Name of the book: The Color purple

Author: Alice Walker

Genre: African American women- fiction, Epistolary novel

ISBN 978 - 0 - 15 - 603182 - 0

No of pages: 294

Publisher : Harcourt, Inc.

Price: 388 (on flipkart.com)

Author: Alice Walker, the famous African American writer, has won Pulitzer Award for The Color Purple. She is an activist who has worked for the cause of downtrodden black women. She has coined the term Womanism which is closely associated with feminism.

Blurb says: The Color Purple is the story of two sisters-- one a missionary to Africa and the other a child wife living in the South-- who remain loyal to one another across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.

Excerpt: I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy sick. But he just ast me what i'm talking bout. I tell him I can fix myself up for him. I duck into my room and comeout wearing horsehair, feathers, and a pair of our new mammy high heel shoes. He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway.

Aishwarya speaks: The Color Purple is an account of Celie a black woman who has been marginalized and subjugated by the patriarchal society. She undergoes an array of bitter experiences which a woman of today cannot even think of. She never tries to come out from the cage built by her husband Mr.------- until she meets Shug Avery. Later, Shug, being pictured as woman with a man's will, transforms Celie to a perfect independent woman. Involved in a lesbian relation with Shug, Celie discovers her individuality and even her body that couldn't evoke any feelings in her mind. This saga narrates the distressing life of black women who couldn't even articulate a simple word against the male supremacy. An epistolary novel,The Color Purple also speaks out the strong bond of Celie with her sister Nettie who somehow survives the storms with strong determination. 

I was not reading the novel rather I was experiencing it and that makes the novel more powerful. The author portrays the exact life of black people who were beaten to pulp during the span of colonization.

Each word in this novel expresses the intensity of their pain. Written in Black English, The Color Purple is a Womanist Post colonial novel. A person who has any feeling for woman would certainly love it.

My rating:5/5

Price: $8.95

book review

This was published in A Lot of Pages:P

LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT

AUTHOR : PREETI SHENOY

Genre: Fiction, romance

ISBN 9789380349305

No of pages: 209

Publisher: Srishti Publishers & Distributors (2011)

Price: Rs. 65 ( on flipkart.com)

Blurb says: Ankita Sharma has the world at her feet. She is young, good looking, smart and has tonnes of friends and boys swooning over her. College life is what every youngster dreams of and she also manages to get into a premier management school for her MBA . Six months later, she is a patient in a mental hospital. How did Ankita get here? What were the events that led to this? Will she ever get back her life again?

Excerpt: "How many guys will you trap with your wily charms, you stupid little tramp?" My mother almost spat out. Her words cut deep, scooping out my deepest feelings of apprehension and exposing it threadbare.

Aishwarya speaks: "Life is what you make it", first I saw this book on flipkart when i searched for some other novels for my project. As the title says, life is what you make it. It is an inspiring story in which how a girl ascends back to her success ladder. Ankita Sharma, stabbed by her own fate, sinks deep to the sea of troubles. Later she becomes a psychic person and is torn into pieces. Her determination brings her back to life. The author succeeds in imprinting Ankita's emotions and feelings in reader's mind. 

Ankita's feeling of love swings back and forth and in between Abhi, her boyfriend commits suicide due to her negligence. This incident later has a profound influence on her actions. This is a story of a girl who fights with her own life and makes it her own. Story plot is basically set across in two cities Bombay and Cochin. Preeti Shenoy has captured the nuances of late 80's and early 90's. The book starts with a poem of W.E Henley and it also contains a beautiful poem written by the protagonist during the initial phase of depression.  The language is simple and  I would recommend this book especially for its vividness except some monotonous descriptions. The author is intended to pass a message even through its title: Life is What you make it.

My Rating: 4/5

Price: Rs. 100

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/kochi/A-savoury-art-junction/361757.html

മലയാളം 

its easy to say that its my life, i will play it. but its too difficult to hold on that.
i have to act accordingly with the circumstances or else i shall be marked  as an impudent girl...
oh then sucks my complete life.

here, am wearing many masks. am fed up with this. i have to please everyone for the sake of living.
i hate this.
how can i get out of this ambush???
please say
life irritates me with its stink.
how can i call this as my life, if somebody else controls it?

resolution

I saw blog as a personal diary where one could write his or her feelings, especially those unexpressed ones. Sometimes we cannot express everything as circumstances demand us to keep mum.

But when I visited many blogs, I was surprised to see many persons saw blogging as a serious task and that seriousness was reflected in their respective blogs.( I congratulate all of them who are utilizing this platform to the fullest.) Until then I was footslogging.

Then questions came like hurricane "why did I fail to see blogging as a serious profession? why can't i handle that?"
They began pondering.

As a new year resolution(even though it is late), I am going to take up new responsibilities that includes  blogging,reading(always), and many other areas where my hand has never touched . I shall throw off my lazy garb.
So,after a while, lets see a complete makeover. 

hurray

Check this out...it was a new year gift for me, even though it is not huge by and large(for others)....but i shall cherish this all along my life.

http://heart-bytes.blogspot.com/2012/01/writers-forum-poetry-contest-december.html

http://heart-bytes.blogspot.com/2012/01/results-of-writers-forum-creative.html

competing with world wide participants, where i was only a small drop in an ocean having sharks and whales :p
thanks