And then my cat peed on Sue Townsend…..

Confessions of THIS middle aged woman!!
I borrowed Townsend’s Confessions, and delighted in
her inimitable humour…but every now and then she had a crack at her cat and I wasn’t so amused…I couldn’t decide whether she really loved her cat or not!
Anyway, my cat Bif decided….i caught him studying the open page with a twitching tail. I drifted off, with a jigsaw puzzle of words in my head….and when I awoke, I found this strange stain on the book…and an even stranger smell…

Oh well….i guess it was time Townsend was reviewed by a feline
reader!! I think he gave it the tails up.

Confesssions of a Middle Aged Woman, by Susan Townsend
is a witty collection of typically Townsend observations on a variety of topics.

"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel you've lost a friend."
Paul Sweeny

For all you young moms and dads out there - read to your babies everyday!!! Kids whos parents read to them everyday know more words by the age of two than children who have not been read to. its a wonderful shared activity which can continue for many years...before the computer takes over...:) And reading becomes a habit for life. What a lovely thing to gift a child!!

Dick Francis

Dick Francis, the author of 42 books - many of which were mysteries that centered around the equestrian world - passed away today. He was 89 years old. Francis was born in Southwest Wales in 1920. He served in WW II as a fighter and a bomber pilot. Like many of his main characters, Francis was a champion jockey. His books have been translated into over 30 languages.

Years ago (it feels like a lifetime, actually), when our kids were helping to celebrate our first grey hairs with their teenage antics, i was included into a "mom's gang" who had known each other forever, but were crazy enough to include this unsociable, erratic person in their mad lunch meetings. Much water has flowed under the bridge and it is a long time since i managed to attend one of those hilarious, screeching affairs where the food was shared like in a boarding school dormitory (one plate had around 12 spoons stuck into it) and any male listening to the conversation had his ears singed off in shock....

To think that four of those women, in between their heroic treks to mountain locales where they challenged their years and behaved like a bunch of teenagers (okay with hurting knees and hips and feet!!), their intense gym workouts to maintain those amazing figures, their trips here and there on holiday, family business and what-have-you, managed to launch Chennai's first door-delivered online library, and with SUCH chutzpah....amazes and humbles me. I see them in the papers....(hey these guys are serious!), i visit their website (wow, this is so cool) and i join up. Within minutes i get a call from a very professional voice saying "hello this is bookandborrow.com" and then i crack up...it's Raji!! I place my order and, in a day, i get prompt delivery of my books, all clean and plastic encased, with their cheery yellow stickers, a return-cover all addressed and ready, and i wish half the businesses i have dealt with all these years were as enthused, as professional, as ORGANISED.

I guess it takes a bunch of stressed out moms to know how to plan, trouble-shoot, be optimistic, know their strengths and weaknesses and hit the ground running!! Our kids trained us well, huh!!

CONGRATS YOU GORGEOUS WOMEN. CHENNAI DARE NOT STOP READING NOW THAT YOU HAVE AN AGENDA!!!

Devika Mukerji Khazvini

introducing book&borrow

Four great ladies. A common love of good literature. A desire to connect people and to propogate the written word... book&borrow - books delivered at your doorstep.

Who says we don't have the time to do the things we love best? Yes, times have changed - everyone's busier, everyone always has some where to be and something to do... It seems as if we accomplish so much more in each 24 hour cycle than we ever did before. In this let's-hurry, techno-savy generation, book&borrow fuses new age web 2.0 strategies with the age old let's-make-life-easier mantra.

You want to sit with your feet up at the end of that long day and read a good book? Don't have the time to run to a library to borrow books, worry about due dates and late fees, remember to return the books you've borrowed?

Visit www.bookandborrow.com Browse from the comfort of your own home. Select a reading plan best suited to you. Queue the books you'd love to read. Two days later, they're at your doorstep. Click another button to let us know you're ready to have the books picked up and the next set dropped off. 

It's as simple as book and borrow.