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2014 Reading Challenges | Book Reviews | Reading
Under the Jeweled Sky by Alison McQueen Book Review
I received this book for free from Netgalley for review consideration, opinions expressed are 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk. Purchases from these links provides a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.
Under the Jeweled Sky by Alison McQueen
Format: eARC
Your Favorite Indie Bookstore* | Barnes & Noble* | Amazon Kindle* | Amazon Paperback*
How far would you go for your first true love? An unforgettable book about a forbidden love amidst the lush landscape of an Indian palace.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
"London 1957. In a bid to erase her past and build the family she yearns for, Sophie Schofield accepts a wedding proposal from ambitious British diplomat, Lucien Grainger. When he is posted to New Delhi, into the glittering circle of ex-pat high society, old wounds begin to break open as she is confronted with the memory of her first, forbidden love and its devastating consequences.
The suffocating conformity of diplomatic life soon closes in on her. This is not the India she fell in love with ten years before when her father was a maharaja's physician, the India of tigers and scorpions and palaces afloat on shimmering lakes; the India that ripped out her heart as Partition tore the country in two, separating her from her one true love. The past haunts her still, the guilt of her actions, the destruction it wreaked upon her fragile parents, and the boy with the tourmaline eyes.
Sophie had never meant to come back, yet the moment she stepped onto India's burning soil as a newlywed wife, she realised her return was inevitable. And so begins the unravelling of an ill-fated marriage, setting in motion a devastating chain of events that will bring her face to face with a past she tried so desperately to forget, and a future she must fight for.
A story of love, loss of innocence, and the aftermath of a terrible decision no one knew how to avoid."
I have enjoyed several books this year set in modern day India, ones that immerse you in the wonderfully rich and beautiful culture. This is the first fiction I read that takes place during India's independence from the British empire. The story details the life of Sophie and Jag, a British daughter of a doctor and an Indian servant boy to the Maharaja. Life in the Maharaja's palace is beautifully described and I love how Sophie and Jag steal away moments to kindle their love during a time when their relationship would not be accepted by either of their families. Their young love is deep but nevertheless torn apart. Will Sophie and Jag ever be able to move on with their lives?
The book also transports us to India in a time when Maharajas competed with one another by showing off their extravagant lifestyles, the bigger the palace and the more wives, the more successful the ruler. Meanwhile, their citizens struggle for food and survival. This dichotomy is hard to witness as the author describes the poor conditions of the people and those servants who are considered "lucky" to live in the palace and dote on a frivolous Maharaja.
In the book, while many Indians wanted their independence, what struck me was how their lives were uprooted moments after the declaration. Moslems were creating the new nation of Pakistan while the non-Moslems stayed in India. The poor citizens were then forced to retreat possibly thousands of miles from their home to the country of their religion. Mass exoduses of families crossed borders and were housed in refugee camps with little or no shelter and what food they could carry and scrounge up on the way. Their stories were the hardest to read and this book certainly piqued my interest to learn about this part of Indian history. What was a joyous time for many was the turn of events that threw many into utter poverty, destitution or death.
I loved Ms. McQueen's writing, the book was hard to put down and one that made me think long after reading the final words. This book has it all: the lush, tropical landscape of an Indian palace, forbidden and intense first love, dramatic heartbreaks and tragedy and the joys of family, defining home and the strength of the human spirit.
I thank Netgalley for allowing me this wonderful novel and look forward to reading other novels by this talented author.
Favorite Quotes:
"Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge." Jawaharlal Nehru, midnight August 15, 1947 (when India gained their independence)
"[Sophie] had never seen such finery [of the Maharanis, the Maharaja's wives] in all her life. Not even in books or picture magazines. Not even in books and picture magazines. Not even in the museums and galleries her father had taken her to as a child. They moved as one, like a bird of paradise, aflame with color, their movements as graceful as a company of dancers, wrists laden with thick golden bangles, fingers and toes adorned with jeweled rings. Their saris shimmered in the softened light, drifting cloud like around painted faces, and through the ancient fretwork pane crept invisible tendrils of exotic perfume, rich and heavy."
"You are born to your status, to your given caste, and once you have come into its being, you can never leave it, never move up and be seen as better than the life you were birthed into. It was wrong, and once India had been freed, it would have to change."
"It wasn't right that Jag should be in this position, that he should somehow be made to feel that he was not good enough or did not deserve to become the kind of man he intended to be."
"All people were made by the same God, so we are sons of the same God, no matter what [religion] we call ourselves. The new border [between India and Pakistan] is an artificial boundary. It does not exist in the eyes of God, only in the eyes of men who have been blinded by the pride of controlling politicians."
"Not once had George [Sophie's dad] heard an unkind word pass between his parents. To his mother, his father was the moon and the stars. To his father, she was the source of all the good in his world."
Challenges Satisfied:
Around the World in 80 Books Reading Challenge – book set in India
What books with forbidden love stories have you enjoyed? Happy reading!
About Alison McQueen
From Goodreads: "Born in the sixties to an Indian mother and an English jazz musician father, Alison McQueen grew up in London and worked in advertising for 25 years before retiring to write full time.
Her acclaimed 2012 epic novel, The Secret Children, was inspired by her own family history, and is being translated into several foreign languages. Alison's latest novel, Under The Jewelled Sky, is published by Orion (2013) and will be published in the US early 2014.
Alison is also author of the popular HOUSEWIFE novels, written under her married name and featured on the Richard & Judy Show (published by Macmillan between 2005 and 2011). In 2006, Alison was selected from a long list of 500 writers to join The Writers' Circle – a one-off project put together by the UK/US film industry to nuture and fast-track the UK's top 10 rising writing talents into screenwriting.
Alison McQueen lives in rural Northamptonshire with her family. She is currently working on her 8th novel."
Tanya M
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Alison McQueen says:
Thank you so much for the kind review. I am so pleased to enjoyed the book.
My husband and I want to visit India sometime…I would probably love this book just because it sounds like it has a lot about Indian culture in it!
kimbacaffeinate says:
Lovely review and more than anything I am excited about how the author shared details of the period, culture and people. Adding to my list!
Sue Jackson says:
Just wanted to stop in and tel you I was thinking of you. Hope your absence from blogging is intentional and not due to illness problems!
Tanya M says:
Thanks so much Sue for checking in on me. My blogging break is intentional. I enjoyed the holidays with my family and really have been working hard toward those 2014 goals I set for myself, for both my home and health. I did have some physical and emotional issues that made me realize I needed to focus on taking better care of my physical health. So I've been exercising and tracking my food so I just haven't had as much time to blog. I've been having fun reading and writing my thoughts in a book journal so that I am ready to blog about what I've read when I get back to blogging. I'm still here though and commenting on blogs so feel free to write me anytime!
Glad to hear you are feeling OK and the break is intentional. I may end up doing the same thing. I know I need to shift how I spend my time, and blogging uses up a lot of my very limited time and energy. I haven't wanted to because I really enjoy it, but ….well, we'll see!
I am reading 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think right now, and it is confirming a lot of what I have been thinking the past few months.
Enjoy your break and your reading time and good luck with your healthy habits!
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Jennine G. says:
Sounds like this one gives a good history lesson as well as a good story! That's what I like in historical fiction – learning history.
The Dose of Reality says:
Love your review and I can't wait to read this one. I actually went over to buy it, but it doesn't come out on Kindle until January. I wonder if I can wait that long? I'm so spoiled being able to control the font size on my Kindle I get irritated when I have to find my reading glasses for a regular book! I'm still deciding!
(Right now I'm reading "The Night Guest" by Fiona McFarlane, then I've got to read "The Last Runaway" by Tracy Chevalier for my book club .) –Lisa
I know what you mean Lisa, the Kindle reading is so convenient! It's a marvelous book. Sorry for posting early, I didn't realize US version would not be out till January.
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Q: parsing arabic text with json issue i am new to JSON and Objective-c language by Apple. i was just trying to do some practice and stuff
with yandex.ru translate api
i tried this URL

https://translate.yandex.net/api/v1.5/tr.json/translate?key=trnsl.1.1.20170517T154730Z.927d87b76de60242.7a92e4612778a4838d40ab192df5297d2a1af4ed&text=Hello&lang=ar

which is translating (HELLO) from english to arabic.. still fine
on my project in Xcode i tried this code
to make things work
 NSString *jsonString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"https://translate.yandex.net/api/v1.5/tr.json/translate?key=trnsl.1.1.20170517T154730Z.927d87b76de60242.7a92e4612778a4838d40ab192df5297d2a1af4ed&text=Hello&lang=ar"];
jsonString = [jsonString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@" " withString:@"%20"];
NSURL *url=[NSURL URLWithString:jsonString];
NSData *data=[NSData dataWithContentsOfURL:url];
NSError *error=nil;
//NSLog(@"%@",dictionary);

NSArray* dictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data
                                             options:kNilOptions
                                               error:&error];

NSLog(@"Your JSON Object: %@ Or Error is: %@", [dictionary valueForKey:@"text"], error);
NSString*string = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@",[dictionary valueForKey:@"text"]];

until here its fine.. but it returns a wrong value on the Log
instead of (مرحبا) its

Your JSON Object: (
      "\U0645\U0631\U062d\U0628\U0627"
  )

A: The value is correct. It's the object – an array – in conjunction with NSLog which produces this output displaying Unicode tokens.
First of all the JSON object is a dictionary rather than an array, the Objective-C compiler is so polite not to complain at this moment.
NSDictionary *dictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data ...

Secondly never use valueForKey to get a single object from a dictionary, use key subscription
NSLog(@"Your JSON Object: %@ Or Error is: %@", dictionary[@"text"], error);

However the value for key text is an array. To get the result string get the first item in the array and you should check if there is no error and if the array is not empty to avoid a out-of-range crash.
if (error == nil) {
    NSArray *result = dictionary[@"text"];
    if (result.count > 0) {
        NSString *string = result[0];
    }
}

Now when you assign the string to a label or text view you will get the expected مرحبا.

PS: Two other improvements of your code:

*

*You don't need stringWithFormat if there are no format arguments
NSString *jsonString = @"https://translate.yandex.net/api/v1.5/tr.json/translate?key=trnsl.1.1.20170517T154730Z.927d87b76de60242.7a92e4612778a4838d40ab192df5297d2a1af4ed&text=Hello&lang=ar";

*To escape invalid characters use NSURLComponents which is able to do that in a smart way:
NSURLComponents *components = [NSURLComponents componentsWithString:jsonString];
NSURL *url = components.URL;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


We are almost done with January, and it is about the time that many of our New Years resolutions are almost forgotten. Don't be one of the those people who give up on their goals this year, you need to come to the best yoga studio in Boca Raton. In our incredible studios we teach the Barkan method of yoga. The Barkan method is a type of hot yoga that is great for yoga practitioners of all stages, whether you are a novice or an veteran to yoga, we have a great class for you.
Yoga is one of the best ways to get fit, especially if you are looking to develop long, lean muscles. Yoga is such a great way to get your exercise because everyone can do it! We have beginners all of the time in our classes, and our talented instructors can help you to learn to do every move correctly, so that you can reap maximum results. Yoga is not only great for losing weight and gaining muscle, it also gives you a chance to connect with your spiritual self and to truly relax. There aren't many other forms of exercise out there that you could actually call relaxing.
Don't be one of the many people who will give up on their New Year's resolution, be a success story and sign up for hot yoga in Boca Raton. We offer a varied schedule so that it is easy for you to make one of our amazing classes, and we offer many different package deals, so that you can save money and find the best rate for you and your budget. Sign up for your next yoga class today!


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text:
Air Version Of BrahMos Cruise Missile Successfully Test-Fired From Odisha's Chandipur
Picture courtesy PTI
Chandipur: The air version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test-fired from supersonic fighter aircraft Sukhoi 30 MK-I from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, on Wednesday morning.
The missile launched from the aircraft followed the pre-planned trajectory, meeting all mission objectives.
On Tuesday, a Short Range Surface to Air Missile was successfully flight-tested from ITR.
It's a major milestone in the development of BrahMos, which is a joint venture between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia's NPOM.
During the test, structural integrity and functional performance have been proven.
It clears the way for serial production of air-version BrahMos missiles within the country. Major airframe assemblies which form integral part of the Ramjet Engine are indigenously developed by Indian industry.
The air version of BrahMos was last flight-tested in five months ago.
Four Returnees From 'At Risk' Countries Test COVID Positive In Odisha
Army Helicopter With CDS Bipin Rawat On Board Crashes; 4 Reported To Be Dead

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
By Boonsri Dickinson, Amy Barth, and Andrew GrantJanuary 27, 2009 6:00 AM
Like playing God? Then you'll love the latest, much slicker iteration of the ultimate lifestyle video game by Electronic Arts. In The Sims 3, players can venture beyond their home turf to an attractive neighborhood populated by thousands of other Sims (i.e., simulated characters) and mold a Sims personality from infancy through old age. The game's programming allows other characters to react to your traits and keeps all the Sims aging and growing. If you're feeling benevolent, guide them to fulfill their life's ambitions; if you're in a fire-and-brimstone mood, frustrate their every turn. Have your brave vegetarian confront a meat meal. Live vicariously through a frat boy. The possibilities are endless in this addictive world.
Kilauea: Mountain of Fire
PBS, Sunday, March 29, at 8 p.m. (EST)
Few things are more awesome than 100 million gallons of lava flowing down a mountain. That's what happens every day at Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. This beautifully assembled and often dramatic PBS documentary chronicles the people intimately connected to Kilauea, from volcanologists and ecologists to a stubborn resident who refuses to move, despite having a two-hour walk over recently formed volcanic rock to reach the nearest store. Watch for stunning underwater footage of 2,000-degree lava cooling and solidifying beneath the surface of the sea.
dollhouse Fox, Fridays at 9 p.m. (EST) starting Feb. 13.When you wipe away memory, what's left? Find out in this captivating new series from Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. An underground organization holds employees hostage by repeatedly erasing their memories; it hires them out on assignments as lovers, killers, and everything in between. After each mission, heroine Echo (played by Buffy alum Eliza Dushku) returns to the Dollhouse, where she wakes up a different person. But a glitch sparks her original memories, setting her on a quest to unearth her past. The Dollhouse operation is not as far-fetched as it sounds. In December scientists reported discovering an enzyme that preserves memories; blocking its action could, in principle, delete memories without damaging other parts of the brain.
TechnologyScientists Use Mind-Control to Move Rats Around a Maze
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MindElon Musk Wants to Put Computers in People's Heads
TechnologyMeet CIMON-2, a New and Improved AI Robot Astronaut
TechnologyWhy StarCraft is the Perfect Battle Ground for Testing Artificial Intelligence


Heavy-duty clutch facing and six internal spring. New outright; no core required. Better than the original! 1928-31. Sold Each.
Heavy-duty clutch facing and six internal spring. New outright; no core required. Better than the original!


Executive Mosaic is honored to introduce Tim Reardon, vice president and general manager of the civil, defense and intelligence organization at Lockheed Martin, as an inductee into the 2016 edition of the Wash100 — Executive Mosaic's annual selection of influential leaders in the government contracting arena. This is Reardon second year of selection to the Wash100.
Reardon, an 18-year company veteran, is in charge of a business unit that delivers advanced systems, solutions and services to U.S. civilian, defense and intelligence community government customers worldwide.
The team's broad focus areas include national security, air traffic management, health, energy, space exploration, enterprise information technology, cyber and advanced analytics.
In April 2015, Tim expressed the company's support for the Defense Department's new cyber strategy through continued collaboration and information sharing with government and industry partners.
"[Lockheed Martin] is fully supportive of its goals to harden and integrate DoD networks to defend against cyberattacks," he said.
Reardon previously led Lockheed's defense and intelligence solutions unit and served as president for the company's enterprise integration group.
He was also a CIA staff officer for 10 years before Lockheed and is a board member of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Tim Reardon and the Lockheed Martin team for their selection to receive this award.