I have waited too too long to read this book. When the release date was first announced, I was full of joy only to realize it wasn’t coming yet in the US. I waited almost 6 months for the ebook to get to my kindle and I’m even more glad that I got to read this during our independence week.

Also the writer tries to add philosophical angles at times but it simply makes it sound more superficial and manufactured. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, an Indian best selling novelist, has penned an evocative and timeless tale of one of the greatest love story that our Indian mythology has ever given to us in the form of Ramayana in her new book, The Forest of Enchantments. But its not a retelling of our favorite mythology on Lord Ram, rather its told and primarily focuses on the life and time of Lord Ram's wife, Sita who is not just a Goddess who we all worship to, but a fateful woman with a heart full of only love and kindness journeying through a path of thorns till her death. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country (1988, reprinted 2003)Two of her books, The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart, have been made into movies by filmmakers Gurinder Chadha and Paul Berges (an English film) and Suhasini Mani Ratnam (a Tamil TV serial) respectively. Her novels One Amazing Thing and Palace of Illusions have currently been optioned for movies. Her book Arranged Marriage has been made into a play and performed in the U.S. and (upcoming, May) in Canada. River of Light, an opera about an Indian woman in a bi-cultural marriage, for which she wrote the libretto, has been performed in Texas and California. What is worse is that the injustice delivered by male characters be it Sage Gautam or Lord Ram or Lakshmana or even Ravana is kept veiled under the garb of their duty and morals. They are glorified and presented as noble men who can't be blamed for their actions however cruel or unjust they had been. The book fails here to call spade a spade. Excitedly, the children explore lands like the Land of Take-What-You-Want, the Land of Dame Slap, the Land of Topsy-Turvy, the Land of Spells, the Land of Goodies, the Land of Dreams and the glorious Land of Birthdays.

I'm sorry to say ( sorry because I expected so much) the book offers no unique insight as is promised. It repaints Ramayana in the same colours, only the prose is poorer and the language far from engrossing. The Grand Tour or The Purloined Coronation Regalia: Being a Revelation of Matters of High Confidentiality and Greatest Importance, Including Extracts from the Intimate Diary of a Noblewoman and the Sworn Testimony of a Lady of Quality (2004) The first title of the main trilogy, The Enchanted Wood, was published in 1939, although the Faraway Tree and Moon-Face had already made a brief appearance in 1936 in The Yellow Fairy Book. A picture-strip book, Up the Faraway Tree, was published in 1951. Over the years, the Faraway Tree stories have been illustrated by various artists including Dorothy M. Wheeler (first editions), Rene Cloke, Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone, and Georgina Hargreaves. [1] The Enchanted Wood [ edit ] First edition, 1939 First edition, 1943 First edition, 1946A trilogy narrated by Eff Rothmer, the "thirteenth child" of the opening book title. Book One covers her childhood, from the age of five (when her parents move west to the edge of the expanding American frontier) to shortly after her eighteenth birthday. Books Two and Three deal with an adult Eff's work as an explorer, scientist, and magician beyond the edge of the frontier. [10] The Chronicles take place in a fairy tale world that gently ribs at and riffs on fairy and folk tale tropes. Magic is everywhere and frequently dangerous, and people react to its presence in their lives accordingly. For example, princess lessons consist in part of learning the appropriate places to scream when carried off by a dragon. A very desirable fate, as the subsequent stream of knights and princes seeking to rescue said princess practically guarantees a good marriage. This one-volume edition is worth having for the author's introductions, which talk about how and why she wrote the books.

The writing is banal and Sita's ponderings do not offer anything unique. No thought provoking insights into the happenings and the characters. The story is well paced, with a good balance of action and quieter moments, and the characters develop nicely as the story progresses. Everyone learns something, including the adult characters, and I appreciated that the adults had flaws too. The art is so lush and gorgeous, and the world building is well done; we learn about the world of the island as Bix does, without info dumps. The ending leaves us hopeful for a better future; the story could continue should Robinson decide to do a sequel, but we're not left with a cliffhanger, this stands alone nicely. I enjoyed the story a lot, and would've loved it when I was a kid. Definitely recommended!The Forest of Enchantments, I feel, has one of the most iconic closing lines ever. The book started with a slow and dull pace - full of an unfulfilled capability of being as iconic as its closing lines. Retellings are indeed a very risky arena to walk on. Having read an abridged version of Ramayana and devouring its episodes regularly as a child, I had a fair knowledge of this revered text. The novel, however, proved to be a really murky affair in its beginning and middle because of it. I was reading with the hope of finishing it as soon as possible and that's a horrible way of reading any work. Now I am glad that I didn't put it aside because its best parts revealed themselves in the end. The main characters are Jo, Bessie and Fanny (updated in recent revisions to Joe, Beth and Frannie), who are three siblings. Fanny is the youngest, Bessie is next in age and Jo is their big brother. They live near the Enchanted Wood and are friends of the residents of the Faraway Tree. Other characters include: