Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Malory Towers & India with Sanjeev Bhaskar

2 books i read quite recently!!!


Malory Towers


An Enid Blyton series.. very graciously lended by a colleague.. there are 6 books in all, each talking about a term at Malory Towers..I thought i had read it but it turned out that i had read St Clares and not Malory Towers... Malory Towers is a boarding school at Cornwall (yippee.. i have been to Cornwall...:))... an extremely cute series about girls staying at the hostel.. the books basically follow a girl called Darrell Rivers from first form to the sixth form. Other characters include Alicia, Betty, Sally, Mary Lou , Gwen etc!!! A very typical Enid Blyton book.. which has these hardworking girls.. who are good at studies... and also at sports.. each girl has her own strength.. like Mary Lou is shown to be under confident scaredy rat.. but blooms out into a fairly confident girl by the end.. the author keeps introducing new characters every form... like Bill who likes Horses.. or Jo who is a loud American.. or Moira who fails.. and every character has something or the other about her.. in a positive or a negative sense.. some personality trait that is very nicely defined.. as it always is in an Enid Blyton book...





And as usual.. there are the rolling hills... lemonade.. cakes.. picnics.. everything you would look forward to in an Enid Blyton book!! I am quite crazy about her books... and i can read them any day .. over and over again!! There is refreshing quality about these books.. because of the descriptions maybe.. the rolling hills, pink cheeks one... A must read and must have for everyone!!!






India with Sanjeev Bhaskar
Sanjeev Bhaskar is an actor.. you might have seen him in the show Kumars at No 42.. i quite like that show.. i quite like him in the show!!!! And yeah, thats why i picked up this book... i thought all the comedy on the show would reflect here.. "the indian jokes" you see!! Surprise surprise.. this book turned out to be quite different from what i thought it would be.. its actually quite a nice book.. as seen by a person who is more a Brit than an Indian (he grew up there)! Its quite engaging.. i wont call it thought provoking.. but its an enjoyable read.. actually one part was quite nice ...wherein he lopes across to pakistan to trace his father's house , school etc!! And some comedy does find its way into the book... like when he met royalty.. there was a big queue and people with bigger bouquets!!!

The book is quite different from a normal "India" book.. as he explores the IT culture in blore.. speaks with the IT crowd.. or goes and meets herders in Rajasthan who name their camel Sanjeev.. or the Mayo school..

I cant say you would have not read all this earlier.. but it is definitely different in what it explores.. Worth reading i would say !!!


ps: i am off to kerala tom.. next post on monday!! Will catch up with you then :)

4 comments:

Kalyan Karmakar said...

I have read the odd Malory Towers and St Claires as a kid. They are about girls but the entire hostel life bit was quite fascinating.

Sanjeev Bhaskar has a wry sense of humour. I'll check it out

Moonshine said...

Enid Blyton books are usually such.. ever read Famous Five.. secret seven or three investigators?? Quite fun to read!!

He is actually quite good.. did you know Meera Syal, the lady who appears as his grandmom in Kumars at No 42 is his wife??

Scarlett said...

I never read Enid Blyton! I used to never read as a kid. How much my parents, aunts & uncles tried! They used to devour books & I didn't even touch one! They tried getting me started with Enid Blyton, but I just wouldn't read. Then something came over me when I was in Class 6th or 7th...I don't know what but I started reading Nancy Drew. And I would only read Nancy Drew till I was about 15 yrs old. Then my parents were like, "Don't you think you're too old to be reading Nancy Drews now?" So I stopped reading again...till I went to college & discovered Sidney Sheldon! Then I started reading regularly...all kinds of books :)

Moonshine said...

You should try reading Enid Blyton now!!! You will enjoy it am sure!!! :)