The bitter and the better!

Some more reviews are out for Arjuna: Saga of a Pandava Warrior Prince. Posting three links below: One reviewer loved it, one hated it and the third went hmm... Ah well, guess that is the way the cookie crumbles!

The author has done a splendid job in clarifying those doubts of people like me by mentioning almost everything about Arjuna. The book covers every key events of life of not only Arjuna but also of the characters who had influenced his life. If you want to study Arjuna, or lets say Mahabharata in a new and refreshing manner, this book is a must buy. Though not famous as of now, this book will go a long way... Read the rest of it by Supriya Tyagi here

Disappointing... If you really must read the rest here

"the book was difficult to put down once I started on it! And that's saying something," For the rest of the review by Chicky Kadambari, go here

Review of Arjuna on Bookish (IndiaBookStore.net)

This 360-page dedication to Veda Vyasa, truly the finest storyteller ever, is solely a retelling of the tale of Arjuna, the valiant warrior of Hindu mythology, and his role in Mahabharata. Mahabharata is by itself a tale with a magical mix of emotions which renders any reader mesmerized. However, the uniqueness of this book lies in fact that the author retold this tale in a simple, quick and fascinating manner.

Though prior knowledge of Mahabharata partially ruined the reading experience for me, anyone who doesn’t know much about Mahabharata and Arjuna would surely find this very captivating. In the last eight chapters, many times I found myself unfathomably immersed in the proceedings of the book. So much, that when Abhimanyu and Karna died, I literally cried. 

Read the rest of the review by Lakshmikanth Koundinya for IndiaBookStore here.

Arjuna banner on uRead.com and my issues with cameras!

This ad is for uRead.com. Check it out here Nice of them to advertise the book, especially with their 36,625 likes on Facebook :) Am super obliged to those good folks :) :)
My publishers ask me to provide photos for these ads and I wish they would ask for something that is not so notoriously difficult for me to obtain. The thing is I feel the same way about cameras and dogs in that I'd rather not have one staring at me hungrily. And the former in particular is a bitch with its annoying need to expose every trace of every pimple I have ever had since I hit puberty and discovered to my chagrin that a blemish free complexion was definitely not one of my God - given assets! Besides cameras are infamous for making you look fatter than you are with the unhappy result that you lose what little self - esteem you have regarding your looks especially since all your friends seem hellbent on posting unflattering pics of you on fb, twitter, whatsapp and whatever else have you. (Thank goodness for the untag option!)
Such traumatic issues with cameras have been directly responsible for yours truly breaking out into a cold sweat every time my well meaning publishers ask that I provide pics of my mug to help boost sales (I get nightmarish visions of folks tearing out ads with my face and using it to scare away mice, crows or ward away the evil spirits that are likely to give the stink eye to their lovely homes) . I scour through my photo albums and my self - image takes repeated hits that it can ill afford as I try to make peace with the fact that there are thousands of photos in this world which feature me looking fat, constipated, fat and constipated or just plain grotesque.
Anyways, my talented photographer hubby came to the rescue this time when I called him to let loose the crazies and to harangue him on his tendency to take award worthy photos of his children and every creepy crawly that ever lived on this good planet while failing to take a single decent shot of his lovely wife. By way of apology for his glaring omission, he dug up this pic where I don't look entirely horrifying and mailed it to me. In my turn, I dutifully mailed the pic to my publishers. I can breathe now, that is until the next time they ask for a pic and send me scurrying for cover.

ARJUNA review on Vault of Books!

Anuja’s triumphant debut lays out in lavish detail the life of the greatest warrior of the epic Mahabharata times, the pandava prince Arjuna. Fast read, written in a competent prose and the action keeps moving along at a steady clip.
You can read the rest of the review by Sachin Dev, Vault of Books here