The House of Hidden Mothers

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Colourful Book Covers

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. The theme of this week is, as the title suggests, sharing some of your favourite colourful book covers. I had a lot of fun going through my books and seeing what colourful covers I had. It looks like I’ve read more books with colourful covers than are currently sitting on my shelves waiting to be read so all these link to my reviews of them – some of which are nearly five years old!

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Young Avengers Vol. 1: Style > Substance by Kieron Gillenand& Jamie McKelvie
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

When We Collided by Emery Lord
Frangipani by Célestine Hitiura Vaite
Seed by Lisa Heathfield
The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal
The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven

What are some of your favourite colourful covers?

TOP 5 WEDNESDAY: Most Unlikable Characters

Top 5 Wednesday is a great feature created by GingerReadsLainey and hosted by ThoughtsonTomes. To find out more about Top 5 Wednesday and the upcoming topics, check out its Goodreads page. This week it’s all about unlikable characters, these aren’t the villains you’re supposed to hate, these are the protagonists or side-characters that for whatever reason you just can’t stand.

FullSizeRender (7)Vivi – When We Collided by Emery Lord
I was not a fan of Vivi. She is almost obnoxiously happy and though you do find out why she’s like that I never felt any real sympathy for her. She’s incredibly jealous and mean if her boyfriend does so much as talk to another girl, she is reckless and when people try and ask her why she’s doing stupid or crazy things, she just says they’re trying to control her. Vivi was probably the most unlikable character I’ve encountered in a while.

 

ready player oneWade/Parzival – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
There was something about Wade that put my back up. He’s often entitled or thinks he’s so great since he’s the first to make a break through looking for James Halliday’s Easter egg, he’s also kind of controlling which is never a good quality. I think the main reason I don’t like him is because of the way he thinks of and talks about Art3mis. It’s creepy and if I ever found out a guy was that obsessed with me I’d run away screaming.

the house of hidden mothers elenasquareeyesShyama – The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal
The main reason Shyama is unlikable is because she’s pretty self-centred. All she wants is a baby and in doing so she ignores her teenage daughter. She just thinks her daughter is being moody for the sake of it but doesn’t realise something more serious might be going on because she’s not paying anyone any attention but herself. If a characters self-centred, I’m probably not going to like them.

 

Anna and the Ffrench Kiss ElenaSquareEyesÉtienne – Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
The main reason why I found Étienne so unlikable throughout most of the novel was because he didn’t communicate! He ends up stringing along not only his girlfriend but a friend he’s supposed to really like and care about. Plus, he’s one of those romantic leads that’s almost sickeningly perfect so that just makes him annoying.

asking for it louise oneilEmma O’Donovan – Asking For It by Louise O’Neill
This is an interesting one because Emma is a really unlikable person but there’s no way she deserves what happens to her. Emma is beautiful and she knows it so she uses it to her advantage, she’s mean and bitchy to her friends, she steals from them and she always thinks she’s better than them. She is the sort of person you wouldn’t want to be friends with in school.

What protagonists or secondary characters did you end up finding really unlikable when you probably weren’t supposed to?

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Ten Books Set Outside The US

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week. This week it’s all about different book settings, especially as so many popular books are set in the USA, so it’s good to share books that are set in different places to the norm.

FullSizeRender (1)Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
This book is set in Brighton in England. It stuck with me as I actually live about 45 minutes away from Brighton so it was fun recognising the place that the story was set.

 

 

tokyo heist elenasquareeyesTokyo Heist by Diana Renn
As the title might suggest, the majority of this book is set in Tokyo. The descriptions of Tokyo are very vivid and then when the story moves to Kyoto it sounds like such a beautiful and peaceful place.

 

lagoon elenasquareeyesLagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Lagoon is set in Lagos in Nigeria – a place I’ve never been too and I’d never read a book set there either. While I have mixed feelings about the book, I loved how Lagos was described and it felt like a bustling city that may have it’s problems but was still kind of beautiful. (more…)

FRIDAY 56: The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice. The aim is to share a few sentences of a book (whether it’s the one you’re currently reading or not) so other people might be enticed to pick it up.

Here’s the rules:

– Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
– Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it)
– Post it.
– Add the url of your post to the Linky on Freda’s most recent post.

the house of hidden mothers elenasquareeyes

“I’ve always been a healthy girl,” she said in her mother’s sing-song accent. “Which, of course, is the Indian way of saying fat.”

That was from page 56 of the hardback of The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal

REVIEW: The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal

the house of hidden mothers elenasquareeyesForty-four year old British Asian Shyama has fallen in love with a younger man and they dream of having a child together. Shyama’s elderly parents Prem and Sita aren’t sure about it but they have bigger problems when it comes to relatives in India taking advantage and Shyama’s teenage daughter Tara couldn’t care less about her mother’s mad plan to have a baby. Meanwhile, Mala lives in a rural village in India, trapped in an oppressive and lonely marriage and dreams of escape. Mala and Shyama each have something to offer the other, but will they both get everything they dream of?

The House of Hidden Mothers has a lot happening in it. While the main storyline is Shyama and Toby’s quest to have a child and how that brings Mala into their lives and affects their family and friends, the other family members each have their own problems too. Prem and Sita have been battling in the courts for their property (which has been taken over by relatives) for decades and their blind faith in the law where it is so easily corrupt has left them almost broken. Tara was the most fascinating character for me, her relationship with her mother really isn’t that great – her mum is so focussed on having a new baby that she ends up neglecting Tara and doesn’t notice when anything’s wrong or just puts it down to Tara being a teenager – and bad things happen to her but she works through them and finds a cause she really wants to fight for and embraces her Indian roots. (more…)

WWW Wednesday – 4th November 2015

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words. It’s a simple meme where you just have to answer three questions:
– What are you currently reading?
– What did you recently finish reading?
– What do you think you’ll read next?

I think it’s a great way to share my recent reads as my reviews are always way behind what I’m actually reading.

So here’s my answers!

What am I currently reading?tokyo heist elenasquareeyes
Tokyo Heist by Diana Renn
I love anything to do with heists. I love true stories about heists (as long as no one got hurt) and I love books and films about heists so this book is right up my street. It’s all about a missing painting and I’m pretty much bang on half way through and I do like it even though the main characters dad is the absolute worst – he is really not a good parent and he bugs me whenever he appears.

What did I recently finish reading?Fairest elenasquareeyes
Fairest by Marissa Meyer
Though it’s not a proper part of The Lunar Chronicles (Re)Readalong I wanted to read Fairest before Winter came out this month. As Fairest is a prequel it was interesting to see what Lavana was like when she was younger and what made her so evil or if she was always like that. It was a quick read and now I’m really looking forward to see what happens in Winter.

What do I think I’ll read next?the house of hidden mothers elenasquareeyes
It depends on when I finish my current read. Either I’ll read The House of Hidden Mothers by Meera Syal, a book that seems like it’s a family drama but also has some humour in it, or if it’s out I’ll go straight to Winter by Marissa Meyer because I can’t wait to see how the series ends.