Short Story 21: A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J. D. Salinger

At 91, literary genius J.D. Salinger passed away very recently and as I had not read anything by this celebrated author, the 1st thing I did was to hunt for something to read that was fast and easily available and short. Just to get a feel of his writing, just for that. The link of this short story was found at Nymeth's blog today and off I went to read him!

Oh My! I must have missed on a hell lot, if I had not taken the time to read this story. Surprisingly I loved it. I do not know how to explain, but I think it is one of those stories, that's going to stay with you for some time. And as you re-read the story again over time, you see more meaning and more depth in those few lines. It is a simple story, yet there is so much more than simpleness that adds to it.

I would recommend it HIGHLY. Even if you have not read any short story, you must read this one. This story actually reminded me why I love this genre a LOT.
Thanks is due to Nymeth, as always.

Go Read it Now, won't take more than 10-15 minutes, trust me - I am a slow reader :).

This is my small tribute to him and now I have to pick up Catcher in the Rye, which I have had for a long time, but never read it.
Never had enough courage, I think ... :)

Short Story Challenges!

I am joining a Short Story related challenge as well. And I am sure I am going to enjoy it!

First up,

I am committing to read ten short stories by ten different authors over the course of 2010. Come JOIN Kate and me here!

Of course I am already participating in 100 Shots of Shorts hosted by Rob!

Cover Attractions!

No Doubt this is a Beautiful cover and it seems this book is equally very good, reviews tell me!

Synopsis from GoodReads.com

Na-o-mi. The three syllables of this name, unusual in 1920s Japan, captivate a 28-year-old engineer, who soon becomes infatuated with the girl so named, a teenaged café waitress. Drawn to her Eurasian features and innocent demeanor, Joji is eager to whisk young Naomi away from the seamy underbelly of post—World War I Tokyo and to mold her into his ideal wife. But when the two come together to indulge their shared passion for Western culture, Joji discovers that Naomi is far from being the naive girl of his fantasies, and his passion descends into a comically helpless masochism.

A literary masterpiece that helped to establish Junichiro Tanizaki as Japan's greatest novelist, Naomi is both a hilarious story of one man's obsession and torment, and a brilliant evocation of a nation's cultural confusion.

I have already added this to my wishlist! Which cover are you attracted to today!?

On personal front, nothing much... We have successfully emptied one of our dumpyards and now we have 2 more to go. Packing is going on day in and day out, very slow progress... I had a great LONG weekend, rest.. rest ... and more rest! Now the bad thing is my body is not responding when I ask it to come out of the REST mode! Ha....anybody herd of side-effects of resting?! :-D

What else, is hapening with you guys?

To all Indians, Wish you all a very Happy Republic Day.

And then what do you think about the new version of the Song of India?! I think that it is BORING, has too many irrelevant people in it and has missed out on MANY people! Sachin Tendulkar is missing for starters :)

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

Reading is a pleasure, ain't it! And it is more interesting when you discover a book out of the blue and it turns out to be a masterpiece!

One of the many reasons why I LOVE the blogging world, is because " you find books everyday, out of the blue".

So there I was hopping around my Google Reader from blog to blog, reading what had been going on in each of my friends reading lives, when I chanced upon a review of a book named Daddy-Long-Legs (and Dear Enemy) by Jean Webster on Nymeth's Blog! Now, what was that?! I went back again to make sure I had read the title right! Yes, I did! And then read the review too.. and if you guys read Nymeth's blog, you know how she can make you LONG to read a book she has loved :) and that's exactly what I FELT!

So off I went in search of this little epistolary novel first published in 1912! 1912? It has to be available online, I thought... and Good God, there it was... you got to LOVE Project Gutenberg [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/157/157.txt]!

This is an epistolary novel about a girl from an orphanage who is given the opportunity to attend college by a benevolent trustee of the orphanage whose only demand is a letter outlining her progress in college.
So this is what I have been busy reading every free minute I had in front of my computer and I tell you it is a DELIGHTFUL read. I have had that smile on my face since I started reading this one! I love it totally!!

So in tab, of the happy-go-lucky book hunting that I have been doing, I think this has to be one of the best classics I have read so far. It is just AWESOME! It is a small book... full of life and inspiration and I LOVE this author. I mean, what imagination!!

OK, I am not going to BORE you guys anymore, you ought to go read it and spread the word, I am sure you will LOVE Judy, her imagination and her happy-go-lucky attitude. Oh! you have so much to learn from this 17-18 yr old!

Anybody can rise to a
crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty
hazards of the day with a laugh--I really think that requires SPIRIT.

So true, don't you think?!

Jamais je ne t'oublierai, Judy! [ I will never forget, Judy!]
I need to find this sequel now - Dear Enemy

Marley & Me!

At the start of 2010, I unconciously made a promise to myself that I will read only happy, feel- good books. This was more to lift my spirits up and smile than to feel pain, sadness et all! Well I need to be happy and smiling and with the stress of everyday life, this small little thing never seems to be the case with me and I am sure a good makes-you-smile book is all I need to pump up my spirits.

And well like a breath of fresh air, Marley & Me was just the book I needed!

What can I say about this one?! It might not be a master-piece that won awards or sorts but it definitely is an awesome book for any dog - lover..nope... any animal - lover. I, myself have a doggie that I purely hate for her many antics but love to bits for the same antics :)

I guess Marley lifted my spirits up and I was laughing out loud most of the times. A mood-booster, I can well imagine what a pain-in-the-a**, he was! But somehow, you just could not hate him... there was something new to find out in every chapter of this book and the only thing I was sad about was not ACTUALLY seeing him in action :) After this my only wish would be to see some Marley pics and videos :)

I however saw this video where you see him the way he was.. all through the book Grogan keeps on telling you about his size but it never really dawned on me until I saw this video. This is actually the shooting of a movie in which Marley "acted" as himself :)!! The movie's name is - Last Home Run, I am definitely going to try get a DVD if possible :D!

I guess you can see from the above video how it would have been really difficult to manage this utterly nurotic, full of JOY and  life Marley, I love him and I LOVE this book as well. There are many quotes in this book that time and again would have resonated in every dog-owners mind who loved his faithful friend! I leave you with some quotes and some parts that had me laughing out loud and I hope you pick this one if it is there in your piling TBR pile :) and laugh! I surely want to goto my mom's place and give my stubborn, utterly spoiled dog a sweet hug and kiss :)

I just remembered what my husband said to me about our dog a few days back ... " You know you 3(mom, sis and me) never treated our dog as a dog! So it doesnot really know how to react like one :D.." LOL! I was like so true :) :)

S

Being considerate, Marley never puked on the hardwood floors or even the kitchen linoleum if he could help it. He always aimed for the Persian rug.
-pg. 90

I had never thought of Marley as any kind of role model, but sitting there sipping my beer, I was aware that maybe he held the secret for a good life. Never slow down, never look back, live each day with adolescent verve and spunk and curiosity and playfulness. If you think you’re still a young pup, then maybe you are, no matter what the calendar says. Not a bad philosophy for life, though I’d take a pass on the part that involved vandalizing couches and laundry rooms.
-pg. 168

Marley reminded me of life’s brevity, of its fleeting joys and missed opportunities. He reminded me that each of us gets just one shot at the gold, with no replays. One day you’re swimming halfway out into the ocean convinced this is the day you will catch that seagull; the next you’re barely able to bend down to drink out of your water bowl.
-pg. 213

In the lonely blackness, I could almost taste the finiteness of life and thus its preciousness. We take it for granted, but it is fragile, precarious, uncertain, able to cease at any instant without notice. I was reminded of what should be obvious but too often is not, that each day, each hour and minute, is worth cherishing.
-pg. 228

Go get your copy and read it! Or may be give it to someone who really needs the laughs and the smiles, just like Shona who gave me her copy of this wonderful read! THANK YOU Shona!

Here is a link of the Author's website.
A link to photos of Marley :)
Thank you John Grogan for such a delightful book :)

Short Story 19: Uncle Richard's New Year's Dinner

Short Story 19: Uncle Richard's New Year's Dinner

Available ONLINE!

Rating: 4 on 5!

A very short story about 2 brothers fight over a piece of property and about there distancing from each other for a long time because of it! Lovely story, predictable but left me with a happy feeling!

Short Story 20: Miss Sally's Letter

Available ONLINE

Rating: 4 on 5

Miss Sally is embittered by males and teaches her niece Joyce the same. This story is basically about why she hates men and how she realizes everything in the end. Lovely, feel good story!

I have started to love Lucy's short Stories very much! And I love reading her Anne stories as well! It is a treat for anyone looking for a happy, feel good read!

Cover Attractions + A small Update!!!!

Good Day Everyone!

I am BACK! and I am going to do some blog hopping today :-) ! I have missed out on loads of post, oh my! I was overwhelmed when I opened my reader, I have 1000+ posts to catch up on :o)!

No worries, I will do it slowly ;)

Now this above cover comes from Kals library, who is going to read it/ reading it ;)

Looks pretty neat! My Friend and co-author of this blog Nidhi ( who is God alone knows where these days) wrote a nice review of this one, which can be found here ! I never got around reading this one **sigh**.

I thought I will tell you why I was down the whole of last month!

Well there is no better way than saying that right now I am 6 months pregnant with our 1st baby ((GRINS)) and well last month, around 2nd-3rd week, I and my poor husband fell sick :(( **weather, rolling eyes**! And that was it, I was down for 2 weeks, with after effects of this sickness, cold and stuff like that, I resisted eating any medicines because I didn't want our baby to have any issues, but when it became really bad, I had to get some prescriptions from our beloved doc, and I was OK. Though the cold had me up on nights as well, and I was irritated, angry and tired all the time LOL!

Well come January, we thought everything is going to go back to its normal self, when my office mates thought that it was time to move my team- mate to another team and leave me alone to handle things at work. We had 2 difficult weeks at work, where in I had to work on weekends as well to get things running LOL!

Just when I was thinking ok, that's it, we have all the bad time behind us, we are yet again in for something NEW! This time it is MOVING! Yes, we are moving into our dream home in 1 months time. Though this should make me HAPPY, oh well I am really really HAPPY, but the part about shifting, packing, unpacking, setting up the house makes me feel tired already AND I have not even started LOL!

So there you go :-) That's what has made me neglect my sweet abode here.. and I want to THANK YOU ALL for sending me your wishes :o) I feel so NICE :o)

Another thing new on the Blog is that I have started comment moderation. Off late, there have been spam messages everyday here and I didnot want it to create problems for me, so I started moderation, I hope you guys don't mind :)

I hope everything is been well and you all had a great Christmas and New Year too! Inspite of all what has happened, we did celebrate New Years day :). It was our 1st wedding anniversary and it was perfect. Just the two of us and Hubby dear took me out to lunch at a fancy restaurant and all and it was all nice and cozy :-)!

Tadaaa.. that's all! Have a good day and I hope to be regular here in the coming days.. and YES, I will be coming to your blogs too :) :)!

Hiyallo :-)

I am sorry... I have been away from my blog for so LONG!
First it was health and then LIFE LOL!
I am sorry friensd.. I will be back with a better post than this one :-)

I have not read anything in this period.. and I think it is time to get back! :o)

I will be back soon and will be visiting your blogs soon!