Title: Tea for two and a piece of cake
Author: Preeti Shenoy
Year Published: 2012
Publisher: Random House India
No. of Pages: 265
About the Author:
Preeti Shenoy, is among the best-selling authors in India (Source Nielsen scan) weaves magic with her words and pictures. An extremely talented and versatile individual, her Twitter bio reads:
“Best-selling Author, Artist specializing in pencil portraits, Poet, Yoga-Buff, Ex-basketball player, Blogger, Dobe-owner, Nature lover, Ted X speaker and a Mother.”
Her interests are as multifarious and diverse as her several academic degrees which include an internationally recognised qualification from UK in portraiture.
DNA has described her as a ‘Keenly observant mind’ and Times of India describes her writing as ‘Excellent story telling skills’. There is simplicity in her writing that appeals to the inherent good in all and her positivity and ‘Live life to the fullest’ philosophy finds a large number of takers, who follow her very popular blog.
Her second book 'Life is what you make it' was among the top selling books of 2011 in India and her third book 'Tea for two and a piece of cake' which was released in February 2012, was among top five best-selling Indian fiction of 2012.
Her fourth book 'The secret wish list' has been getting excellent reviews and is on all the best-seller lists, having reached No.6 on Amazon.in .
Her pencil-portraits are life like which strike you with a realism that take you aback. She is also an avid card-maker and a poet. She has written for publications like Times of India, Readers Digest and many more. She has worked with under-privileged children teaching them English and Math. She has worked with several schools conducting workshops on thinking skills and creative crafts.
She says “Life is short. Follow your heart and chase your dreams. And yes, they will come true.”
My views:
This review should have come a little lot earlier but I believe that while reading one must be able to visualize the happenings described in the book rather than just reading it and past few days my mind had been running a film of its own. That is why, despite getting my author signed copy on 14th Feb. and opening the book to read on the same day, I could not really read past the prologue. The prologue itself is strong enough to make you read further. So, I read a couple of pages more before putting the book down. I picked up the book again after the film that was playing in my head on loop, finally stopped. This time, I finished the book in one sitting.
This review is my personal opinion about the book and you can choose to think differently but for that you will have to read the book and 'that' I would definitely recommend. It's worth the time you spend holding it in your hand.
You will like the book if you are a reader like me who reads a lot of supernatural stuff - vampires, werewolves, witches and ghosts. This book will be a welcome change, full of emotions and written in an amazingly simple way.
Supernatural stuff or not, this book gives you a taste of real life. It is a fiction but it is written in a wonderful non-fiction way. I could imagine myself to be a part of the story, experiencing the shock and pain Nisha goes through. I imagined myself walking besides her, in her journey through various phases of her life.
A person cannot please everyone. There would be people who are let down, people who would disagree with the concept/ideas which are part of the book. Actually, concepts/ideas which are very much part of the real world we live in as much as they are part of the book. There are people who like to read sentences woven by the kind of words that people like me might need a dictionary to look up. If that is the kind of book you are looking for, then you will have to drink your tea from someplace else. As far as I am concerned, I like Preeti’s writing style, Simple and Captivating at the same time. Anyone can write a love story but writing a story which is full of love and emotions is not everybody’s piece of cake. I’d give Preeti 8 on 10 for the description of the weak moments of Nisha’s life.
I read it, each sentence hitting me with a force of a gale wind. I read it with my fists clenched. I read it with tears welling up in my eyes. I read it biting my lip. I read it once, and then I read it again.
~
And with that one statement, and with that look in his eyes, we both know he has crossed that fine line which separates friendship from a deeper relationship between a man and a woman.
And many more lines in the book make the reader live them rather than just read them.
‘Tea for two and a piece of cake’ is a simple story of a simple woman who falls and grows in love. The journal entries make the book a little more personal.
Get your copy, read it and let me know your views.
