Hello there! It’s been long.
I haven’t been
around here much, that’s because I was unplugging from the internet. It occurred
to me that I was spending way too much time on the internet than required. Instead
I wanted to invest that time productively; reading, exercising, spend time with
family, with the dog. And I’m glad to report that it’s a successful work in
progress.
Now, why am I
here? To talk about books, of course. If I don’t do that, I think my head will
burst since there’s too much of a thing running in my little brain. Let’s talk
about books, shall we?
Never Let Me Go
Rating: 4/5
The first book
of the year and it was borrowed from a friend.
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were
students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English
countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where
teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now,
years later, Kathy is a young woman.
Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life,
and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and
understand just what it is that makes them special-and how that gift will shape
the rest of their time together.
Though it was very slow at first but once I got
the hang of it I loved it. I loved the writing style, in fact that’s the
greatest strength of the book, I reckon. Kathy, the narrator is intensely
thoughtful and analytical. It’s like she is talking to her confidante, and that
confidante is YOU. I loved this book for its gothic darkness.
Wind/Pinball
Rating: 4/5
These first major works of fiction by Haruki
Murakami center on two young men--an unnamed narrator and his friend and former
roommate, the Rat.
Powerful, at times surreal, stories of loneliness,
obsession, and eroticism, these novellas bear all the hallmarks of Murakami's
later books, giving us a fascinating insight into a great writer's beginnings,
and are remarkable works of fiction in their own right.
These are the kitchen table novellas of
Murakami. For a beginner, I would not recommend these two works of Murakami.
It has become a ritual for me to include one or
two of Murakami’s work in my reading list once in a while. It’s amazing that the
most ordinary of things seems magical in his books. Like the nameless
character, talking cats (which are mandatory), weird humans. Everything seems
so weird yet you love it. Magic surrealism.
It’s no secret that I love
Murakami. If you see him, say that I said hello.
The Saint,
the surfer, and the CEO: A Remarkable story about living your heart’s desire
Rating 4/ 5
Once in a while, a book comes along that has
the power and the wisdom to speak to the best part of us and awaken our highest
selves to the miracle our lives were meant to be.
It was with much reluctance that I picked up
this book though it was lying on my desk for more than a year. Because I disliked The Monk who sold his Ferrari.
After seeing a blog post on such wonderful
quotes from the book by Rima, I thought I should give it a try. I did not
regret.
I really enjoyed reading this
book so much that I gave it to a friend after finishing it. I highly recommend
this book to everyone. This is the only self-help book I liked.
Love and
Misadventure
Rating 1/5
Love and Misadventure will take you on a
rollercoaster ride through an ill-fated love affair- from the initial butterflies
to the soaring heights - through to the devastating plunge.
But my rating. 1? Ha ha. Okay, I love poetry
but not of these kind. It’s one of the worst poetry I have ever read. Awful! Let
the poem speak for themselves.
Mornings With You
I slowly wake
as day is dawning,
to fingertips
and lips imploring.
The sheets against my skin,
he says,
like wrapping paper
on Christmas morning.
If you call this poetry then I don’t know what
poetry is. It’s like some scribble you do in high school when you’re bored
in your Chemistry class. I couldn’t
understand the hype of Leav’s works and the cult following. I searched her a
little more and found that her art works are quite popular on tumblr.
Wild
swans
Rating 4/5
The
story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy
of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history.
An
engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female
experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung
Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members:
her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young
idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist
elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.
Another read borrowed from a dear friend. It was
a thrilling read! There’s so much you get to learn from this book that appalls you;
honest history on Communist China and its people and culture and how the author
survived to tell us a story. A review will not do justice to this book. You have
to read it yourself.
Attachments
Rating 4/5
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know
that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom
knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it
seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious
e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is
his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be
"internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls
and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards
a dirty joke.
When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's
messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being
entertained-and captivated-by their stories.
By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for
Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.
This is a thoroughly entertaining read. I enjoyed
every bit of it.
All
the light we cannot see
Rating
4/5
Winner of the Pulitzer price and New York Times
bestseller, All the light we cannot see is about a blind French girl and a
German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the
devastation of World War II.
This book was getting all the well-deserved
attention for its unique story and lyrical prose. It takes time for one to
really get into the book. Meaning one needs a lot of patience. The impatient I’m,
I had to wait arduously for something important to happen until the stories
collided - but only briefly and unsatisfactorily, leaving me totally
disappointed. But it’s worth the read. Tread with patience and you will enjoy
it. I will have to pick this book up in the future again.
My
Mother in-law’s son
Rating
3/5
Narrated from the perspectives of different
characters, My Mother-In-Law’s Son is a revealing story of a Singapore and her
people struggling to find their feet in the aftermath of a war. It also shows
how people going through difficult circumstances can be susceptible to
revolutionary ideas. Through Swee Gek’s personal fight against her oppressors,
this novel also explores the meaning of love: of whether love can be
unconditional or that it is always accompanied by possessiveness.
Heard so much on Singapore but this is the first
book on Singapore that I read. It's a bold book and takes one on an emotional
roller coaster. I would have rated the book 4 stars had it not been the vague
ending.
The Secret History
Rating 4/5
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last - inexorably - into evil.
I finished reading the book last night. Let me tell you this. It’s a long book, over 20,000 words and 629 pages in my edition. It’s not just too long, it’s dense. It takes its time developing atmosphere and character quirks and some of the days in the book take dozens of pages to unfold. It is not a book to speed through. It’s a book to get stuck in and enjoy its warmth and the density. I had to keep track of my patience here again.
The characters are adorable, the hint, the breath of the supernatural, the slow building tension and the sense that I, as a reader was skillfully manipulated was electrifying. I loved it terribly! Tartt has a way with words. I’m sure a Literature student would be able to resonate a lot since Greek literature is the central theme in the book.
So that’s a wrap for the two months. Most of
the reviews are taken from goodreads. I’m
currently reading Lady Susan for my book club which is happening in little less
than two weeks’ time. What are you currently reading?
