ronica.wahi

  Review by Ronica Wahi Honeycake: A Family of Spices By Medea Kalantar First published: February 22, 2019, Tellwell Talent. Kindle Edition Pages: 23. ASIN: B08FF3QHYV This is Book 1 of the Honeycake book series, designed to entertain and educate little kids. The grandmother – who in character and as the illustrated figure is Medea Kalantar herself – teaches her granddaughter, Nala, about her multicultural background while showing her how to bake a delicious honey cake. As Nala learns from her grandma, each ingredient from some different part of the world represents a different family member of the multicultural family - “A Family of Spices”. The recipe is delicious because of its wonderful ingredients and the generous mix of love; the granddaughter – one of Kalantar’s “Honeycakes” – thus learns how to bake a honey cake and why she is one. Not only for a kid from a multicultural background but also for any other kid, Honeycake: A Family of Spices carries an essent...

Review by Ronica Wahi Missing: Gone but not Forgotten By Kathleen Walls First published: October 20, 2020, Global Authors Publications. Kindle Edition Pages: 150. ASIN: B08JCTTFFG Missing: Gone but not Forgotten by Kathleen Walls is a tale of a little girl – named Starr Shatner - who goes missing and is not found. As the cover itself says, it is “Based on an actual unsolved case”; this actual case was of a girl who went missing the same year as Starr here, i.e., 2009, and was neither found nor had justice. The Dedication says, “To all the children who have gone missing and are never found.” It is of importance indeed that Walls has written this book – for it speaks of the tragedy of any kid who suffers for no fault of his/her own and the tragedy of those who love that kid. Without being dramatic at any point, it narrates simply the sequence of events as the long-stretching investigation takes place. One of the writer’s achievements is that without talking at great len...

Review by Ronica Wahi Junction: Time’s Up (Junction Trilogy Book 3) By L.A. Evans First published: December 12, 2021, Elizabeth Guttridge. Kindle Edition Pages: 454. ASIN: B09N2HWQPB Three Cheers for L.A. Evans for completing her Junction Trilogy in quick time and for completing it really well! The final book – Junction: Time’s Up ­ – is, as the title suggests, a thrilling chase for resolution. The difficult and dark times continue for the protagonists before hope-that-can-last is finally glimpsed. As Book 2’s end had indicated, the twists and turns in the lives of Zoe and Aisha aren’t over. The two come together to seek answers for what fate has dealt them, and for whether they can ever set things right. While in Book 1, the reader sees things from the eyes and perspectives of Aisha and in Book 2, from those of Zoe, in Junction: Time’s Up , the point of view alternates between that of Aisha and Zoe with each chapter. Review on "Junction: Time's Ticking...

Review by Ronica Wahi Aliens in My Garden By Jude Gwynaire First published: October 9, 2018, Prodigy Gold Books. Pages: 280. ISBN: 9781939665720 This book is one of those kinds that run like a film in the reader’s mind’s eye - the description so vivid that the reader as if watches the action taking place in the book. If a cinematic reproduction were to be taken up for this one and justice done to it, it sure would make for an enjoyable piece. Jude Gwynaire, a musician and a writer whose writing combines elements from nature and folklore, besides other things, creates a novel, beautiful, thriving wonderland, full of magic and adventure in his young adult fiction Aliens in My Garden. “The Garden”, as the said wonderland in referred to within the narrative, is located within a garden like any other we know. But the Garden – as mentioned - is like no other we know. The Garden has sentient beings of all sorts; among them are Old Tom who is a “potato farmer” – both a potato...

Review by Ronica Wahi Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan By Soniah Kamal First published: January 15, 2019, Allison & Busby. Pages: 384. ISBN: 9780749025151 “…Characters’ emotions and situations are universally applicable across cultures, whether you’re wearing an empire dress, shalwar kurta , or kimono.” (p. 262) So says Alys – Alysba Binat, the female protagonist of Soniah Kamal’s Unmarriageable: Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan. Since this is a retelling/adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel, Alys is clearly the counterpart to Elizabeth Bennet. Even though the main plot and the characters are well-known, Unmarriageable has much newness to offer. The novel shows what Alys says in the comment quoted above – the emotions and situations presented by Austen are picked up for they are as valid in Pakistan of 2000-01. But with the similarities, there are differences too. In this postcolonial tale, the culture and the vibe of the subcontinent comes throug...

Review by Ronica Wahi Kisson ki Rail By Abhidha Sharma First published: July 15, 2021, Ekatra – a joint imprint of Manjul and Pratilipi. (Stories within narrative published one by one earlier, Pratilipi app) Pages: 128. ISBN: 9789390924646 On a solitary journey or on a lazy weekend or at some such point of time, a book that is thought-provoking and nostalgia-inducing but light and fun too is a boon. Abhidha Sharma’s Kisson ki Rail (loose translation: "The Rail of Anecdotes") is one such book. Kisson ki Rail is the recounting of a train journey undertaken with friends. On the way, the writer and her friends, and the other passengers with them in the Non-AC sleeper narrate stories of various kinds and shades; while some stories make one think deeply, others evoke smiles or laughter.  If narratives of exploitation, injustice, grief, and regret find place here, so do narratives of courage, determination, love, and hope.  With the sheer variety in the kisse (ane...

  Review by Ronica Wahi Free from Pain – Exercise Book: Exercises to Improve Health, Increase Ability and Provide Vitality in Your Senior Years By Dr. George Ampat First published: July 17, 2021, Talita Koum. Pages: 96. ISBN: 9780995676947 Dr. George Ampat, a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at present, has happily created this useful self-help health resource for people aged 50 and above who suffer from musculoskeletal pains. Despite years of experience of performing surgery, Dr. Ampat explains in Free from Pain – Exercise Book the importance of avoiding surgery, whenever possible. As a good self-help tool should be, the book is easy to grasp. Both the explanations bit and the instructions on performing the recommended exercises for alleviating pains in bones and joints primarily are clearly and crisply given, making these explanations and instructions quicker to assimilate. The illustrations explaining the necessity of exercise and enlivening the metaphors that go ...