-
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Talks On Bringing Women To Center Stage: Author Spotlight
“I recognize what they are singing. It’s not Valmiki’s great epic! They’re singing the pages I’d written in my lonely darkness, out of the need to give voice to all of us who were pushed to the edges. Misjudged, misunderstood. My truth, and the truth of women, whose lives touched mine for better or worse. Their laughter and tears, their triumph and suffering, their blessings and curses.” – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Women in history and mythology have rarely been portrayed, if at all mentioned elaborately, with honesty, vulnerability, free of prejudice and crediting to the successes they have always deserved. We know of Draupadi and Sita as being dutiful wives…
-
Dava Shastri’s Last Day: Book Spotlight & Author Interview
“I started my book with a question that largely had to do with themes related to celebrity, legacy, and ego. I completed it by receiving answers I did not know I was seeking: about love, empathy, and gratitude; about the ways our families shape us, sometimes in ways we can never fully understand; about how personal narratives can be read very differently, depending on who’s turning the page.” – Kirthana Ramsetti, Author of Dava Shashtri’s Last Day Dava Shashtri’s Last Day by Kirthana Ramsetti has taken the literary world by a storm and it is still on all our minds. As I finished reading this amazing debut novel earlier this…
-
Meet Perveen Mistry: A Desi Female Sherlock Holmes – Series Review
“She had been meant to die, yet she’d cut her way out of that fate and back to the world she loved.” The year was 2018. I was living in downtown San Francisco and one of my favorite pastimes was to spend Sunday afternoons browsing books in local indie bookstores that are an integral part of the Bay Area community in California. As per ritual, I went to one of my favorite local bookstore in the city, and was browsing through the mystery section when I chanced upon a purple book cover with a saree-clad female holding a briefcase and looking through a meshed window. This window was a very…
-
Financial Freedom for Women: Personal Finance 101
Happy Women’s Day to you! I have been writing on this blog about books, travel and more. But this women’s history month, I really want to highlight what I consider as the most important topic for women today – achieving Financial Freedom and Growth! Imagine yourself retiring on a beach with financial security someday soon… That’s right, I’m here to talk money (but not to preach). Everyone has a different life with a different foundation, different priorities, needs, expenses, and desires. All of these things affect how our bank accounts wax and wane. So, rather than taking a shame route, I want to try and shed a bright spotlight on…
-
Mendocino – The Secret Corner Of Paradise In California
So the biggest thing on everybody’s mind is – what places are safe to travel to as we battle the pandemic with vaccines and social distancing? If you plan on using your own transport, traveling only with your family, and not crowding up places that already have populous hubs, while wearing masks at all times and socially distancing yourself from other travelers, then I say go ahead and travel responsibly! There are several places now opened up in California for safe visitation, but I’ve got the best one for you: Mendocino County Mendocino is an enchanted place filled with real, unspoiled California opportunities and inhabited by fun-loving misfits, mavericks, and…
-
Book Review and Author Interview: Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
“The debt between a child and her mother could never be repaid, like running a foot race against someone fifteen miles ahead of you. What hope did you have of catching up?” This book is not for the faint hearted. You dare not miss it. I have been fangirling over the unique premise of this psychological thriller that I just can’t stop thinking about. In her debut sensation Darling Rose Gold, author Stephanie Wrobel has worked wonders with her stunning writing capturing a dark, compulsive, absorbing story focused on the complicated layers of a mother-daughter relationship. Here is the synopsis: For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold…
-
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Reading Favorites
Did you know that May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month? Since President Carter issued Proclamation 4650 in 1979, May has been designated to pay tribute to the collective contributions and accomplishments of generations of Asian/Pacific Americans in American culture, history, and society. Being an Asian fresh off the boat, I recently found out about this celebration and was thrilled to know that while I have been reading Asian literature since my childhood, there is so much more left to explore, especially from the immigrant perspective. In the last few years, I also started exploring literature other than my own South Asian heritage and more focused on the…
-
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano: Book Review and Author Interview
“It’s a widely known fact that most moms are ready to kill someone by eight-thirty A.M. on any given morning. On the particular morning of Tuesday, October eighth, I was ready by seven forty-five. “ Reading a delicious suspenseful mystery novel is my bookish heaven where I love to get lost (and not be disturbed). And Finlay’s story was just that! Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano is a dark comedy meets murder mystery meets motherhood diaries meets romance. It is a great balance of all these and flows smoothly from chapter to chapter making us be curious, entertained, and laughing along the way. Here is the synopsis: Finlay…
-
Women’s History Month: Great Memoirs By Female Authors To Inspire You
As women, we go out in the world every day to a life that is still quite different than our opposite sex. And while each has their own struggles and challenges, I often get a unique sense of empowerment when I hear personal stories of women. Being an ardent reader since childhood, I have, like many others, found my merriment and solace in books. Biographies and autobiographies have always been popular in the literary world with readers hoping to take an insider look into the lives of famous personalities — to know how they reached great heights or what challenges they faced and how they overcame them. But memoirs have…
-
Book Review and Author Interview: Everybody (Else) Is Perfect
As a new generation of women, how do we recognize ourselves and each other without the pressure to be perfect—however that’s currently being defined? What’s the point of celebrating differences if you’re going to put parameters around just how different they’re allowed to be? Social media has given us insight into politics and helped fuel the #resistance, so we can fight back. But will we? These are some of the hard-hitting and important questions that author Gabrielle Korn has raised through her debut book Everybody (Else) Is Perfect. I recently read this and it left a profound impact on me. Firstly, here is the synopsis and a little background about…
