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Month: October 2020

> 2020 > October
Review: The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

AuthorSurbhi SinhaUpdated onOctober 25, 2020December 7, 2020 CategoriesBook Review0 Comment

Review: The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

I have to begin by saying that I have been jumping to read this book since June this year and if you’ve been a regular customer of the wordsmith who is Ken Follett, you know you will not be left disappointed! I am glad I chose to re-read The Pillars of the Earth (click here …

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Review: Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

AuthorSurbhi SinhaUpdated onOctober 9, 2020December 7, 2020 CategoriesBook Review0 Comment

Review: Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

“People had to grow on their own, make their own decisions, good and bad. It was those mistakes and the choice or refusal to learn from them that gave life—and art—their texture, their meaning. It had to be a choice.” Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar is a beautiful coming-of-age story about a girl – Sheetal …

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Review: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

AuthorSurbhi SinhaUpdated onOctober 5, 2020December 7, 2020 CategoriesBook Review0 Comment

Review: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is an epic masterpiece set in 12th century England encompassing the construction of a cathedral in the small town of Kingsbridge. It is the first novel to the Kingsbridge trilogy and its prequel – The Evening and the Morning – having come out recently, I thought it’d …

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//turning a year finer™// i am three days late //turning a year finer™// i am three days late in sharing this birthday post. i have been away for almost a month, so I'm a month late in posting anything at all. 🤭 i think i lost my only pair of glasses too. 🙄 i started this year grumpy, i didn't wanna turn a year "wiser", didn't wanna turn a year "older" either ofc! can't turn a year "happier" cause of the whole "happiness is a journey not a destination" saying and with covid still being an eminent threat. 😖 so i choose to turn a year finer (like wine 😏) instead. i take control of things i can, i let go of worries i have no control over, i give myself the credit i have worked hard to earn (basically kicking imposter syndrome's butt 😎) and i try to be better than i have been recently. i wanna thank all of you for your love and kind wishes which you shower on me all year round and not just on my birthday. i wanna say a special thankyou to the special ones who sent me thoughtful and wonderful books which continues to turn me into a finer reader. i wanna thank my favourite few for turning my grumpy day into a memorable one. and i wanna take a lil thanks for myself for not quitting on hope. 🤗 here's to another year of books, love, laughter, never-ending friendships and new ones too, hopefully travel and all things fine! 🥂
Happy Diwali to all those who celebrate!!! ✨ Se Happy Diwali to all those who celebrate!!! ✨ Serving y'all some Diwali goodness, by recommending two books - The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by @honoree_jeffers and She Who Became The Sun by @shelleyparkerchan - which I absolutely fell in love with this festive season! 💛🧡❤️ I wish and hope for everyone that this Diwali truly brings us all lots of love, joy, good health and light. I know Diwali this year is harder for some and for them I hope for strength as well! 🙏🏻💛 Enjoy your evening, enjoy the festivities but also here's my yearly reminder to not pollute the environment, light a 100 diyas, brighten the evening with your beautiful smiles and dress up like a pataka instead (I chose to be a gende ka phool this time 🤭)! ✨ Love love love always to this beautiful community, y'all brighten up my days all year round anyway. ❤️ #theurbanreader #bipocbookstagram #bipocbookstagrammer #happydiwali🎉 #happydiwali #diwalioutfit #diwaliready #gendekaphool #gendaphool #shelleyparkerchan #honoréefannonejeffers #shewhobecamethesun #thelovesongsofwebdubois #thebigbookbox #tbbbox #beapatakadontburstone #pataka #readdiversebooks #OwnVoices #diversitymatters #LetsReadOwnVoices
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fan The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers What does one write about a book that has everything written in it? How does one express the multitudes of emotions felt through a book spanning across 200 years in just under 800 pages? How does one thank the author who invested 11 years of her life to bring to you this mammoth of a family saga to represent millions of families in the United States? Anything I write about this book will not do justice to it, so instead I emphasize that you ABSOLUTELY MUST read it. You ask me why? The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois is an ode to women - specifically Black women, to mothers, to survivors, to those in pain, to those recovering. It's an ode to their loss, their grief, their strength, their sacrifices, their resilience, their conviction and their will to never stop moving forward. I had the most profound time reading this book. I am neither Black nor Native American and yet I felt seen, I was also educated throughout. I have invested a month in this book, not only on the tale being told but also researching the history brought to light by the author in the most lyrical format. I appreciated the Songs and chapter format which ran in parallel to narrate the tale. The Songs told the tale of the ancestors while the chapters put light on the life of Ailey Pearl Garfield. I waited with bated breath for the two storylines to merge and had my fingers crossed hoping that the transition would be smooth, I'm glad to say it was even better! I knew I was reading a perfect work of historical fiction because the author skillfully leads you to exactly that event in history which she'd like you to read up and learn about. This is the exact reason why I had the most fun researching (you can find all of it in my highlights) and this is why learning felt natural. Through her debut novel, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has established herself a historian masquerading as a masterful storyteller. @honoree_jeffers ma'am, I thank you for bringing this story out into the world. There aren't enough words to express how this book has impacted the life of a woman sitting half way across the globe. 🙏🏻
“The great big universe was infinite and beckoni “The great big universe was infinite and beckoning, and I was at the precipice, ready and willing to jump.” Being a teenager is hard. Being an young adult is harder because nobody and nothing can prepare you for all the experiences life will put you through. Being an young adult also means new responsibilities, freedom and consequences. The Colours We See by Kaisa Winter introduces you to Hazel, a young girl who travels to the United States from Britain not only to do some sight-seeing but also to get away from her emotionally-dependent, gaslighting mother. I really liked her character because despite everything, she is ready to take on new adventures and is open to stepping out of her comfort zone. When Hazel lands in the States, she is picked up by her cousin Nathan and they drive to Madison, which is located just on the outskirts of Chicago. Nathan convinces her to perform at an open mic which is where she meets Lawson, Liam and the rest of the band – Object Impermanence. This is where the story becomes one big roller-coaster. Liam who is the lead-singer of the band grew up in a Church which looked at music as sin. With no support from his parents, he steps out into the world with his talent and love for music. Hazel, who not only sings well but is an artist as well, thanks to the training she received from her mom also comes from a family she is trying to get away from. Between their shared family histories and their love for music, the two find themselves falling for each other. Read the entire review on my blog, link in bio. The Colours We See on the surface is a fun, once in a lifetime road-trip kind of story but it has some pretty heavy undertones as well. A few trigger-warnings for you to keep in mind before starting: substance abuse, suicide, toxic relationships and death of a friend. This book isn’t JUST a romance novel it's better. I’d like to congratulate Kaisa Winter on her debut novel and I’d like to thank her for sending across a copy of the book for me to enjoy and review. I truly believe that @kaisa.winter is an astounding author with a true talent of keeping in touch with reality while writing a fictional tale.
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 💚 T The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 💚 They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and I suppose this book in one short phrase is exactly about that. Set in the Regency Era of sorts, you'll immediately find yourself thinking about Bridgerton, novels by Judith McNaught set in the same era and even Great Gatsby by the descriptions of the parties. The Beautiful Ones introduces you to Valerie, Nina and Hector. Valerie is a high society favorite who starts trends and ends them. She is the cities favorite. Nina is Valerie's cousin, but from her husband's side of the family. Nina is not the typical city girl. She fancies beetle and butterflies instead of shoes and clothes. Lastly, Hector is a performer who uses his telekinetic tricks to entertain people all around the world. If I were to give you a gist in the most straightforward manner then here's all you need to know, Valerie and Hector were lovers when they were young. The man decided to make something out of himself before he could marry Valerie and they decided to wait. Valerie was obligated to marry to a decent (read wealthy) man for the sake of her family. That's where this love story comes to a pause. Once Hector was famous and rich he came back in hopes of winning back his love. But we all know time changes everyone and he finds that the love he once wanted isn't what he needs. He meets Nina and these two have a rollercoaster of a relationship on their own - with Nina falling in love with Hector and then finding out the truth about him and Valerie. This book is all about grand dresses, fancy meals, high society gossips, jealousy, betrayal and in the end about love. Who ends up with whom and is there even a happy ending? Well y'all will really have to read the book yourselves to find out. While I personally wish that the book would be more dramatic but SMG's writing is so atmospheric that you get through the book rather easily. If you're a sucker for romance and are looking for some Regency Era vibes then this is your go to book! Thank you @chapteronebookstores for having me on the BoTM Tour and sending me a copy of this beautiful book. contd. in comments...
Today I'm sharing a very happy picture of myself, Today I'm sharing a very happy picture of myself, courtesy @virginia_reads 🥰 Thank you Virginia ❤️🤗 Do you all see how well these go with the lilac walls in my room? 😍 #theurbanreader #bipocbookstagram #classics #virginiawoolf #delhibookstagrammer #delhibookstafam #pinkpenguinclassics #penguinclassics #happyreader #happyreading #pink #happy #pinkbooks #bookworm #bookblogger #bookstagramindia #readersofinstagram #readersofig #happypeoplearetheprettiest
//to err is human// today i'm thinking about exce //to err is human// today i'm thinking about excellence, mistakes, kindness. in the pursuit of excellence have we as a society forgotten that it's mostly achieved after many failures? or is it that we've all grown up that way - in a place with no room for errors? have we as a society forgotten the virtue of kindness? or have we all forgotten that ideally the next step after pointing out an error which has been corrected is to either forgive or move on? oh but wait we don't live in an ideal world which means whatever comes after "ideally" doesn't apply. so like Lew Wasserman said, "to err is human, but to forgive is against company policy", i suppose? i probably sound naive as i say this but not stepping on someone while they're down seems to be all talk. even my brain at point is like, "come on girl ofc it's all talk" followed by a VERY elaborate eye-roll. so tell me really, what is the point of reading books or consuming media or learning anything at all when at the end of the day it always comes down to using them to belittle someone instead of raising them up in conversations?!?! when i started writing this, the intention was for it to be an opinion piece or something of the sort but what does another opinion on all of this add to the conversation? maybe. maybe it's time that the work is done silently & conscious efforts to genuinely be better people within the community are put in. yes, instagram/bookstagram whatever you want to call it at this point is all about the numbers. yes, the entire world runs on numbers; marketing, businesses, everything. yes. but if you too are on a quest to rise by putting others down without taking out the time to understand why the mistake was made, you're no better. in no way am i encouraging unethical behaviour. neither do i imply that excellence is something one shouldn't strive for. but there is a need to allow others the space to grow by making mistakes and learning from them, to encourage people to ask questions instead of making assumptions & to learn to let go. "...it's always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is."
The other day, I received a confidential file from The other day, I received a confidential file from James Benjamin Lancaster. He's compiled a set of documents as evidence, exposing the inhumane treatment of a group called the Undying in the Avalonia Zone (AZ). The file contains The AZ Constitution (modern day UK), an awareness poster guiding citizens on how to identify & report an Undying (U), a medical report of an U subject at their State Medical Facility # 732: The Tower and finally a polaroid of an Ouroboros graffiti found near the site of a terrorist attack. Here's a copy of my report: Report of The Undying Tower by Melissa Welliver Name: The Urban Reader Role: Book Reviewer Report: ☑️Log ◻️Study ◻️ Incident It is the first book of a dystopian trilogy. It's set in a future dystopian world which followed after a religious war & countries nuking major cities. Our subject Sadie Abbott is a 16 yo who finds herself in the middle of an attack pulled by a rebel group called The Alchemist. She's hurt in the attack which is when the medical staff comes to know that Sadie is not a Natural, she's an Undying - someone whose cells replicate faster than normal humans and hence doesn't die (until killed ofc). How will she explain that she's not guilty to the authorities now? Findings: The story has a basic dystopian premise but is very well told, the pacing is perfect from the start & one will not find themselves to be bored at any point. It takes from classics such as 1984 & Animal Farm & creates an entirely new world with an interesting concept to follow. The author accomplishes to accomodate political views from both sides, we all can learn so much from it while trying to have a conversation amongst ourselves in today's world. Never being preachy, she also clearly shows what it means to stand up for what you believe in & protecting those who are most affected by an unequal social construct. Actions: MUST read the next book in the trilogy to quench my thirst from that well placed cliffhanger. Escalate: ☑️ Yes, recommend that everyone reads this book. ◻️ No I hereby confirm that the information contained herein is true & to the best of my knowledge and belief. Thank you @agorabooksldn for the review copy!
//mega meltdown// last night i had a mega meltdow //mega meltdown// last night i had a mega meltdown. now you're probably thinking we've heard of meltdowns but what's a mage meltdown? but i find it apt to express it as mega because man was i angry and all that anger has to go somewhere... usually comes out in the form of tears. what i realised yesterday was that anger is an emotion that while most often expressed isn't talked about. while talking to my constants about this rage, i found them at a loss for words on how to deal with mine because they had never seen me THIS angry before. "what do you say to a person who is mostly cheery and forgiving?" this made me further realise how i as an individual had underrated my own anger. it made me realise how often i push my anger to the back burner & busy myself with other activities than feel the intensity of its entirety. what was i angry about? EVERYTHING. yea, ik ik that's so vague. But mega meltdowns are always about everything and nothing in particular. i was, am... angry about how monotonous life has become since the pandemic started, angry that this isn't ending, angry that men are STILL making laws for women, angry about patriarchy and it's impacts even today, angry about being told i'm running out of time, angry about people using huge microphones at 11 in the night to go about their religious proceedings, angry about climate change, angry about people not giving a damn about each other, angry that my packages aren't arriving, angry that i have no control over any of this. *sigh* trust me this sounds like frustration but it was anger last night. and my people felt helpless, well most baffled, at the other end of the screen. but i screamed, clenched my jaws, threw a fit, threw my arms up in the air out of despair, stomped my feet, punched my pillow, put my face in and screamed, cried at the end of all this and finally fell asleep exhausted. again, like all the other days i simply am vulnerable and talk to you about a feeling, idk why i'm sharing this moment either. but i think what i have been meaning to say is that, it's ok to be angry sometimes, it's ok to go through the entire cycle of feelings and it's ok to call someone you trust to listen.
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theurban_readerThe Urban Reader@theurban_reader·
4 Nov

Happy Diwali to all those who celebrate, have a safe one!!! ✨

Serving y'all some Diwali goodness, by recommending two books by @BlkLibraryGirl and @shelleypchan - which I absolutely fell in love with this festive season! 💛🧡❤️

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theurban_readerThe Urban Reader@theurban_reader·
29 Oct

I finished reading The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by @BlkLibraryGirl
Last night.

Through her debut novel, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has established herself a historian masquerading as a masterful storyteller.

To read more click on the link below👇🏼

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVnJjaUPy5t/?utm_medium=share_sheet

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theurban_readerThe Urban Reader@theurban_reader·
26 Oct

Friends who remind you to wish other friends on their birthdays are gold.

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lovedoveclarkedove clarke 🕊@lovedoveclarke·
21 Oct

my kitten has discovered her reflection

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theurban_readerThe Urban Reader@theurban_reader·
22 Oct

It's the time of the year again when you continue snoozing.

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