Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

It is a truth universally acknowledged that giraffes aren’t all that sexy.

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev

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I was excited to read this, as it is a well documented fact that I am a total sucker for any and all Austen retellings. I recently enjoyed Unmarriageable, and was hoping to ride the wave of fun Austen stories here. I began to read, hoping for a fun, gender-swapped modern version of one of my favorite stories. AND THEN I REMEMBERED THE BOLLYWOOD BRIDE. (Oh my. I really despised that book. Remember that #cannonbookclub? Yikes.) Ugh. The good news is that this story is […]

Cannonball Book Club Discussion Post: The Bollywood Bride

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We have reached the fateful day – it’s time to talk about The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev. Its perhaps an open secret around these parts that we haven’t found too much to love about this book. So, let’s dig in and talk about the whys and how’s with this book, and some larger thematic conversations as well. Let’s start with a few ground rules: Since we’re anticipating lots of conversation, please try your best to reply directly to each other, that way they are […]

Rules for The Bollywood Bride drinking game

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Drink every time Ria’s aunties do something charming. Think about how you wish there was more about this lovely group of ladies in the book. Wouldn’t it be nice to find out how their friendships came to be? Drink whenever Jen and Nikhil are front and center in the story. Its their wedding. I’d like to know more about Jen. I know she’s a doctor and she’s uncomfortable in a sari. But what else makes her tick? Drink whenever the book actually alludes to Bollywood and how that […]

Maybe it’s me?

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I’m not having a great week when it comes to book club picks. Come tomorrow, I’ll be sitting with my coworkers as they gush about the Nyquil-on-a-page memoir Comma Queen (at least that’s my bet. They love all the books I hate). And next week, I’ll be with you excellent Cannonballers, talking about another book that I tried so hard to like, Bollywood Bride. Ria is a Bollywood star, known for playing the ingénue who usually gets married by the end of the movie. She’s known […]

Show, Don’t Hide

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Well, it wasn’t the best of books. It wasn’t the worst of books (but in the end, the one I selected as the worst of 2016 for me). It is definitely somewhere in the middle. I am not going to do an in depth review of The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev since we are going to be having a group discussion on March 1 for the Cannonball Book Club Reads Romance and I want to save topics to talk about then. But let’s do […]

I’d rather have read a romance featuring Ria’s cousin and his wife to be

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2.5 stars Ria Parkar is a celebrated Bollywood star, frequently playing the innocent ingenue who ends up the bride. Professionally she’s intensely private, revealing very little about herself. When a paparazzi gets an incriminating photo of her looking deranged and as if she’s about to jump off a ledge (she was retrieving her phone), Ria is worried that all her deep dark secrets will be uncovered. Her cousin, who she was raised along-side, is getting married in Chicago, and she’s dreading her return there, she […]



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