We go back to one of Britain’s most fascinating dynasties (or perhaps one that has been talked a lot of in recent times, what with Henry VIII’s wives and his daughters) to look at their private lives. For some reason, I thought that The Private Lives of the Tudors would be a book about the… Read More Book Review: The Private Lives of the Tudors by Tracy Borman
I’m writing this a bit earlier than normal because I will be heading out for a book club dinner tonight and I am sure that I won’t have energy to write before I come back. So before I go out, let me tell you about what I’ve been reading. I started the weekend with The… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 25 – Weekend Roundup
After reading Kiku’s Prayer, I moved on to Silence, arguably Endo Shusaku’s most famous work. It’s thought-provoking, more depressing than Kiku’s Prayer, and also more controversial. If you’ve not read Silence, you can get a feel of this book from the trailer for the marvellous adaptation by Martin Scorsese: As you can tell, this book… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 23 – Silence
Over time, I’ve built up an eclectic collection of podcasts (okay, not so eclectic, there’s a history & economics focus). But anyway, I was going through my podcast playlist and I started listening to an episode on how to build a welcoming and engaged community and that had me thinking about the topic itself. I’ve… Read More Who Builds a Community & Should We Pay For It?
As planned, I have finished Kiku’s Prayer and as expected, it was a rough ride. In the last half (third?) of the book, we see Kiku and Seikichi suffer unimaginable torture of body and spirit. Kiku, in a desperate attempt to relieve Seikichi’s actual torture, sells her body to bribe a corrupt official. Seikichi is… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 21 – Kiku’s Prayer Part 2
Hello again! I took a day off blogging yesterday because I was really tired and decided that instead of just recapping my day, I would try writing a discussion post – it’s the one that you saw earlier today! And doing that was actually really energising, which helped me regain the momentum for today. As… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 20 – Kiku’s Prayer
I just saw the news that Elizabeth Gilbert has cancelled the publication of her latest novel because it’s set in Russia, a move that was criticised by Ukrainians as being insensitive to them. That immediately got me thinking: Can we read books with “bad” themes? Or to put it a different way: “is it acceptable… Read More Discussion Post: Can We Read Books With ‘Bad’ Themes?
I’m back again! I am seeing this pattern in which I do not post on Saturdays because I’m really just not at the computer on Saturday. I did, however, have a good reading day since I finally finished the third Thursday Murder Club book and a good chunk of Jane Austen, Game Theorist. Today, I… Read More June ’23 Rereading Day 18 – Jane Austen, Game Theorist and Some Strange Medieval Advice
It has taken me almost two weeks to write this review! That’s… not good but hopefully finishing this starts a good trend? Because I do have a different white tea – this other one from Nepal – that I want to talk about as well! This white tea is from Renegade Farm – not stranger… Read More Tea Review: Imereti Summer by Renegade Tea
Hello! We are halfway through the month and my dreams of being extra-productive blogwise have not yet materialised. But the good thing is that these off-the-cuff posts are really therapeutic for me – feels like I’m allowing myself to be a bit more spontaneous/messy in the blogging aspect. Anyway, there was a horrendous traffic jam… Read More June ’23 Rereading: Day 15 – The Secret Life of Cows & More Jane Austen
