Book review- To Kill a Mockingbird

There are some books that are quick reads, some that are absorbing reads, you have the funny reads, the trashy beach reads... and there are some that reach out and touch you, enrich your life and forever change you. In recent years Palace of Illusions was one such book for me, and last night I finished To Kill a Mockingbird with a sense of wonder and amazement. What amazed me more than the glorious writing though, was the fact that every one around me seemed to have read the book but me.

If you belong to the few who haven't as yet read the book, or were forced to read it in school but don't quite remember it, can I please urge you to pick it up? The story is about a lawyer, the formidable Atticus Finch, who defends an innocent black man in court for the alleged raping of a white girl. What makes the novel particularly moving however, is that the entire story is seen through the eyes of Atticus's five year old daughter's eyes.

Atticus is a single parent raising his two kids, Jem and Scout, in a very poor and prejudiced town in Alabama. Throughout the novel Atticus does the best he can in trying to impart words of wisdom to his kids, and tries to raise them the best way he knows how.
“Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird." Throughout the novel we view the loss of innocence of the kids, of the townspeople and see a clear fight between good and evil. Sometimes evil wins, and Lee, the author, does a beautiful job of depicting a Father trying to explain to his kids why that is sometimes so, showing them how to deal with adversity in his life.

It is no wonder that this book was a Pulitzer Prize winner and it's sad to think that this is the only book Harper Lee ever wrote. She is a gifted storyteller and once you're done reading the book it may be of interest to you to read about the Authors own childhood and upbringing. 

This book is one of the most magnificent ones I've read and is in places deliciously funny, while making me cry in others. It's not only a snapshot of the times (the South during the great depression) but also of a family dealing with death and loss, hope and light, and all the prejudices and struggles that come in between.

Really, I can't put it in any more words than this- To Kill a Mockingbird has to be one of the best books I have ever read.
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Book Review- On Writing

I have read a few "how-to" books on writing novels, (some really excellent ones like Bird by Bird and Writing Down the Bones) and was always ironically looking for instructions on what to write about, and how to actually start. Years of reading on the subject got me nowhere, but recently something strange and wonderful happened. A novel sort of just poured out of me... as if by magic. Now while I had a rough first draft out, I had no clue on how to actually go about editing and creating a second draft, despite knowing what changes I wanted made. My masterpiece felt like a house of cards with great big gaps in the middle that I knew I wanted and needed to fill, but instead I felt like I was being consumed with what felt like writers block. I went on to Amazon.com in the hopes of finding a book that could help me out and that's what I found On Writing.

On Writing, a memoir of the craft, is written by Stephen King who is best known for his sci-fi/horror genre of work like Carrie and The Green Mile.While I have never even read anything by him and have no intentions of writing about aliens or poltergeists, the reviews on Amazon seemed promising and the best part of the book was that it was short. After all, I needed to get back to my own writing so needed a quick read and fix. What I was met with however, was great writing, extremely useful tips and a very motivating life story.

The book is split up into three parts with the first being about the writer's life right from his earliest memories to now. A boring autobiography this is not. There are short chapters that literally capture memories from King's life and are beautifully written, sometimes being laugh-out-loud funny to having some poignant moments that had me teary eyed. The second part is actually where the tips on writing are to be found. The third part talks about the writer's brush with death, when a driver ran him over while he was out for a walk. Again, I have never read any of Stephen King's work but reading On Writing really made me want to.

You don't have to be a writer to read or enjoy this book, but if you are a writer, I really suggest you pick this one up. This is one of the best books on writing that I have ever read. There are many handy tools present here, and ones that I could actually use and I wish I'd read the book before. One of things he keeps stressing on is "writing with the door closed" which not only means writing away from distractions, but not sharing your work with people till the entire thing is complete. I was sending out my work, chapter by chapter, to well meaning friends, and all the issues I have now are actually an outcome of that. In terms of my dilemma, he actually advises shelving the first draft away for six weeks before coming back to it, so by default my taking "time off" was actually just what was needed. I will be taking some more time to destress and get back into reading before I face my work again.

Again, if you do like to write, I cannot recommend this book enough. However, if you are a fan of Stephen King's work, want to know more about his life or just want to read some literature about the life of an author, I'd highly recommend this be your next book. A great, great read and one that I'll be referring back to in later years for sure.
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Book Review- The Cuckoo's Calling

Book lovers out there (and probably well informed non book lovers too) probably need no introduction to "The Cuckoo's Calling." The book that overnight was catapulted into the Amazon #1 spot was done so by J K Rowling's admission to writing and publishing it under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. To know more about that, here's an article you may find interesting.

After reading some of the hype around this book I knew this was going to be my next read. I absolutely loved the Harry Potter series and intend to reread the entire series back to back someday, and had even picked up Rowling's next book, The Casual Vacancy but hadn't bothered reading it as I read reviews of the book before starting on it. The Cuckoo's Calling however seemed to be getting rave reviews with one Amazon reviewer even suspecting (before Rowling's big announce) that the book was so well written that the author's name was probably a pseudonym used by a famous author. The book also falls under the crime fiction genre which I also do quite occasionally enjoy, so this one seemed to be a safe bet all around

The story is about a private detective, Cormoran Strike, who has been hired by the brother of a dead supermodel, convinced his sister did not commit suicide as largely suspected, but had instead been killed. Rowling's writing is fantastic and the way she spins the story is nothing less than beautiful. Her words are a joy to read as are her descriptions. I found myself being fascinated by the way she spins sentences and highlighted a few as an example-
"The dead could only speak through the mouths of those left behind, and through the signs they left scattered behind them."
 or
"Suicides, in his experience, were perfectly capable of feigning an interest in  a future they had no intention of inhabiting." 
Perhaps those who love to read literature will appreciate the writing style and I personally think this has to be the most poetically worded piece of crime fiction I've ever read. 

But then comes the plot and the story. I feel like the novel would make a great movie- the kind that moves very slowly with a bunch of strange, suspicious characters appearing in it, all coming together and making sense in the last 10 minutes when the shocking truth is revealed. Although, reading it is sadly not nearly as much fun. The novel builds a fantastic story but I sort of guessed, simply because of the "you'll never guess who the end" rule, what the end was. The characters did come to life through the story, but a fast paced thrilled this is not... it moves very, very slowly. I often find my mind drifting and forgetting which character was being referred to, and mind you I finished the book in 3 days. It's not that the characters were confusing but I just kept getting restless waiting for something to happen and for a quicker pace to kick in. I didn't come away thinking the ending made too much sense either, but I won't get into that for fear of giving away the story. If you do however read the book, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the end and whether it was satisfactory to you. I felt overall that the book was quite an average one- not unreadable, but definitely not an "unputdownable" one like Inferno, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  or even Six Suspects if you're into Indian fiction.

Overall, I guess I'd give it a 3 out of 5. Read it for the hype and language but don't expect too much going in and then you may just be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I'd had my expectations sky high so was slightly disappointed. 
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Book Review- Fall of Giants

After reading (and loving) Dan Brown's Inferno and then following it up with the disappointing Proof of Heaven  I was looking to read another totally absorbing book and didn't even mind turning to a trashy beach read as long as it was entertaining and I got my literary fix! A friend of mine, whom I actually met through exchanging notes about my blog, sent me this recommendation and promised it would be in equal parts absorbing and educational. At 1000 pages the book was definitely not going to be a quick read but I figured I'd give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did!
Trashy beach read this is not, but then again those who have read Ken Follett before would know that. I hadn't, so I didn't, and if my friend hadn't pointed out the educational aspects of this novel, I'd be in for quite a shock. Along with characters that span from Russia to America, German to British, Welsh, Austrian, Scottish and a few others thrown in, we also get to meet Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Lenin, Trotsky, Woodrow Wilson and a few other historical figures. Yes they appear occasionally as characters in the book and the book is that well researched that statements they make or views expressed either historically actually did happen or as the author explains at the end of the book, could have happened. The novel follows the characters through the First World War explaining the why's, the how's and also the behind the scene actions and make you feel like you were really there. History buffs will LOVE this book and non history buffs who are clueless about sequence of events may have to turn to Wikipedia or even better, pull up a few videos about the First World War on Khan Academy like I did, and maybe get a side explanation on what happened and how. Follett takes basic knowledge of history as a given and unfortunately I found myself a bit lost at a few parts. However a little bit of reading will bring you up to speed and absorbed in the happenings. There were a few parts however that I found to slightly drag on, but as I said my knowledge of history is limited and so is my interest level on the same. The novel ends setting the stage for the Second World War which is what the story of the second book revolves around. Sorry I didn't mention earlier that this novel is Book 1 of a trilogy, the next book being Winter of the World which is out already and the third due for release at the end of 2014.
There are too many story lines in this novel for me to tell you what it's all about but as I said World War I is the most important plot, along with women's rights and the class system coming up as side issues weaved into the story. If you're not interested in history at all I'd probably tell you to give this one a miss. However if you're interested in learning about history in an interesting and absorbing way in the form of fiction, Fall of Giants does just that. It may make you ignore friends and family for a few days or weeks (I finished it in a week) but you'll emerge happier and wiser for it. How many books can promise you that?
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Book Review- Proof of Heaven

 

For a while now I have read books about the afterlife, and I think I had first read books about this subject even before my Father passed away 11 years ago. I remember reading books about an NDE (Near Death Experience) even as far back as boarding school in 1994. Since then I've read books on past life regression (Many Lives Many Masters and pretty much all of Brian Weiss's stuff), studied to be a certified Clinical Hypnotherapist myself and undergone many, many past and in between life regressions (the stuff I get up to in my spare time I tell ya!), read books on Auto writing (Sounds of Silence, Laws of the Spirit World ), Spiritual fluffy stuff on the subject (Journey of Souls by Michael Newton) and quite a few other books in the same vein that don't immediately come to mind right now. To say I am curious about the afterlife would be putting it mildly. But then again, isn't everyone? When Proof of Life started showing up on best seller lists I wondered if I needed to read yet another book on the same subject. If there's one thing I had learned from all my own reading and research, was that everyone seemed to have their own theory and their own "experience" as to what happened after. Whether it was Jesus they saw, Meher Baba, Sai Baba, dead relative, their description of the afterlife, angels.. there was absolutely no consistency and while I really wanted to believe in their experiences and my own, I have remained skeptical. I found the varying degrees of each one's descriptions very convenient to their beliefs and I find it amusing that the inconsistency goes so deep they are unable to even agree on an answer to a simple question- does hell exist or not? The spiritualites will have you believe the soul hates being separated from the Creator so Earth IS hell, whereas the religious describe vividly a fiery pit where all the sinners go. Anyhow, when my friend mentioned Proof of Heaven a few weeks ago, I dismissed it saying I really didn't want to give it a go till I later went home and read about the book a bit. The words "Neurosurgeon" and "Harvard University" started to lure me in and I thought, maybe, just maybe this book will be different. It'll be the one that'll tell me what REALLY is going on. After all the author doesn't call it "thoughts" of heaven... he's a neurosurgeon giving me actual proof dammit! 

After finishing Inferno earlier today, I started on Proof of Heaven as I knew it would be a quick read as these kind of books usually are. While it took me only a few hours to get through it, the Author could have spared me a lot of time and just written an article on  his experience as that's really what his experience could be described in- a couple of thousand words, if not a few hundred. Most of the book he talks about his childhood and his family and his wife and then what his family members were going through while he was in a coma and how his disease was miraculous and one of a kind, how his NDE was very different (as it allowed him to go "deeper" than anyone else- although we don't know what that means) and how his recovery was also miraculous. There is some scientific jargon thrown in there with some stuff about his being adopted, his almost drinking problem, blah blah yada yada. The juicy bit? He wakes up (although it's not really him so there is no waking and he doesn't remember his life as a human) in some sort of dark gooey jelly like place, then hears music and flies with a woman on the wings of a butterfly, then goes and meets "God" that he refers to as Om (this should make the Hindus and the spiritualites very happy) and then.. he goes back to his body. All the while he had no recollection of who he was in the physical plane or any knowledge of people praying for him but says clearly that it was those prayers that saved him and brought him back, although its unclear how. He did gets lots of learning though about that world and other Universes and lots of things were taught to him, especially the idea that its all about Love. The rest of the learnings he tells us he has full recollection of, but couldn't really put into words as they was so magical, but am sure he won't have any issues doing so a year and another book deal from now.

I feel kind of cheated as I do when I read some non fiction books about like diet, or some major business theories, which could in essence be put into a paragraph but is stretched on for 200 pages. And after I was done with the predictable and cheesy end of the book, I googled the guy a bit. Scientists have slammed the book and the authors claim that he was completely brain dead and hence the images could not have been his hallucinations. Another reviewer on Amazon did some digging and found some malpractice suits the good ol' Doc had tried to cover up so there are those questions about his character. Yet, I'd love to be a believer if there was anything of absolute substance in this book but unfortunately, since his whole experience was barely described, there is really nothing TO believe. So magical heaven or just a dead end? I guess only time will tell. In the meantime I'd suggest you save your precious moments here on earth and not spend them reading this book.

Book Review- Inferno

Inferno is a novel by Dan Brown, the author who is most famous for his book The Da Vinci Code and 3 others in the Robert Langdon series. While I absolutely loved his most famous work and was the first book of his I'd read, I was quite disappointed by the ones that followed. However, Inferno sounded promising, had good reviews on Amazon and I was desperately in need of a good, sort-of-trashy, summer fiction read that would keep me absorbed for a few days. While my book club reads were all incredible books, I find that I usually get more absorbed into works of fiction and books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that are fast paced and well written are usually my favourite kinds. I hoped Inferno would help hit that spot... and boy, did it ever!
Dan Brown is a writer for the masses so anyone looking to read serious literature should turn to Dante's Inferno and not Dan Brown's, although the book is all about Dante and his effect on art and literature. Does the basic premise of the book make a lot of sense? Well, if I was a madman looking to cause widespread global damage, I wouldn't send someone on a scavenger hunt to try and stop me, so in that sense no. In essence, the book is one huge scavenger hunt that starts of in Venice and then sort of takes you on a trip through other historic sites revealing the history behind various pieces of art and sculpture. Am trying to be as vague as possible so as to not give away too much of the story line but I'll just say this- this book will make you want to take an art history class. No joke. I was reading the Kindle edition of the book on my iPad which was great as it gave me direct links to wikipedia articles and other research for a lot of the places and works mentioned through the book. While I've been to all of the cities and places he talks about, the novel actually made me want to revisit each one and pay attention to the detail. If a book can make me want to sight see rather than wanting to hit the nearest shopping center, it must be doing something right.
I got halfway through the book and thought that while the trivia in the book was interesting, the plot had just become boring and predictable. Just then, BAM! The book exploded in twists and turns and became the page turner I was hoping it would be. It takes a while to really suck you in, so am just warning you in case you start to get a little bored a little bit in. Inferno is a great summer read if you're looking for something quick that will really keep you hooked. It was my favourite novel from Dan Brown after The Da Vinci Code and I'd highly recommend it to fans of that novel, especially those who were disappointed in his other works.
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Book Review- One Hundred Years of Solitude

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." This is the start of the widely acclaimed book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. It should have perhaps been an indication to me then what the rest of the book would be like, as many many chapters go by before we are again even introduced to Cololenel Auerliano Buenido, or to the specific incident of him discovering ice. But in typical Marquez style, I too shall digress.
If you have been following my book reviews for a while now, maybe you're slightly bored by my rave reviews and "must read" recommendations. But when we're doing classics and highly recommended ones that too, it's sort of hard to come across a book that we really didn't like right? My friend and I had both heard a lot about One Hundred Years.. and another friend had even gifted me my still unread copy of Love in the Time of Cholera (also by Marquez) promising me it would be one of the best I'd ever read and so I figured this be a sure shot must-read.
It started off as you can possibly see above, on an intriguing, if not gripping, note. The story proceeds to take you into the life of the village of Maconda and the lives of the Buenido family. The description is colourful and vivid and with the promise of stories with gypsies and secrets it starts of as a page turner. Then there is the sudden introduction of a ghost (and a lot of major events in the book happen in a sudden manner in the middle of a mundane sentence) and then somebody is born with the tale of a pig, and events and characters become even more fantastical and frankly, ridiculous, that you're unsure of whether you're supposed to read into things, find a metaphorical aspect to them or take them at face value for what they are- bizarre occurrences.  At the start of the book you see a family tree drawn out for you on one page, and unless you glance through the names, you'll be unsure of why one is needed in the first place. All the names of the characters are pretty much the same, and with the amount of Arcadio's and Aureliano's in the book, your head starts to spin and you wonder whether you care what happens to them at all. The book has plenty of sex, incest, hatred, jealousy.. all the makings of a bad movie, up to and including ZERO plot.
I like books that have a story line which is why I prefer fiction to non fiction. I also like books that grip you and make you unable to put it down. And my favourite type of books are the ones that have characters you can relate to and that when over, make you feel like a part of your world has gone with it forever. I realize that a great plot isn't always what makes a book a classic , and in fact most classics are hardly ever page turners. I however found the dark humour too dark and thought characters were born and died before you could even begin to care for them. I though the book tied up nicely at the end but I don't know if I feel that way because I was so happy it was finally over! Seriously with about 50 pages left I messaged my friend and told her it was taking everything I had to even finish it!!
I know a lot of people think that it's an amazing book and its reviews on Amazon are almost overwhelmingly positive, so do go ahead and give it a shot. I knew while reading it my book club companion Piyali would love it, as she overwhelmingly prefers mostly non-fiction and I knew she'd quite enjoy the dark humour in the book. It certainly was not for me but I didn't want to omit doing a review on it because I didn't like it, neither did I not want to be honest about what I thought because its a classic and all that jazz. But yes, One Hundred Years.. Possibly one of the most painful books I've read!
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Book Review- Boomerang

If you've been following my blog for the past 2 months, you'll know that my friend Piyali and I have been doing a sort of "book club" of sorts where the both of us get together and read a book a week. Piyali's husband, Brij Singh, is extremely well known in the finance field in the UAE having been CEO and MD of Julius Baer Middle East, only to leave to leave to be founder and CEO of Baer Capital Partners ltd... and in fact is also the author of the next book on our reading list. On my flight back from my Harvard course last year I'd bumped into Brij as he was returning from the same program (albeit in the week after me) and we had talked pretty much non stop about various subjects, especially my inability to understand anything finance related. We'd discussed a lot of books too when we realized we both loved reading, and he had advised me to read Boomerang by Michael Lewis, which he had said was one of his most favourite books, by one of his most favourite authors. He promised it would, in very simple uncomplicated English with no finance jargon, explain to me the global financial crisis that we were experiencing and the why and how of it all. He'd praised the book so much that I'd gone out and bought it a few days later with full intent of reading it immediately.
As I'd dug into the book my brain had started to spin and my eyes got a bit fuzzy as they're wont to do when faced with numbers or finance related big-wordery. Credit swaps whaaa?? Hmm ok, I thought to myself, clearly Brij must have misunderstood when I said NO CLUE ABOUT FINANCE and I put the book away only to collect dust in a corner of my shelf. Recently one evening I was out to dinner with the couple and we were discussing what books we should do next when advised us to go through Boomerang, again promising a great and very educational read. We agreed but when we finally got to the time we were supposed to start on the book, I took ill and refused to touch it. It was only when Piyali finished the entire book and promised it was very easy to grasp once to get past the first few pages, is when I actually decided to get into it. "Read the first three chapters and if you don't like it you can quit then," she advised. What she never told me was that the book was only 5 chapters, but by the time the first 3 were done I was hooked and that was that.
Yes you could watch CNBC or read some complicated book or the Economist to try to understand about the global crisis, or really you could read Boomerang to not only give you a very accurate and detailed view about what went wrong, but also make you laugh out loud every few pages while doing so. Lewis takes a chapter each to talk about the meltdowns that took place in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and then the current state of the US. To give you a summation of what went wrong? "Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at it. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish." What on earth does that mean? Read Boomerang and find out.  The book is uncomplicated, very well researched, and gives you a sense of the people and culture in each of these countries, and then a detailed idea as to what went wrong and where it stands now. Being a very famous author I guess also has its perks and Lewis was about to in his travels to these places, meet the people who matter to get a real behind the scenes look into the disaster zones- in fact the part where he interviews Schwarzenegger while biking around LA was in equal parts insightful and hilarious.
Piyali too was also so impressed with not only the material of the book but also his style of writing, that she googled some of his interviews and had posted this on her Facebook wall. This is him speaking at Princeton (his alma mater) in 2012 and I was pleasantly surprised to hear how well spoken he was. Again, his sense of humor shines through brilliantly even here-

Incidentally, when reading other reviews on Amazon I realized that Boomerang is actually a collection of essays Lewis had written for the magazine Vanity Fair. You may be hence actually able to find the chapters on the Vanity Fair website although I haven't tried doing that myself as I already had the book. Could I suggest that you read the first 3 chapters and see whether you like it? I think you'll be surprised at how much you enjoy it. I know I was!
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Book Review- Indian Summer

"In the beginning there were two nations. One was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organized and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swath of the earth. The other was an undeveloped semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its illiterate, diseased and stinking masses. The first nation was India. The second was England."

Hooked yet? Those are the opening lines of the book, Indian Summer, and the lines my friend Piyali (and my book club partner) read out to me to entice me into reading it. If you've read my review of Rebecca you'll have realized my friend clearly pays a lot of attention to opening lines of books and considering both have been remarkable reads, maybe I should in the future as well. But I digress...

Yes, Indian Summer is indeed a remarkable book about the partition of India and the people who made it happen. If it's history you're looking for, you've got it here with a thoroughly researched book that has almost every third line citing it's origin. Indian Summer is so much more than just a historic tale being dispassionately put down on paper. The authour, Alex Von Tunzelman's writing absolutely delights and flows from one page to another. I recently tweeted a line from the book that made me laugh out loud where Tunzelman wrote about an Indian Prince- "It was unfortunate for 'half mad' underestimated his insanity by around 50 percent." Her part about Edwina Mountbatten's death also made me cry. For an authour to so brilliantly inject her voice into a non-fiction piece really shows off her prowess and brilliance as a writer, and she coins her phrases with equal parts ease and intrigue- enough for it to become a page turner.

While those interested in history may be interested in this book, those who are Indian must definitely pick this up- it's a must read! As an Indian I knew of partition from whatever little I'd learned in history lessons at school, knew of Gandhi from what I saw in the movie and knew to dislike Pakistanis when an India-Pakistan cricket match rolled around, despite knowing little about the game. Reading this book, especially reading about Gandhi, was an eye opener especially on some of his views and ideologies. Did you know Gandhi a) didn't think a woman should resist rape, but instead "defeat" their assailant while being passive and silent? b) thought the Jews should have committed some sort of mass suicide rather than be killed at the hands of the Germans? c) had naked girls, many under the age of 18, sleep in bed next to him so as to "test" his vow of celibacy? Yup.. all cited with proof and backed with research that I went off and did a bit of digging into myself. Just as with Maus when I read about the death and destruction caused by Hitler and naively wondered how one man could have changed the world, I was struck again by how the fates of India and Pakistan were governed mostly by 3 men- Nehru, Mountbatten and Jinnah. Did Mountbatten favour Nehru simply because the two got along better and shared a common interest? And did Jinnah really even WANT a separate Pakistan or did that idea just sprout as a bargaining tool with the British? Tunzelman answers all of these questions, and many more that you never even thought to question in the first place.

And in the midst of the madness comes about a most beautiful love story- that of Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru. I've seen done a bit of digging on that front and the jury is still out on whether their relationship was was a physical one or one that was purely platonic. Tunzelman handles this by leaving it  up to the reader's imagination, never clarifying one way or the other, but citing letters where it is described as an almost spiritual bond. She also cites letters between Edwina and her husband, as well as Lord Mountbatten and Nehru which suggest that he not only knew about a relationship of some sort, but also gave it his blessing.

All in all Indian Summer is an eye opener, highly educational and absolutely fantastic read and one that I can't stop raving about. Highly, highly recommended!!
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Book Review- Rebecca

 

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again," quoted my friend holding up her copy of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. "Err what now?" was my response. "Don't tell me you've never read Rebecca," exclaimed my very astonished friend, "it's a classic!" Ashamed, I had to respond that I had actually never even heard of the book, never mind quoting what I later realized was the book's famous opening line. A quick poll amongst other friends who like to read proved that I was one of the very few who hadn't heard of the book, even if most hadn't read it themselves. 

After finishing Age of Innocence , a book that I absolutely loved, I was looking forward to launching straight into Rebecca especially since Piyali, the quoter of said book's opening line and my book club partner had hated AOI, decided to quit reading it midway and zipped through Rebecca, loving it yet again. I was intrigued by the first few chapters and I carried on reading... and reading.. and reading. "Does anything actually HAPPEN in this damn book?" I texted my friend. She asked me what page number I was on and asked me to keep reading. "Am halfway through," I messaged her a few days later, "still nothing." "Keep at it," came the not very encouraging response. I kept reading and thought ok NOW it's going to turn into a ghost story! Murder mystery maybe? Philosophical tale? All a dream? I met a friend for dinner and mentioned to him that I was reading Rebecca and there was absolutely no plot and that the story wasn't going anywhere. "I'd wait till I get to the last 100 pages of the book," he said smiling. He hadn't read the book he added, but instead watched the movie. Movie? I didn't know there was a movie. Apparently there is- An Alfred Hitchcock one that too, and I believe his first movie ever. I found that out after completing the book and in hindsight realize that the novel is right up Hitchcock's alley. 

So, I finally reached the fabled last hundred pages and bam! Suddenly my dull boring tale became a page turner and I was absolutely hooked. Is there a point to almost half of the book being painfully tedious? Well, yes, it definitely adds to the intrigue and ties it all in together. Could it have been conveyed in fewer words with a lot less description? Well yes, but like a Hitchcock movie it definitely adds to the story and builds it up to the crescendo. Would I recommend it? Definitely. If you have patience that is.

So, here's a glimpse into the story- the woman who acts as our narrator (whose name we never find out) reminisces about, as the first line would suggest, her time at Manderlay. The reader is then transported to the narrator's time as a young girl in Monte Carlo where she acts as a companion to a wealthy woman when meets the rich widower Maxim de Winter, who after a brief courtship offers to marry her and whisk her off to his palatial home that is Manderlay. The new Mrs de Winter goes to Manderlay but something is not quite right. With the sense of the late Rebecca de Winter still looming in the air and the downright spooky Mrs Danvers, the housekeeper and apparent lover of all things Rebecca hanging around things start getting downright strange for our poor narrator. Things go on and get stranger still till... 

Aah but you're going to have to read the book to find that out. Go on, I promise in the end it'll be worth your while. 

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Book Review- Age of Innocence

 Aah! The Age of Innocence! We decided to read this book in my 2 person book club when my friend's daughter was visiting town, joined us as an honorary member and came book shopping with us to help our future picks. I wanted to pick either The Great Gatsby or Age of Innocence but since she too wanted to read this we picked up AOI despite getting much resistance from her Mother. Since the TV show (and one of my ex guilty pleasures) Gossip Girl had referred to this book a few times, I knew it was about New York society, but I didn't really know too much else about it and hadn't seen the movie.
When I started reading the book I found it a bit difficult to get into as I hadn't read a classic for a while (it was written in 1920 but is set in the 1870's) and I found the language a bit difficult to get into. Once I realized to not get bogged into the descriptive element of the book and get the gist of the story line and narrative instead, I found the language to be incredibly beautiful and one of the main reasons why I loved the book so much. As I mentioned already, the book is set in New York City in an era that is governed by convention and appearances. In the first chapter itself I was thoroughly amused by these descriptions and figured the book could very easily be based in Modern Dubai! For example Wharton describes a woman who is at the opera in the setting scene, whose presence is even more noted as she is hosting a ball at her house later that evening, so wants to make a statement as to how well trained her staff are and how often they entertain that her presence is not even required at home. Now make that opera be set at the Madinat and the lady's home at the Emirates Hills and we've got a modern day fairytale! But, I digress...
The book is about a young man, Newland Archer, who is engaged to be married to the young May Welland when her cousin, Countess Olenska comes to town after leaving her husband and causes a stir in the conservative society of New York. Of course, Newland is completely besotted with May are men were expected to be, and May in turn seems to be at first glance the perfect "wife material"and a bit of a mindless bimbo to be honest, but that soon changes. Wharton has a wickedly delicious sense of humour that doesn't always come through at first, but soon you realize she's laughing at the nuances of the society along with you. Her language though shines halfway through the book when it comes to the romance between the characters and the sheer brilliance of her use of words kept me absolutely hooked on to the book. My most favourite line was when Newland Archer tells the Countess about the effect she has on him every time they meet- “Each time you happen to me all over again. ” And another one I absolutely loved- “I shan't be lonely now. I was lonely; I was afraid. But the emptiness and the darkness are gone; when I turn back into myself now I'm like a child going at night into a room where there's always a light.”
 The romance in the novel is beautiful, breathtaking and heart breaking at the same time. And if you think it's a typical romance novel with a predictable end, think again. And as I said earlier, especially if you live in Dubai you may find yourself drawing quite a few parallels... “It was the old New York way...the way people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than "scenes", except those who gave rise to them."
I absolutely loved the book and found myself savouring it towards the end as I enjoyed the writing so much. And of course if that's not reason enough, the fact that it won a Pulitzer in 1921 may be enough to tempt you?
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Book Review- Maus

This review refers to "The Complete Maus" which is a publication that contains book 1 and 2, which are also available separately. Maus is not a widely known book despite it having won a Pulitzer prize, and the only reason I'd heard of it and read it around 15 years ago, is because it caught my eye at my College bookstore in the US. After all, it isn't common for a comic book to be featured in any course's reading list, not to mention win a Pulitzer, and that made me want to pick it up and check it out. In my last post, I'd mentioned my book-a-week book club I'd started with a friend, and after Palace of Illusions and Animal Farm I suggested Maus to her and set about rereading the book again.

In case the illustration on the cover isn't a dead giveaway, I'll spell it out- Maus is about the holocaust and is a true story by Art Spiegelman who sets out to do a comic book depicting his Father's nightmarish journey, and ultimate survival, through the same. Through the book, the Jews have been depicted as mice, the Poles as Pigs and Germans as Cats. Ironically, the last book we'd read as part of the book club was Animal Farm which depicts events taking place right before WWII and of course, also uses animals to depict it's story. Having not read too much about the holocaust since I generally favour fiction to non-fiction, the subject matter was new to me as I'd even skipped out on watching movies on it such as Schindler's List. There is one thing knowing exactly what happened during the holocaust, but it's another to read through a painful narration of a man who went hungry for days and in some instances eats snow to be alive, for whom a small piece of bread is the difference between life and death, and whose family was almost all completely wiped out in the Holocaust.

When discussing the book with my friend during our book club meet, she and her daughter both gave me feedback that they hadn't really enjoyed the book and wondered how it had won a Pulitzer. My friend even said that she felt the story being told in comic form almost trivialized the occurrences. In hindsight, I feel Maus is about so much more than just the holocaust, it is a beautiful depiction of human suffering, the desire to survive in face of torment and the aftermath of that struggle. Spiegelman portrays his tense relationship with his father whom he shows being extremely stingy to the point of embarrassing his son on multiple occasions. At the end of the book he also portrays the Father's unpleasant reaction to an African American, which makes you think about racism and hate breeding hate. The most shocking is that Spiegelman's Mother survives all the torture of the holocaust only to commit suicide years later, without even leaving a note.

All in all I personally very much enjoyed Maus and would highly recommend it to anyone, especially for someone who, like me, may not have read too much about the holocaust.
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Book Review- Animal Farm

So to explain what exactly prompted me to pick up a classic, especially one as non traditional as Animal Farm I'm going to have to give you a back story and also explain why you may be seeing a multitude of book reviews on my blog. My friend and I were chatting one evening about the books we'd read and despite my being a voracious reader, I was blown away by the types of books she'd read, and the speed at which she read them. She mentioned then that to encourage her teenage daughter to read more classics and more literature (rather than the 50-types-of-trash that seem to be so popular these days) she started a book club with her for 5 weeks (the daughter was soon off to boarding school) where they picked a book to finish each week after which they'd had a discussion on their literary consumption. What a fantastic idea, I thought aloud, and asked if she'd want to have the same set up with me. I love to read but recently I'd just gotten downright lazy at it. Watching mindless TV shows just seemed to take up way too much of my time and even when I was reading, I seemed to veer towards the "Best Sellers" section at the bookstore rather than picking up anything substantial and worthwhile. Since she hated most fiction unless it fit in the classics genre, I knew I'd be exploring books outside my comfort zone, yet the types I'd always wanted to explore, and hence our 2 person "book club" was born.

So.. Animal Farm. Definitely outside my literary comfort zone! Most of you would have heard of the book, and a lot of you read it at school or college. I'd heard a lot about it and knew that it was a simple story, steeped in imagery and was about, as the name suggests, an Animal Farm! The book is only 90 something pages so is a very quick read, and can almost be a mindless children's book if you read it as is without trying to really read between the lines. It tells the story of a bunch of animals that drive out the owner of the farm they are housed in and decide to run things themselves and take matters into their own hands if you will. The short simple tale has many subtexts to it, which touches on communism vs socialism, on politicians vs the masses, and at it's very core, human social interactions and what happens when equality is assumed amongst a group of people who, given their abilities, socioeconomic status, education and upbringing, are clearly not equal.

But to really read the book and not go into it's history and the story it was meant to originally portray (despite your own interpretation of it and how it relates to the modern world) is to do it grave injustice. Honestly, I didn't really research the book and the history, despite knowing that the story was meant to portray the Russian Revolution. Luckily my friend is sort of Google Queen and had gone deep into the history of Russia and researched the book to correlate it to events and I was pretty impressed as to how Orwell had through a simple story, depicted the rumblings and undercurrents between the masses that took place during and after the revolution. They are many writings on the same, but if you've read the book already or intend to, you can check out this link that lays it out quite simply- http://www.slideshare.net/middletons1/russian-revolution-animal-farm 

All in all I'm glad I didn't read the book in isolation and had someone who did the research and explained a lot of things to me. All in all, I wouldn't say this was a great read like Palace of Illusions which I couldn't put down, but it was more of an educational read and I'm glad I took the time out to go through it.
If by any chance you'd like to virtually be part of our book club and share your thoughts with us, do let me know and I can post the names of the book as we're about to start on them, or give you a short list on what we're planning on reading next. Also if you guys have any recommendations, do let me know and I'll be sure to check them out!
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Book Review- The Palace of Illusions

A few years ago a Pakistani friend of mine suggested I read "The Palace of Illusions." I mention my friend's Nationality as said book is based on the Mahabharata and is written from Draupadi, the female protagonists point of view. I was extremely intrigued and had come home and downloaded it on my Kindle and then promptly ignored it, while I had probably gotten submerged by other books and useless TV shows. Then last week I was over at another friend's home who is Indian, an atheist, extremely intelligent and one of the most well read people I know. "You have to read this book," she prodded, sometime after she quoted quantum physicists and some mumbo jumbo about protons and ions and lots of research she had read before she decided to convert to atheism. So a Muslim and an atheist both prodded me to read a book based on the a story of a war which is the setting for the most religious of Hindu scriptures- the Bhagwad Gita. I was extremely intrigued and started on the book the next day itself.
If you're a frequent reader of this blog, you will know I worship Vikram Seth and that "A Suitable Boy" is my most favourite book of all time, a book I reread for the third time over the summer. All I can say is "The Palace of Illusions" either shares that top spot with ASB or could possibly have dethroned it altogether. If you're reading this and you're a Hindu, the story this book is based on is possibly quite known to you. Draupadi is married to five brothers, the Pandavs, and they go to war against their cousins, the Kauravas. If however, you haven't a clue about the story of the Mahabharata, that one line is quite possibly all you need to know before you read the book. How then, can one of the best books I've ever read be based on a story I already knew? Therein lies the brilliance of the book. Divakaruni, while writing this book, takes creative liberty in taking you through the detailed story and emotions of the protagonist, exploring a love story within the Mahabharata that isn't often spoken about or commonly known, and gives you a vivid picture of the occurrences as they happen. And her writing... aah her writing! The writing is pure poetry and is especially heightened almost reaching a dramatic crescendo at the end. My friend reread the book with me and in a quick swapping of notes yesterday, we realized we both cried at it's end, more because the words moved us so rather than because of the story line- one we both were quite familiar with. When "A Suitable Boy" ended, each of the three times I read it, I had been left with a feeling of emptiness as I felt a world that I had been built for me and suddenly vanished and I had been left alone without it; Most people would know that feeling which could come at the end of a great book or great movie. At the end of "A Palace of Illusions" however, I finished it on a complete high, feeling completely satiated and satisfied and almost privilidged to be allowed to witness glimpses into such personal moments of another's life. Strangely, both my friend and I had the same reaction to the end. Something about it makes you want to sit in thoughtful silence after turning the last page.
In my book reviews I really don't like giving spoilers or giving too many details away about the storyline as I feel one doesn't enjoy the book remotely as much if you know what's going to happen next. If that is what is holding you back, I suggest you put your misconception aside and still give it a shot. Had someone given me that advice, I'd possibly have read the book years ago when its first rave review had made me download it. Now, as you can guess, I can't recommend "A Palace of Illusions" enough! Very rarely does a book come into your life and make you feel like nothing will ever be the same again. I dare you to read it and not feel the same.
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Book Review- Laws of the Spirit World

Over the years of writing this blog I've written a lot about my roller coaster ride with all things spiritual- at times I'm totally obsessed with alternative therapies and reading up about different subjects to do with God, the Universe, the unknown and all else that comes along with it.. and then I'll go into a phase where I think it all is hogwash and get completely turned off the "business" of spirituality, because that's exactly what it is- a business. I am in a bit of an in between phase right now, where I am getting curious again but am able to separate the message from the person and prefer to get my knowledge from books rather being disappointed by the speaker of the knowledge. Anyhow, a few days ago I decided to pick up a book relating to spirituality and "Laws of the Spirit World" is the first book I came across on my bookshelf. I've always been curious about death and the afterlife and this particular book is one that I've heard so much about over the years, that I was actually surprised I had it and hadn't read it earlier.
Most people have a notion about what happens to them after they die- Some base it on what they've heard or learned, most base it on what it is their religion tells them, and a lot of people just don't think about it at all. I belong to the 1st category, where I've always wondered and been curious about what happens to us, and I guess after losing my Father ten years ago, I started to actively search for answers. I've read a lot of books on the subject, and through my practicing of Hypnotherapy (I'm a certified clinical hypnotherapist) have studied a lot about life between lives, etc. In short, "Laws of the Spirit World" was not the first encounter I had with the subject.
20 pages into the book, I absolutely loved it. The book is one that has been narrated to the author, Khorshed Bhavnagiri, by her 2 sons that passed away in a car accident. They, through "automatic writing" talk about what happened to them immediately after their demise, what they felt like, what they experienced, and what they've learned during their time on the Other Side, etc.  There was a lot of stuff in the book that absolutely resonated with my beliefs and explained them in an absolutely beautiful way. The book for example talks about the motive behind people's actions and says that people sometimes even help others or do charity for all the wrong reasons, and that's almost worse than not doing it at all- I completely agree with that. It also talks about what happens when you sleep, the different realms spirits reside on, the concept of rebirth, etc. Very intriguing and thought provoking stuff.
As I got more into the book however, there was a lot of stuff in it that didn't resonate with my beliefs. For example, I do not believe in the concept of hell, whereas this book seems to belong a little too much to the, "do this, or else..." mentality. I also believe that Karma is nothing but a set of experiences- if you do nice to someone, you need to experience, in one of your lifetimes, somebody doing something nice to you... it sort of balances itself out. I also don't believe there is necessarily "right vs wrong"- sometimes a person's circumstances are such that affect their actions. Anyhow, the book talks at various times about how helping an "evil" person is a sin, how one must expose evil people to warn other people against them, etc. I've seen too many "spiritualites" in Dubai taking a few weekend courses and suddenly claiming (and believing) they are the authority on what is right and wrong, so I clearly am jaded and think that in the grander sense, we are no one to put labels on people. I believe forgiveness and love is all that people should strive towards rather than trying to figure out whether the people they are helping are evil or not.
Anyhow, I don't mean to make this review about my spiritual beliefs but I didn't know how to get into the review without highlighting a few of them. Bottom line, read "Laws of the Spirit World" with an open mind, especially if its your first foray into the subject. Read about what's being written and absorb what you resonate with and discard what you don't. The subject in itself is fascinating enough for you to want to give it a whirl, and if nothing else, read it as if its fiction if it goes against your religious beliefs. For those who are interested in exploring the subject further, do check out "Sounds of Silence" and "Journey of Souls" as well, and of course, "Conversations with God". Suggestions for books on this or related subjects are most welcome too!
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Book Review- A Suitable Boy

I'd read A Suitable Boy twice when I was at boarding school, many many moons ago. To say no other book or writer has had the effect on me ASB or Seth have had may sort of be an understatement. My first reading saw me have sleepless nights and finish the book in 4 days, and my second reading took me a generously paced 5. I've wanted for years to go back and reread the novel but had visions of me not being able to sleep and being a social recluse for days on end and I kept putting it off. Last summer in NYC however, I figured it would be the perfect place and setting for me to embark on it again.. I had the time and definitely the inclination, and hence went out and bought the book. Unfortunately it wasn't up till last week I was able to grab the book off my shelf and give it a go for the third time around. I finished it in 6 days.

The book is so much more than it's description- a story about 19 year old Lata whose mother embarks on a journey to find her youngest daughter a suitable groom. The story is about that yes, but is also about the families involved, the cities involved, the entire political situation in India at that point and the fabric of Indian society in general. The book weaves such a rich tapestry around you, paints such a beautiful picture that you're almost sad and bereft when it's done.

When I decided to reread the book this time, I wanted to be reminded by what made me fall in love with Seth in the first place. I after all, used to have a framed letter from him hanging up on my wall through my college years and a laminated picture of him in my wallet (please try to not judge me). Yes, the book is absolutely beautifully written and I found myself getting lost in the characters and feeling their emotions so deeply almost as if I knew them. But what struck me as most weird was my realization of how well the book ages and how I've aged with it. To put into perspective, the first 2 times I read the book, the internet was not commonly found and I had no access to it while at boarding school. Yet, reading the reviews on amazon.com will show you that there is no part of the book even now that seems in any way outdated or irrelevant. This is something I'm hoping Seth will be able to replicate in the sequel to the book that he is working on, named A Suitable Girl and due to be out next year.

As I mentioned earlier, I was also pretty taken aback to see how I had aged with the novel too. Between the 3 potential suitors Lata has, there is Kabir, the Muslim boy in her college she is in love with, Haresh- the shoe-maker that her mother finds the most suitable and Amit Chatterjee, her sister in law's brother who is a charming, witty poet. Aah Amit Chatterjee!! Though Seth denies fashioning the writer after himself, I honestly felt the most connection to this lovely character and during my previous reads, was Team Amit all the way! This time however, maybe because I was older, I was able to look a bit beyond what was immediately on offer and understand a bit better what qualities she should be looking for in a life partner. As I was probably younger than 19 the first two times I'd read it, my view on what to look for in a suitable boy were obviously a lot different than what they are now and I found her choice a lot more shockingly agreeable this time around. I wasn't expecting that.

In any case, if you're looking for a good summer read that will encapsulate you into a whole new world, look no further. It is my most favourite book hands down, and I can't recommend it enough!
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Book Review- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Given my obsession with Steve Jobs, I think it would be shocking for any frequent reader of this blog if I didn't put my life on hold and rush out to go buy and subsequently read this biography. While I downloaded this book and read it on my Kindle (yes I know... but my eyes hurt after reading on the iPad too long), my life had virtually come to a standstill while I devoured every page of this book and read about one of the most revered men in business (in case you're wondering, I finished the book in 4 days flat!). Not big into technology and wondering whether you will enjoy this book as much as I did? A friend tweeted me the exact same question earlier today and my answer to her was that to enjoy any book, especially a biography, one needs to have an interest in the subject matter being written about. Having said that, any business student, entrepreneur or person interested in reading about businesses MUST read this book. Any person interested in technology, the history of technology or in the media business MUST read this book. Any creative person wanting to learn more about the business aspect of creativity, any artist wanting to get their creative juices flowing, any person interested in the dichotomy of spirituality and making money MUST read this book. And of course, people interested remotely interested in understanding about the world we live in today with even a faint curiosity on technological advances and how they came about to be, MUST read this book.
While it is at it's core definitely a business book and is a book about a businessman, I believe it's also a great insight into the minds of one of the most influential people of our times and a lot of people will enjoy reading it, as long as they do remember that it is a book about a businessman.  One that may have changed the world and left a mark on it forever, but this isn't a book about spirituality or values or an extended version of his Stanford commencement speech. It's not a feel-good book and I think a lot of people who don't know much about him might think that's exactly what it is- a guide to how to be inspiring and creative and successful and world-altering just like him. Again, this is a book about a businessman and a ruthless one that too and it's a true picture about the story of his life.. so definitely keep that in mind before picking it up.

While I'd followed Jobs' career and believed I'd read almost every article on him ever published, a lot in the book came as a complete surprise. While his temper was legendary, I didn't realize that he was cold and distant even with his family, and had very few scruples even when dealing with close friends. Also the amount of times they refer to Jobs' crying in the book really makes me believe he was bipolar or had some sort of personality disorder- Isaacson touches on him having a narcissist disorder, but that thought is never really explored. While I absolutely love Jobs' and love his contribution to the world, I was shocked while reading the first half of the book as to how little I actually liked the man I was reading about. I do believe his failures in his life may have humbled him a tiny bit which is why the reader goes from thinking he's an asshole to being fascinated with finding out where he got his ideas from about the various products he launched, and the thought process and meticulous attention to detail he gave. While you may finish the book still not loving him, you put down the book having a lot of respect for him and really, really loving his company, Apple.

Overall the book was quite fast paced, is PACKED with anecdotes- ever wondered why he switched to wearing his standard uniform of mock-turtlenecks with Levi's jeans? Wonder which was conceived first- the chicken or the egg (the iPhone or the iPad)? What the series of events were that brought him back into Apple? What his relationship with Woz was like? How Apple will survive after he's gone? What new products he may have conceived of that have still not been launched? The answers to all that and more are in the book, and are absolutely fascinating to read. You get to read about a note he wrote to his wife on their 20th anniversary, or what Bill Gates and Jobs' spoke about when Gates visited him out of the blue one evening a few months before he passed away. You read about his relationship with each of his children and how he went about finding his biological parents and his relationship with his daughter that he abandoned in his younger days. It's all there, and it all makes for a riveting tale.
 The book also managed to do something few non-fiction books are ever able to do- make me laugh out loud, and make me cry. There were a few moments of tears, and there were few outright sobs, but then again I absolutely love Jobs so maybe someone with less of an attachment to him might not go through that.. but for sure, there will be quite a few misty eyed moments. Overall, I cannot recommend this book enough and think a lot of people who begin to read it will, like me, not be able to put it down!
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Book Review of "The Snowman"

When a book's title advertises that the author is "the next Stieg Larsson" you don't really bother to read the back flap to see what the book is about.. you just pick it up and move along. Given that I'd already heard about the book from a friend of mine who loves to read (and write.. I've posted about her own blog here) and highly recommended the book, it made my decision only that much easier. I got through James Patterson's "10th Anniversary" in around 2 days (which I haven't reviewed yet) and started on Jo Nesbo's book and couldn't wait for another fast paced thriller to have me completely absorbed.

So let me tell you a little bit of of the story- A little boy wakes up to find his mother missing with no clues relating to her disappearance expect for a snowman in the garden with his Mother's scarf wrapped around it's neck. Spooky stuff eh? And the rest of the book does not disappoint! The story revolves around detective Harry Hole who puts pieces of the puzzle together to figure out what on earth is going on. To figure that out for yourself, you're going to have to read the book. Get ready for unexpected plot twists and a whole lot of turn arounds in the story line. The book in fact is the 7th to be published in the Harry Hole series and only the 5th by the Norwegian authour to be translated into English.

So yes, the book is intriguing and interesting and absorbing, and yes you'll have enough to keep you on your toes. But to compare this book with any  of the Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, etc) is quite premature and inaccurate. Larsson is a brilliant storyteller whose story lines are backed up with incredibly real characters and an astounding level of research that shows through every page in his books. The Snowman is a great read, but be sure to manage your expectations while going in, or you MIGHT just be disappointed by comparing the two authors. Dive in without any expectations (or better yet, not knowing who Stieg Larsson is) and you might have found yourself the perfect summer read you were looking for.. albeit one that might end too soon 'coz you couldn't put it down. Consider this- the book has sold around 2 Million copies in Norway, which to put into perspective, has a population of 5 Million. Surely the fans are raving about something?
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Book Review- The Brightest Star in the Sky

 Marian Keyes is without a doubt the Queen of "Chick Lit." Her last two books that I'd read, The Other side of the Story and This Charming Man were fabulous reads that I literally could not put down. As an Author she has the unique ability to make her reader laugh out loud and/or cry from the very depths of their being- sometimes at the same time. Her stories are complex, yet simple, touching yet hilarious, unbelievable, and yet somehow utterly realistic and by the time you're done with a Marianne Keyes book, you're utterly in love with her characters and are miserable they're gone. With such an introduction to the Author you can imagine how excited I was when I saw her latest book, The Brightest Star in the Sky. I picked it up immediately, cracked it open and started to read what I thought, would be my pick for the best summer read. Boy, was I wrong.

As I mentioned earlier, Keyes' ability as a writer is to be able to come up with loveable memorable characters and make you want to follow their stories. Her latest book however, featured some of the most miserable and drab characters that I've ever encountered in what is supposed to essentially be, a quick, fun read. Not only were they not fun, but it's taken me around a month to finish this book. It was slow (painfully so) and starts off with a certain entity that goes into the building of 66 Star Street to find out about it's residents. You don't find out what the entity is till the end of the book, but by then, you're FAR from really caring to figure that mystery out. There are way too many characters in the book and it just jumps around so much that every time you start a new chapter, even though you're 3/4ths your way through the book, you think to yourself, "WHO?" I don't know if this is because the novel is over-populated or as I said earlier, that boring that you don't really care to figure out who is who. I don't know what miserable phase the Author is going through in her own life to make her produce something as bad as this. Laugh out loud bits? You'll be lucky if this book makes you crack a smile! All that got me through is the fact that I HATE leaving books halfway and especially if they're fiction, finish them no matter what. 

Am still searching for that fast-paced addictive summer read! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and subsequent books in the series were my last year's pick. Any recommendations for must-read books for this year?

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Interview with Amish Tripathi, author of "Immortals of Meluha"

You may remember a few months back I had done a review on a book called the Immortals of Meluha on my blog, and highly recommended it. For those interested in spirituality and Hindu Mythology, I'd promised that it would be one of the best books you'll ever read on the subject. Hopefully a lot of you would have bought a copy and read it since then, or encouraged others you know to have read the book. I have given my copy to my Mother, who doesn't particularly like to read, and she is slowly making her way through the book, which tells the story of one of the most powerful deities for Hindus- Lord Shiva.
I was SO fascinated with the book, I nosied around on the internet and managed to contact the author, Amish Tripathi, and requested him to answer a few questions that I had for him. If you've read the book, I'm sure some of the questions will be ones that you yourself might have had! He took some time getting back to me as he is currently busy working on the sequel to IOM and also busy with his day job... believe it or not, the famed author who found his first book top the national best seller list in India, actually works in the Insurance industry! He is also a graduate of the famed IIM Kolkata.
He kindly took some time out to respond to all my questions-

1) First of all Amish, thank you for writing such an inspiring and informative book! What is it that prompted you to write a book fictionalizing Hindu Mythology, and what percentage of it is fact and what percent have you allowed yourself creative liberty to tell the story of Shiva?

Honestly, I can't say that I planned this book. I had never even dreamt of being an author. Before The Immortals of Meluha, I had written no fiction. Ever. So I am as surprised as anyone else that I ended up being an author.
The book began during a conversation between my family and me. We were watching TV together and there was an interesting historical programme being broadcast, where we discovered something surprising. We all know that for ancient Indians, Gods were called Devas and Demons were called Asuras. What we don't know is that for ancient Persians, Gods were called Ahuras and demons are called Daevas - the exact opposite of the ancient Indians. This triggered an interesting conversation. Maybe if the ancient Indians and the ancient Persians met, they would probably be calling each other evil - because one person's god was the other person's demon. Now both the groups cannot be right can they? So who is evil? Both the groups? Neither? But what can't be denied is that evil does exist. It rises again and again. And it has to be destroyed. A philosophy occured to me on this topic and I started writing it down. Then my brother and sis-in-law gave me some good advice that readers will be more interested in a grand adventure where the philosophy happens to come across with it rather than a pure philosophy book. And hence I started writing the present novel with a hero whose journey conveys the philosophies I want to talk about. And since the story is about the destruction of evil, who better to be the hero than the destroyer of evil Himself, Lord Shiva!


2) The book goes into so much detail about the background of so many Hindu traditions, customs and phrases. As a Hindu, I found myself having many "aha" moments thinking, "THIS is where such and such tradition comes from!" How much research did you do before beginning to write the novel?


There are 2 aspects to the research in this book. First is the historical data and the second is our collective Hindu myths. On the historical data, I didn't do any specific research for this book. Or another way of looking at it is that I have been researching this book for the last 25 years! Because I have always been deeply interested in history and have been a voracious reader all my life. Some of the books that have helped in the historical interpretations for my book are Graham Hancock’s path-breaking Underworld and even primary research books like Gregory Possehl's brilliant treatise, The Indus Civilisation. As for our collective Hindu myths, I have depended a lot on what I have heard from my family over the years. My grandfather, besides being a teacher, was also a Pandit. Both my parents are very devout and religious. And we heard a lot of stories about Hindu myths from all of them when we were children. And of course, as for most people in our generation, the Amar Chitra Katha comics have been a fantastic source of knowledge to me of our fantasies. Anant Pai had done a great job!

3) For those wanting to study more about Shiva and Hindu Mythology in general, are there any books you can recommend? Any that you may have turned to while researching "Immortals of Meluha"?

Like I said, I have depended more on what I have heard from my family for the myths on Lord Shiva. But all those who want to learn more about the Lord, should read up the Shiva Purana.

4) Speaking of which, what is your favourite book (fiction or nonfiction) book of all time?

That's difficult to say. There are so many. I really do like reading and my favourites change as I read more. But at this point of time, I am reading a book called Shiva, the wild god of power and ecstacy. It's brilliant.

5) In another interview of yours, I read that before beginning to write this book, you were a non-believer, and now are a true devotee of Lord Shiva. What specifically caused that transformation? Do you have any message for atheists out there?
Yes, it's true. I used to be a non-believer. But today I am a devoted Shiva Bhakt. Within the story of The Immortals of Meluha which shows the simple man behind the myth of a god, I discovered my devotion to the divinity in Him. But I have also discovered the beauty of other religions. I think I've finally understood what my father used to say when I was young. There is beauty and ugliness in every religion. The choice before us is what do we want to see...

As for a message for atheists, I would certainly not say that there is anything wrong with being an atheist. Every person has the right to follow philosphies that give him peace - as long as he does not try to impose them on others. But I will certainly say that I have found a lot of peace through faith. Mental peace is worth more than all the money in the world. If there are atheists who are unhappy, they may want to explore the path of faith. It may help answer some questions - as it did for me.

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Trailer film of book: http://www.shivatrilogy.com/theimmortalsofmeluha.html
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