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Norwegian Wood Publisher: Vintage
Haruki Murakami
The Thief
Fuminori Nakamura
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Cheryl Strayed
My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla, David Major, Electrical Experimenter magazine
My Inventions
Nikola Tesla
Die Trying
Lee Child
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Oprah's Book Club 2.0)
The White Tiger: A Novel - Aravind Adiga

Now, for most, the novel might seem far fetched. Don't be surprised, but the accounts mentioned are common news/occurrence most children grow reading, seeing, and few even experiencing in India...

Satire just makes it a fun read and thought provoking at the same time. If it was just an autobiographical narration, then probably most of us wouldn't have given a second look. There are far better books to read in that genre... :-)

And the way 'the white tiger' tries to portray himself as righteous human being and blames the rich for the crimes, especially in the last 40 pages or so, even with all the immoral things he does is just amazing... That is what happens and one should have met such individuals in reality to appreciate the irony... :-)

If someone from India says this is BS, none of that happens in India. Then, remember - they are BSing you! :-)

 

excerpts -

 

Balram Halwai is a vanished man, a fugitive, someone whose whereabouts are unknown to the police, right?

Ha!

The police know exactly where to find me. They will find me dutifully voting on election day at the voting booth in the school compound in Laxmangarh in Gaya District, as I have done in every general, state, and local election since I turned eighteen.

I am India's most faithful voter, and I still have not seen the inside of a voting booth.

 

 

 

My childhood hero had a new uniform this time. He was dressed all in white, and wore a white Nehru cap on his head, and had rings of solid gold on eight of his fingers!

Public service had been good to him.

 

 

 

"F*** all that. I don't believe a word. The south is full of Tamils. You know who the Tamils are? Negroes. We're the sons of the Aryans who came to India. We made them our slaves. And now they give us lectures. Negroes.

The Guest (Creative Short Stories) - Albert Camus

I don't know what I should take from the short story. Is it being compassionate toward another human being or that any human being can be trustworthy, given a chance?

The intent of the story is not very clear to me. Daru seemed repulsed by the arab's crime, and he could not gather all the facts to understand the intent behind the crime. And without understanding the clear reason for the crime or circumstances of the crime, no one can be reasonably compassionate toward the criminal.

Daru seemed more concerned with his prestige than to follow Balducci's (or the higher-ups')orders, so there couldn't have been a chance for reasonable trust on the arab either...

Giving 2 stars just because of the vivid depiction of the characters and the scenery...

The Stranger - Albert Camus, Matthew    Ward

Reinforces the statement 'What matters is not how you start, but how you finish'. The perfect epitome of a captivating and thought provoking ending.

In the first half I was feeling a bit detached from the story and the characters, but in the second half it was inevitable that I lost myself completely in the story. If you share similar beliefs and feelings of the protagonist on god and other things, definitely you'll fill his shoes and believe that all the things are happening to you and can feel the 'beads of perspiration forming' on your forehead at times, especially during the end... :-)

If you don't notice the crucial details that the novel skips here and there, or manage to ignore it then you can enjoy the novel nevertheless.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

One of the pleasant books I have read so far - of course the tranquility lasted until Lenny kills the pub, and the conversation with the 'purty...' lass... :-) and the aftermath that follows. 
The ending was quite familiar, I had already read similar ending in some other book probably was copied from this novel :-).

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie

Even though almost a century old, still delightful and way ahead of most of the same genre novels of 21st century.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Why...? why is this one of the best books of the century...?

Is it the melancholic climax with a wonderful verbiage which makes the ending so vivid... or is it the rich and sophisticated writing style?

Definitely this is the best writing style I have read so far. The last chapter is written so beautifully, that itself made me feel one of the characters in the novel and experience the surroundings and the emotions with "old sport" Nick.

But still I think the story and the characters itself are not strong enough to make it one of the best novels of the century.

I expected a lot from all the hype... :-(

The Surgeon (Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles, #1) - Tess Gerritsen

Not the best in the genre but still so much more mature than the 'prey' series by john sandford. Climax could have been better.

Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation - Daniel J. Siegel

"the new science of personal transformation"... Really...! or did I totally miss it?
All I heard was "hand model of the brain" or "full body scan" and occasionally "mindfulness(meditation)". Where the hell is the generic(even remotely) concept that will "tranform" a person?

First half of the book did not make any sense to me w.r.t mindsight, or give me any intuitive information which other books of the same genre don't cover. Then the author gets into his subjects and almost all of the patients miraculously achieve the state of "mindsight", so I assume, during the full body scan.

Then at some point vaguely he mentions midfulness is the answer... huh. How do I even begin to compare it with "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge. Believe me, if you have read "The Brain That Changes Itself" or any books of Thich Nhat Hanh for that matter, and expecting to get some useful informaion out of the "mindsight" then you would want to stay the hell away from this book.

Surprisingly, details of a session with one of his subjects addressed similar issue that I face sometimes and he elaborated the route cause, but did not give a sensible solution of course...

Eyes of Prey - John Sandford

From some of the reviews of the book I thought this might be better than the first book of the series. Unfortunately this also a huge disappointment.
I will have to search for a new series in the same genre.

Rules Of Prey - John Sandford

Ratings on amazon and goodreads fooled me. This is a mediocre novel at best.
Including the Lucas, the killer none of the characters have strong persona. I still don't know what exactly Jennifer looks like. No interesting plots, procedures or the climax. It's description begins with introducing Lucas as "highly touted killer detective", but I felt there was no much of a detective work which would drag you into intricate details.

When Lewis was killed the medical examiner already tells that the killer is not a professional medical practitioner then why the hell would Lucas try and narrow it down to a doctor as the killer in the beginning of the investigation.
Also the description mentions that the killer was intelligent blah blah blah... the killer makes a nice plan to fool the surveillance cops but forgets to on the night-light which gives his plan off...!!!
When you spend considerable time and effort reading a novel you expect an exhilarating climax or at least an acceptable one. But this sucked big time.

I love serial killer/murder mysteries but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

Defending Jacob - William Landay

It was a fun and an easy read, beautiful character development except that of Jacob's.

I would have loved to understand the circumstances of the murders and what exactly was going on in the murderer's head during the kill. Also, In the end I felt like I didn't understand Jacob's character properly. I'm sure it's the author's intent. This is how the author casts shadow of a doubt in readers mind, which makes the reader think that the novel is ended but not the story and makes you keep guessing and speculating. As the saying goes, once a mistake, twice a coincidence and thrice a pattern, the author doesn't give you the pattern to deduce any conclusion. Probably this ambiguity was one of the aspect which made this novel so popular.

It has it's little flaws here and there, but I would recommend it to anyone who loves to read legal thrillers.

The Black Echo - Michael Connelly

I did,t feel the character development was very strong, though the story line seems fine. Not a big fan of the language used in the novel. The robbery and tunnel rats description could have been more gripping and leaves a lot to the imagination.
Usual semi-predictable climax which might disappoint if you are expecting an ecstatic one.


*SPOILER*

In the end you realize that Bosch is again one of those goody-goody, moral stick stuck up his ass, kind of a guy, which is not for me. I would prefer if Bosch had intentionally shot the Dollmaker and sympathetic and appreciative towards Wish and her plan to take down the assholes who killed her brother.

Overall not very impressed with the novel to continue with the series. So, time to jump to next thrillers in search of Dexter or Jason Bourne kind of a character...

Losing my Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas - Madhuri Banerjee

Losing couple of hours of my life due to a dumb idea of reading this book...

Poor character development and boring story line nipped my interest of reading this in the bud. Still, it took an iron will to complete this awful book. It's never a good feeling to leave a book unfinished once I start it.

There is no actual substance in the book that makes you want keep reading it. Probably even the author was aware that there won't be any viva-voice or any other kind of publicity, hence the choice of the catchy title.

Now I know better to avoid her(Madhuri Banerjee)books altogether in the future...