Super Mario: BP Oil Spill Edition

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More Books

My parents returned from India on June 5th. Guess what I got? I got books. I had asked them to bring all the books by Chetan Bhagat. So far, he has written four books:

• Five Point Someone (Movie: 3 Idiots)
• One Night @ The Call Center (Movie: Hello)
• The 3 Mistakes of My Life
• 2 States

I am super excited about reading these books. I have yet to watch Hello and 3 Idiots and I think I will read the books first and then watch the movies. These books will go on my TBR list because I have couple of books that I would like to read first.

I am currently reading Half Life by Roopa Farooki and Last Time I Saw You (Audio CD) by Elizabeth Berg. Next to read is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender only because it is on hold at the library. I won't be listening to any audio books for a while since my brother and I carpool to work. After this, I will read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book has been on my nightstand for such a long time. This is one of those books that I would like to read without any breaks, and lately I have been taking many breaks while reading a book. For now these books will do. I have other books that I would like to read soon. I want to read Sophie Kinsella's other books, Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, and Vish Puri Mysteries by Tarquin Hall. There are just too many books and too little time.

Last time I went to Barnes and Nobles, I saw this really cool bookmark called "50 books to read before you die." I think I will get it next time I go there.

While searching for this bookmark, I came across a really cool blog named Bookmark Kingdom, a blog managed by Vaida. She collects bookmarks from all over the world. I have not had a chance to view them all. I really thought this bookmark was cute. I tried putting the picture on here, but it is too big.

Time to go...I will be back!

As It was Written by Sujatha Hampton

This book has been on my "Reading Now" shelf since February of this year. Due to hectic study schedule, I read about a page a day. After I finished the book, I could not decide what to think about this book. Before I write anything else, here is a short synopsis from B&N:

The epic journey of an Indian-American family which unfolds when men and women, Hindus and Catholics, histories and curses, collide.

 In McLean, Virginia, Dr. Raman Nair lives a life of abounding satisfaction with his tiny wife, Jaya, and his harem of enormous and beautiful daughters. He has been away from his native Kerala, India for so long that he has happily forgotten the ancient Brahmin curse that follows his family like a black cloud, killing one girl for love in every generation. But his wife hasn’t forgotten, nor has his baby sister, Gita. Suddenly his daughters are up to no good and Dr. Raman Nair doesn’t know which way to turn.
 
Initial attraction to book was due to the cover. I am a sucker for books with cover that had something related to India. Then I read the short synopsis on the inside of the front cover, which made me want to read this book even more.
 
I was very disappointed with the book. I felt the story had so much potential. The story of five sisters and Gita was too much to handle at one time. The story is mainly about two of the five sisters, Veena and Dhanya, Gita, and Omanakumari. Veena and Gita's portions were okay but every time Dhanya's story was mentioned, I cringed. I wanted to skip those portions. However, the way the whole book was formatted, I had to read it. The stories jumped around too much. I felt there was no organization to the book, which made it confusing. The only part that was somewhat organized was when Omanakumari's story was mentioned, but even that became confusing at times. There were bits that I enjoyed, which is why I finished the book. I don't even want to talk about the ending. I think Sujatha Hampton was inspired by M. Night Shyamalan when writing this book. Hopefully everyone gets this reference. I was expecting so much more from this book.
 
I give this book 6 out of 10.
 
So overall, I would not recommend this book; however, if you have spare time, you can pick up this book. It is an easy read. I would not say that I wasted my time reading this book, but I could have read something better. I think this is one of those books, where a week is enough. More than a week is waste of time. This is Sujatha's first book. I would give her another chance and read any books she writes in the future.

The Graveyard Book Movie

Awesome news for all Gaiman fans: The Graveyard Book is going to be a movie. There was a rumor that the project was dead. Neil Gaiman posted this article on his Facebook page last week. Here is a piece of the article related to the book:

The Graveyard Book is being adapted as a live-action feature to be written and directed by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, The Brave One, Ondine). The story is Gaiman's nod to The Jungle Book where a young boy is raised by the ghostly, ghoulish occupants of a graveyard, instead of animals. It sounds like the project is moving forward the exact same as it was earlier this year. Wayfare Entertaiment, Framestore (the visual effects company) and Gaiman will also produce, and CJ will co-finance the film and distribute in Korea and Japan. "The projects we are developing together meet our shared goal of producing movies for the global audience," Columbus said. "We see this as just the beginning of many terrific movies together." I hope so!

I am too excited and cannot wait for this movie.

 

I finished As It was Written by Sujatha Hampton today in lunch time and will review it soon. I also started The Last Time I Saw You (Audio Book) by Elizabeth Berg this morning.

    

Now back to work, something I get paid to do.

Yay Me!!!!

Yesterday Texas State Board of Public Accountancy (TSBPA) finally posted the scores for the AUD section of the exam. Here is a screen print of what I saw when I logged in:

I passed my third exam. Yay me!!! I am 60% done. I have one CPA exam (30%), an ethics exam (7%), and four hours of ethics CPE (3%) is left. I am hoping and praying (and keeping my fingers crossed) that I pass it. I do not like Tax and that is my last exam. I am so close that I can almost taste it. I have invested one and a half into this. It is time to wrap this up. I am going to steal Carrie's motto:

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…

Now back to the books/work.