Tears of the Giraffe

The second part in the No:1 Ladies Detective agency series, this follows the protagonist Precious Ramotswe. As expected, this was an easy breeze read and enjoyed the feel. Ramotswe continues to explore and solve the cases and the changes to her personal life comes in as a pleasant surprise to the reader. There seems to be some philosophical notes spread across the book which gave some room to ponder including the emphasis on Botswana morality and the way it erodes in the new generations.

A recommended read and I would be looking forward to complete the series…

Into the High Ranges

This book, labeled as mountain writings contains snippets or excerpts from other books by various authors on mountains, the culture surrounding them and some memoirs, edited by Ravina Agarwal. It even gives a glimpse into the eco conservation themes.

It was an okay read and I didn't complete it - I was expecting the feel of an arm chair traveler...

Man Booker Prize 2010

Howard Jacobson won the Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, on Tuesday night for “The Finkler Question,” a comic novel about friendship, wisdom and anti-Semitism.

"The other titles that did make the short list were: “In a Strange Room,” by Damon Galgut; “The Long Song,” by Andrea Levy; “Room,” by Emma Donoghue; and “Parrot and Olivier in America,” by Peter Carey.

a Fourth Millenium?

Excerpt from http://journalstar.com/entertainment/arts-and-culture/books/article_2f421a8a-d57e-11df-a978-001cc4c002e0.html

Stieg Larsson was close to completing a fourth Lisbeth Salander book. According to a new interview with his father and brother, the Swedish author, who died in 2004 at age 50, was nearly finished with a fourth book. Apparently, it was chronologically the fifth book in what Larsson had intended as a 10-book series. After writing "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," Larsson jumped ahead to the fifth entry and intended to go back to the fourth. The fourth (fifth, whatever) Millennium book likely won't see the light of day because of a dispute between Larsson's family and his longtime partner.

And the Nobel goes to....

The 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Mario Vargos Llosa, a Peruvian author for his "cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"

This is an author I wanted to read and have seen his books in Blossoms few times. Will try once and post my thoughts :)

Some of his writings are here -

1959 – Los jefes (The Cubs and Other Stories, 1979)
1963 – La ciudad y los perros (The Time of the Hero, 1966)
1966 – La casa verde (The Green House, 1968)
1969 – Conversación en la catedral (Conversation in the Cathedral, 1975)
1973 – Pantaleón y las visitadoras (Captain Pantoja and the Special Service, 1978)
1977 – La tía Julia y el escribidor (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, 1982)
1981 – La guerra del fin del mundo (The War of the End of the World, 1984)
1984 – Historia de Mayta (The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, 1985)
1986 – ¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero? (Who Killed Palomino Molero?, 1987)
1987 – El hablador (The Storyteller, 1989)
1988 – Elogio de la madrastra (In Praise of the Stepmother, 1990)
1993 – Lituma en los Andes (Death in the Andes, 1996)
1997 – Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto (Notebooks of Don Rigoberto, 1998)
2000 – La fiesta del chivo (The Feast of the Goat, 2002)
2003 – El paraíso en la otra esquina (The Way to Paradise, 2003)
2006 – Travesuras de la niña mala (The Bad Girl, 2007)