Beyond Books

I am no writer, and have no intention of becoming a published author. But sometimes, I do feel like penning my thoughts on all things bookish. Here are a few of my thoughts and writings.
(As is evident, this page is a work-in-progress. I have written a lot more than these few articles. Stay tuned. 😃)

Author Specials:


Bookish Write-ups:



✤ Five Types of Non-fiction that Even Fiction Lovers Will Enjoy! - Guest Article for Blogchatter's BeStorified series. - March 2025.





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A Million Ways: Stories of Motherhood - Various - ★★★.¾

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AUTHORS: Various GENRE: Anthology RATING: 3.85 stars. In a Nutshell: Loved this anthology of stories pertaining to mothers and motherhood. You don’t need to be a mother to love it. "There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill The above quote sets off this anthology of twelve stories, all of which are about mothers. You might assume that such a theme would get repetitive too soon. Yes, there were certain themes in common, primarily connected to love (or the lack thereof.) Regardless, each story still feels distinct from each other in terms of content and hence the book doesn’t get boring. A good short story for me is one that keeps me invested from start to end regardless of its length. And this is what happened to me for most of the stories in this collection. The tales aren’t limited to stories about pregnancy or new motherhood. Rather, we get to see single mothers and stepmothers, dedicated mothers and disgruntled mothers...
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The Language of Love and Other Stories - Nancy Christie - ★★★★

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  AUTHOR:  Nancy Christie GENRE: Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: February 4, 2025 RATING: 3.9 stars. In a Nutshell: A delightful short story collection focussing on all aspects of love. Yes, “love”, not “romance”! Interesting plots, multiple emotions, steady paced, beautiful endings ranging from sweet to bittersweet. Not corny or mushy as you might assume. Much recommended! I had misjudged this short story collection on initial glance, dismissing it as being cheesy romance tales. ( Very hasty and judgemental of me, I admit. No offence intended to readers of the genre. It is just that I no longer enjoy such stories .) As the cover gave me romance vibes, I almost decided that this is not for me. But then, the title made me pause, bringing to my mind the fabulous "The Five Love Languages of Children" by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell – probably the only self-help/inspirational book I've read that I found authentic and practical. I wondered if the "language...
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Giantess - J.C. Deveney

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Author: J.C. Deveney Illustrator: Núria Tanarit Genre: Graphic Novel Rating: 2 stars. Hello from Outlierland once again! L This simply didn’t match up to that exquisite cover. A farmer finds a giant baby girl in a forest. As he and his wife have six sons and no daughters, they adopt her and name her Celeste. Celeste lives a sheltered life with her brothers for many years. But after they venture onto their separate career paths, Celeste’s true life journey begins. As she traverses new places and meets new people, she comes to an understanding of what it means to be a woman in a patriarchal world and she learns through mistakes and mishaps how she can finally make a place for herself and be what she wants to be. This doesn’t flow like a typical giant story. While Celeste is the only giantess in the entire book, her size plays only a minor role in the plot. Her femininity and her self-acceptance gets the major focus. In a way, this is good as Celeste is treated almost as a normal characte...
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The Little Drummer Girl: An Unexpected Christmas Story - Sheila Walsh - ★★★

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AUTHOR: Sheila Walsh ILLUSTRATOR: Marcin Piwowarski GENRE: Children's Picture Book, Christmas. PUBLICATION DATE: November 4, 2025 RATING: In a Nutshell: A Christmas picture book about a little girl who dreams of one thing and gets something else. A cute story with a nice Christmas message and lovely illustrations. But the rhymes were a bit off. I might have liked this better if it were written in simple prose. Could work better with those who aren’t particular about poetic meter while reading aloud to their kids. Plot Preview: Isabella has always dreamed of playing an angel in the annual Nativity play, so when she sees the call for auditions, she is quite excited and rehearses all her lines well. But when she gets selected to play the drummer girl – a role with no lines, she is heartbroken. Why is this Christmas so disappointing? Is there any way it will improve? The story comes to us in Isabella’s first-person POV. A few years ago, our Children’s Choir team was putting up a chora...
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The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets - Compiled by Irene Latham & Charles Waters - ★★★.¾

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COMPILERS: Irene Latham & Charles Waters ILLUSTRATOR: Mercè López GENRE: Middle-grade Poetry. PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A poetry anthology aimed at middle-graders, containing confessions from twenty poets about the mistakes they made in their childhood and the lessons they learnt. Great intent, good execution. Could have limited appeal because of the poetry factor. This anthology contains twenty poems written by twenty poets. Each poem contains a sort of confession about a mistake the poet made during their childhood and the lesson they learnt from the same. I am not a poetry fan, but the theme of this book was too good to resist. The introductory note sets the right tone for the book, beginning by explaining how there can be various types of mistakes but each of them is a learning opportunity. It also suggests that we normalise talking about mistakes instead of focussing only on our triumphs. After all, talking about mistakes is helpful...
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