Ten years seems like an interminable period of time when you say it. Yet, the years between turning 30 and turning 40 seemed like a will o’ the wisp, slipping out of my grasp even before I felt I had a chance to get a good grip on them. Plenty happened of course, good, bad […]
- Gaming
- ...
Woes of a data-starved gamer
Finally, I have a new gaming laptop, one from the Asus Republic of Gamers series (Dell’s Alienware was what I really wanted, but the bank balance had the last word). In the one month that this monster has come into my life, you’d imagine that I’ve been immersed in games. Unfortunately, that has not been […]
Guest review: Genkaku Picasso
Writeside.net is happy to present its first graphic novel review: Genkaku Picasso by Usamaru Furuya. This is a guest review by Shweta Vachani. Genkaku Picasso is a manga, about two friends, Picasso and Chiaki. Picasso—or Hikari Hamura, to give him his full name—is an artist. After he and his friend are in a terrible accident, […]
Review: Vikram and the Vampire
Remember the Vikram and Betal stories from back when you were a kid? If you grew up in India, the chances are you’ve heard time at some point or the other. I first heard them from my grandparents, but my most enduring memory of these stories is Sunday-afternoon TV series Vikram aur Betal. I was […]
- Scratchpad
- ...
A new year, a new plan
Fair warning: This is the mandatory birthday post, so run now if you must. Of course, no two birthdys are the same, but this year is doubly memorable. For not only do I turn 40, which is sort of bittersweet by itself, but it’s also ten years of being an author, which certainly feels quite […]
Review: Not Dead Enough
The year of reviews might be over, but (one hopes) the reviews will keep coming anyway. To start off the year, here’s Peter James’ third book in his Chief Inspector Grace series: Not Dead Enough. It seems that Brian Bishiop, a successful businessman, has pulled off the impossible feat of being in two places at […]
Hello 2016, bye 2015
Oh well, time for the traditional end-of-year/beginning-of-another post. A somewhat sheepish one, for 2015 was a year wasted. In all fairness, some of it was out of my control, but some definitely of my own making. Here’s what my plan for the year was and how I fared: Another 52 weeks of blogging. (Done!) Start […]
Review #52: Fangirl
Yep, it’s time for the final review of 2015, and the pride of place goes to Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. At its heart, Fangirl is (yet another?) teenage romance, but it would be doing it a great disservice to call it just that. This is a story of a tumultous year in the life of eighteen-year-old […]
Review #51: The Man on the Balcony
Thirty years before Henning Mankell began plying his trade as writer of Scandinavian crime fiction, there was the husband-and-wife pair of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. They collaborated on a series of ten police procedural novels starring Martin Beck, a superintendent with the Stockholm police. The Man on the Balcony is the third book. Unfortunately, […]
Review #50: The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency
The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is not your usual detective story. That’s because Mma Precious Ramotswe is not your usual detective—she is “the only lady private detective in Botswana”. And no, you need not be a fan of crime fiction or detective stories to enjoy this book. Mma Ramotswe decided to set up a detective […]