![Sunday Musings #46: One With The April 19 Wrap Up]()
Sunday Musings |
If I say that April flew fast, it is not an exaggeration. It just seems like it was just yesterday that I was planning for my birthday and it is already one month past the D-day. But April did bring in some fun and yes it is time for the April’19 Wrap up already.
I live in the middle east, if you didn’t already know, and we are getting ready for the holy season of Ramadan, which would be starting tomorrow.
During the month, most people here fast through the day. Most of the shops, stores, and eateries will have a different timing than usual, and some may be open all through the night. Even for outsiders like me this season is a big deal, especially since the normal working hours is reduced to six per day and there are lots of night bazaars and discount sales.
So there is more to look forward this month.
Quick April 19 updates
I celebrated my birthday on a cruise and though the food was nothing to write about, the view was amazing. And the highlight was that it started drizzling when we were out in the sea.
It was equally hilarious and exasperating because it rarely rains here, and when it does it is only to spoil my plans. Anyway, it was fun.
One of the highlights this month would be attending my first book club meet and it was so much fun. Read more about the meet up here.
I am surprisingly still continuing my evening runs, even if it is not daily. The rising temperature is not helping the matters and I kinda have to wait for it to turn dark before I could venture out.
What I read this month:
I did fairly well this month, even when I didn’t read much during the first two weeks of April. Four is not a bad number based on my past track records.
- Bell Jar, The by Sylvia Plath
- Truth or Beard by Penny Reid
- Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The by Agatha Christie
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
My monthly top picks
Working from home has a huge advantage when it comes to binging on Netflix. I know I sometimes abuse that freedom but hey as long as the work gets done, even if it is just at the nick of the time right?
So here is a list of my top pick of movies and TV series I watched in April’19
- Avengers – Endgame
- Avengers – Infinity war (rewatched before the epic finale)
- Meteor Garden – Chinese drama
- Boys over Flowers – Korean drama
- Cuckoo Season 4
- Lucifer – Season 2 (kinda giving up on it!)
On my blog
Here is a quick look on what I posted this week on my blog
Sunday Musings #45: One About The Book Club Meet And Catching Up On Movies
Monday Review: Ghachar Ghochar
Wednesday Tag: Seven things I like in a book
On Friday I posted this list of Book Covers That Made Me Question My Sanity – Part Two
I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.
Around the blogosphere
Let us talk about posts I loved from the blogging community last week now.
Pin me!
Let us chat
How was your week and the month? What are your currently reading? Let us talk.
![Sunday Musings #46: One With The April 19 Wrap Up]()
Sunday Musings |
This week turned out quite interesting. I attended my first book club meeting in person on Tuesday. We spoke a lot about reading habits and obviously books we loved and hated.
You know the usual bookworm scenes. And then we conveniently forgot to discuss about the BOTM for March, The Woman in the Window.
What I read this week
Would you all judge me if I say I have been stuck up with a book for about 3 months now?
Yes, it is Persuasion by Jane Austen. In my defense, I promised myself that I will be hearing only the audio version and that is not definitely not my cup of tea. But I will finally complete it this week, just about 45 min or so pending.
Also I have been reading 1984 by George Orwell, another banned book which I hope to complete in a day or two.
What I watched this week
On Wednesday we caught up on the Avengers: Infinity War again to find out clues for the Avengers: Endgame on last time, before we watched the movie on Thursday. And needless to say, I loved the movie and felt it was worth all the hype and the wait.
And today I finally took the bait and started watching Game of Thrones. I know I am about eight years late but at least I don’t have to wait for each season like others had to. I can binge on it like I usually do. I think I like this way better.
On my blog
Sunday Musings #44: A Restful Week With A Lot Of ME Time
On Monday I reviewed The Woman In The Window by A J Finn
I will be linking today’s post with Caffeinated reviewer’s Sunday post Meme.
Around the blogosphere
- Have you been procrastinating writing reviews on your blog? Dani from Perspective of a writer wrote a post on helping you tackle that problem.
- Trang from Bookidote talks about Instagram pods and why she avoids them. What is your take on pods and do you like being a part of it?
- I am addicted to exclamation points to the extent that I am not sure if I am even using them at the right places. Nicole opened up a discussion on her blog and needless to say that we are everywhere!!
- If you are looking to read YA books by international authors Pages Unbound just compiled a list on their blog.
Pin me!
Let us chat
So that is it for this week. Let me hear what are your plans for your weekend. What have you been reading? What did you watch? How did you like the Endgame movie? Let us talk.
![Sunday Musings #46: One With The April 19 Wrap Up]()
Thriller |
The Woman in the Window is a book that everyone I know has read and reviewed already. So when my book club chose this one as our March BOTM I knew I had to read it. And having been focusing on the classics until now this year, I loved the chance of reading a contemporary thriller. So let us check how that turned out shall we?
About the book
Book Name: The Woman in the Window
Author: Finn A J
Genre: Fiction – Thriller
Characters: Dr. Anna, Ed and Olivia Fox, Alistair, Jane and Ethan Russell, Dr Fielding
Setting: New York, The USA
The plot
Dr. Anna Fox, a child psychologist suffering from agoraphobia, has not left her house for almost a year now. Her daily routine includes drinking a lot of wine while being highly medicated, watching retro movies and peeking into her neighbours’ house through their respective windows. Her life is fairly “usual” until the Russells move into her neighbourhood.
Soon they become her new obsession, especially their young son, Ethan. But when she sees something untoward happening at her nieghbours’ she has no grounds to report about it. How she proves that she did not hallucinate and finds out the culprit form the rest of the story in The Woman in the Window.
My initial thoughts
Though a little long winded in the first half of the book, The Woman in the Window kept me fully entertained. The author takes a lot of time to get us into her world but once you get past the draggy first 100 pages, the pace fastens and the book turns unputdownable.
If you have read as many thrillers as I have done or more, you will find the twists coming a mile away. Anna is not a protagonist that I liked or related to, but I think that is what the author was going for – an unreliable narrator with ‘the whole should I believe or not’ vibe. And maybe that is why there are a lot of comparison with the Girl on the Train, and rightly so.
Things that worked for me
- Despite the predictability, The Woman in the Window kept me hooked with its short chapters and fast pace (the second part).
- Like me if you had a special interest in the unreliable narrator category, you are in for a treat.
- There are quite a number of twists to keep the readers on their toes sprinkled all through the book.
Things that didn’t work for me
- As I already mentioned, The Woman in the Window is totally predictable and it takes quite a while for something to actually happen.
- I didn’t relate to any of the characters in the story, and the narrator was borderline annoying.
Bottom-line
The Woman in the Window might be old wine in a new bottle but will keep you occupied in a pinch, and might even turn to be unputdownable. With the movie version coming before the end of the year, you might wanna read it already.
Pin me!
Let us chat
Have you read this one? Does predictability spoil the fun for you in a thriller? If not, what turns you off in a thriller? Let us talk.
