Musing Mondays

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about multitasking.

Do you – or are you even able – to do other things while you read? Do you knit, hold a conversation, keep an eye on the TV? Anything?

This depends on the type of book that I'm reading, although most of the time, I'm pretty bad when it comes to reading and multitasking. I do read and eat though, often carrying a book around with me even when I eat outside (alone that is), so I can catch up on my reading whilst waiting for the food. Other than that, I can't hold a conversation and read, reading takes me out of this world and into another so I find myself nodding without registering anything (DANGEROUS because the mother often gets me to agree to things I never normally would...) 

What about you?

A Teaser

There is this Teaser Tuesday meme that's been going about on a lot of book blogs, and I was thinking of starting them, but then I'm currently reading this book that I think is beautifully descriptive and captures the human emotion so very well that I thought I'd go against traditions and post up a bit from this book although today's not yet Tuesday... 

I was in the shop well before opening time, browsing shelf by shelf through New Fiction, to see which not-so-new fiction I must relegate to the less prominent Novels & Stories shelves. Because of that dreary human predilection for the shiny and new, I always feel when I make this shift as if I'm sending so many bright, hopeful creatures out to pasture before their youth is spent. (Though I would never condemn them, as other shops do, to a section entitled Literature, a word which to my admittedly overschooled mind is ossified and clubby. I picture a mausoleum, filled with sagging armchairs and lamps that cast inadequate, jaundiced light )  

Don't you just love the way the author gives life not only to her characters, but also character to books. How many of you have the same attachment for books ?  I know I do :)

The Tiger Claw

Things have been pretty busy lately and I've not had the time to update this book blog of mine .. I have been reading quite a big though so here's a review of Shauna Baldwin's The Tiger Claw

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Canada; First Edition edition (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-0676976205

The tiger claw is based on the life of Indian Muslim spy Noor Inayat Khan, who is of mixed parentage. Being brought up in France by her American mother after the demise of her Indian father, Noor, or Madeleine as her code name goes, has a unique upbringing spanning Muslim laws peppered with western liberal thoughts. 

Acting as a spy for the British government, Noor falls in love with Jewish pianist Armand and this is a story of bravery, courage, espionage and beneath all that, love. The forbidden love between both Armand and Noor is heart breaking and parts of the story is narrated through Noor's letters during her imprisonment, which adds a sense of realism to the story as these are true letters written by Noor herself.

I was enraptured by Shauna Singh Baldwins' captivating prose and narrative skills as she brought back to life the legend of the woman known as Madeleine to her colleagues. The undertones of courage and bravery to fight for a love that could be punishable by death never leave the plot and this is what makes the story so much more different than any other espionage tale out there.  

Suffice to say I could not put down the book and would totally recommend it to anyone with a taste for thrillers, fiction based on true stories and through it all, the power of love. 

Mid Week Lusting

Quickie : I saw this at the bookstore this morning. Been wanting to read this for ages now ! Should I get it? *refuses to cast guilty glances at TBR pile

Island of Lost Girls

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1 edition (April 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-0061445880

This is a story full of twists and turns and unexpected revelations that kept me guessing right up to the end. The plot starts when Rhonda witnesses a little girl getting kidnapped by a man in a bunny suit at a gas station. The fact that it happens right before her eyes and that she kept quiet about it made her a prime suspect and part of the story deals with her trying hard to prove her innocence.

There are parallel plots in this story, one concerning Rhonda's past and the other, steeped in the present. The kidnapping of 6 year old Ernie brings back buried memories of the disappearance of Rhonda's best friend Lizzy when the girls were about the same age as little Ernie.

As the plot thickens and the story takes on form, we see how the lives of these characters in a small town intertwine and how fate messes with the path they each take. The language is simple and straightforward, but boy was the ending a big surprise ! A definite recommendation for lovers of light thrillers with a twist of human drama.