Tutto a te mi guida (Everything leads me to you)*

The storm that seethes
buried in the sky

the wind that crumbles
stars on the ground

the smoke that darkens
candles on the window

the face that flickers
smudged in memory

the moment that scatters
lingering within the soul

the lifetimes that fade
echoing in my ears

the end that awaits 
each pathway I take

are all you.

*This Italian phrase is supposed to have been inscribed on a ring gifted by Marie Antoinette to her alleged lover, Axel von Fersen. I borrowed it as the title of my poem as it aptly describes what I want to convey through this poem.

Who walks in the shadows?

Book review: The Walker in the Shadows by Barbara Michaels

It's no secret that I like books written in the good old 60's and 70's, when the plots were simple and yet engaging, relationships were less turbulent and morals were not as lax as they are now. In fact, the quaint manners and social mores of those times are what attract me most to these mysteries and romances. Give me a novel by Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Barbara Cartland or Elizabeth Peters and I would any day be more excited to read it that the breakneck-paced thrillers by modern novelists! I am currently going through a gothic revival phase and one of my favourite gothic comfort reads are the mildly scary novels by Barbara Michaels (the pen name of Barbara Mertz who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters). Having read most of her novels in the past, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had missed out on a few promising ones. So I started off with Ammie, Come Home which I liked and moved on to The Walker in the Shadows which I liked even more.

Pat Robbins lives with her college-going son, Mark in an old house in Maryland. She is slowly recovering from the loss of her loving husband, Jerry, one year back, and is doing her best to bring up her son single-handedly. Her husband had been a connoisseur of antiques and architecture and had been instrumental in buying and redecorating the old house. The house just beside theirs is a mirror image of their house, having been built together in the nineteenth century for two sisters. In the present day, the house has an unkept appearance due to the neglect of its owners and is inhabited only by an old and cranky caretaker, Hiram.

When the book starts, Pat comes to know that the house next door has finally been sold and the new family is about to move in. It seems her new neighbours are the Friedrichs family - a pretty, young girl named Kathy and her stern and overprotective father, Josef. Mark takes one look at Kathy and falls head over heels in love with her and she appears to reciprocate his feelings too. However, the fly in the ointment is the rude and unwelcoming Josef, who resents Mark and discourages Pat's overtures of friendship.

But things are about to change. The new occupants of the house seem to have awakened an evil presence that appears in Kathy's room every night at one a.m. and tries to harm Kathy. It reeks of malice and destroys everything that comes in its path. Circumstances compel the two families to get together to solve the identity of the ghost and what it wants. The rest of the book is about how they delve into the past and try to find a way to stop the ghost which seems to be gaining in power as the nights progress.

I loved the interactions between the characters, especially between the older and the younger generations. Mark is intuitively clever and in his zeal to protect Kathy, reads a lot of old books and diaries belonging to the Civil War era. Pat tries alternatively to curb Mark's enthusiasm and cope with the evil looming over both the houses. Josef injects a note of rationality and maturity into Mark's often wild theories. Kathy is sweet and charming and takes it all in a spirit of adventure. What I liked were the witty dialogues and observations infused with Barbara Michaels' trademark humour - for example, how Mark keeps devouring enormous quantities of food despite the peril they are in,  how Mark's so-called guard dog Jud is terrified of ghosts and so on. I also liked the mystery element - the research into the past of Maryland gradually reveals secrets about the two families that inhabited the twin houses in the nineteenth century. A couple of good twists at the end left me pleasantly surprised and very happy that I had picked up this book :)

This book has further whetted my appetite for ghostly mysteries and I am off to read more hitherto unexplored Barbara Michaels books! Looks like my gothic reading phase is here to stay :)

These are a few of my favourite things!

Today I got inspired by the fabulous charts my fellow blogger Wildaboutthewrittenword creates and thought I'll try my hand at a similar infographic myself :) Come to think of it, what better way to represent my reading preferences in 2016? 

If I retrospect on my reading journey so far in 2016, the first half was predominated by the fantasy genre - I suddenly stumbled upon a previously undiscovered wonderland of adventure fantasies, fantasy romances and fairy-tale retellings. Dragons and flying griffins, curses and spells, wizards and witches, seers and healers, fairies and angels all flitted in and out of my imagination at a breathtaking pace!

That fantasy-loving phase lasted till July, when I found myself slowly veering towards past-present mysteries with a dash of romance. For a few months, I was intrigued by secrets covered up in the past, lost letters, suddenly discovered old diaries and black-and-white photographs of long-dead ancestors! Some of these books, such as those written by Rosanna Ley, had the added bonus of being set in exotic lands like Morocco, Italy, Spain and Burma.

Lately, I have found myself developing an affinity for goosebumps-inducing gothic fiction with a healthy mix of supernatural, mystery and romance - nicely in time for the imminent chilly weather! How long this particular phase lasts is anybody's guess at this point, but I do have a lot of gothic and supernatural books on my Kindle to explore. So it can be safely assumed that it won't be terribly short-lived.

In between these major phases, whenever I have felt the need for a light  and entertaining read, I have picked up a historical romance - sometimes filled with frothy humour (the Julia Quinn kind) or serious emotions (the Mary Balogh kind) or just plain angst (the Meredith Duran kind).

2016 has been an unprecedentedly fantastic reading experience so far, with me discovering new genres and many hidden gems. This was the year when the number of good books I kept coming across finally compelled me to make this long-desired book blog a reality. The very fact that I have managed to write so many blog posts is a testament to the quality and quantity of review-worthy books I have read in 2016.

Now that the last quarter of the year has set in, we will soon find out the kind of reading journey the next year will bring. While I can't foresee my reading patterns in the next year, I can definitely predict that it will be another year choc-full of enriching books that transport me to many more unexplored territories and introduce me to many more intriguing characters! 

A seductive sojourn in Sicily

Book review: The Villa by Rosanna Ley

Italy has long been one of my favoured destinations and I eagerly pick up every book that has this ethereal, ancient land as the backdrop. Rosanna Ley is my new favourite author, because of her astounding ability to capture the true essence of a place through her descriptions of colours, scents and food of the land. So when I read that she has set a novel in Sicily, Italy, I grabbed the book instantly.

"The Villa" lived up to all my expectations - it is one of the most seductive novels I have read - every page, every word is drenched with the flavours and fragrances of the magical land of Sicily. I felt like I could taste the golden olive oil and the sun-dried tomatoes on my tongue, and see the azure sea and the ruined Greek temples right before my eyes.

Sicily; Source: travel.allwomenstalk.com

The book starts with Tess Angel, a 39-year old single mother, receiving a letter from a solicitor that she has inherited a villa in Sicily from a stranger, Edward Westerman. She has never met or even heard of Edward Westerman, though she realizes that he must have some connection to her mother, Flavia. Flavia is a Sicilian by birth, though she left Sicily long back to settle permanently in England after marrying Tess' father, Lenny. In fact, Flavia has shunned all mention of Sicily and Tess has never been able to find out anything about her mother's mysterious past.

Tess has just broken off an affair with a married man, resigned from her demotivating job and also needs a break from her volatile relationship with her rebellious teenage daughter, Ginny. So she takes this opportunity to visit Sicily for the first time, to find out what link Edward Westerman had with Flavia and if someone in Sicily can shed more light on her mother's past. Tess is convinced that Sicily holds the key to her mother's unnatural reticence about the past. Also the will stipulates that she cannot sell the villa without visiting it once.

Villa in Sicily; Source: www.casainitalia.ch

On arriving at the village of Cetaria in Sicily where her villa is located, she meets an old lady named Santina, who she discovers is her mother's childhood friend, and Santina's enigmatic great-nephew Giovanni Sciarra. Tess is enthralled by the Villa Sirena perched on top a hill overlooking the beach and spends her initial days soaking in the atmosphere of the small seaside fishing village, exploring its shops and markets full of fresh produce, and scuba diving in the sea. Her nights are peaceful - sitting under the stars, eating the local cuisine and listening to the soft sounds of the sea below.

A village market in Sicily; Source: www.thewealthscene.com

Near her villa, on the way to the beach, Tess notices a small shop displaying stunning, many-hued mosaics made from bits of sea glass and stone pieces. She meets the reticent and moody mosaicist, Tonino Amato, and spends hours listening to him recount the folklore and myths that he brings alive in his mosaics - fascinating tales of a singing mermaid (after whom Villa Sirena or House of the Mermaid is named), a cursed serpent prince, a fisherman named Ciccu who rescues a fish from death and many others. Tonino also takes her to the picturesque ruins of a Greek theatre and temple in Segesta amidst olive groves. Tess starts feeling a strange pull towards this vibrant and mystic land and decides that she wants to renovate the villa instead of selling it.

Greek theatre in Segesta in Sicily; Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Back in England, Tess' daughter, Ginny, slowly comes to terms with what she wants from life and realizes how much her mother means to her. Flavia also starts reconciling herself with her painful memories and writing down the events of the past in a diary so that Tess can finally know the truth about what happened all those years ago. She painstakingly puts down her beloved recipes as part of a tradition of handing over family recipes to the next generation - Sicilian favourites such as Arancine or rice balls, Panelle or fried chickpea Polenta, Pasta alla Norma, breads drizzled with olive oil, and Cassata.

Sicilian food; Source: www.siciliangirl.com

In Sicily, Tess is caught up in the seductive beauty of the place and drawn to the brooding Tonino. Giovanni also seems to be interested in her, though his motives remain mysterious. Tess talks to Santina and starts to find out more about what happened to her mother all those years ago. She also gets embroiled in an age-old feud between the Sciarras and Amatos, represented in the current generation by Giovanni and Tonino. It seems that there is a mysterious treasure or 'Il Tesoro' that disappeared years back and which everyone seems to believe is hidden somewhere in the Villa Sirena. The plot thickens as Tess tries to figure out who among Giovanni and Tonino she can trust.

Why did the unknown Englishman, Edward Westerman, leave his beautiful villa to Tess? What happened to Flavia in the past that led her to cut off all ties with her family and Sicily? Are the Sciarras or the Amatos connected to the infamous Sicilian mafia? Who is trying to threaten Tess off her property and why? Is the hidden treasure just a myth? All these questions are answered most satisfactorily in the end.

Sicilian landscape; Source: www.planetware.com

But what mesmerized me were the descriptions that flowed effortlessly from Rosanna's pen. Rosanna uses landscape, weather and food very effectively to convey emotions and passions. The allegorical legends of the sea, the tempestuous weather, the temperamental people, the fresh produce of the markets, the earthy Sicilian breads and pasta are all so vividly portrayed by Rosanna that I guarantee that anyone reading this book will be instantly smitten by an uncontrollable yearning to visit Sicily. I, for one, now have Sicily on my list of top 10 must-visit destinations!