RecommendedReads | Thursday Book Quiz!

THURSDAY QUIZ: What do the three books shown above have in common? Tell us and we will bestow the first ever Caterpillar Cafe Award to the first person who guesses it. The prize is, well we are poor, so the prize will be a copy of one of the books shown above. (Your choice!)  Now I am off to catch a flight. (Quiz idea is courtesy of ABE books.) Leave your responses in the comments section and we'll get back to you with a winner! 
Take it away Afsha. Ta Ta folks!


While my blogging buddy Reshma is gearing up to travel to England, Italy and where-about-not, I've been very busy losing myself in fantasy. But I do love literature that allows you to travel which is why I think you should, as much as I, look forward to the forthcoming posts from her Travel Guides in Disguise series. But while I may not be able to travel for at least another year, having a full-time job and all, I'm not fussed. I just want to read. And the book I'm most looking forward to belongs to a genre I can't quite place since I haven't read it yet. This is actually the first time I'm anticipating and recommending a book that is just about to release based on the extract. Fan of fantasy, fiction, Goth, noir? Pre-order with me and let's coffee.


Headline: The Night Circus's dazzling, high-wire debut
Publication: The Guardian
Afsha says: It may be fantasy month for The Caterpillar Club, but for for me fantasy is a way of life. When we published the last set of Recommended Reads last week, we linked you to The Guardian's list of best debut authors. Since then, I haven't been able to stop thinking about The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern. The artwork, in black and white with one lonely item in red, promises a story from a period that passed a century ago and another dimension that can only come to life with a vivid imagination. The extract was intriguing enough for me to pre-order it on my Kindle so that I can enjoy it before the world goes to town with it, running the risk of rendering it as just another overrated novel. The author is being pitted as the next Rowling, something she appreciates but doesn't agree with for several reasons. But what upsets me is that the movie rights have already been bought over by the guys behind, gulp, Twilight (God save us all) . Read an extract here.
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Headline: The Man Booker 2011 shortlist

Publication: Man Booker

Reshma says: The twitterverse was abuzz with excitement as predictions were made. Bookies were talking to people wondering whether it would be a newcomer or an old hand. Who would take that glittering prize? But then you wonder, it's early for the Oscars right? It's the Man Booker prize. My mother waited for it as she would the Oscars and it became the reading list for the next few months. I discovered Amsterdam by Ian McEwan and Disgrace by J M Coetze only because of the Booker.  When I look back I realize that every book I studied at English Lit A-level was part of a shortlist at some point, (The Handmaid's Tale, Paul Scott's Staying On),  from which I infer that they seem to get it right. At the end of the day it's about the authors and not the list. Of late I have not agreed with some of the choices. I did not particularly enjoy Alan Hollinghurst's A Line of Beauty or Arvind Daga's The White Tiger. I did however fall in love with Wolfhall by Hilary Mantel, the best book I have read in a long long time. For me the Nebula and Hugo awards are much more dear in that they cater to that that ignored yet hugely popular spectrum- science fiction and fantasy. I yelped with joy when Sussana Clarke's Strange and Mr Norell (Damn you book thief who stole my first part on a plane!), was long listed. I felt vindicated, like my choice of reading material was finally being acknowledged. Ok fine, so the Booker prize is important. There are two debut authors on this years list and I have read neither. But Pigeon English looks like a favorite to win and my reading list only got longer. Sigh!

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