Book Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Superb follow up to a slightly boring and long 'A Cuckoo's Calling'. The plot is tighter and fast paced and you cannot keep the book down until you've finished. Must read.

Rating : 4/5

Book Review: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The second installment in the His Dark Materials trilogy, the book continues Lyra's adventures to find the truth about Dust and her father.  An excellent sequel to 'Northern Lights'. Wish they had made a better movie though. Must read if you love science fiction+ fantasy genre.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: The Dark Half by Stephen King

Intriguing, engaging  yet predictable plot. There is a certain pattern to Stephen King's writing which gets a tad bit monotonous if you read too many of his books. A good read if you want pass time during long travels.

Rating : 3/5

Book Review: The Shining by Stephen King

One cannot compare this particular book with the movie. Both superb pieces of unique storytelling. Had watched the movie long back and wanted to read the book, mainly to see how different was it. Loved the movie. Loved the book even more. Go read if you haven't already.

Rating: 5/5

Book Review: My Quest For The Yeti: Confronting the Himalayas' Deepest Mystery by Reinhold Messner

 

A very interesting account of famed explorer and mountaineer Reinhold Messner's quest to unravel the mystery of the Yeti amidst the China / Tibet turmoil.  A must read!

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: The Alienist by Caleb Carr

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Unput-downable historical fiction set in 1886 New York. Enough said. Go read!

Rating: 5/5

Book Review: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

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At first I was skeptical about how this book would turn out. There is a mish mash of characters that take some time to understand. But by the time you get to know the characters, you fall in love with them and the author whose imagination creates a mesmerizing alternative world full of love, betrayal and adventure. An absolute must read. 

Rating : 5/5

Book Review: The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters

A great premise - how would a policeman solve  a case if the world was ending in 6 months? Yet another dystopian dark future story with  a brilliant beginning. Unfortunately, the story lacks depth and is irregular in writing. The book hurriedly finishes with a hint into a larger question to be answered by the subsequent sequels. Not a very compelling read.

Rating: 2/5

Book Review: Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Great plot and premise. A chilling beginning, the book slowly fizzles out. It will probably make a great movie but towards the end , is a tedious read.

Rating: 3/5

Book Review: The Pallace of Ilusions by Chitra Divakaruni

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The only book that I finished in a day. Mahabharat told from Draupadi's perspective forms the premise of this book. It challenges your current perception of all that you know of Mahabharat and its key players. Must read!

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

 

Poor plot, boring premise. A disappointing second novel from the 'Devotion of Suspect X' author. Not worth your time.

Rating: 1/5

Book Review: Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

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Beautiful story about the relationship of a divorced woman and her child with an escaped convict who comes to live in her own house. The book explores themes such as loneliness, love, desire to escape and how life turns out to be much unlike one's imagination. The movie apparently did not fare that well. But the book is a great read. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Book Review : Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

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A poignant account of the execution of the last person in Iceland. This true story is written from the perspective of Agnes Magnúsdóttir and explores her view of the events and perception of the society around during her final days. A must read.  Rumor has it that a movie is in the pipeline with Jennifer Lawrence playing the lead. Cannot wait for the movie to come out!

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Wicked - The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

One of my favorite books growing up was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum which chronicles the adventures of a young girl Dorothy& her dog Toto who get swept into the Land of Oz via a cyclone. There she helps the people of Emerald City by defeating the Wicked Witch of the West and subsequently returning home. A children's book, it is a simple tale of good triumphing over evil.

Gregory Maguire flips the story's perspective - asking the readers to view the tale from the Witch's side. What makes the Witch so Wicked? Where did she come from? Why was she "evil" ? He then weaves a thoroughly engaging, enjoyable story about the Wicked Witch of the West - her beginning, her life and the circumstances that shape her to be "Wicked" and her ultimate encounter with Dorothy
Not a children's book, Gregory Maguire masterfully inserts pertinent questions about how does one define good and evil. He transforms the world of OZ into bustling, caste-driven, religion bound  society - one that shapes & creates the 'Wicked Witch". By the end of the book, you will be viewing the original classic in new light and will be forced to ask yourself - "Was the green witch really wicked?"

A definite must read, especially if you've read the original classic as a child. 

Book Review: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Accidentally discovered this book while vacationing in the hills. A fantasy that puts scientific knowledge and application on the forefront, the book is a must-read for fantasy lovers. Don’t judge the book by the badly made movie – The Golden Compass. The book, fist in the trilogy of “His Dark Materials” is an enjoyable read. Without giving out much on the plot – the book is about a young feisty girl Lyra and how she embarks on a journey to save her friend, eventually leading up to her discovering a whole new world. 

Will definitely give the book a 4/5 for plot, character and eventual climax that builds the foundations for the second book.

Give it a read.

Book Review: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

Loved reading this book. Quite an unexpected thriller. My first Japanese fiction.

Quick summary - a single mother kills her exploitative ex-husband and gets the unexpected help from her infatuated neighbor (who is a math teacher). All of this happens in the first few chapters of the book. What happens next is how they try and cover the murder leading the police on a wild goose chase.
While on the surface, the book is a thriller with an excellent plot, it loses out on narrative because of shoddy translation. The book reads like a teen novel and the characters lose their depth and appear much amateurish than the author may have intended it to be.

All in all, a 7/10 and a must read for all thriller fans! Have already bought Keigo Higoshino's Salvation of Saint, which is next on my reading list

What my To-Read list looks like

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Perfume: The Book vs The Movie

I saw Perfume : The Story of a Murderer movie a few months back and i chanced upon a copy of the novel while browsing through the shelves in a bookstore. I picked it up to find out what elements of the book had the movie failed to capture. The main character, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, is described as "one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages".
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The story then moves to describe how as a baby (one who is born in the middle of the filthiest and smelliest parts of Paris), Jean Baptiste does not have a baby-odour or in other words, Jean Baptiste does not have personal human odor. What he does possess is an extraordinary "olfactory" functions- his heightened sense of smell. As he grows up, he develops an uncontrollable desire to create the perfect perfume- one that will make up for his lack of personal scent and transform him into a human. Grenouille is a cold hearted, emotionless individual who in the entire plot is only driven by his incessant need to create the perfect scent. As a reader,one cringes at Grenouille's life and ultimately at how it ends.


However, in the movie, Grenouille [played by actor Ben Whishaw], one cannot help but feel sorry for Grenouille and in a strange way, understand his need for creating the perfect scent.All in all, it was definitely the movie over the book for me. The book drags at times when it goes into details of the various processes that are deployed in creating a perfume- making one skim over several chapters. I'd give the movie a 8/10 and the book 6/10 for keeping me hooked

Le Divorce- Diane Johnson

This weekend tormented me with the lack of anything good to read. Last week, I started reading Diane Johnson’s Le Divorce, an apparently “witty” look at the French and American ways of life and the mess that is created when the two collide. Sadly, the book did not match up to my expectations. The main plot revolves around two sisters- Roxy and Isabel- the former married to a Frenchman who has left her for another married woman and the latter, a free spirited film student who is in Paris to help out her older sister. Much of the book deals with the differences in the French and the American culture. The author spends too much time explaining these small irrelevant culture conflicts too frequently for me to carry on. I have currently given up reading the book simply because I lost interest and patience.