Friday 4 December 2015

Randezvous with Watercolors


I've been playing around with watercolors lately and I've discovered they are "my" sort of paints. There is such color, beauty, simplicity in them. So very very different a experience from poster or oil. I'm not going to assume I'm a great painter or anything. I've amateur at the least, so please ignore the glaring mistakes. Or better, point them out so I know what I'm doing wrong. 
I should also mention, the paintings are recreations so all credits to the original. Thank you for the inspiration :)
The very first. Also discovering the kind of paper to use.

Still learning

Kinda getting there I think
 
Yep
Latest one.


 I've given most of these to friends as they are recreations. I'm going to put my effort into the creation process and work on some originals this December holidays. Watercolors have become an addiction of sorts.



 Oh, this one is poster paints. Toothless for a friend on her birthday!


Saturday 24 October 2015

#Wearethereaders



We are the readers,
we are the learners, the teachers,
and the knowledge seekers, we are the readers…
the story collectors, the page turners
we live to read, we read to live
we are the readers.
We are the readers
from dusk through dawn,
 in sleep and yawn,
we are the readers
easy in every chair
we read, we share
we flirt, we dare
we read to move on
to bring a new dawn
to brighten the night with glowing lights
we are the readers
we are the learners, the teachers
we are the readers
we are the readers, for today and forever
yes, we are the readers. 

“We are the readers” is the Kindle Paperwhite ad currently running in India. It is an ad that makes the ardent reader in me pause, watch the entire advertisement, and leaves me smiling each time. It connects with the crazy, slightly obsessed, and a complete book addict that I am.
 We are all readers, the writers, bloggers, and reviewers. We read with no pre conceived expectations, no genre restrains, we read like it is our job, as if the words sustain us. We read in a bubble, a timeless capsule where the world ceases to exist, night or day, through storm and rain, in make believe or simply a stronger reality. We aren’t the “normal” readers, we read everything and never put down a book unfinished, we sit though the struggles and the problems, bad writing and plot twists, mystery and romance, all sort of books out there.
We are the reader, for today and forever.  Agreed?


PS. You can find the video here.
Note: images do not belong to me

Sunday 27 September 2015

#4. Book Reading Challenge 2015 Reviews

Three more book review towards the Reading Challenge. 

A funny book:The Recently Deflowered Girl by Hyaointhe Phyppe

A book a friend recommended: The Kiss of Deception by Mary E Pearson

A popular author’s first book: Love letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
 


                         The Recently Deflowered Girl by Hyaointhe Phyppe


Goodreads:An infectiously funny guide to post-deflowerment decorum, with illustrations by a master of the absurd. 

I don't want to give away any back story about this book. One, because there isn't much to talk about. Two, this is something you need to read with no back story. Only thing I can share is that it is about little incidents when the girl gets "deflowered" following an awkward situation where she comes up with the most well-timed but never-would-have guessed replies.

When my friend wanted me to try this one I was wary as it looked like a picture book. Don't let it fool you; reading it was the craziest, most intelligent, and hilarious ten minutes of my life. I read it again, just to relieve this perfection.




The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson's





Goodreads: In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia's life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight--but she doesn't--and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom--to a prince she has never met.
On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive--and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets--even as she finds herself falling in love.


The Kiss of Deception is the first book in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles.  It's a good day when I find a book that has a gripping story line coupled with fine writing skills. I enjoyed turning the pages of Kiss of Deception and seeing things through Lia's perspective.  Seeing the journey she takes, the transformation into a new identity she builds for herself keeps you reading on. 
Talking about the two men in her life. Even though one is an assassin(Kaden), I was rooting for both of them equally. It is only much later on could I decided I was Team Prince Rafe. I think book two is going to throw some very interesting light on Kaden.

Love Letters to the dead by Ava Dellaira



Goodreads: It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more -- though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was -- lovely and amazing and deeply flawed -- can she begin to discover her own path in this stunning debut from Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead.

I read this book right after I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Maybe that is the reason this book didn't leave an impact for me, the story line being sorta similar with the other one. Nonetheless, this is book you might want t include in your list. There is something dark yet something so warm in the story of Laurel. The one thought running through my head while I was reading it was I wanted Laurel to stop thinking about May and see herself as this amazing person. But this was something she had to learn on her own and it is portrayed beautifully. The ending made me tear a bit.


note: Images do not belong to me

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