Books and Blurbs

Of books and blurbs: By Revathi Krishnan

Reading a book is like no other,

Even space travel goes no further

I explore within a single page

The entire earth, Man’s bonded cage.

Books are my passion. My addiction.

A never-ending world of fascination.

To me they represent the best of thought

Of men and things long forgot.

Crime, romance, reality, myth

Filled with love, valor and grit

I ask for no more than a book

And a pillow near a merry brook.

Reading gives me a sense of direction

A cloak of intelligence. An armor of protection.

Ask me to stop and I’ll say, “Sorry, ma’am

You see, I read, therefore, I am”.

Wanderlust: A Book Club Sampler from Simon & Schuster By Alice Hoffman is your boarding pass to the beautiful, the mysterious, and the unknown. This book club sampler was created to pay homage to a book’s unique ability to transport your imagination around the world, taking you on journeys across distance and time. Whether you’re in the mood for a historical love story set on a sheep station in rural Australia or an illuminating memoir of life in the war-torn Middle East, these are books you and your reading group won’t want to miss: Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo, Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman, The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum, The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais, The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park, An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy.

Each excerpt in Wanderlust is accompanied by a collection of bonus materials intended to enrich your reading experience, including discussion questions, suggestions for enhancing your book club meeting, and author interviews. In the spirit of looking to the horizon, we also asked each author featured in this sampler one question: “What is your favorite travel memory?” Their answers are fittingly diverse—from Christina Meldrum’s summers spent at a family cottage in Lake Margrethe, Michigan, to Alice Hoffman’s inspirational first trip to Masada, the setting of her epic new novel The Dovekeepers. Anuradha Roy, the author of An Atlas of Impossible Longing, describes the lure of armchair travel best: “All readers…carry within themselves sediments of the places they have traveled to in books, the people they’ve met on the way. Therefore the strange déjà vu is when you land in a foreign country and wonder if you’ve been there before.”

So, sit back, relax, and get ready for the trip of a lifetime.

Bon Voyage!

Often wonder how authors write – It needs not only literary skills, a lot of creativity, imagination and the ability to connect the dots. May be an Idea strikes them from true life events, they connect various events, add their experiences of people and places and create first draft, and then do a lot of research and develop on that? Well writing is just the first step, you need to find a publisher, promote it, select the cover, font, editor, and make it a best seller. A tough task indeed.