers too, but then I would have laid the book to rest and not absorbed it into my life consciously. We prefer to have that circle closed than leaving it open ended, but maybe open ended if done intentionally, might have more of an impact.

As you all know by now, dear DD is gay. J.K. Rowling recently implied that if it meant so much to readers to know about DD’s sexual preference, she would have shared it earlier!! Here’s where I have some questions.

- If it doesn’t make a difference to his character, why share now?

- Then again, if it does make a difference to the character and his actions, then why not include it in the
book/story?

- Finally, if you go with option 3 and want the readers to decide for themselves, then let them decide for themselves, why out it? I guess what I am trying to figure out is WHY this information was shared much later…

To tell you the truth, I would love to know so much more about Wang Lang (Good Earth), and August & Lily Melissa (Secret Life of Bees). But the book ended and I was left wanting more. Maybe I should have gone for their book reading and gotten them to spill more details that weren’t covered in the book. But them, what the sequels, would I know something I should not be privy to? In terms of DD, it could be that while Rowling pieced her book together in a faraway cabin, DD the character was gay, but not knowing the potential success of the book or the social acceptance homosexuals, she decided to integrate hints in DD’s character, but decided to let society dictate when she spills the beans.

Timing is also a consideration, the book has been out for a while, so now this could generate more interest. It even targets a new niche market which are good pros. But, these past few years, the Vatican scandals and other perverse news have made us paranoid. Unfortunately, we live in a time when seeing older men with young children can be viewed perversely. Sad to say that nothing may be going on, but our minds may think otherwise. Do you see DD as a sleazy pervert? I don’t, coz I really love DD’s character, but I think it does bring up so many other questions, or hypothetical situations and analysis.

In terms of outing someone, I am totally fine with that even though I didn’t really think about it. It’s just an assumption made by youth – a person with silver hair was probably never young and never experienced love…or much rather love towards the same sex. Or rather the youth do not really want to picture it any other way! DD is a authoritative, grandfatherly type figure, how can he be anything else? I know I felt this way with many teachers growing up. I couldn’t see them as having families, children etc, especially the so called ‘mean teachers’. Come on, tell me you didn’t expect the mean one to go back home and yell at her kids the entire day? They were not moms, wives or daughters…they didn’t live a life like I did, they were teachers! Yet, my mom came home and was a mother, wife, daughter and clearly not the teacher.

I feel like my thoughts are all over the place on this one. So, just to conclude, I want say in case it came out otherwise, I am actually happy that varying sexual preferences are included in books. I am not so sure why this was highlighted though, and I think this is the issue. Also, are we doing it to prepare kids for the outside world, considering kids are a huge audience for this book (and adults), or are there other reasons? I think this opens a world of thoughts, views and ideas..but hopefully asking the right questions trigger some progress.