My most-eagerly-awaited books of 2018

We are into the second month of 2018 and Wildaboutthewrittenword's wonderful post got me thinking - it's time I posted about my most anticipated books of this year. In fact, for the last few months, I've been scouring Amazon and Goodreads for the books I want to get my hands on this year, because let's face it - every true book lover has an inherent acquisitive streak and lives by the unwritten code - grab those hot new books immediately on their release and hoard them, no matter how many unread books you already have lying around!

So here's my list of most eagerly awaited books of 2018 (new releases from February onwards), in no particular order, complete with curated summaries and comments by yours truly to whet the discerning reader's appetite :):

1. Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley (Expected release date - April 24): 

Some houses don't want to give up their secrets - Wilde House on Long Island in America is one such house. Wilde House now houses a museum and Charley is its new curator. She comes to believe that the eerie atmosphere of the house is somehow linked to the legend of a pair of lovers connected to the Wilde family in the 18th Century.

Did the doomed romance of Lydia and her French-Canadian lieutenant really happen or was it just a ghost story invented by the family and passed down from generation to generation? Who is the ghost that haunts Wilde House now? Will the truth ever come out?

My thoughts: Which lover of gothic novels can truly resist the lure of an old house full of secrets and legends of doomed lovers? :) This book sounds like one of Susanna's patented past-present novels, but maybe with a real ghost this time, if I'm lucky enough!

2. Her Mother's Secret by Rosanna Ley (Expected release date - May 15): 

Colette has been estranged from her mother Thea for many years and has been avoiding returning to her homeland in Southern Brittany. But when she hears about her mother's failing health, she is forced to return to the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer and confront the past she had left behind.

What happened all those years ago and how did it cause the rift between mother and daughter? Even as Thea opens up to her daughter and Colette takes over the running of her mother's flower shop, it becomes clear that Colette is still unaware of a devastating family secret. Will unravelling it change the course of her life?

My thoughts: Rosanna Ley's books captivate me more because of their exotic settings than their plots - this one seems to be no exception. Looking forward to reading more about the beauty and customs of this island in Brittany, France.

3. Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb (Expected release date - November 1): 

It's time for the lake to give up its secrets. 
Kate Granger moves into her parent's home in Lake Superior to recover from the breakup of her marriage, only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed ashore. Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is a dead infant, as cold as its mother. No one can identify the woman, except for Kate. She’s seen her before in her dreams. 

Kate begins to have more dreams of the drowned woman - is she trying to convey something to Kate? How is the woman's story linked to the tragic love story and mysterious murder that is said to have taken place one hundred years back? Is all this somehow connected to the haunting folktale that has been whispered about for generations?

My thoughts: Be still, my beating heart! Spirits of dead women reaching out through dreams, bodies floating in the lake, haunting folklore and centuries-old murders left unsolved - perchance this will turn out be one of the best reads of this year!

4. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (Expected release date - March 20): 

This novel is about an abandoned boarding school for "troubled" girls in Vermont - Idlewild Hall. There are rumours about something sinister in the shut-down school - ghosts, hidden bodies and long buried secrets. When journalist Fiona Sheridan learns that Idlewild Hall is being restored, she is determined to find out more, because she has a vested interest in Idlewild - it was the spot where her murdered sister's body was found 20 years back. Her sister's boyfriend was convicted of the murder and imprisoned but he always maintained that he was innocent of the crime. Fiona can't let her sister's case go because she has a feeling that something isn't adding up. As she delves deeper into the boarding school's past, she finds out that a girl named Sonia had mysteriously gone missing from the school in the fifties and was never found. 

The story goes back and forth between the lives of four girls who are students of the school in 1950 (Sonia is one of them) and Fiona's present-day quest. Is the murder of her sister somehow linked to the missing girl Sonia way back in the fifties? What is the secret that lies buried in Idlewild Hall? Because of Fiona's search, the ghosts of the past are about to rise again. Here's a rather creepy excerpt:

"Mary Hand, Mary Hand,
Dead and buried under land...
Faster, faster. Don't let het catch you.
She'll say she wants to be your friend...
Do not let her in again!"

My thoughts: Sounds like a perfect goosebumps-inducing mystery to be read with all the lights on :)

5. Untitled Book 6 by Kate Morton (Expected release date - September 20): 

Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items - a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist's sketchbook including the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river. The sketched image of the house is immediately familiar to Elodie as the house from a bedtime story her mother used to tell when she was small. But the only person who might be able to shed light on why that might be, Elodie's Uncle Tip, falls firmly silent upon seeing the photograph of the beautiful Victorian woman. Meanwhile, in its quiet bend of the Upper Thames, the twin-gabled house is waiting. For the house wants the truth of what happened over hundred and fifty years earlier to be revealed. 

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists, led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe, descends upon the house in rural Oxfordshire to spend the next few months in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time summer is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared, a priceless heirloom - the Radcliffe Blue Diamond - is missing, and Edward Radcliffe's life is in ruins. 

What really happened all those years back? Who is the mysterious beautiful woman whose name history has forgotten? Will Elodie be able to uncover the long-kept secrets of the house?

My thoughts: Promises to be vintage Kate Morton - complete with mysterious house, skeletons in the cupboard (pun intended) and sepia photographs of beautiful women (there are always a few of these lying around in gothic novels)! 

6. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Numerous Authors, compiled by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman (Expected release date - June 26): 

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. 

Star-crossed lovers, meddling immortals, feigned identities, battles of wits, and dire warnings. Fifteen bestselling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore, legends and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are mystical, enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate.

My thoughts: Folklore, legends, fairy tale, mythology - can hardly wait!! 

7. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (Release date pending): 

Set in a darkly glamorous Paris, the book follows the cursed but charismatic heir of a massive fortune as he plots to steal three ancient and powerful artifacts of fate. He and his crew will have to navigate the elite gatherings of secret occult societies, traveling through Paris' catacombs where they must confront their worst secrets as well as a destiny they never imagined. 

My thoughts: Roshani Chokshi had me at "curse" and "occult" :)

8. Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews (August 28): 

This is the much hyped 10th and penultimate book of the thrilling and addictive Kate Daniels Urban Fantasy series. Kate has come a long way from her origins as a loner taking care of paranormal problems in post-Shift Atlanta. She's made friends and enemies. She's found love and started a family with Curran Lennart, the former Beast Lord. She even has a son now to take care of. But her magic is too strong for the power players of the world to let her be. 

Kate and her enormously powerful father, Roland, currently have an uneasy truce, but when he starts testing her defenses again, she knows that sooner or later, a confrontation is inevitable. The Witch Oracle has begun seeing visions of blood, fire, and human bones. And when a mysterious box is delivered to Kate's doorstep, a threat of war from the ancient enemy who nearly destroyed her family, she knows their time is up. 

Kate Daniels sees no other choice but to combine forces with the unlikeliest of allies. She knows betrayal is inevitable. But she has to try. Will she survive the battle? Will her family and Atlanta survive?

My thoughts: Having been a squeal-y fan girl of the snarky Kate, the not-so-beastly Curran and the entertaining clans of werewolf shapeshifters for a long time, I am waiting with bated breath for this exciting conclusion to a long but never boring series. The author duo has been tantalising fans with snippets from the upcoming book on their blog and I am simply dying to know if Kate's all-powerful father Roland is truly evil or will there be a reconciliation in the end. I also can't get enough of Kate's cute baby who will debut in this book.

9. Smoke in the Sun by Renee Ahdieh (Expected release date - June 5): 

The highly anticipated ending to the 'Flame in the Mist' duology is due for release soon. Following the capture of Okami and his band of rebels at the end of the first book (reviewed by me here), Mariko has no choice but to return to Inako and face the dangers that have been waiting for her in the Heian Castle. She tricks her brother, Kenshin, and betrothed, Raiden, into thinking she was being held in the Jukai Forest by the Black Clan against her will, playing the part of the dutiful bride-to-be to infiltrate the emperor's ranks and uncover the truth behind the betrayal that almost left her dead. 

As Mariko beings to peel back the layers of lies and deception surrounding the imperial court while trying to free Okami, she gets ensnared in a political scheme that threatens her honor, her love and the very safety of the empire. Who is on her side and who is plotting against her? Can she right the wrong that was done against Okami's father all those years back and save the empire too? 

My thoughts: I really liked Book 1 and Mariko's growth arc there. I hope this one will take it further and successfully wrap up all the plotlines (thankfully, this is only a duology!)

10. The Sapphire Trader's Secret by Dinah Jeffries (Expected release date - February 22): 

It is the year 1935 in Ceylon. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child. While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind.  Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. All is not as it seems in the plantation on Cinnamon Hills and soon a shocking betrayal is revealed. Is Leo somehow connected with Elliot's death? What is the secret that Elliot was trying to hide from Louisa before his death?

My thoughts: I like Dinah Jeffries' historical fiction novels because of her ability to transport the reader to exotic settings of the bygone era - be it vivid descriptions of India under the British rule in Before the Rains, Ceylon in the 1920s in the lushly written The Tea Planter's Wife or Vietnam under the French rule in The Silk Merchant's Daughter. The latest by this author appears to be another intriguing one set in bygone Ceylon.

I just noticed that most of the books on this list appear to be about "secrets"!! Hmmm...what does that say about my reading preferences, I wonder! Maybe I'm a person who really likes ferreting out secrets :)

With such a long TBR list, one thing that's no secret is that my plan for most weekends spent at home this year will look something like this - no matter what the weather, I'll be curled up with a book!!

My 2017 Bucket List of Books

My top reads of 2016

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! 

The strangely familiar stranger

To a Stranger by Walt Whitman

Passing stranger! You do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me, I ate with you, and slept with you - Your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only...
I am not to speak of you -  I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
I am to wait -  I do not doubt I am to meet you again, I am to see to it that I do not lose you.

Source: imagekind.com

I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you. 

- Those words stayed with me last night long after I had finished a book in which this poem was quoted. What if the closest relationships that we forge in our lives are not with actual strangers but with people who were our soul companions in past lives? Have you ever experienced a feeling of instant rapport with a complete stranger and wondered how is it that you get along so well, when you barely know each other? 

Stranger still, when I was just 11 years old, I listened to a recording of a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore, which left an indelible impression on me; I was never the same afterwards. It spoke to me in a mystical language of its own, its words luring me like a snake-charmer's tune. By a curious coincidence, this poem been just been posted by Wild About the Written Word. It is a poem which, even to this day, I can recite by heart, in its original Bengali version.  I wondered, even at that young age, whose face would emerge from the mists of memory if I gazed into the fathomless past, as the poet says? Would it be some stranger's face looking at me with strangely familiar eyes? Have I lost someone in some lifetime who I'm eternally searching for? And I wonder still...

Source: astroblog.com

Years afterwards, I read a haunting book called Finding Laura by Kay Hooper. The main character, Laura Sutherland, is an artist with a curious hobby - she collects antique mirrors. It is slowly revealed that she stares into every mirror that she buys, hoping to see someone's reflection behind her shoulder. She knows that once she finds the mirror she is looking for, she will know whose reflection it is that she is desperately searching for. Laura eventually buys her last mirror from the Kilbourne family and looks behind her shoulder in the mirror to see her soulmate, David, and suddenly all her previous lifetimes with David flash by in the mirror. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Is it possible to unconsciously seek a person, sight unknown, who we believe exists somewhere? Is it merely a figment of imagination of writers and poets or do reincarnated soulmates truly exist? Some interesting thoughts on the possibility of soulmates can be read here. 

Source: etsy.com

One may choose to believe or not to believe in soulmates; but no one can doubt that the concept is truly intriguing. Do our souls somehow leave imprints on some other souls, by which we recognize them as our own, in birth after birth? Are soul vibrations continuously being generated beyond our five senses, which even at this moment are sending signals to someone we have yet to meet? Does every experience that we undergo in this life take us one step closer to the one we are ultimately meant to be with forever? Is it, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti says, like a "Sudden Light" that makes everything clear in an instant, revealing the soulmate unexpectedly:

I have been here before,

But when or how I cannot tell:

I know the grass beyond the door,

The sweet keen smell,

The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,—

How long ago I may not know:

But just when at that swallow's soar

Your neck turn'd so,

Some veil did fall,—I knew it all of yore.

Waiting for that veil to fall someday...

Ode to the dark, brooding hero of dreams

Random ramblings of a romantic soul

This post is dedicated to all the Heathcliffs, Rochesters, St. Vincents, Roarkes, Vipers, Devil's Cubs, and Lords of Scoundrels of the book world - the ones who, for years, have inspired in me a deep desire to decipher the meaning of their dark moods, to delve into their hidden tragedies, and to demonstrate to them how indispensable they are to my romance loving soul. These brooding heroes may inhabit the pages of a historical romance, fantasy, romantic suspense or gothic fiction. But wherever they may be found, they never fail to reduce me to a state of incoherent adulation and subsequent fascination with the scenes in which they make their appearance.

So what is it about these unapproachable, dangerously dark, emotionally tortured heroes which keeps me intrigued and eager to alleviate their obscure sorrow? Is it because they continue to plot their revenge and eventually emerge victorious, in spite of being ravaged by destiny? Is it because they are equally adept at disposing off their opponent effortlessly with a well-timed sarcastic comment as well as a sharp rapier blade? Or is it because one encounter with a paragon of goodness and light (read: heroine) is all it takes for the experienced reader to detect cracks in their seemingly impenetrable demeanor? Maybe it's because once committed (usually after lots of shenanigans by the heroine), they are steadfastly protective and unfailingly passionate?  Whatever the reason, I am forever a fool for such a hero and am susceptible to going into raptures over his dialogues and actions. In fact, he can come and brood in my bedchamber all day, while I secretly admire the sardonic curl of his lips, and the tormented, roiling emotions behind his flashing eyes (and then I may ungracefully subside into a swoon, overwhelmed by the broody mood)!

Gentle reader, are you sometimes similarly afflicted too? Do you also wish that the brooding hero would some day dash out from the pages and declare that, for some reason known only to him, you are the one he has been waiting for since eternity? So who are your favorite fictional brooding heroes? 

The Desperately-Seeking-Sequels Syndrome

Rants of a rabid reader

It's happened again. Granted, it was an amazing book which I fell madly in love with, but it left me feeling so terribly incomplete:

Why, you ask?

I'm telling you, I've had enough. Absolutely enough of this cruelty inflicted by immensely gifted authors who weave compelling stories designed to suck me into their worlds, but leave half the threads untied at the end, promising a sequel or two some time in the distant future! 

I have been through this intensely frustrating feeling so many times; yet I become so blindly enamored of the characters and the settings that I keep subjecting myself to this torture. One of my close friends, an avid reader herself, prudently picks up books only after the entire series is complete and hence avoids the heartache that results from reading an incomplete story. I, on the other hand, have no such admirable foresight. I have just reached the end of the fourth book of a six-book fantasy series, The Cat's Eye Chronicles and am willing to do anything, just anything, to know what eventually happens to my favorite characters from the series, Sora and Crash. But do I get a resolution now? Do I get the promise of a resolution some time this year? Do I even know when the next book's release date is? No, no, and no. 

In the good old days of Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and Charles Dickens, no one had ever heard of a series. All books were what are now commonly referred to as 'stand-alone' novels. That did not make them in any way less popular though. I want to know, who, in the history of writing, first came up with this idea of writing a series? Was it the brainchild of some cash-strapped publisher who devised this as a brilliant marketing gimmick to hook the reader? No doubt it succeeded in that purpose. But did anyone spare a thought for the legions of sleep-deprived, eagerly-awaiting-happy-ending fans who were left craving for some sort of a closure, day after day, year after year? Shouldn't there be some sort of law to safeguard the poor, disturbed readers against this?

It's not that I have a thing against the series concept in general, but only a specific kind of series. As every modern fiction reader knows, there are two types of series that are usually written. The first type of series is written by a kind and considerate author, and each book in the series tells a different story which is satisfactorily wrapped up by the end of every book. The thread of continuity in the series may be a set of common characters who are present in all the books of the series. There may even be an overarching story line which runs through all the books and concludes in the penultimate book of the series. However, that doesn't affect the resolution of each individual story in the series. Now I come to the second type of series - the kind which frequently end in cliffhangers or circumstances which come out of the blue and baffle the logical mind. Such situations may be about  much-loved characters suddenly turning out to be traitors (no, it can't be true!) or seemingly dying at the end of a particular book in the series (perhaps she is still alive!) or being separated from their true love (please let them be together in the end!). Anyone who was unfortunate enough to read The Immortals of Meluha, before the second novel in the series was released, will know what kind of ending I'm talking about. What does one do with so many unanswered questions, so many unresolved relationships, and even the fate of the world hanging in balance (what will happen now!**biting nails**)? How does one shrug it all off nonchalantly and go back to one's daily routine, waiting patiently for the next book to be released, whenever that may be? It is just not done, dear authors. 

So what happens to the unfortunate readers in such circumstances? 

They hyperventilate, pace the floor, rave and rant, dream of all possible scenarios that can happen in the next book, stalk the author's Facebook or blog pages for the release date, and in the end, are willing to beg, borrow or steal to get their hands on the sequel when it's finally out! And you thought reading was a passive pastime?

Ask any Harry Potter aficionado and they will tell you how excruciatingly painful the long wait between Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Dealthly Hallows was. My heart goes out in sympathy for the hordes of hapless fans of George R. R. Martin's legendary A Song of Fire and Ice series, who have been waiting with bated breath for the next book since 2011! Just go through a rabid reader's comment posted on Goodreads and you will get an idea of how mass fan helplessness feels like:

"Do you think that it would harm George R.R. Martin's creative process if we forcibly locked him in a plastic bubble to keep him healthy and germ free until books 6 and 7 are complete?"

Another rant on Goodreads from a poor fan:

"It took a nearly fatal run-in with a van for Stephen King to finally guide "The Dark Tower" series to its decades-awaited conclusion. What kind of violent sign from the universe will it take to nudge George R. R. Martin toward the "Song of Ice and Fire" finish line?"

Then there are the truly obsessed ones driven to depths of desperation:

"If George R. R. Martin dies before finishing the series,  I will perform blood magic and bring him back by sacrificing the life of Justin Bieber and/or some other disgusting person."

Therein, dear authors and fellow readers, I rest my case :)

What's genre got to do with it?

The Tipping Point

                                                  

At any point in time, I usually have at least two shelves lined with untouched books, a pile of new books lying on my bedside table, and about 50 freshly downloaded books on my Kindle. Add to that the books I have designated as 'To-Be-Read' on Goodreads and my Amazon wishlist , and the number of books I have yet-to-read-but-really-want-to-read will shoot up to at least 150 (a very conservative estimate)!

So I was wondering last weekend: which book from that pile should I read first. Understandably, it turned out to be a complex decision-making problem, which had to be figured out quickly as my weekend target was completion of at least three of those unread books! I started wondering: maybe there is a pattern to it? How is it exactly that I decide which book to pick up first, considering that I have a seemingly unlimited number of equally lucrative options to choose from? Do I have a particular preference or order of reading? 

                                                 

Here's what I figured out about my book reading process. 

Sometimes I pick up a book based on my mood of the day - am I looking for a fantasy or a goosebumps inducing horror novel? Maybe I should go on a high adventure spree today? Am I in the mood for an intriguing time slip or past-present novel? A little murder and mayhem perhaps? This is more of a spur-of-the-moment book, which I may or may not end up liking. It may just be a way of passing the time and generate a been-there-done-that feeling after completion. Such books are usually dime-a-dozen and meant to be forgotten the moment I finish them.

But once in every few months, there comes a landmark book - which I may have stumbled upon unsuspectingly, but which eventually manages to be powerful enough to alter the course of my reading future! In spite of all the endless number of books I read every year, this book has something so potent that it single-handedly ignites in me an intense craving for similar books with similar settings. For example, early in February, I picked up Rebel of the Sands, and it cast a spell so strong that I immediately rushed to my trusty Amazon store and downloaded the 10 top-rated fantasy-adventure books. So far, I have read at least 20 books of this genre, all within a month, and the hunger still shows no sign of abating. I know, I know what you will say - this is how infatuation feels like! 

                                       

This phase continues for anywhere between two weeks to six months, depending on the intensity of the emotional upheaval caused by the first book which initiated all this madness. During this phase, some classic symptoms exhibited by me are bleary eyes caused by insomnia, partial amnesia resulting in skipping meals, lack of concentration, occasional late arrivals in office, frequent procrastination and extreme unsocial behavior (you have been warned!).

But the question is: does this starry-eyed phase last indefinitely? Fortunately or unfortunately, no. Like all infatuation, this too does pass. By chance, I pick up another path-breaking book which unknowingly takes me to a radically different world or generates in me an unprecedented (?) liking for a particular fictional character, and so another journey into another genre starts. 

But do I prefer a particular genre or type of book always? No, that would be a truly difficult choice and one I'm sure I can never make.

                                                          

                                                     

Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist once said: “Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.” However, dear authors, I beg to differ. As an eclectic reader and a connoisseur of books, I am addicted to my cyclical, unpredictable genre phases - from angst-filled passion to fantastic adventures, from funny coming-of-age stories to creepy horrors, from historical sagas to suspenseful dramas - I want them all, but in small doses at a time, and in the right mix.

So which book are you in the mood for today?