There is nothing more satisfying than reading a book while sipping a hot cup of tea.
The Barretts are a decent, normal, loving New England family of four but are also facing a crisis. First the father and bread-winner, John, is laid-off. Then the elder daughter, Marjorie, starts exhibiting signs of schizophrenia. As her medical bills mount, the family finds it difficult to stay afloat. Also it seems that the doctors … Continue reading A Book for Halloween: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (2015)
https://wallpapers.com/wallpapers/serious-john-mcenroe-j6al1ex39k3jt35f.html To me Tennis is John McEnroe. Which is strange because by the time I watched my first tennis match: Wimbledon 1985 semi-final: Jimmy Connors vs Kevin Curran, McEnroe was already on the downward slide. The commentators kept on saying that Curran had defeated defending champion McEnroe in the quarterfinals and I suddenly realized that … Continue reading John McEnroe Once Again
Tom Sheldon Garrett, American playwright, finds himself in a teashop, eavesdropping on a conversation happening in the next booth b/w two women, one who has a masculine timber to her voice while the other has a gentle, tremulous one. Through the conversation Garrett is able to make out that they are discussing the kidnapping of … Continue reading Eavesdropping: The Nursemaid who Disappeared by Philip MacDonald (1938)
Arthur Crook, travelling to London, comes across a couple at a Railway restroom and immediately suspects that something is amiss. It certainly is. Janice Grey, had in her young days married Pat Wylie after a chance encounter outside a phone booth (and phones play an important role in the story). However, when she realized that … Continue reading #1962 Club: No Dust in the Attic by Anthony Gilbert
Indian author Manohar Malgonkar's third novel, Combat of Shadows is set in the North-Eastern Indian state of Assam over the course of a few months. When the novel opens in September 1938, we meet Henry Winton, the manager of a tea-estate who is happy with his life, lording over the Indians and delighting in his … Continue reading Forgotten Classic of 1962: Combat of Shadows by Manohar Malgonkar
Except for a handful of countries like the UK, USA, France, Germany, Russia where I do have some idea about their histories (at least the highlights) the world is blank to me. I know the names of the countries but little else. Mexico is one such country and so when I saw a historical novel … Continue reading #1962 Club: The Cactus and the Crown by Catherine Gavin
Everything in New York reminded one of the prevalent dust to which, almost immediately, it seemed, one was condemned to return. If one didn't seize that day, a contractor would. Linn Tremain, who as a young man, had gone to Florence to get an education in art, made an Italian woman his mistress and finally … Continue reading #1962 Club: Portrait in Brownstone by Louis Auchincloss
It is the start of another Reading Club: a bi-annual even hosted by Simon @ Stuck in a Book and Karen @ Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings. The year this time is 1962 and I am happy to state that I have a few books of that year on my shelves, some of them, in fact, on … Continue reading #1962 Club: Whistle for the Crows by Dorothy Eden
I had wanted to reread author John Bude (whose name I was surprised to find is actually Ernest Elmore) so when I saw his Inspector Meredith novel, Death in Ambush, at the library, I picked it up though with trepidation taking into account my experience with the Cornish Coast Murder, a book that I had … Continue reading Pre-War: Death in Ambush by John Bude (1945)
a hot cup of pleasure 