Theme Thursdays [Very] – 26Jan12

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week’s theme is very (!!!) easy Find the actual word ‘Very’

VERY

My THURSDAY THEME for VERY is here. I found mine pretty quickly and I hope you have fun finding this week’s theme.

“This is very strange,” Lafite said.

[and one more snippet...]

“Very well, if you insist.” Fig sighed.

Taken from “Naughty in Nice” By Rhys Bowen

Leave a comment here with a link to your post. Do make sure to visit and comment on other Theme Thursdays.

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One Night at the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat

The Book:

Source for ‘The Book’ section : From Goodreads
Press 1 for technical support.
Press 2 for broken hearts.
Press 3 if your life has totally crashed. . . .

Six friends work nights at a call center in India, providing technical support for a major U.S. appliance corporation. Skilled in patience–and accent management–they help American consumers keep their lives running. Yet behind the headsets, everybody’s heart is on the line.

Shyam (Sam to his callers) has lost his self-confidence after being dumped by the girl who just so happens to be sitting next to him. Priyanka’s domineering mother has arranged for her daughter’s upscale marriage to an Indian man in Seattle. Esha longs to be a model but discovers it’s a horizontal romp to the runway. Lost, dissatisfied Vroom has high ideals, but compromises them by talking on the phone to idiots each night. Traditional Radhika has just found out that her husband is sleeping with his secretary. And Military Uncle (nobody knows his real name) sits alone working the online chat.

They all try to make it through their shifts–and maintain their sanity–under the eagle eye of a boss whose ego rivals his incompetence. But tonight is no ordinary night. Tonight is Thanksgiving in America: Appliances are going haywire, and the phones are ringing off their hooks. Then one call, from one very special caller, changes everything.

Chetan Bhagat’s delicious romantic comedy takes us inside the world of the international call center, where cultural cross-wires come together with perfect pathos, hilarity, and spice.

The View:

I have been meaning to read a Chetan Bhagat novel after watching the Indian movie ’3 idiots’ based on his other work ‘Five Point Someone’. I enjoyed the movie tremendously and added a few of his books to my TBR pile. This week I finally got to one of them.

The story as the title suggests revolves around six call center agents who spend a single night at work. They all have their unique life problems starting from broken relationships, mother-in-law inconveniences, aspiring career dreams and even marriage plans. Apart from their individual problems they also have a bigger problem at work in the name of Bakshi – a shrewd and disgusting manager. On this fateful night they decide to break a call center rule causing them to get the life changing call from God Himself.

The read was definitely interesting and I finished the book quicker than anticipated. The characters were all charming and told their stories fairly well. Their problems were very similar to what we would see in our day-to-day interactions with friends and family in India and I could relate to all of them. Bakshi was a disaster and yet added a lot of interest to the plot. I think the entire episode would not have turned out as genuinely as it did if it had not been for him.

The writing was mediocre but the story-telling was excellent. I felt that there was a lot of stereotyping when it came to some of the characters specially the women and did not like it one bit. Also Vroom’s comments on the life that the call center folks live in India did not go down too well with me. The comments on Americans and the general view on America does not depict an entire nation’s thoughts and for that reason should have been handled in a more subtle fashion. Rated a 3 on 5.

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Teaser Tuesdays – 24th Jan 2012

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Here are the rules for participating in this meme..

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

“No. It doesn’t mean that at all, but I have to be honest. I love you but I’m not in love with you.”
Taken from Secret Obsession By Kimberla Lawson Roby

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It’s Monday! What are you reading? 2012/01/23

This is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. The books I read in the past weeks are here.

My next week’s reads are:

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Teen Idol by Meg Cabot

The Book:

Jenny Greenley is a junior at the Clayton High School in Indiana. She is everyone’s best friend and is liked by all. She is also the columnist for the school’s newspaper and writes the ‘Ask Annie’ column. When Luke, a Hollywood superstar wants to experience high school, the school authorities naturally entrust Jen with this big secret. Everything is going fine until Luke Striker accidentally reveals his identity causing all the teenage girls to go crazy about his presence.

Unable to continue his undercover experience anymore he decides to go back to his lifestyle but not before he reminds Jen of the power she could have. He also invites her to accompany him to the dance and she gladly accepts. Is there going to be a romance between the two of them or are they just good friends?

The View:

I love reading young adult fiction though I rarely do it these days. I was excited to start reading ‘Teen Idol’ as it has been on my TBR for a long time now. I enjoyed this book greatly. The writing was simple, the characters pleasant and the plot unexpected.

When I started reading I expected the story to take a particular route of a high school girl meeting a successful handsome actor, their paths cross, one things leads to another and voila .. they are in love. I was gladly surprised when that did not happen and I so wanted Jen to finally reveal her feelings for Scott. The story had everything that one would expect from high school, a best friend who you disagree with, a bullied victim, a handsome yet intellectual school newspaper editor, school seniors, weird teachers and this one even had a doll. The addition of the Betty Ann plot was neat and I specifically liked how the story started off with that element.

Regarded the characters I started liking Jen right from page 1. There is really nothing to not like about her and it is no surprise that she is the most liked girl in school. Trina was not particularly my favorite but I was nevertheless glad when she changed for the better. If I had to choose between Scott or Luke I would have had a tough time. They are both handsome men with unique lovable traits. Scott and Jen make a great pair. The only pair that I did not like was of Luke and Geri … I so din’t like that girl.

Rated a 4 on 5. ‘Teen Idol’ is a great fun and quick read. Very light and refreshing as well.

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