Bookmarks and Popcorns

Genre:  Mystery, drama, thriller Author:  Sidney Sheldon Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐ “ Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and you’re in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game ” I always knew how big an author Sidney Sheldon was. But as a teen, I was not supposed to read his books. You know… Because of the adult content. So like any other good teenager, I read his books in secrecy. And this book was my first act of reading-stealth (I know that’s not a real term. But you know what I’m saying, right?). In short, if I were Ginny Weasley, this book would be Tom Riddle’s Diary that opened a Chamber of Secrets into Sidney Sheldon’s World. Master of the Game is a book about passion, business and family drama of the highest esteem. A story that talks of four generations of the McGregor/Blackwell family that dealt with diamond trading. Jamie McGregor, a diamond prospector, goes to South Africa on a quest for diamonds and rises to powe...

Hi there! If this is your first time here, welcome to my blog, let me introduce myself. If you already know me, let me remind you of my existence 😂 🍁 I am Shreeja. I live in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. I love to read, write and binge-watch movies and series. I also have a bookstagram account (Account in Instagram that talks about books). Do check it out if you can find time. 🍁 I launched my blog account back in 2020. But, within a year, I went missing for a while for personal reasons. I was in need of mental peace, without which even reading seemed hard and forced. 🍁 Now that I am back with, what I believe, a good state of mind and soul, let's talk books. Since I have a lot of catching up to do, let's connect as well. In comments or DM, whichever works for you. 🍁 I know it's not gonna be easy to get back to the progress I was in. But I will try and give my best to do what I love without fearing judgement. I believe in myself. I hope you'd give me some love and supp...

Genre:  Romance, Classic, Victorian Literature Author:  Charlotte Brontë Rating:  Read the disclaimer Disclaimer: I don’t usually rate classics. But if I did, I would be rating Jane Eyre 10/5 stars. Does that make sense? Why would I rate it like that? But then, this is not a review, it is more of a book discussion. And this discussion is going to reveal why I would rate Jane Eyre so. Read on. Jane Eyre, O, you girl! How could I explain how much you gravitate my adorations and respect! I don't know why the school did not encourage us to read this as much as they did Sherlock Holmes. I don't know why parents or elders did not talk about this as much as they did Pride and Prejudice. Jane Eyre should be a must-read to every girl out there. A plain-looking, simple girl who is one of the best characters ever. But firstly, let me tell you why. Jane Eyre, orphaned at a very young age, was taken into her maternal uncle's house and mistreated by her aunt and her son. But ...

  Genre: Crime fiction Author: Chetan Bhagat Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ “Love seemed elusive to us, but we had something else. We had friendship, which in many ways is even more beautiful than love.” I know I have given a rating of 3 stars. But it’s more 2.5ish. Okay. I have this book because my friend gifted it to me. And he gifted it to me because I asked him to. You have to understand that I was a huge fan of Chetan Bhagat as a teenager. I had developed a habit of reading his books ASAP. Song: Dharala Prabhu Title Track (by Anirudh Ravichander) Now I am finding it hard to get rid of this habit. You know it’s unfair how an author starts disappointing you more and more  after you have fully become his fan. It’s not fair because when you become someone’s fan, there is this inbuilt loyalty in your adorations for that person’s work. And loyalties are hard to ditch just like that. Okay, enough with my whining. Let’s jump to the business. One Arranged Murder is a story of 2 detecti...

Recently, 2 of my friends saw my Amazon account and were surprised to see that I have only 3 reviews. And I was surprised that they found it unbelievable and I kinda know why. The thing is... I don't often buy books online. Why? Well, my mum never liked the habit of buying or hoarding books. So, when I was in my fifth grade, my sister introduced me to a lending library near my house. But my library days would require its own post. So let's skip that for now. During my college days though, I started saving. I would save a portion of my pocket money and buy a book from a little store near my college that sold second-hand books. My dad noticed this and took me to book fairs ever since. Even in book fairs, I chose to buy many second-hand books rather than a few new ones. The first time I bought a book with the utmost satisfaction, was when I had a job and bought a brand new book from a bookstore near my house with the money I had earned. I have been buying books and stationer...

  Genre: Fiction, Romantic comedy Author: Siddarth Raj Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Almost everyone who goes to college for the first time will have a mind prepared for crushes and proposals, for love and heartbreaks. Not everyone will find love but the ones who do will assume it to be everything. After all, this could be the one, right?! Never Date a Senior Girl is a book I won in a Giveaway. I was very excited to read it, for the concept was unique and it was the first giveaway that I had won. When at last I started to read the book, 10 pages later, I was no more an adult. Instead, I was the 14-year-old girl who had run to the library after discovering Chetan Bhagat and Durjoy Dutta, and picked every Indian Author’s romantic comedy books one by one because of the mere surprise that Indian authors could write so well and loving the way the stories and people...

  Genre: Gothic fiction, romance, tragedy Author: Emily Brontë Rating:  Read the disclaimer Disclaimer: This is not a review. Rather consider this a discussion. Yet, it might contain the storyline because I feel not many have read Wuthering Heights, merely because it’s not being spoken about much. I always wanted to read Wuthering Heights because of the contrast in people’s opinions about this. This mainly tingled my curiosity when I noticed some people who normally liked romance novels hated this book, in spite of it majorly being a romantic novel. Initial part of the book, left me wanting more because this is the first Gothic Classic I read. But after finishing the book, I closed it and stared at it for a while, saying nothing, thinking nothing. Lockwood is a new tenant at Thrushcross Grange. He visits his landlord, Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights where he meets some unwelcome, incongruous people. He stays there that night only to be frightened by a ghostly presence...

  As a kid, I was not told many stories except for a few Indian Mythological ones. I still remember my friend's reaction when I told her that I have never read fairy tales and asked, "What is Sleeping Beauty?" Two years later, in my fourth grade, we had a period called Library. 👀 An entire 40 minutes in the school library, with books. That was the most absurd thing I had heard back then. But then, when the period actually arrived, when I stepped into the most clean and quiet place in the school, I discovered that just piles of books stacked against the unreachable length and breadth of 4 walls, could be the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Forty minutes later, when we were asked to return the books and head back to our class, I was sad. I, someone who ran at the idea of reading, felt like a piece of gum stuck to a chair and that huge table, unwilling to detach myself from there. I felt belonged. I felt a lot of things. But there was this one feeling that rushed over...