You shouldn’t judge a book by cover, but you shouldn’t judge it by its title either. That’s the lesson I learned after finishing “Kissing in Manhattan” by David Schickler.
It sounds like a romance novel, and in a way, it is. But this romance is so raw and real that readers are almost turned away. Yet like rubberneckers at a car accident, this book can’t be left alone.
This book follows several different people in their relationships and search for love. Each chapter switches to a different couple, and sometimes this can leave the reader annoyed. The book opens with a vignette on Checkers and Donna, two people set up on a blind date. However, this 21-page chapter ends at the end of their date, and they are never heard from again; excluding a brief reference to “Checkers and Donna, a notorious couple” 200 pages later.
Things like this may leave some readers frustrated with the book, but they keep reading. At first, I thought, hey, maybe there is a chance that, eventually, the novel will get started and all these vignettes will tie together.
It was around page 230 when I realized that just wasn’t going to happen—and maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
Related Travel Information
Hawaii's hotels were the fullest -- and the most profitable -- in the nation during the first quarter, with more than 84 percent of the rooms occupied.
Hawaii hotels earned an average of $138 per room a night during the quarter, leading all U.S. cities, according to a report released yesterday by Hospitality Advisors LLC.
Spring-break travelers and conventioneers boosted travel to Hawaii in March. Occupancy and average room rates rose on all islands, but luxury and upscale properties led the pack and helped push overall statewide occupancy to a 5.1 percentage point gain, according to Hospitality Advisors.
The increases were in keeping
The Department of Tourism (DoT) reported a boost in domestic tourism during the Holy Week extended holidays. According to DoT Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, “Both accommodation and transport facilities in selected tourist destinations have reported an increase in their average occupancy rates, with some even reaching 100 percent.”
DoT’s regional offices reported Cebu and Boracay as the top destination choices of local and foreign tourists during this period.
Cebu had the biggest number of registered foreign tourists, with 4,519 overseas guests booked in six major hotels and nine resorts. Majority of the tourists opted to stay in Shangri-La Mactan Hotel and Plantation
With Indians emerging as the top spenders among tourists visiting Singapore, the Southeast Asian country is now wooing the nouveau riche from smaller towns and cities.
"From Bangalore to Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and other emerging metros, we are targeting them all through our new marketing strategy," says Lim Neo Chian, Singapore Tourism Board's chairman.
"India is a very important market for us. Besides our sixth largest visitor generating market, Indians have emerged as the top spenders in Singapore," he says.
Indians on an average stay for six days and their spending is nearly 300 dollars. Japanese spend higher than them, but their
The clash between romance [Barsaat] and thriller [My Wife`s Murder] has proved yet again that the overseas audience prefers mushy love stories to nail-biting crime stories.
On the other hand, Mangal Pandey - The Rising has slipped in its second weekend, more so in U.K., but the 10-day total is an impressive [approximately] Rs. 6.90 crores from the two major markets -- U.S.A. and U.K.
Weekend: August 12 - 14, 2005.
U.K. BOX-OFFICE
BARSAAT has debuted at No. 12 position. In its opening weekend, the film has collected £ 141,504 [approximately Rs. 1.11 crores] on 41 screens, with the per screen average
BEIRUT: Lebanon is a place where diverse religious communities mingle in harmony, enjoying long, leisurely summer evenings at open-air restaurants along charming cobbled boulevards.
That, at least, is the Tourism Ministry's message to the Gulf, to be aired in 30-second television advertisements in a new promotional campaign beginning next week.
Long focused on luring Europeans to Lebanon's beaches and mountains, the Tourism Ministry is now looking eastward, worried that news of bombings and civil strife might deter deep-pocketed Gulf Arabs from visiting Lebanon this summer.
"Sure we're worried," said Pierre Achkar, the president of the Lebanese Hotel Association and an adviser to the