Amruta's Writing Block!

Trying to find a balance between my need to communicate, to be in control, and to get over my writer's block – all to fulfill my dream of being the new kid (or old lady) on the "writing block"… Yeah, yeah, I do sarcastic comedy on the side! :D

About Me

Things that interest me!

  • 2022 – A year in books

    2022 – A year in books

    So, another eventful year comes to an end, and it’s time for my review of the books I read this year! Thanks to Goodreads, I can properly keep track of them, so here’s a little infographic detailing the 50 books I read this year and stars I gave them: Yeah I read two whole technical Read more

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  • 2021 – A year in books

    2021 – A year in books

    It is said that the world belongs to those who read, and 2021 (and 2020) made that literally true, and how!  Confined to our homes and immediate localities for the most part, reading is what opened the doors to far away lands for me these 2 years. I know, it always does, but it was Read more

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  • Book Review: The Maid

    Author: Nita Prose  Date of Publication: Expected on January 4, 2022 Genre: Mystery, Crime Legacy: This is the author and long-time editor’s first novel How I heard about this book: Got an advance review copy of the e-book from Netgalley.com. I chose it because the plotline sounded interesting to me. Appropriate Audience: Teen/ Adult Rating: 3.5 Read more

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  • Movie Review – The Great Indian Kitchen

    [This post was originally published in a Marathi magazine called Palakneeti, published from Pune. You can read the original post on the magazine’s free online version here] Once upon a time there is this beautiful girl – educated, trained in Indian classical dance, an expert at cooking; and as she grew up in a gulf Read more

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  • Fairy Tales of Fearless Girls (and why my daughter is not a princess!)

    Came across this wonderful book by Susannah McFarlane, while browsing (online) my local library’s bookshelves. It is a modern take on fairy tales, and I was blown away by it. What if Rapunzel wasn’t a poor, helpless princess with her beautiful long hair as her only redeeming factor? What did she do all day in Read more

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  • Book Review: American as paneer pie

    Author: Supriya Kelkar Date of Publication: 9 June 2020Genre: Young adult fiction, comedy-drama, coming-of-ageLegacy:  The author is an India-American brought up in the mid-west, and has written many brilliant children’s books Intended Age Group: Any, but particularly tweens and teenagers This one was touted by many book lists, so I immediately reserved it at my local Read more

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    Amruta

  • Screen-time of the month – March (and February)

    Yes, I do sound like a broken record when I say this, but I (also) missed publishing my screen time on February. However, these have been strange times, where there are new challenges and new headaches and new distractions. Anyway, here’s the list of what I watched in February and March. DCI Banks – Netflix Read more

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    Amruta

  • Screen-time of the month: January

    Honestly, this is nothing but another attempt to keep writing… something! So here’s what I watched during the month of January. Bala – Hotstar Had been waiting to watch this movie for a long time, so I pounced on this one! I loved it! Right from the writing to the acting to the direction, everything Read more

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    Amruta

  • A Nobel project

    “Where the mind is without fear, where the head is held high, Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls…” This amazingly beautiful classic poem from Rabindranath Tagore’s Geetanjali was floating in my head while I was day-dreaming at work today. Everyone who knows me well Read more

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    Amruta

  • Book review: Born a Crime (Stories From a South African Childhood)

    Author: Trevor Noah Date of Publication: 15 November 2016 Genre: Autobiography, Social commentary Legacy:  This is the first book by the author who is a renowned comedian and TV host Intended Age Group: Any “We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where Read more

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  • Movie Review: Dangal

    Okay, first things first. Dangal is an excellent movie – entertaining, sensible, inspiring, and, surprise, surprise!, a very clean PG movie! I had a lot of mixed feelings about going to watch Dangal. I’m not a big fan of Aamir Khan (I do concede that he is an amazing actor, of course. Still, we cannot Read more

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  • The Birthday Blog Post

    This was meant to be an actual birthday post, meaning it was supposed to be posted on my birthday, which was yesterday.  However, as most of my activities are these days, it had to be postponed. Thankfully, I can accredit it to my daughter, and not to my usual procrastination. 😀 Anyway, yesterday’s the day I turned Read more

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  • My childhood rain memories

    It is that time of the year, again (In India)! 🙂 Yes, the monsoon season, indeed. As my readers already know from several of my previous posts, I love the rain. Rain reminds me the most about treks, chai-pakodas, the ‘terrifying and soothing at the same time’ property of nature, and the romantic breeze, of course; Read more

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  • Soothed by Thrills…

    Have you ever felt thrilled and soothed at the same time? Well, I tried skydiving a few days ago. Although the experience merits a whole separate post, there is one thing I’d want to distinctively mention here.  The skydiving experience was by far the most thrilling AND the most soothing experience that I’ve ever had! Why thrilling? That Read more

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  • My first snowy accident!

    Yeah, so I have never before driven in snow. Yeah, so I should not be over-smart and offer to drive my husband to places… Yeah, so I should not try to swerve the car as soon as I see the turn for the destination. Yeah, so I should not brake hard when there is significant Read more

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