Review: Everyone Has A Story

Everyone Has A Story by Savi Sharma
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Story begins with three characters.
A wanna-be author girl. Mysterious, wanna-be traveler guy. Coffee shop manager, wanna-be coffee shop owner guy. 3rd character brings one more girl into story. A girl with tragic past.
What happens among these 4 is this story.

Though there are only four characters, all characters are designed well. The behavior of characters remain reasonable throughout the story. There is no place where we can think that this cannot happen in reality.

Story and the way it was told... Hats off Savi Sharma.

There's a place where the lead protagonist says - "I want to inspire people with my writing. I want to touch their souls. I want them to say, she feels us, she moves us".
I think this defines Savi Sharma's writing with respect to this book.
I have lot of things in mind which I consider too insane. But towards the end of this story, I started to believe that, maybe I am not so insane :P. Everybody has a story, so am I !!

Maybe the reason I loved this book is because it had too many similarities to my life.

I will recommend it to anybody who want a decent read :)

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Review: A Knotty Affair

A Knotty Affair by Dhaval Birajdar Jinadatt
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This story is about a software engineer, Viraj, in his thirties. Good job. Good pay. Lovely mother to take care of him. One day he meets up a girl from his past - Ruhi. From there we go 14 years backwards.

Young Viraj is very low in self-esteem. He has a stammering problem to add fuel to fire. His father, a strict Physics professor (assistant), joins him in the same college he works for. Innocent, shy, stammering young boy in a modern college. No need to say about the ragging and harassment he might go through. Amidst all this, one girl helps him to go through all this - Ruhi. Towards end of college life, Viraj falls for Ruhi who is no where in comparison with Viraj. With time and events, they move away from each other. Meanwhile Viraj's dad got framed in a case which ends his career and screws the life of whole family.

What happened to that case? What happens between Viraj and Ruhi after 14 years gap? This is the remaining story :)

What I loved in this book :
Book cover:

• Two faces of most probably same guy facing opposite directions. One face is thick whereas other is light. This resembles the character of protagonist. Viraj is like two different persons in 14 years gap. Changed physically, mentally, verbally. Young Viraj is so opposite to current Viraj.

• There is a region where both faces intersects. So there's a common space for both faces. Same holds true for Viraj. Though he changed lot in 14 years, he still have few things unchanged.

Courtroom drama:

• I haven't seen an Indian author of current generation writing courtroom drama. Kudos to Dhaval for the attempt. This might mark the beginning of many more to come!

Story-line:

• In general, Indian father-son relationship is bit different compared to rest of the world. Dad seems strict and son seems to hate dad a lot. But the love and bond they share is eternal. This book showcases the same. Because of his love towards father, Viraj fights a 14 years case!

• The Courtroom and NGO chapters of the story displayed the state of current Indian judiciary system , things that needs to be changed and an idea that can be done implemented :)

What I hated in this book :
Courtroom drama:

• This the major plus of this book. So I expected it to be in big level. Though the courtroom scenes are good for initial attempt, they could have been made better. Some little tweaks would have developed it more interesting.

• More focus should have been given to this. Instead author decided to focus on many things and kept this for just one chapter. Not amused!

Errors:

• I don't know what went wrong or how it happened, but I came across multiple spelling errors and punctuation errors. It would have been better if more attention was given to that :)

Characterization:

• For any book, characters make the story better. In this one, that is major thing that felt odd for me. The life of a software engineer was somehow I am not able to relate at all! I am software engineer by profession and I have LOT of software friends & acquaintances. Still I am not able to relate with that character (Viraj).

• In any story, if you are a guy, you should like the female lead in romance genre(according to me). In some stories, you will love her. In some, you will like her. In this, I didn't love her or like her!

• You should be able to understand why the male lead falls for her. In this story, I didn't find any reason other than the fact that Ruhi spoke to Viraj when nobody else did (she did it only for her own reasons which are selfish as hell) and she is hot. Not cool !

• There is too much dilemma in and around Viraj that at some point I started wondering whether Viraj is in dilemma or the author was !!

A good new attempt which could have made better :)
Hoping that Dhaval will reduce the impact of movies in his upcoming stories.
Also hoping that the next book from him would be new in concept like this and better in presentation than this!

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Review: Love Like A Fairy Tale

Love Like A Fairy Tale by Shadab Alam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A boy-ish girl. A very good guy. Friends to Lovers. Continues to be in love. Marks beginning of a unique fairy tale love story. End of story.

 
Jacob and Aana are the two mentioned above. The protagonists of this story. Two friends/neighbors. Aana has a painful past which was caused by many things. Her so-called-mom. Boy friend and best friend (who cheated her by getting together behind her back).

She begins a new life with photo studio business, new friends, new place leaving out all the painful past in past. With time, things get better. Business goes good. Friends love her more with every passing day. Lovely sister who stays by her side always.

All of sudden, past crosses path with present when her ex-boy friend and ex-best friend decides to marry and they end up in her studio door. In a turmoil of events, Jacob, her best friend becomes her boy friend. Her ex-bestie decides to screw her life once more. Jacob becomes a fly in that web. How everything gets resolved and how happily-ever-after begins is the rest of story.

 
I have fallen in love with Aana, right from the beginning of the story. Independent, awesome woman in her early 30s. Someone who didn't stay down after taking multiple hits from childhood. Belongs to the type of girls who will make you fall for them easily without putting any effort at all.
 Jacob. The all charming, well earning, good, hot guy. Dream neighbor for any girl :P.
Sonia. The best sister you can ever have :)
There are few more characters which will get our attention. But these there are the major ones.

Below are what I feel as good and bad in this book. Just my opinion :)

Pros:

• Simple story line. Neat, simple, good.
• Characterizations. Especially Aana <3.
• FIFA love. Very intense love. A rare thing to witness in India. Very rare to witness in an Indian girl. Rare but not non-existent. Good to see the small community getting recognized.
• Shadab Alam made it clear that not every happily-ever-after will be of same type. There can be different types as well :)

Cons:

• Why would Alvia sticks around just Aana to screw her life up? If money is the only motive of Alvia, as mentioned in book, didn't she find anybody better in 3 years? Why should it always be Aana whose life should get screwed?!
• For a genius cool guy like Jacob, the misunderstanding he gets into with Aana, is not so brainy! He who is so stable in mind, gets freaky at the first sight of trouble. Not so cool. All the good thoughts he gathered up from the beginning was spoiled at that point. Though he regained that one from many characters in book, he failed to regain it completely from me :/

Overall, a good read with just a small glitch..

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Review: Mind's Eye

Mind's Eye by Douglas E. Richards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Techno-thriller worth spending time with!

Protagonist gets ESP powers + some more supernatural powers because of some experiments, but has no history.
How he got the power, how it affects his life, what was his life is the story.

Many of us would have dreamt of ESPs. That is something many of us would be happy to possess. But after reading this, you might think again. The pros and cons are well explained!

Would have gave 5 star for blending technology and ESP with thriller in proper proposition. But the moment I learnt antagonist (who I have guessed for sometime) is Muslim (again), I just lost it..
Why these people are so obsessed in showing Muslims as villains? The last three four novels I read from American author featured Muslim as antagonist.

Books are reflection of lifestyle. Might be in different timeline, different perspective. But what it does is just reflect minds/mind's capability. After reading such novels, now I know why there is so much buzz around Muslims issue in America!

How can people find eternal love so easily?! Hero meets heroin by accident, saves her life and she is in love with him from there. That too he falls for the only girl he know, who he cannot (mind)read. Great!! But the other love mentioned is pretty causal. It looks normal and possible sort of story.

Technology. ESP. Thriller. Chase-run. No history Hero. Grandmaster villain. High profile people involvement (both good and bad ones). This is mixed up with romance, politics, philosophies and some funny scenes here and there.




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Review: Creatures of Appetite

Creatures of Appetite by Todd Travis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An extremely brilliant, yet arrogant, crazy ex-profiler join hands with a reputed woman with some disturbing past to take on a serial killer. This is what the book is, to be precise.
This book is for people who love thriller, who are ok with blood here and there, who are not offended by abusive words. If you don't like any of the above, then just don't read it.

Jacob is crazy, but intelligent. Arrogant, egoistic but always right. He has his flaws, his secrets, but I really liked him. A mentally attractive male character.
Emma is bold, intelligent, charming. Beauty with brain.
Two Federal officers, with different history and personality, goes on hunting of a child serial killer. When the killer and Feds enter into game, things become too interesting :)

From beginning of the book, it is full of surprises. And it didn't end even at the end.
Though the end hinted that there might be a sequel, I don't know why the author didn't decide to write one! I am sure that too would have been a good read. For me Heartland child murder is not enough. I want Mercy killing too :P

After 1st chapter, I made a mistake of not touching this book. I didn't mean to. I just didn't get a chance.
But once I started, couldn't keep it down without completing.
Edge of the seat thriller..



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Review: A Half Baked Love Story

A Half Baked Love Story by Anurag Garg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Life goes ON. This is what the book is all about. Philosophy spun around tale of romance (It don't get philosophical till epilogue :) so don't worry romance story lovers).

Story began with a spoiled brat, who is our protagonist. Things he do irritate a lot that I just wish he was not real. I was even surprised why author have decided to have such a freak as protagonist.
Real story began when he explains the reason for his nature. From then there is no hate towards him from my side.

Love at school. Between two people of different background (food, state, culture, caste, etc etc). The ways in which the romance/love between them are described, are great!
After a long time, read a love story which actually didn't had much sexual content. Felt happy to see that there are still young Indian authors who can express love as love and love only, without getting physical. It is really tough to write a love story like this since sex is considered part of romance genre. Not that I am against such stories, just that I am surprised to see this type still alive :)
Just beautiful cute love, with no sexual incidents. Hats off!!!

It is not necessary that you should always be with her/him if you are in love. It's just loving them wherever they are, however they are and doing whatever is good for them. Described well in this book!

Pain will change people. Agreed. But that doesn't mean you have to become a jerk. You can and have to reshape yourself for the people around you, for the people who care for you. This is the message that the author missed to tell. Would have been more happy if he did that too!

As the wise say, as the author tried to say, whatever happens life goes on :)




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Review: The Assassin Lotus

The Assassin Lotus by David Angsten
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A thriller embedded with western (Asian) philosophies.

The story starts in Rome and soon moves to Asia.
This is a self-narrating style novel but narration is did by two (two persons self narrate story from their end). Includes some very old religions and cults.

Beginning of the story made me frown. Why does that it has to be Islam when it comes to terrorism?!
Then when the story moves on, I moved on. It was the same mistake people are doing in reality. A group of *** people from specific religion create chaos using religion as their shield. Just a bunch of idiots who misunderstood religion.

Best part about the novel is the embedded philosophy/religious statements. Islam, Buddhism and Hindu philosophies. Though Islam philosophies are used in wrong situations, it is good to read them. After all it's our mind which makes a statement meaningful!

Though the citations mentioned in novel are true (for which I must appreciate the author, David, for his hard-work), I seriously doubt whether it is possible in reality. All the border crossing, killing, etc etc.
But, this is a fiction novel and I shouldn't stress up much on it's reality.

The author mentioned that this is mixture of western philosophies and blood spilled thriller, and he was not sure whether people who like one genre will like the other.
I don't think who should doubt it. It is a perfect mixture of both and being a fan of both, I liked it.
A good read indeed.



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Review: The Last Survivors

The Last Survivors by T.W. Piperbrook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Life after apocalypse. Survival is the only goal of the leftovers when almost entire humanity becomes sort of zombies.

A simple civilization with no technology, no knowledge about history or science or any other major field, no inventions, too much faith in superstitious thoughts.
No complex political structures, country politics. Simple society structure with small simple settlement villages. Threats for life are wild animals, zombies/spores and sometimes their system itself.

In simple, zombie story in future with ancient life style.
1st half of story is pretty normal and boring but with time story gains speed. There are some interesting characters especially the child, William, around who the story spins. I liked that character a lot that I don't want to read the next part of story anytime soon. I don't want to see the end of him :(

Except for few edge of seat moments in second half of novel and the surprises here and there, novel is pretty average.
But towards the end, novel was good and gave hope that the next part will not have the dull start. Hoping next part will be good ..




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Review: You are the Password to my Life

You are the Password to my Life by Sudeep Nagarkar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Simple. Touching. Sentimental.
3 words to describe this book.

Sudeep made the story with good proposition of friendship and love. A story that can play with your emotions.

There were some good quotes in the book.
If you are 90s kid and have been through the era when there was unlimited free text messages that kept flowing your mobile, you can spot a lot of those messages you have received in the book. Me being from that period, felt a bit nostalgic of those good old days :)

The only thing I felt disturbing with the book is, there were too many quotes. It's true that they are good, but still the quantity in which they came in is a bit high. For every second page, reading a paragraph with lot of quotes is a bit annoying. They make the story move slow.




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Review: Deception Point

Deception Point by Dan Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Usual Dan Brown script..
Plenty of information. Suspense plot. This time there is no sign of religion or rituals. It is full of science (astrophysics) and politics (the dirty part mostly).

He is one of my favorite authors :)
I like the way he fills the story with lots of information. He did the same in this book too.

But the problem of reading more of Dan Brown is that the suspense which (is one of the reasons that) attracted me towards him is not there anymore. Before even reaching middle of the story, the antagonist can be judged, provided you have read many of his works already. His writing has became predictive with time. Sad truth!
I think it's time for him to come up with something unusual. It's time for a change..


*********Spoiler Alert*********
This book reminded me digital fortress in many places. Can't help it..
Powerful, good natured Head of a powerful secret organization turns negative because of some reason which he finds to be good enough to do bad deeds.
Female protagonist.
Protagonist trusts antagonist with her life, treats him more of a fatherly figure.
Morally ambitious character which looks bad but not that bad in reality, dies because of antagonist.
Aliased mail ID.
Element of nature playing major role. Almost ends protagonist's life, kills antagonist (fire in digital fortress, water in deception point).



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Review: The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple's Guide to Bharat

The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple's Guide to Bharat by Saurav Jha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my 1st travel book (non-fictional) and it didn't stop me from reading any of such genre further. In fact I think I will read the sequels of this book too.

The first few pages made me realize that this is not a fast read. Yes, this is a slow read and it took me almost a month to finish it.

This book is a casual writing from a couple who left their regular job and started traveling, on a tight budget. I think this book will be more realistic to an Indian than a foreigner because the lifestyle and environment reflected in this book is desi and it takes some imagination for non-Indians to understand. But this will give a picture of how normal India is, to non-Indian readers.
New environments, people, little bit of their lives, etc etc make it good to read. Narration is done by both authors in turn. It's a new try and I feel it is kinda cool.

The only negative I feel about this book is there is not much other than traveling, locations, their history and people met in path. A little bit of sarcasm, fun and love here and there, but I think it would have better if they were a little more.
I know it's non-fiction and we can't expect it to be how we like, but I felt them missing and so they came up to me as negative.

The way they wrote this book made me think about such travel. Though I cannot take risky decisions like them (too many dependencies :/ ), travel/exploring might become part of my life because of the authors.
This book will be awesome for travelers and a good read for anybody who love reading. Only exception is, if you are core fiction/suspense fellow, then you might not like it much.




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Review : பொன்னியின் செல்வன் #5

பொன்னியின் செல்வன் - தியாக சிகரம் (#5) [Ponniyin Selvan - Thiyaga Sigaram] by Kalki

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

வழக்கமாக இருப்பதை விட அதிக திருப்பங்கள், உற்சாகம், விறுவிறுப்பை இந்த பாகத்தில் காட்டிவிட்டார் கல்கி. முதல் பக்கத்தில் தொடங்கிய வேகம், மணிமகுட விழா வரை சற்றும் குறையவில்லை. கடைசி 100 பக்கங்களில் வேகம் சற்று குறைந்ததாகவே தோன்றியது. எதிர்பாராத பல திருப்பங்கள் இந்த பாகத்தில் உள்ளன. இருந்தாலும், இந்த பாகத்துடன் முடிக்காமல், கதையை கல்கி அவர்கள் இன்னும் தொடர்ந்திருக்கலாம். கதை முற்றியதாக தோன்றவும் இல்லை. அப்படி நடந்தது பிடிக்கவும் இல்லை. :(


கிட்டத்தட்ட 50 வருடங்களுக்கு மேல் ஆனாலும், ஏன் இந்த புதினம் இன்றும் சிறந்த தமிழ் புத்தகங்களில் ஒன்றாக கருதப்படுகிறது என்பதை இதை படிப்பவர் மட்டுமே உணரமுடியும். மூன்றரை வருடம் ஒரு வார தொடர்கதை மக்களால் தொடர்ந்து படிக்கப்படுவது சாதாரணமாக நடப்பதன்று.
அதை கல்கியை தவிர வேறு யாராலும் சாதித்திருக்க/சாதிக்க முடியும் என்று தோன்றவில்லை.


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