Review- The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair

This was a thrilling book. Since it dealt with writers, I found it all the more interesting. It did tend to get a bit melodramatic though. That's when the author would insert Malcolm's deranged mother, for comic relief.

I also found the resolution extremely improbable. SPOILER ALERT- It seemed like everyone conceivable could have committed the crime. Sure, surprise the reader, but then you risk an unwilling collapse of disbelief.

That's my two bits.

Go set a watchman- Review

Reading Harper Lee's sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird only led me to compare it the one I had first read. Go Set a Watchman came off unfavourably. Yet, it has its moments.
The ones that shine are still the childhood snippets. Harper Lee's unique, deft style, still kept me reading. The story was too thin for my taste.
It is sure to take you on a nostalgia trip. Why can't we ever resist sequels? We just can't bear to let go of old friends, even if means settling for crumbs of their former selves.
I had first read To Kill a Mockingbird as a child, and perhaps as the protagonist was a child, I loved the book.

As an adult now, reading about the adult Scout, I processed the novel differently. The philosophical parts, the autobiographical parts jumped out at me.
The book is a little too Southern. To Kill a Mockingbird dealt with more universal issues. Think this book would have benefited from better editing. The rambling parts could have been cut out. The plot could have been made stronger.
Guess the publisher didn't want to rock the boat. Lee would have been quite capable of telling them to stuff it. And then they would've had to kiss millions goodbye...which they were obviously never going to do.

Deadly dieting

I didn't diet till 2011. I relied on gymming. Once I got engaged, my coach put me on a diet. He asked me to start having honey in warm water in the morning.  That's a practice I still follow- the honey diet. Then I would do aerobics.
I would have unbuttered brown bread for breakfast. Then an apple at 11 am. Lunch would be normal phulka, dal, sabzi with salad and buttermilk. Muri at 4:30 pm and sprouts at 6:30 pm and normal dinner- phulka, dal, sabzi. The idea was to keep my metabolism active the whole day.
I felt light, lost weight and my body started rejecting junk food like lasagna.
After marriage,  I was only able to stick to the honey diet. I still have toast for breakfast and normal lunch and dinner,  but snack time is troublesome.
Growing sprouts is a chore. So I have switched to bhuna chana. I tried having salad for lunch a couple of days in the week, but I would feel hungry in an hour. My workouts have become erratic so I try to focus on eating right.
It is said that 80 percent of weight loss happens through dieting and just 20 percent through workouts.
It takes willpower to say no to that ice cream. Already in the day our willpower gets quite a workout,  even if we don't.
We all do things we don't like. Errands, house work,  assignments,  drain our willpower so we treat ourselves to that chocolate.
Fitness coach Taylor Simon said that a treat should be monthly.  For most of us it is daily.  We need to say no to the junk food drug.
Even if we can't hit the gym, we can work out at home.  I enjoy trying out different workout videos on Pop Sugar. I often feel lighter than the days I go to the gym.
With age, our metabolism slows down. So it is important we defy social conventions and try to stick to our diets even while dining out.
Only then will that jiggling arm pipe down. Only then will we pass a stranger's Manhattan once over. Sticking to my diet burnishes my halo. There is seriously nothing that tastes as good as thin feels.
Even if your family does not follow a diet, you can make modifications like fill up on salad as a starter so that you eat less of a fatty main course.
I would search for calorie counts of the food I ate and keep an Excel, so that I was more aware of what I was eating.
It's easy to do this now, thanks to apps. I weigh myself regularly too, so that I know if I am putting on weight and can cut back.
Good luck to us all in this W.A.R- Women and Reduction ;-)