Author: Jackie

Categories
2009

Lanterns on Their Horns – Radhika Jha

Lanterns On Their Horns is a gentle story about life in rural India. Ramu and Laxmi live in a village which has turned it’s back on modern society, but the couple are ostracised from village life because of the shame of Laxmi’s father’s suicide. They struggle to get by until one day their lives are changed by the discovery of a stray cow in the forest.

Manoj and Pratima live a very different life. Manoj works on a new project to artificially inseminate Indian cattle with European sperm, with the aim of increasing milk yield. Rural farmers do not understand the concept of cows becoming pregnant without a bull being present, and so are deeply mistrusting of him. The book highlights the conflict between modernisation and traditional rural life.

Lanterns On Their Horns isn’t like your typical Western novel, it has a distinctive Indian feel and some unique attributes. Whole sections are written from the perspective of a cow. It sounds really weird, but it actually works:

Being alone was new. From the time she was born, creatures similar to her had surrounded her. Now a nameless dread loosened her bowels. It was of a place to which cows went alone. It made her want to run, but she didn’t know where.

I loved being inside a cow’s mind and as with the amazing mouse scene in The End of Mr. Y I now have a renewed empathy for these animals. The pace of the book is quite slow, but I loved learning about Indian culture and traditions so much that I didn’t mind. This book gets deep into Indian life without the depressing violence of A Fine Balance, but it feels much more realistic than Q and A . I think it is a great average of the two.

If you like to be immersed in different cultures or have always wanted to know more about cows then this book is for you.

Recommended.

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Lanterns on Their Horns was released in the UK today. It isn’t available in the US at the moment, but you can buy it with free international delivery from The Book Depository.

About the author

Radhika Jha is a best selling author in India. Her debut novel Smell, won the French Prix Guerlain and has been translated into sixteen different languages. This is her second novel.

What is your favourite book with an Indian setting?

Have you read any great books which allow you to get inside the mind of an animal?

Categories
Blogging Other

The Most Useful WordPress Plug-ins for Book Bloggers

I have found lots of helpful plug-ins during my time in the blogging world, but have abandoned most of them along the way. Here are the most useful ones I’ve found:

Subscribe to Comments

This adds the little tick box at the end of your post allowing people to choose to receive all future comments on that post as an email. I love this feature – I think it really helps conversations to develop in the comments section and that is one of the best things about blogger outreach!

All in One SEO Pack

Top seo resellers is a must if you want to increase page ranking on Internet searches. It automatically generates meta tags and keywords for all your Niche edits posts and does lots of other fancy things which I don’t really understand. All I know is melbourne based SEO helps your page ranking a lot!

HeadSpace2

A meta-data manager with lots of extra features, including the ability to display special messages to first time visitors to your site. I have to admit that this one is a bit technical and I’m not using it to it’s full abilities yet, but this is a very clever plug-in which definitely needs investigating.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plug-in generates a site-map for use with the search engines. Another great one for improving your page ranking.

AZIndex

This allows you to create a page where all your posts are sorted alphabetically. I used this plug-in to create my Books Reviewed page. It is customisable so you can decide which categories are included in your list, meaning all your memes and other non-book review posts can be ignored.

Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. I found it a bit hit or miss in the beginning, but the more you use it the better it gets. Using this tool means that my spam is under control without the need for word verification.

Google Analytics for WordPress available at Google WordPress hosting.

This plugin is the easiest way to set your word-press blog up for Google Analytics. If you haven’t discovered Google Analytics yet then you really should sign up, especially if you love looking at your blog’s statistics!

Contact Form 7

A simple, but flexible tool to add a contact form to your blog.

TinyMCE Advanced

Advanced editing tool for post writing, adding 40 new buttons to the toolbar including smilies, styles and visual characters.

Have I missed out any really useful plug-ins?

Do you use lots of different ones on your blog, or do you stick with the standard template?

Categories
2000 - 2007 Non Fiction

Flu – Gina Kolata

I discovered this book amongst my stock and decided to have a quick flick through it. I ended up being unable to put it down. I found it fascinating, given the current situation in the world at the moment. Ironically I think I managed to catch swine flu while reading it and I think this added to it’s relevance to me.

The book charts the progress of the 1918 flu and explains the devastation it caused. It goes on to explain about the more recent flu epidemics of 1957, 1968, 1976 and 1997 (I didn’t realise there had been so many!)

The book is incredibly readable, and looks at the flu from the perspective of individuals. Seeing the effect that it had on small families made it much more powerful, and the history seemed to come alive on the page.

Wolfe came home to a deathwatch. His brother was lying in a sick room upstairs while his family waited for what they feared was inevitable. Wolfe went upstairs to the “gray, shaded light” of the room where Ben lay. And he saw “in that moment of searing recognition,” that his beloved twenty-six-year-old brother was dying.

Despite being packed with facts this book never came across as dry. Everyone mentioned, from the scientists studying the flu, to the doctors treating it, were vividly depicted and it often felt like I was reading snippets of a great novel rather than a non-fiction book.

The book progresses to explain how scientists produced the vaccine for the virus and the efforts they went to trying to find intact pieces of infected tissue buried beneath permafrost in the Arctic Circle. The book tries to explain the biology of the flu in lay-mans terms, but I do think that people without a scientific background may struggle to understand some of the later sections. This doesn’t really matter though, as there is so much to be gained from the lessons learnt from earlier flu infections.

 There were many sections which contained scary parallels to the world today:

It infected people in the spring of 1918, sickening its victims for about three days with chills and fever, but rarely killing them. Then it disappeared, returning in the fall with the power of a juggernaut.

I really hope that the current swine flu doesn’t become as deadly as the 1918 one, but reading this book has reassured me that we are much better prepared for it than ever before, and with our improved levels of understanding the horrors of 1918 will never be repeated.

Recommended to anyone who is worried about flu, but make sure you read more than the first few chapters or you will be panicking!

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There seem to be lots of books about the flu circulating at the moment. Have you read any of them?

Have you read any novels about the 1981 flu pandemic?

Categories
Blogging Other

I’m one of the best book blogs in the UK!!

champagne_glasses_6I am so happy! I have just been identified as one of the best book blogs in the UK!

I made it to number three in the list of the top ten UK book blogs!

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on my blog – you have made it what it is, and I am really grateful.

Categories
2009 Chick Lit

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx – Sally Koslow

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx is a light, but enjoyable chick lit novel, with a difference. The difference is that Molly is dead, and the book begins with her observing her own funeral.

Molly finds herself being able to watch her loved ones as they go about their lives without her and is also able to tune into their thoughts. We quickly realise that Molly’s life wasn’t straight forward and we are left trying to work out the cause of her death, which isn’t revealed until the end.

The book was too fluffy to be profound or thought provoking, so should be viewed as entertainment rather than giving any insight into the after-life or how to cope with the loss of a loved one.

I found the characters to be quite shallow and I didn’t like any of them, but strangely this didn’t really matter. I was pulled along by the mystery and found the ending to be both unpredictable and satisfying.

Overall, I found this to be a nice distraction from some of the deeper books I’ve been reading recently, but I don’t think I’ll remember much about it in a year’s time.

Recommended to chick lit fans who are looking for something slightly different.

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Categories
Really Old Classics

The Tale of Genji: Chapters 14 – 17

Matthew is hosting a read along for The Tale of Genji. This week I have been studying the different translations and have come to realise that my Royall Tyler translation is the hardest to understand. 

Compare these paragraphs, all taken from the beginning of Chapter 14.

Unable to forget that almost too vivid dream of his father and wanting somehow to lighten the penance, Genji immediately set about plans for a reading of the Lotus Sutra. It was to be in the Tenth Month. Everyone at court helped with the arrangements. The spirit of cooperation was as before Genji fell into disfavor. ~ Globusz Publishing translation

Genji well remembered the dream which he had dreamt at Suma, and in which his father, the late ex-Emperor. and had made a faint allusion to his fallen state. He was always thinking of having solemn service performed for him, which might prove to be a remedy for evils.  ~ Kencho Suematsu translation

Genji thought of His Late Eminence often after that clear dream, and he sorrowfully wished somehow to save him from the sins that had brought him so low. Once he was back in the City, he quickly prepared to do so, and in the tenth month he held a Rite of the Eight Discourses. All the world bowed to his wishes, as it had done before.  ~ Royall Tyler translation

 

Which version do you find easiest to understand?

I have only just discovered the Globusz Publishing translation, but am finding it the easiest to follow. I think I might try to read the rest of the book using this translation.

Chapter 14
The Akashi lady gives birth to Genji’s first daughter. Genji and Fujitsubo’s son becomes emperor and Genji is reminded of the fortuneteller’s prophecy:

“You will have three children,” a fortuneteller had once told him. “Two of them are certain to become emperor and empress. The least of the three will become chancellor, the most powerful man in the land.” The whole of the oracle seemed by way of coming true.

Genji makes a pilgrimage to Sumiyoshi shrine, and it appears that his lick is changing, but then on his return to Kyoto the Rokujo lady falls ill and dies.

Chapter 15
The Safflower lady has fallen on hard times and her house is deteriorating. Genji goes to rescue her from the terrible conditions.

Chapter 16
Genji goes on a pilgrimage to Ishiyama. He meets the Hitachi Governor on the way, who is travelling in a set of coaches with his wife, Utsusemi. They reminisce about old times, but the Hitachi Governor is more worried about his sons mistreating his wife when he dies.

Chapter 17
Genji and Fujitsubo try to send Akikonomu to court, to strengthen Genji’s position, but in the end he quietly withdraws her. They all discuss art a lot in this chapter and hold a painting contest.