We are long overdue for a real post about our lives– we’ve had a jam-packed month of conferences, research, data collection, and article writing. We’ll post a real update with photos soon– until then, take a gander at what we’re reading.

We’re all readers but we didn’t bring many books with us to India– so we’ve bought a few books along the way to entertain us. Here are some of our favorite finds.

We’ve gotten a couple of coloring books, and the coolest part is the way they spell it.

A fact book to teach us all about our temporary home– we love DK series and this is packed with info that helps us all get up to speed on the long and complex history of this beautiful country.

One for mom– not connected to India– but I wanted to see if any of du Maurier’s books can match the wonder that is Rebecca. Haven’t started it yet, but can’t wait.

This great book has activities and puzzles, mostly geared toward Willy’s age group, but we’ve all had fun working on it. We bought two different themes (this one is festivals and celebrations) and they are superb.

A sparrow travels through India and shares all kinds of exciting information! Alice loves it.

 

Hoping to entice James and Willy with this one… fingers crossed.

 

For the grownups– so much history, so little time to read it.

 

Some fun mysteries for me, set in the region.

 

It is easy to find British writers here and I love a good Agatha Christie. This one is new to me and I’m hoping to read it soon.

A slightly more modern history– only a few hundred years!

This publisher has great stories with folklore and folktales– the kids love these– usually  feature a morality tale that ends with a wedding of the hero and heroine! Of course they do!

 

I got about 3/4 through this one. I wanted to be a little more surprised about the solution of the mystery, but it was okay. LOVE the cover, the title. and the premise (a police inspector forced into early retirement becomes a private detective, aided by a baby elephant). C’mon. You cannot go wrong with that!

This I loved and highly recommend. A great little mystery set in 1920s Bombay that was delightful. I cannot wait for her next Perveen Mistry novel, which comes out soon. The crux of the story involves the intricacies of inheritance law, which doesn’t sound super exciting, but it was. Sujata Massey has written loads of books, so I’m thrilled to find a new author to follow.

 

Still working our way through this one, which is Alice’s current bedtime read. It’s just starting to pick up and we’re enjoying it. It’s a Victorian era tale with a cast of nutty characters, including a re-animated Wooly Mammoth, written by the comic David Walliams.

A gift from a colleague from Tasmania, where this book is set, that follows the history of the people who have lived at an island lighthouse over hundreds of years. Loved the story and the way it was constructed– so much so that I wanted to re-read it as soon as I’d finished.

 

 

Imagine a book that seems as if it was created by Person #1 watching Disney movies without the sound and then relaying the story to Person #2, who then writes, illustrates, and compiles the tales but limits themselves to one page per story. 

 

Then some of the stories are a medley of themes and fairy tale tropes, mixed and blended in surprising ways. I mean, it is 101 Fairy Tales, which is a lot when you think about it.

It is really something else and makes for an exciting read. Alice loves it, especially the creatively licensed Disney-like princesses. Sometimes we let her “read” us her version of the story, which produces almost the same result.