Namitha Varma's Blog

I started a new blog, and the first post on it was my pet topic – reading. I am – well, was, to be honest – a voracious reader (as I told you in my first post). I like fiction more than non-fiction, and I believe that all of us should read novels, plays, and poetry once in a while. And why, you ask?

Here are 5 reasons why I think we all should read fiction.

1. You Improve Your Language

2. You Learn to Empathise and Be More Emotionally Mature

3. Reading Helps You ‘Grow Up’

4. It Lets You Live Vicariously

5. Reading Is a Peaceful Hobby

Read the full post on: https://whatshallwetalkabouttoday.wor...

#NewYearNewMe may be all about health and fitness, but reading challenges are a thing of habit to me by now. This year, again, I’ve devised my own reading challenge. The challenge contains books I already own, to make sourcing easier. There’s also an affinity to Indian writing that I can’t get over!
I intend to read 50 books at the very least, in the following categories:
A biography of a writer A book based on a fairy tale A book based on mythology A book by a Bengali writer&nbs...

I read a total of 161 books in 2016.

Most-read genres: Detective fiction (21% of 161 books), Indian writing (15%) and Children's literature and Fantasy (11% each). I've liked 66% of the books I read (rated 4 and 5 stars on Goodreads). My most-read authors were Roald Dahl and Lilian Jackson Braun with 6 books each. 

As for the #2016ReadingChallenge that I started with a friend at the beginning of the year, here's what I managed.

January: New writers (new to me)

Kaleidoscope by Rachn...

How does one judge a Mills & Boon romance? Do we go ahead with reviewing the plot, characterisation, language and other facets as usual, or do we ignore some parts of it considering it is meant for pulp consumption?
I haven’t read many M&B. I think this is just my second. But yes, I’ve read a few romances that fall into this category. I haven’t enjoyed any of them much, because they are NOT my cup of tea. I can only read so much about damsels in distress or even not in distress and kn...

Trudi Canavan’s The Black Magician trilogy comprises The Magicians’ Guild, The Novice and The High Lord. The story revolves around Sonea, a slum girl who is found to have high magical potential, and the fate of Kyralia, her land, which is under threat from the black magicians of Sachaka’s wastelands.

*There might be spoilers ahead – proceed with caution.

Plot 

It is the way the story moves that makes The Black Magician trilogy an interesting read. Book 1 – The Magicians’ Guild – was slow-pa...

When a novel is categorised as 'Romance', I tend to view it more as a feel-good, chick-lit story with high predictability of storyline. Since that is not the kind of works I like to read, it takes a lot of motivation for me to pick it up. Paulami Dutta Gupta had sent me an e-copy of A Thousand Unspoken Words a few months ago in return for an honest review, and because of my prejudice against romance novels, I kept off the reading for so long.

But once I started reading, I realised that this wa...

I was drawn to the Alphabet Soup for Lovers after reading some of the excerpts posted by two of my bibliophile friends. The food allegories were so simple that they were tempting. I've never read any whole novel of Anita Nair before, and having heard praise for her from many friends, the excerpts had an immediate effect. I ran to Amazon the moment the prices dropped and bought myself a copy.

Neither did I wait too long to start reading the Alphabet Soup for Lovers. I started reading it in trai...

Let me confess that I began reading 'Only Wheat Not White' by Varsha Dixit with a lot of prejudice. Prejudice #1 - the genre. I am not a fan of romance, and the amount of mushiness and the forced happy endings drive me crazy. Prejudice #2 - the title. 'Only Wheat Not White' sounded too racist, too unsophisticated. 
But as I read, I enjoyed Dixit's writing. The snarky humour and the descriptions of Eila's clumsiness endeared me to the protagonist Eila Sood. In this month's 'romance-themed'...

Or Forever Hold Your Peace by Donna Abraham is a simple tale of 27-year-old Malayali SMRC Catholic girl and her attempts at finding a Mr. Right. The unnamed protagonist-cum-narrator tells us her experiences with the customs around arranged marriages, with special reference to Kerala and the Christian community.

The story contains a lot of information about the wedding formalities in a typical SMRC family. It also included a lot of Malayali ideology surrounding wedding. It was all familiar to m...

The Madras Affair by Sundari Venkatraman is a mushy romance perfect for light reading. It was a quick and simple read, and combined romance with high-drama, full of pointless vituperations. I liked the way the author brought alive the mind of the protagonist Sangita to the reader.
Sangita is a widow with a little son whose mean husband dies in a drunken bike accident. She picks up the pieces and starts living with her parents, but her parents are orthodox about widowhood to the point of malice...