It’s Monday! What are you reading? 2012/01/30

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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Secret Obsession by Kimberla Lawson Roby

The Book:

Source for ‘The Book’ section : From Goodreads
Paige Donahue has always lived in her sister Camille’s shadow. As children, Camille had the grades, the friends, and their parents’ love, while Paige was left with hand-me-downs and criticism. Now as adults, Camille lives an idyllic life with her husband, Pierce, and her two perfect children in a beautiful home, while Paige is stuck in a small condo with bills she can’t afford to pay. But no more. With seeds of doubt planted in both Camille’s and Pierce’s minds, Paige’s plan to steal her brother-in law starts to work. But when he reveals his decision to make his marriage work, a desperate Paige moves from envy to madness. What results from her dangerous scheme is something no one could have imagined.

The View:

I recently saw an Indian movie that is based on a similar plot and was taken aback by the storyline. ‘Secret Obsession’ is definitely better from the story telling aspect and the plot is intriguing.

The read is captivating and with each page I got more and more eager to know what Paige’s next scheme would be. The way she plotted against her sister by using Camille’s computer to send / receive emails was a little immature and a good computer sleuth would have easily cracked the case. Going through a staged rape, flying to Vegas so she could spend time with her brother-in-law, constantly lying to her sister and employing a homeless man to play her sister’s lover was all too cunning and only made me hate her more. The ending was predictable and boring and I wish there was a different perspective to her insane actions instead of mental illness.

Paige Donahue is a psycho to say the least and obsessive; in fact she takes obsession to a new level. Camille is sweet and I really liked her pale efforts to defend herself to her husband. Partly playing victim to the situation but also deciding to not go out of the marriage without a fight; Camille handles her role very well. Paige’s mother’s hatred for Paige surprised me. I had no clue and could not even guess what was coming up with regards to their relationship.

Rated a 4 on 5 for the enjoyable read though there are a few flaws that could have been avoided.

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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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