Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Review: Aqson Level I

Aqson Level I Aqson Level I by Sreejib
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Truth is, THIS IS THE BEST FANTASY BOOK I HAVE ENCOUNTERED THIS YEAR.


Fantasy at its pinnacle!
I want to recommend this book to everyone!

There were so many "I-didn't-see-that-coming" moments!!

Being a true fan of Greek Mythology, I salute the author's imagination for putting it up with India's current politics scenarios and making an engaging, delightful and thrilling ride!

Concept is incredibly unique and refreshing, something you will not see occasionally.

India's Prime Minister's seat is in bait for Team Lucifer and Team God that they have to gain in 30 years.

Now, how a game can be played for that long? My questions were the same and it was answered with full satisfaction.
Not at one point in the book did I feel anything out of place. Each and every character befriends you. You see their journey, their insecurities, feel their power and why they need to win and only win!

I appreciated everything about how some students from nowhere, made their name in Indian Student Politics.

The part when Yuvrani visits the mind of her fellow mates!
Well, that was something I bet you would not have read such a thing before.

The language is sharp, inspiring and to the point. The moment you read the first few paragraphs, the book starts captivating you, leaving you no option but to complete it, right then, right there.

Soon you face the dilemma of whose side to choose?

Should it be Yuvrani, who has already won your heart and mind since the beginning of the book, being smart and aware of her powers, quality and that she can move mountains or will it be Toya, who is timid, talented yet refuses to accept her identity or not both of them?

Do you really have a choice of not taking sides?
What are you to do then?

The ending leaves you with many questions unanswered, with an eagerness of waiting for its second part to publish, that shows the level of thought put up in writing this heartwarming book.

This is a book that India needed!

The best thing you'll like about Aqson Level I is the title of the chapters! (Read the book, Come back to this line and tell me you didn't smile!)
I'm in loss of adjectives to describe the awesomeness of Aqson Level I.

When Toya decides to write someday about his friends, about how things turned up for her, it got me emotional.

Kudos to the writer for such an amazing book!

View all my reviews

Monday, October 10, 2016

Review: Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson Ben Jackson by Amanda Linehan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amanda, oh Amanda.

You delivered a sucker-punch!


And in 31 crisp pages.



Let's begin with the cover .



With the blooshot stains sprawled over the wall, this has to catch your attention no matter how many books of the mystery genre you have stacked in your library.

Plot :

Imagine waking up on a Saturday, thinking it was a Friday. Only that it wasn't. jim Conors somehow manages to loose up an entire day of his life and he has count how it happened.

You can steal someone's day?!

Character Potrayal :

To add more to that he is portrayed as a fidgety and meek balding man. His manners when he comes up face to face is outstandingly carved out by the author.
He has to undergo the arduous task of expressing his sorrow to the grieving family of his business associate.
Yes, that guy had an accident.

And it happened on the Friday that never was Jim's.

The man behind it all, our antagonist has a mystery buried deep in his past. He is not what he shows the world he is. His is a character, I would pay to watch, if enacted in a movie.

The guy who was murdered (and not died of accident) wasn't either what the world knew him to be.

PHEW!

I had it enough; talking in insinuations and managing not to give out the story to you.



Amanda gave me a tough time as a book reviewer. My unassailable streak of not giving in the suspense was under threat.



Verdict A mystery so intriguing and well woven that I have no qualms before pasting 4 brilliant stars on this book.


View all my reviews

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Review: The Yard

The Yard The Yard by Aliyyah Eniath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A jewel to the Literary World!

Book of The Month | October of 2016

Sit back. Relax. Take The Yard in your hands. For some time in your life, Aliyyah will bring uncontrollable tears and bewilder you with her writing.

Some novels have the tendency that they play Quidditch with your emotions, giving unsettling, disturbing feelings to your soul and heart, then giggle back at you because

They. Have. Played. Well!

Aliyyah Eniath does the very same!

A novel that mends your heart, just to break it again and see you bleed ruthlessly.

Set in Trinidad, recounts a heart breaking tale of Behrooz, Sara, Maya and her family. The intricate complexity of human nature and behavior is knitted to perfection.



During the whole episode of Maya, Sara and Behrooz, I felt perturbation and agitation contemplating 'what heart shattering thing it will throw at me now!'

The flaw in the characters, their mannerism, perspective, thought process, redemption, regrets, unrestrained fears, rampant melancholy and evocative memories - all of that galvanized me.


He sat, smiling from ear to ear, on the sand, with a sand dollar in his hands. The image was captured on their first visit to Mayaro beach when he was two years old. His happiness seemed to jump out of the picture and infect anyone who looked at it.

The gravity of these lines brought overwhelming grief to the soul of the reader in me.

Aliyyah's steel hard determination and hard work of 5 years is visible, audible and heart-penetrative in this expressive and powerful piece of work.



In mere 272 pages, she made my eyes moisturized.
My tears struggled to come out or go in and dry just there, they didn't know what to do!

The Yard broke my heart many times and each time, it did so, so beautifully.
And I smiled at every shattering sound. Only because it was heard within me and nowhere else.

An aesthetic cover fits the story, making you halt and admire its unsung glory for a while.

Coming to the end,



Verdict : Book of the month indeed...! 5 glorious stars to Alliyah.


View all my reviews

Review: The Yard

The Yard The Yard by Aliyyah Eniath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A jewel to the Literary World!

Book of The Month | October of 2016

Sit back. Relax. Take The Yard in your hands. For some time in your life, Aliyyah will bring uncontrollable tears and bewilder you with her writing.

Some novels have the tendency that they play Quidditch with your emotions, giving unsettling, disturbing feelings to your soul and heart, then giggle back at you because

They. Have. Played. Well!

Aliyyah Eniath does the very same!

A novel that mends your heart, just to break it again and see you bleed ruthlessly.

Set in Trinidad, recounts a heart breaking tale of Behrooz, Sara, Maya and her family. The intricate complexity of human nature and behavior is knitted to perfection.



During the whole episode of Maya, Sara and Behrooz, I felt perturbation and agitation contemplating 'what heart shattering thing it will throw at me now!'

The flaw in the characters, their mannerism, perspective, thought process, redemption, regrets, unrestrained fears, rampant melancholy and evocative memories - all of that galvanized me.


He sat, smiling from ear to ear, on the sand, with a sand dollar in his hands. The image was captured on their first visit to Mayaro beach when he was two years old. His happiness seemed to jump out of the picture and infect anyone who looked at it.

The gravity of these lines brought overwhelming grief to the soul of the reader in me.

Aliyyah's steel hard determination and hard work of 5 years is visible, audible and heart-penetrative in this expressive and powerful piece of work.



In mere 272 pages, she made my eyes moisturized.
My tears struggled to come out or go in and dry just there, they didn't know what to do!

The Yard broke my heart many times and each time, it did so, so beautifully.
And I smiled at every shattering sound. Only because it was heard within me and nowhere else.

An aesthetic cover fits the story, making you halt and admire its unsung glory for a while.

Coming to the end,



Verdict : Book of the month indeed...! 5 glorious stars to Alliyah.


View all my reviews

Review: She: Ekla Cholo Re

She: Ekla Cholo Re She: Ekla Cholo Re by Santosh Avvannavar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Received this book by the author for an honest review. And so it is. Honest.

A short and good one.

HITS. ITS. MARK.

She is a story of one's identity in the society. What is a society after all?
A collection of people with varied ideologies living in harmony.


Only that it is far from true for humans. We have over processed our thoughts and drawn conclusions that the makers of laws would never have imagined.

Love and compassion is the basis of every flourishing community. We accept all and embrace all.
Or we used to.

There are more lines that divide us rather than uniting. On caste, creed, gender, race, ideologies, football clubs, types of colors we have on our walls and what not!

She: Ekla Cholo Re is one such story of a transgender who struggles to get a foothold in the frameworks of the social customs. She shares a ride with a stranger and pours her pain out to him - and to us, readers. That ostracization is the correct word for the glimpses people give her. Her pain and suffering that even her parents failed to comprehend. Loved ones' separation. Rukhsat!

She is a strong lady that self motivates herself from the ashes with the help of a guiding light of an author. His books make her come out and face the dawn. And the shame that was never hers to bear.


Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe
Ekla Cholo Re

If no one follows you,
oh my dear soul,
Walk alone.

Walk alone on the path,
That you think is correct.

Because it very well is.


The denouement is something that made me smile ear-to-ear.

View all my reviews

Friday, October 7, 2016

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul.

Very truly so.

Penning a review for this book is hard, so is the book itself. Complex and intricately sewn together.
No, I am not revealing the plot to you, dear wife. All I am saying is that this is a different work altogether. And a very, very fine one indeed.

The story weaves childhood memories and nightmares, beliefs and myths into one fragment after another, until the fabric is tight enough to hold the weight of interdependence. A child who knows a lot. Someone who knows that he knows things that his parents don't know he knows.

The fears are as vivid as it can be our owns. Mr. Gaiman captures the feeble nature of childhood perfectly in this work.

He confessed that he actually meant it to be a short story that got out of control.
Interestingly so, the author attributes the motivation for writing this masterpiece to deal with a 4 month separation from his wife.

The result was a thoroughly engaging and majestically laced novel. An ocean of feelings.

Told you, this is the hardest book to be reviewed I have read this year.
So, I will let that be the end.

A perfect glittering 5 stars!

View all my reviews

Review: The Third Wheel

The Third Wheel The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

AND I'm done!

This one, the seventh in the last 20 days says some things.

First : Jeff Kinney is a total ROCKSTAR . He has mastered the art of writing great episodes one after the other.

Second : I am a lifetime fan. No proofs needed.

Third : There's always something or the other thing trolling Greg. I can assure you that no square inch of the book turned out as boring. None.

Fourth : The third wheel or the stepney, your life never fails to get hold of the funny bone. May true love bless you in the future editions. *Amen*

Uncle Gary is the star! A total kickass character.

The chicken pox fear stifling Mr. Greg Heffley was represented like a pro. The end is hilariously fine tuned.

So fine tuned that you're just counting days for the next novel to hit the stores. Guess this is what will happen to me when my GR counter hits the 10th book of this series.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, You Beauty !!

View all my reviews

Review: The Dawn at Dusk

The Dawn at Dusk The Dawn at Dusk by Sandeep Nayyar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

" The circle completes, Shatvari.

It always does. "



Cast in the post vedic era, The Dawn at Dusk is a heart wrenching tale of hate combed with a false belief of justice that sometimes clouds the minds of the best of humans.

The situation worsens even further, if this hatred is fueled by personal grievances and gets the arsenal of will-power.

Those who fuel the fire of revenge within,

Shall know,

That like charity,

Hatred too, begins at your very home.


Shatvari, as righteous as a woman could be, is a wife of honor. She lives a simplistic and austere life where she dutifully does all for her husband. Only that is not reciprocated by him who goes on awry ways to self destruct.

Implode, perhaps is the right way that to describe the collapse of such families. Collapsing within with forces inside your own consciousness.

Very well researched and deftly dealing with the evils of the Aryan civilization, the author is almost as fearless as one might be in penning down such a risky subject. Blending social ostracization into the characters of Shatvari and a character named Gunjan who you can't place in the relations defined by the society.

How do you define the bond between that of a married woman and a friend who happens to be male? They are loyal to their respective feelings but still could do anything for the another.
I can't put my finger to that word because such a relation never existed. Or if it did, we failed to name it.

Blinded by an absolute rage and steel hard determination to the wrongs that were committed against her, being cheated on with a courtesan by her husband, the allegations over her purity and questions on her status - were enough to kindle a volcano that would over throw the mightiest of reigns.

Plot : Sharp and crisply written. You never saw what was coming on the next corner.

Character Drawing : With so numerous a beings involved, it was easy to get meddled up. The fact is Mr. Sandeep Nayyar avoids that. And with class. All the traits are well chiseled!

Three kingdoms and their respective rulers, their armies and all their royal prowess. The lines between friends and foes that change with the clock. The complex workings of a neglected and plotting human mind.

This book had it all for me.

Lastly, the author does not take sides. And that, just that, made me ooze out an extra star. A powerful star.

The husband overlaps his feelings of lust and love. He still hoards feelings for the two women till the very end. We are defined by the choices that we make. Shatvari chose Damodar over Gunjan. Did Damodar feign his love for Shatvari to satiate his love of conquering? Nope. Did the courtesan regard Damodar as just another client? Nope. So how do you define the complex web of emotions?

What was correct?
Or rather who was correct?

Or is there even a word called correct for human emotions?

A translated version of the original Samarsiddha, you got to jump your reading queue and get this one straight out.



Verdict : Never let me breath. Thrilling to the core.

View all my reviews

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Review: The Dawn at Dusk

The Dawn at Dusk The Dawn at Dusk by Sandeep Nayyar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

" The circle completes, Shatvari.

It always does. "



Cast in the post vedic era, The Dawn at Dusk is a heart wrenching tale of hate combed with a false belief of justice that sometimes clouds the minds of the best of the humans.

The situation worsens even further, if this hatred is fueled by personal grievances and gets the arsenal of will power.

Those who fuel the fire of revenge within,

Shall know,

That like charity,

Hatred too, begins at your very home.


Shatvari, as a righteous as a woman might be, is a wife of honor. She lives a simplistic and austere life where she dutifully does all for her husband. Only that is not reciprocated by her husband who goes on awry ways to self destruct.

Implode, perhaps is the right way that to describe the collapse of such families. Collapsing within with forces inside your own consciousness.

Very well researched and deftly dealing with the evils of the Aryan civilization, the author is almost as fearless as one might be in penning down such a risky subject. Blending social ostracization into the characters of Shatvari and a character named Gunjan who you can't place in the relations defined by the society.

How do you define the bond between that of a married woman and a friend who happens to be male? They are loyal to their respective feelings but still could do anything for the another.
I can't put my finger to that word because such a relation never existed. Or if it did, we failed to name it.

Blinded by an absolute rage and steel hard determination to the wrongs that were committed against her, being cheated on with a courtesan by her husband, the allegations over her purity and questions on her status - were enough to kindle a volcano that would over throw the mightiest of reigns.

Plot : Sharp and crisply written. You never saw what was coming on the next corner.

Character Drawing : With so numerous a beings involved, it was easy to get meddled up. The fact is Mr. Sandeep Nayyar avoids that. And with class. All the traits are well chiseled!

Three kingdoms and their respective rulers, their army and all their royal prowess. The lines between friends and foes that change with the clock. The complex workings of a neglected and plotting human mind.

This book had it all for me.

Lastly, the author does not take sides. And that, just that, made me ooze out an extra star. A powerful star.

The husband overlaps his feelings of lust and love. He still hoards feelings for the two women till the very end. We are defined by the choices that we make. Shatvari chose Damodar over Gunjan. Did Damodar feign his love for Shatvari to satiate his love of conquering? Nope. Did the courtesan regard Damodar as just another client? Nope. So how do you define the complex web of emotions?

What was correct?
Or rather who was correct?

Or is there even a word called correct for human emotions?

A translated version of the original Samarsiddha, you got to jump your reading queue and get this one straight out.



Verdict : Never let me breath. Thrilling to the core.

View all my reviews

Friday, September 30, 2016

Review: I Want 2 be Tendulkar

I Want 2 be Tendulkar I Want 2 be Tendulkar by Manish Sharma
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Come what may, I will play."



With such indwelling and unwavering determination, Nitin, the protagonist, comes to the stadium with a bat in his hands and sheer passion.

The stadium is nothing but a battlefield for him, where he has to break the record of cricket legend Jatin Tendulkar, by playing at a very young age, something that has never seen before by his audience.

Nitin, a simple young boy having not much money in his bank balance, a girl who likes him dearly, a rival he has for a lifetime, friends who will support him till the end, family that stands by him, enemies who betray him in the name of being helpful and honest and above all, his inspiration, Jatin Tendulkar, another name of God for Nitin!

For him, he'll go to any extent! Any!

These are the characters around which the story of "I Want 2 be Tendulkar" revolves.

Even being a child prodigy, the series of trouble won't stop to come in Nitin's way.
At a young age, he faced things that wouldn't be imaginable.

To get a bigger prize, he has to be able to manage many things.

The tale will touch every Indian who grew up watching and playing cricket, because one way or other, most of the Indians want to play cricket well, become 'Tendulkar' and young Nitin, does that for them.

It had drama, competition, passion, betrayal and reverence for Jatin Tendulkar.

I only wish that language could have been improved a bit. The edition I read had many grammatical errors on printer's part. In the future editions, they can be removed.

All in all, a tale of sheer determination to reach the apex of goals.

View all my reviews

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Review: Yama's Lieutenant

Yama's Lieutenant Yama's Lieutenant by Anuja Chandramouli
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the end, we only go where our hearts lead us.



Now that's what I call a book.

Being a fan of Indian Mythology, I was bound to love Yama's Lieutenant.

I didn't know the stories about Yama and Yami, so I googled the established mythologies about them, started the book and BOOM!!!

Agni Prakash, the protagonist, is a simple man, wanting to overcome the tragic death of his twin sister Varu, who then is informed that he has been the chosen one - Yama's Lieutenant and will be asked to do all the sacrifices in order to save the world from destruction.

But saving the world from the monsters has never been easy for anyone, has it? specially for heroes who are destined to have a destruction in life of their own.

Between the tragic life of Sanjana, Surya, Yama, Yami and Chhaya, you find yourself strangled in it too.

The story and concept, in it's own way, was distinctive. The consistency and efficiency in writing style in it, is surely to turn heads.
A lot of thinking have been put into the book, in each emotions and sentences, and it is visible in each word I read in Yama's Lieutenant.

Varu's Book in Yama's Lieutenant is more than awesome. I was so much engrossed in her stories, that I re-read all the chapters that were from Varu's book.

Writing style is pedantic and calls for a serious read. The peak quality of language presented by Anuja, is not to be found anywhere else.

What surprised me was even till the end the author has maintained her perfection with the language and had full control over it.

I judge a book from its cover and for me, it worked completely.
'Yama's Lieutenant' has everything that I could have asked for in a book.

I'd say this book is a treasure for the mythology literature.

View all my reviews

Review: Rukhsat The Departure

Rukhsat The Departure Rukhsat The Departure by Sujit Banerjee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dark and moving



Will touch you, no "hit" you, unaware.

I am not sure where do I keep this one. Anthropology? Disjointed short stories?

To begin with, these 26 stories are named after 26 characters. Those fabled twenty six letters of the alphabet that you and I know.

How things move and change in their lives, covered in pages less than the fingers in your hand. There was a touch of O. Henry where Sujit crafts the entire story up for up and sets up the table for an ending your mind is configured to.

Well, that is how we are, we start finding patterns in the books we read. And we start expecting, guessing as to what the end might be.

But not with this one.
With the table set, the author overthrows it more than once, with a single closing sentence that turns the story upside downwards.


" The failed, the departed, the separated and the forlorn souls and their stories.

Sometimes connected and sometimes just stand-alones, like the characters themselves. "



The author is a name in the story collection genre for me!

Poignancy at its striking best.



We all have a home that's figurative. It might not be the house you live in.
But the abstract sense of comfort you get when you are there.

No, I can't point that out on the latitude and longitude of the globe.
Told you, it's abstract.

Well, tell you what, some people never reach home.

Verdict : Melancholic and dazzling to the eye.

View all my reviews

Monday, September 26, 2016

Review: Destiny of Shattered Dreams

Destiny of Shattered Dreams Destiny of Shattered Dreams by Nilesh Rathod
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

¿Cómo se fue? Numero Uno!



I cover it, like every book in my vast library. Like a child on the night prior to first day of school. And I read it. But before that I smile and thank my stars for our luck. Just for this time not for the Goodreads algorithm that obliging us but the fate itself.

Cometh, the book.

I sit on the roof reading the waves crashing into Atul's boat that is harbored at the port. Sometimes it rocks up and at times falls down. Revealing how you can breath passion day-in and day-out. How you can eat, sleep, achieve, repeat - Just for your dreams.

And how they can all come crashing down like a pack of cards.

Only that it does not happen over one moment like they show us in the drama. It happens brick by brick, getting removed from the monument, that the edifice collapses.

Rightly so, We build our own demons. The embezzlement shown in the book is of high caliber and I can feel the thrill of what happens in the cream echelons of the C-class.

I commend the author's boldness on risking using too many business terms and not letting that become a jargon to others. Instead, it comes as a marriage between the love-hate and corporate genres. The personal life and the battle with the inner self to learn the not-so-glossy tactics of entrepreneurs not shown in the magazines. Describing Aarti as the lover of the married protagonist and still being able to garner respect from the readers for her character portrayal -Something I have not seen in a long time.

The politicians' angle is where this book climbed from a 3.5 stars to 4 stars.
A neck-breaking pace. Well developed stories and perfectly etched out character backstories make this one of the top ones on my shelf.

Jostled and shaken I can understand how guilt can haunt a person. Self-blame is yet to have a remedy. The surreal poetry makes you traverse the entire lives of people involved and not as a characters.

Just when I thought that I have figured it all and extrapolated the genres Nilesh might have used here,

" A little girl walks in and recites a poem about her dad and Atul's senses go numb with loneliness and regret. "

Made me wonder who the real orphan was?


Baksh dena in gunaho ko,
agar hai khuda tu kisi jahan ka,
Jeetli duniya, hogaya fanah,
Kar na saka kaam mere maan ka.

Chodi cheeze samjah ke jinhe pathar,
Pata na tha woh sitare mere aasmano ke.
Lautunga kisi din muskuraate,
Launga hasi apne faasano se.


- I, Archit Ojha became Qazi and the verses flew from my pen despite my efforts.



By the time this book flipped over to the last page, I'd wiped away my man-tears and this book had moved slowly from a 4 star to a 5 star read.

Verdict : Simply Unputdownable.

View all my reviews

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Review: The Trip

The Trip The Trip by Rohit Bandri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With simple words, this book has brought a smile on my face.



The Trip by Rohit Bandri is a story about Ravi who, along with his friends Akash, Prajakata, Gaurav, Pooja and Siddharth plans an adventurous trip to Ratnagiri, Maharashtra and then to Goa.

Ravi is a guy of simple and high quality manners, has friends who will do anything for him and support him throughout his life. But what he doesn't know that these friends are all the time hiding one thing or other from him. Maintaining his decency, he will wait for them to open up to him in their own suitable times.

Since the beginning of the story, the reader is aware about some emotional mysteries carried by all the other members in the group.

The 'look-up-for-meaning-of-simple-words' habit of the protagonist is to make you smile.

It's always good to read about the 'decent' guys once in a while, who won't get the girl of their dreams who have friendzoned them, just because they were too shy and didn't know about their own feelings, who are good at studies but not much when it comes to socializing.

Development of such character in this book, is fascinating to read. It's good to see them gain what they truly looked for!

What differentiates The Trip with other books is that the trip they had, felt way too personal and the simple tragic lives of all the characters are to connect with everyone.

View all my reviews

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Review: 5 IN THE GAME OF 4

5 IN THE GAME OF 4 5 IN THE GAME OF 4 by Viswa Sampreethi Pilla
My rating: 5 of 5 stars




5 in the game of 4.
5 stars are all I could give.


Received this from the author in lieu of an honest review. Honest it is, like all those times.


Let us begin this within a personal story first.


I'd always been academically exceptional. So, notching up a perfect 100 in the mathematics final terms shouldn't have bothered a 6th grader in me. But it did.


I got the notion that this achievement was less due to my hardwork and more attributed to the pen I wrote from. A classy addgel. I classed it as an objectification of luck.

Consequently, I penned down my next terms with it and the name Architalways topped the ranking charts.

As it happens, life hits you in the head with a brick sometimes. Someone borrowed that piece of luck and forgot where he kept it. It was lost to all. I was lost. Next, I showed a card to my parents reflecting a mere 49 against the column titled Science. Doomed, perhaps I would have thought myself to be.


As brittle and transient childhood thoughts are, I pretermitted and forgot all about it with time.

In the finals I topped the class and moved on with life. Achievements were back in business.

That pen was never remembered.


We all find patterns in things that do not matter. We believe that one thing leads to another and try to replicate it everywhere.


Like Kajal, who goes about choosing her dates, for instance, based upon their birth dates. We all have that person inside us. Human nature.


Only that it does not matter.


The mollifying presence of Chris is what she cherishes. The author has carved out their nexus with a sharp chisel. You'd enjoy the aura that they create with their nudges and sugar-coated profanities.






The Story.

Well, I never reveal stories in my reviews. That's why I never have to use the spoiler html tag.


I won't reveal it this time either. That's for you to dig out!


But I can certainly scribe the adjectives I associate with the story. Soothing and well built.

Articulated is the word I will use! Twists and revelations made me smile a smile that proclaimed my liking of this book. The writing style holds room for enrichment, something that the author could better upon in her future endeavors. Yet, consequential lucidity is where Viswa strikes the point home for a reviewer.

The denouement for me was the star of the show. How the sheet of beliefs, or rather mis-beliefs you hold on to for dear life, are snatched away in a single jerk of hand.


Reveled in the illustrations of,



How friendship is of prime essence.

How running into fears makes them go down the drain.


How people chase wrong things.


How you are nothing but your choices.


And finally, how love knocks on everyone's windowsill and not the doors.


And how fortunate those audacious ones are open those windows ajar.




Bottom Line : Nothing less than 5 stars would do for me.

View all my reviews

Review: Harables: Short Stories 1

Harables: Short Stories 1 Harables: Short Stories 1 by Haidji
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harables is like a soothing breeze amidst the scorching heat in the world.



If you are reading this review, then I think you should read Haidji's books.
With pure perfection, innocence and quality, her words sing a passionate song in mind and soul.
Her books has all the ability to bring joy in anyone's life.

Her stories has a voice that directly converses with the soul and gives it tranquility and peace.
Harables is a collection of short and sweet "SRUGAR"stories that stays with you all your life, leaving a significant impact.

Reading Haidji's books, is refreshing and a gift to ourselves.

In a world that never stops talking, complaining and crying, her books are a blessing.

Read her books, you will understand why.

Haidji's works, I recommend highly!



View all my reviews

Review: Who Moved My Cheese?

Who Moved My Cheese? Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Change or get run over !



A great many people have recommended this particular one to me; I did not read.
[Self discovering it from your collection I found out why. I simply had to put your name in the Recommendation Box, Pooja.]

We might be the most evolved species on the planet but sometimes we do over-process. Adapting and forecasting change lurking around the corner is mark of sheer greatness.

The best quote perhaps was curbing the wrong interpretations that might be drawn out : that you should try behaving in a new way in the same relationship. Do not change the person but innovate your habits. If you love your partner, let them know about it in a million different ways that change everyday.

Novelty is what keeps things moving.

The story is perfectly written and takes up one hour of your life but may just give you a knowledge of a lifetime. I can see these terms being recited to people in the company I work or the football teams I lead.

And I quote,

"Keep moving whilst riding a bicycle. Else you fall down."


Keep your senses sharp. Sniff the changes and scurry to action.

And of course, Be Worldclass like the very book itself.

Verdict : Spencer Johnson hits the bulls-eye in a 60 minute book.



View all my reviews

Review: Somewhere in the Shallow Sea: A Novel of Suspense

Somewhere in the Shallow Sea: A Novel of Suspense Somewhere in the Shallow Sea: A Novel of Suspense by Dennis Macaraeg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Dennis Macaraeg, you pulled off a nice one!

I will begin with saying that I enjoyed this book. I won it as a Giveaway and this one did not disappoint me. Engaging and making your fingers snap page-after-page.

A scientist is kidnapped somewhere along the seas and thus the name.

The quest is well written and involves the romance of two forlorn-reuniting lovers :)

I love these kinds of stories with happy endings. So no problem with :


A. The Plot

B. Characters

C. Events



For a debut novel, this pretty much does a fair job. Although, I will say that Dennis' best work is not this but yet to arrive at the big stage.

He has shown great plot capturing and had me interested till the last page. I would have liked it better had there been a diversity in episodes with different characters the protagonist went to.

Put this apart, and this is one fab novel. You can place your money on it. To be fair to the author, this was not a mystery book but rather a thriller. So, don't expect the unexpected but live the various ups and downs that make-break a hostage situation!

I started my review by saying that I enjoyed this book, remember.

Well, for the entertaining and eye-catching description of Philippines, this one gets 3.5 +0.5 stars.


Verdict : A free-flowing thriller. You may will like it for sure.

View all my reviews

Review: DNA - Dad's Not Adopted

DNA - Dad's Not Adopted DNA - Dad's Not Adopted by Shikha Kaul
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just One Question : Give me one good reason as to why has this book not been turned into a movie already?



I mean don't the movie makers have Shikha Kaul's contact number?
Is her phone out of reach?
Does she keep it switched off?
If not, then what's the problem?
Go and Ask her for the rights to turn it into a movie!

These were the notions that kept running on my mind while reading this book.
In the series of these questions, I've another and most important one!
How am I to praise this book?

Shikha Kaul's DNA (Dad's Not Adopted ) has twisting and turning events like nothing I've seen before in all the mystery and thiller novels I've encountered.
But most of all, her diversity with themes, concept and characters has impressed me to the core.
You read first The Hidden Husband, then DNA and you are certain to go to the author and request her to publish a book in every two months!

Just in 250 pages, the author manages to blow your mind completely. You only remember how to turn the pages, in her taking you to the mysteries of the girl looking for her real father, finding him, asking him for the share in his huge property and ending up getting killed. Wwwoooo!!!

Like all the mystery books, I keep this quote in my mind, that the action and crime has been performed somewhere else, a long time ago, and what is written in the pages is just to create illusions before the reader, the same happened in it also. I was shocked knowing what a long time ago, really meant for the villains in it!

For the want of money and position, betrayal, murder, cheating, hiding facts and conspiracy and also romance, everything has been done to the fullest.

It would still need me to think hard on how to praise the writing style on this book which grips the reader to the core, I couldn't prevent myself reading it in only one sitting. May the hunger, thirst and drowsiness come, my eyes didn't move anywhere else except the fantastic creation and story waved by the narrator.

I urge you to stop reading whatever you are reading currently, and force you to read DNA because it had altered all my perspectives about mystery books !!
I'm yet to find out a way to show how really much I enjoyed this book!

Verdict : A must read thriller!

View all my reviews

Review: The Yorkshire Biryani

The Yorkshire Biryani The Yorkshire Biryani by Vikram Venkataraghavan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brace yourself for this.


Book of the month | September of 2016

I was made available a copy reserved for top reviewers of this work in lieu for an honest review.

Yorkshire Biryani for you!

Ripped apart.

Let's get it rolling.

It is a book I have not read till date. And I have read quite some. The genre is alternative reality.

Imagine a world with Britishers not colonizing India. English wouldn't have been as popular. Things would have been different.

Now for one second, conceptualize a reality where the reverse happened. Can't? The author does that for you.

Although this a work of fiction, he first sets up the reality he's making you believe in. Chalking out facts after facts of a world that you'll start to believe exists. From technologies in place to the culture difference and how India is the powerhouse of the world economy. Hindustani customs rule the roost.

It is a story of a family residing in Britain which is a developing country and everyone aims to make it big in Hindustan. Having a hindustani cool name is the trend that places you higher up the ladder in your peer groups. So Timothy becomes Muthu and Google is known better as Khojsagar. Britishers speak Hindi and there're Spoken Hindi 30 days crash courses.

Well, the last one wasn't in the book. I made that one up and I have only the author to blame for vividness. He gives you a plot and your imaginations burn the house down.

There are many diverse characters. And Vikram has done one heck of a job in painting them with utter perfection. Their back histories to the changes that they undergo are a delight to the reader.

Greg who wants to be a kushti champion but ends up somewhere close.
Harry who is the apple of the academic eye of his dad, but ends up somewhere far, far away.
Their parents, Darphene, Adam, Alistar and their extended families.

Having so many characters and their backgrounds. Not one of them is confusing and that deserves an applause from me.

Line of Plot :

With all these markings done on the playing field, the ball rolls efficiently for the reader. Mind you, the plot has all the makings of a very good movie script. I by very good I mean, get the rights of this mate as quick as possible.

Set in Modern England, we also get to visit the time when British Revolution was at its peak and Hindustanis Go Back was a motto on every rebels lips.

The denouement is serene and closes the book and I bet you will catch yourself smiling.
Endowed with plentiful of anecdotes and analogies to the real world, this biryani is the one to watch out for. This book is so hilarious that I will swear on my pinkie finger that I had to put this book down and laugh my heart put on the mention of


There's a single disco in the town and they play tabla for beats. Oh, and the name is Natraj Mandir.


Verdict : Holds its fort secure for very well being the Debut Book of the Year.

This man Vikram is a freaking rockstar
.

View all my reviews

Books!

Archit's best books

Riding
Harables: Short Stories 1
Keeping The Promises
The Trip
She: Ekla Cholo Re
Aqson Level I
The Dying Dance
The Arrival
No Safe Zone
The Yorkshire Biryani
How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You
Scarlet Nights
The BNO
Yama's Lieutenant
Monkeys, Motorcycles, and Misadventures
Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy
Mr Bean In Town
Ines' Words
Diary of a Minecraft Alex #2
Diary of a Minecraft Alex #1


Archit Ojha's favorite books »