A few weeks ago, my daughter came up to me and said that someone told her that Moana is more courageous than Mulan, because she fought gods while Mulan only had to fight humans. The reason my daughter came to me, is that I have always told her that I don’t like any Disney princesses, except for Mulan, and since my daughter hadn’t watched the movie, she wanted to know my opinion about it. I told her to watch Mulan and decide for herself. It is not always easy to make children understand how everyone has different likes and dislikes.
As we were travelling to Europe the very next week, my daughter took advantage of the opportunity, and managed to catch Mulan on the airline entertainment system. She was impressed, even if it had old-fashioned animation. The reason I’m recounting all this is that while in Europe, we had plans to visit the land of Disney for the first time in our lives.
Visiting Disneyland was as much fun as anyone can imagine. The children wanted to go on every ride and see everything. Everything that is, except Fantasy Land. My husband, thinking that our 9-year-old daughter would want to see something of it, insisted that we all see it at least. To appease him, we even waited in a long line to go on the most boring ride of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. That was when I realized how different, yet similar my daughter and I are.
While she wanted to try on all the tiaras and crowns in the souvenir shops, she was also the first one to want a picture with King Arthur’s sword! While she thinks that glitter solves all problems, she also thinks that princesses are lame! In that, my daughter is just like me.
Since my childhood, I have always been more fascinated with the villains than the heroines of fairy tales. If these fairy tales happened to be in the form of Disney animated movies, then I definitely wanted to be the villain! Take Snow White, for example. WHo would you rather be: a resourceful woman with her own opinions and a definite plan for life, or a confused girl who cooks and cleans for strange men, takes food from strangers, and waits for someone to come and save her from choking? I would rather be the former.
When I first read Cinderella, I thought she was stupid. I was too young, and had no idea what was wrong with her actions, yet I didn’t like her one bit. I did, however, have the most questions about the stepmother. All other tales like Beauty And The Beast, Snow White And Rose Red, The Frog Prince, and even Goldilocks were rejected by my younger self because they all sounded stupid!
This is not a rant about how fairy tale heroines need to save themselves, and not wait for a hero. I love heroes, and I love romances. I just love well-developed characters more. I want to see a well-rounded personality for the heroine rather than the one-dimensional one that we get to see. There is nothing wrong with waiting for a hero to save you, you just have to do something yourself in the meanwhile!
In recent years, Disney has tried to turn the traditional fairy tale around, but since they were the ones to make it so shallow in the first place, I would say it was their duty to change things!
I’m still more likely to gravitate towards the Wicked Queen, or Maleficient, or Scar, simply because they seem to have so many shades to their personality. We need heroes and heroines with more shades of grey, and less perfection, not because of anything else, but just to make fairy tales more interesting!
Disclaimer: If you’re easily offended, or take life too seriously, please don’t read this. Really. Stop reading.
When you read a lot of books, people who know you always ask for recommendations about what to read. Since you have some idea about your friends and family, it is natural to tell them about books that you think might interest them. So, when you start a bookstagram account and a blog about books, it is but natural for everyone to ask you for your recommendations.
Friends and family who used to ask for themselves, now tag you in anything that has the word book in it. I really don’t mind. I love telling people what to do and what to avoid. It is why I started writing this blog in the first place. What I don’t like is when people don’t like the books that I recommend. I mean, how can you not like them? How dare you? You should be aware that I’m a superior recommender of books. People should bow down to me in all things bookish!
How excited I get when I command, er, suggest what the other person should read, is evident by the fact that I never show any false modesty and haw and hem about what they like! It is but natural that everyone should want to read what I want to read. There are no two opinions about it.
I know people who take out time to ask the other person about their likes and dislikes, about what genres they might be interested in. Not me. I just assume that the other person will like what I tell them to like. And as far as assumptions go, it’s not that wrong an assumption! I mean, look at my HUGE fan following! Why, I have almost 25 followers on my blog and more than 700 on Instagram! If that is not achievement, I don’t know what is!
There was once a poor girl, who made the mistake of asking for some good thriller recommendations on Facebook. Some kindhearted person, knowing how she needs my help, tagged me on the post. I thought, “Why is this girl only reading thrillers? She needs to expand her horizons!” So, I insisted that she read Nicholas Sparks, Elif Shafak, Judith McNaught, John Green, and pretty much all romantic and philosophical writers, in two languages. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that being interested in one genre is a sin!
So, when I’m this considerate and accommodating, it really hurts when people tell me they didn’t like what I told them to read. It breaks my heart to see people remain ignorant and lost. However, the goodness of my heart doesn’t let me be deterred by so small a setback. I persist with my recommendations, in the hope that the other person might see the light some day. Yes, I know. I’m generous like that.
I feel that the purpose of my existence on this earth is to tell people which book to pick up next. I always tell my kids what they should read, but they’re ungrateful. Of course, it’s hard to value someone great when they live in your own house. Doesn’t matter. The ungrateful kids will learn one day. In the meanwhile, I’m most happy to unleash my recommending prowess on the world. No matter what you want to read, I have a book for you that I want you to read. You’re welcome.
Yesterday, my daughter was telling me one of her many stories from school, and she asked me if I had ever seen a boy who was interested in girlish activities. I asked her what do “girlish activities” mean, and she told me that they are things like playing with dolls, doing arts and crafts, making loom bands etc. Mind you, this is an almost 9-year-old who has never played with dolls, and whose elder brother was obsessed with making loom bands at one point in time. Naturally, I was very concerned.
I tried to explain to her that there is no such thing as girlish or boyish activities; everyone should be free to do what they like without fear of judgement, and that she needs to support her friends rather than judge them. After all, she has never been interested in dolls, and likes to play volleyball and tennis.
This conversation got me thinking about things that are influencing children’s minds these days, and how it is impossible to keep them away from these influences. I have tried to stay away from assigning gender specific roles to my children. Everyone is supposed to pitch in, and there are no girls’ chores or boys’ chores. Of course there are times when some things are for boys, and some for girls, but by and large, I have encouraged them to do what they like.
A few years back, when the kids were younger and didn’t have access to iPads and laptops, they were only allowed to watch one TV channel, and that too for only an hour. During that hour, there was one cartoon that always made me irritated and I hated that my kids seemed to love it. There was nothing wrong with the cartoon itself as it was about a six-year-old boy called Eliot Kid, who had wild imagination. What made me see red, was the fact that this boy had two best friends, and the girl best friend was in love with Eliot, while Eliot was in love with the most popular girl in his class, who was blonde and a stereotype if I ever saw one! Now, what in the world made the creators of this cartoon think that it is ok for six-year-olds to moon over the opposite sex, effectively telling children all over the world that it is not possible for a girl and a boy to be just friends even at such a young age?
Then, my daughter grew up a bit and started reading. She is not as prolific a reader as her brothers, but she does like to read. At first, I had trouble getting her interested in books since her brothers were more into mysteries and adventures, while she seemed to prefer something different. I was really happy when she found her type of books in The Naughtiest Girl and Malory Towers book series by Enid Blyton. Her reading preferences were different from the boys, but she was her own individual, and I loved that she was different.
Then came the popular books. Kids in her school were reading The Dork Diaries, and I was letting the boys read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, so why couldn’t she read what her friends were reading. Fair enough. Hence started the invasion of books like Dear Dumb Diary, Dork Diaries, and various Jacqueline Wilson books. I had little choice in the matter, not because my daughter is stubborn, but because there are so few options.
I understand that girls and boys have different tastes, and I don’t want to force any of my kids to read anything they don’t want to, but is it necessary to have such a stark contrast between a “boys” book and a “girls” book? While boys are always off on adventures, playing sports, or being naughty at school, girls are giggling away over makeup and boys. I’m sick and tired of reading about girls who don’t fit in because of what they wear, and who suddenly become acceptable because they start wearing makeup and nice clothes; or girls who like boys and spend a whole book trying to catch their attention; or mean girls who have nothing better to do than torment other girls, and who are always the best dressed with their makeup on point.
The books that are being written for upper elementary and middle school age girls are reminiscent of the books I used to read in my teens. I don’t want my daughter to be conscious of her looks or her dressing. She is too young to be worrying about that. She has to learn that she can be friends with everyone without there being an element of romance and talk of crushes. She needs to be comfortable in her own skin, and with all like-minded people, regardless of their gender.
Thankfully, my daughter is being raised with a brother who is just one year older to her, making him her best friend, and both of them comfortable with each other’s friends. However, as they spend more and more time in school, I cannot help but wonder if things will stay this way for long.
Recently, a friend has recommended a few books that seem to be different from the usual books displayed prominently in every bookstore. I’m trying to get these books and can’t wait for my daughter to read them. Until then, I will keep trying to get her to read the A Wrinkle in Time series, and if I’m very, very lucky, maybe Anne of Green Gables.
Everyone who follows me on Instagram and Facebook is aware of the dilemma I had to face last week when my 13-year-old read a book he shouldn’t have read, all because of the misleading classification at the bookstore. As a parent, it was frustrating and disorienting, and definitely not something that I would want to experience again.
During spring break, I happened to be at Mall of Emirates, Dubai, with both my boys, and I thought it would be okay for us to get a couple of books. We had already gotten more than our agreed number of books from Kinokuniya, Dubai Mall, so we agreed to get just one book per person. With this in mind, we went into Borders and started looking around.
Now, Borders is not my favourite bookstore ever since they changed their location in the mall and shifted to a much smaller space. So, I got bored looking around and decided to help the boys. The younger one, as usual, was quick to decide what he wanted, and agreed to wait for his brother to make up his mind. The elder one, being a teenager and all, couldn’t decide what to get. It was taking too long, but to be honest, I can’t blame him. Almost all the books in and around the Young Adult section were love stories of one kind or another. Any thirteen-year-old boy would be confused if let loose in that section of Borders.
As I was looking, I found a book abandoned near the intermediate readers and the Young Adult section. I read the blurb and thought it sounded like a good thriller. I showed it to my son, but he said that he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for him since we had no idea which shelf it was from. I agreed, and we continued searching for that ONE book! As I came to the end of the Young Adult shelf, I saw the book, The Missing by C. L. Taylor, in one of the shelves, and showed it to my son, telling him that it looks like it’s appropriate for your age. He still didn’t want it, and I got tired of looking and went to look at other books.
After about an hour, my son accepted defeat and came out with the same book that I had told him looked ok. We bought it and brought it back home with us. Ten days back, I saw the book in my son’s bookshelf and asked him how it was. he said that he had forgotten all about it, and that he will read it now because he didn’t have any other books to read. A couple of days later, he told me that he had read the book and it was a suspense thriller. I said maybe I should read it too, which is what I say about almost all the books that my kids read. He started hedging a bit when he heard this, and I immediately sensed that there was something he was uncomfortable about. So I asked him if it was a book he shouldn’t have read, and he said that yes, it was. And I should read it myself to know why he shouldn’t have read it.
I had just finished reading a book, so I immediately picked up The Missing to see what had made him so antsy. As I read the book, I was horrified! It was by no definition something that I would want my kid to read even if he was 16! It was about a boy of fifteen, but the things that boy was involved in, were disgusting and vile, and I’m still beating myself for making my son read it. I have had people telling me that I was an ignorant mother, and that I should have read the book before giving it to my son. I don’t really listen to such people.
The truth is that I have three kids, all voracious readers, and they buy books by the dozen. It is not possible to read all the books, and I don’t want to stop them from reading just because I don’t have time to read each and every book that they get. I generally rely on what other kids are reading, and then the classification in the bookstore. I have had reservations about a couple of books, but that is more because I want them to be reading diverse books rather than the same thing again and again. The only complaint I have had till now is that the books meant for girls are too stereotypical.
By definition, the Young Adult genre includes books meant for readers aged 12 to 18. I understand that it is a very wide range, since the reading interests of a 12-year-old are in no way similar to that of an 18-year-old. But generally, you can tell the difference between books meant for younger readers and those for a little bit older audience.
My son reads at a higher level of the reading scale, so he is allowed to get books appropriate for a 16-17 year old. It is not my personal opinion, but that of his teachers and various reading tests. Still, he himself is a very choosy reader and does not read just anything. I had to make him read the Divergent series by force for his class reading assignment.
I’m still at a loss to understand the criteria of classifying books in this category. There have been instances where I have read a Young Adult book and not given it to my son to read because of something or other. Still, I have never questioned the classification. If a book is about high school students, it is bound to have something objectionable for a middle school student. There are elements like sex or foul language that I might not want him to read ideally, but yes, I wouldn’t stop him from reading it in a couple of years.
This particular book is completely an adult book. There is no question of it being for anyone other than a college student maybe. The fact that it is about a 15-year-old boy does not make it Young Adult, and I wish bookstores would understand that. I don’t know how they decide where to put the books, but customers like me have to put our trust in these classifications, otherwise we will go crazy trying to vet every book for our kids.
Maybe, the book wouldn’t have had that much of an impact on me if my son hadn’t read it before me. Then again, being a mother, reading about a delinquent 15-year-old would have had some impact on me for sure. I’m still filled with guilt every time I think about it, and have no idea how to proceed from here. Should I now start reading each and every book, or stop getting books altogether? Both options are unimaginable, yet I have lost faith in the so-called classification of genres. I just hope I can find a solution that is practical enough, and acceptable to all!
Recently, I have come across many posts on social media lamenting the decline in reading in the younger generation. There is a lot of finger-pointing and blaming, and in the end it all falls in the lap of technology and gadgets. It is widely accepted that technology is the reason our children are averse to reading books, preferring to play games on their gadgets to picking up books. I disagree.
I have three living, breathing examples at home, who negate the fact that children don’t read because they are too busy playing on their gadgets. My children are obsessed with their iPads. Believe me, I’m using the term “obsessed” very lightly here. They are deaf and blind when they are playing Minecraft or Roblox, or whatever it is that has their attention at that point in time. I have to scream and shout to be heard, and there are many skirmishes during the day that drive me to the brink of insanity. I try to be strict with their screen time, but with long school hours, and little to do outside in the heat, they manage to get more screen time than they should.
You would think that anyone who is that involved with their games will hardly have time for anything else. Wrong. All three of them have their own bookshelves, almost falling down from the weight of their books, and yet they want to buy more books. Old-fashioned, printed-on-paper books. They are as obsessed with books as they are with their iPads. So, I for one, can never say that technology is responsible for the decline in reading books.
A few days back, a chance comment by someone made me think about what it was that made me and my brothers such voracious readers, while my cousins, who lived in the same house and had the same life experiences as us, could never be the readers that we were. The answer in our case was, our parents and our teachers. No one forced us to read, we just followed the examples of those closest to us.
A misconception about reading is that it needs to be nurtured from an early age, and if your child is not a reader early on, he/she can never become a reader. Age has nothing to do with taking up reading. I have seen teenagers become interested in books even when they have never read one out of school. All it takes is an interested adult, teacher or parent, who can offer them options and open a world for them that appeals to them as individuals.
Someone told me about an incident where a student was reading some book, and the teacher snatched it out of their hands because she considered it age inappropriate. I don’t know why, but hearing about it had a strange effect on me. I’m a big believer in giving children reading material according to their age. What got to me in this incident was the snatching away of the book. You take away one book, they will find another, maybe one even more inappropriate. You make them understand how they have better options, they will probably remember you all their lives.
In my life, I have come across two types of teachers. Those who take the whole class with them on the same journey, keeping them together and making them work towards a set standard. Then there are those who think that every individual has different capabilities, and not everyone can achieve the same standard. I have seen successes in both types of classrooms, but since we’re specifically talking about reading, I believe that it has more chances of being nurtured in the second type of environment.
Every child has different interests and different levels of reading. Making them read something above their level of understanding because others are doing it, creates in them a natural dislike towards books and reading. They need to take their own time learning to read, and they need to read about things that are interesting to them as individuals. Similarly, someone who is above the reading level of other students, will get bored with text that is too easy for them. They need the excitement and thrill that comes with challenging texts.
When I look back to my schooldays, there are three teachers who stand out, who I believe were different from all other teachers. One was my English teacher in grade 6, who encouraged us to set up a small library in our class with our own books, so we had an additional source of books, other than the school library. The second was our school librarian, who was an anomaly in a Pakistani school, being British and all. She got books for our library that other schools hadn’t even heard of. It was thanks to her that we had the full series of Anne of Green Gables in our library, which to this day is one of my most favourite series. The third teacher who left a lasting impression on me, wasn’t a librarian, nor did she ever teach me in a single class. She was the English teacher of the O’Levels classes, and I encountered her in the library mostly. She became the one who recommended books to me, never telling me that I was too young for a particular book. She is the one most responsible for my interest in books other than what the girls in my class were reading. To her, I remain forever grateful.
These days, I’m in a dilemma. I have always known that my children read much above their age levels, and have always encouraged them to do so. Now, however, my thirteen-year-old is reading at a high school level, and I find myself reluctant to allow him to read much of the Young Adult books being written nowadays. While it is gratifying to know that he can read books from my shelf, I don’t want him to grow up before his time.
And this is nothing compared to what the ten-year-old is up to! He has this thing about reading what his brother is reading, and has managed to con me into letting him read Agatha Christie! Actually, I’m having fun seeing him struggling with old English and settings that he can have no clue about. Seeing him read makes me feel proud and horrified at the same time.
As for the youngest, my nine-year-old daughter, she is content with her girly books, which are again, much advanced than what her friends are reading, but as she shows no interest in my books, I can breathe easy for a couple of more years, hopefully. But even she has not given me complete freedom. When I see the books being written for girls her age, I want to burn all these books! What is wrong with these books? Oh, let me count the ways! But I guess that would be a rant best left for another day!
Everyone knows by now how big a fan I am of thrillers of all types. Many people ask me to recommend some good thrillers, but there are so many that I can never make up my mind about which ones are the best. Sometimes it’s because I have forgotten a particular story, so I have to read it all over again, and in reading and rereading, never get the time to actually compile a list of my favourite thrillers. Even now, as I sit here trying to make a list, I find that I cannot make up my mind. I have tried to pick some of the books that I find exciting and would want others to read too. They are not in any particular order.
The Da Vinci Code
I became a Dan Brown fan after I read The Da Vinci Code when it was first published in 2003. Since then, I have read all his books, and even though I don’t like all of them, to me Dan Brown is one of the best writers of thrillers. I have never thought about leaving his books halfway even if they seem like a repetition of the old theme.
The Da Vinci Code was a book that turned everything I knew on its head. I had to keep reminding myself that this is fiction and has little to do with reality. It is set in Paris and London with a timeframe of just one day. Robert Langdon, an imminent Professor of Symbology at Harvard, is visiting Paris when he gets embroiled in the murder of a prominent member of a secret society.
As he is on the run, aided by the murdered man’s granddaughter, he realizes that things are not what they seem, and he has to use all his knowledge and learning to figure out a centuries old mystery and save the day.
The strength of Dan Brown’s writing is that majority of artworks and places mentioned in his books are real. It is my dream to one day visit Paris and see all the things Robert Langdon talked about in this book.
This is one book I would recommend to all fans of mystery and puzzle solving.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
When I first read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was taken aback. I had never read anything like it before. Here was a heroine who was unlike any heroine that I had ever seen or heard of before. She was everything that a “good girl” shouldn’t be, yet she was the best kind of heroine. At the same time, the “hero”, Mikael Blomkvist was like any other hero, except that he was no saviour of the heroine. The heroine could not only save herself, she could also keep the hero safe from harm.
As Salander and Blomkvist are brought together in an unlikely pairing, to solve a forty-year old mystery, the challenges facing them are terrifying and seemingly insurmountable. No book review or discussion can do justice to the excitement or thrill of reading this book. It might not seem very shocking now, 10 years after it was first published in English, but at that time this book was the first of its kind. Even now, I find myself reading it again every time I hear about another sequel in this series.
There have been many similar books and characters in the decade since its publication, but nothing can surpass the brilliance and originality of this book. One of my most favourite books of this genre, recommended for all kickass females in the world!
Gone Girl
The one book that single-handedly changed the face of the genre of Thrillers and gave birth to the contemporary Psychological Thriller. This book is so terrifying that I have been unable to re-read it in one go after the first time. I can only read it in parts and that too takes its toll on me. Every. Single. Time.
Nick Dunne is shocked by the disappearance of his wife, Amy, on their fifth wedding anniversary. Police investigation shows Amy was scared of her husband, and there are some strange searches on his computer. Nick is bewildered because none of it is true. He cannot understand what is happening to him, and where his wife would disappear to. Then there is Amy’s diary that clearly shows how unhinged Nick is.
As a reader you realize that you cannot trust Nick’s narration of the events because of the diary entries, but as you start reading Amy’s side of the story, you realize there is something wrong with her narration too! As you read further, you start questioning the sanity of all characters, and eventually your own for continuing to read this book! Yet, you need to find out the truth. You need to know how it all ends, how something this crazy can ever make sense.
This book made me so crazy the first time I read it, that I was suspicious of my own husband for a week after reading it!
Big Little Lies
This book is what a good domestic thriller is all about. There are no over-the-top crazy characters, no out-of-this-world scary settings, yet it is gripping, mysterious, and full of secrets. It tells the story of a group of school moms and how something that happens in school has the potential to unravel into something much bigger, and lead to unthinkable circumstances, even a death.
When single mom, Jane, moves to the town of Pirriwee, she meets Madeline and Celeste who take her under their wings. All three of them have children in the same class, and the three of them seem to get on well together, so it makes sense for them to hang out. Then, on the first day of school, an incident causes friction between Jane and another school mum, Renata.
Things start spiralling out of control as adults start taking sides in what was essentially an altercation between two kids. As secrets start coming out, all the women involved can sense the impending catastrophe. It turns out that all three women have secrets of their own that they have worked hard to hide from everyone. The rumors start, and it becomes harder and harder to tell fact from fiction. It is only a matter of time before all this results in disaster.
The best thing about this book is the characters, who are so real and believable. As a mom with school going kids, I can vouch that I have met all the types of parents mentioned in the book. The incidents are all quite credible and you can see them happening to people in the real world. Though, I have to admit, there is a chance that women will like and understand this domestic thriller better than men.
The Good Daughter
The Good Daughter is one of the best thrillers from 2017. The narrative is quite graphic, and not for the faint of heart. It grips you from the first chapter and you find yourself wanting to know what happens next.
The story revolves around a family torn apart by a tragic attack twenty-eight years ago, which leaves all of them with scars, both physical and psychological. Charlotte thinks that she has come a long way from her nightmarish ordeal almost thirty years ago. She is a good lawyer, not like her notorious father who is willing to represent anyone regardless of their guilt.
One morning, she gets caught in a school shooting that threatens to expose everything she has worked so hard to keep inside her. As things get worse, Charlie’s life starts to unravel around her and there is only one person who can help her become whole again. But they haven’t seen or spoken to each other in a long, long time, and there are some wounds that just refuse to heal.
There are some sequences that are truly horrifying and leave the reader close to tears. However, the solid narrative and story make it very hard to put the book down. This book contains assault and abuse, and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, for true lovers of psychological thrillers, nothing can be a deterrent to them reading a good thriller.
Underlying the narrative is the theme of a father’s love for his daughters and how he believes, I think quite rightly, that everyone needs a different kind of love. Having lost my father soon after finishing this book, it hit me even harder how far a father can go to protect his children from pain and heartbreak.
One of the best thrillers that I have ever read. Definitely a must read for all lovers of this genre.
We Were Liars
I never thought I would include a Young Adult novel in any list of mine, unless it is a list of Young Adult novels! We Were Liars is the book that proved all my generalisations wrong. Young Adult suspense thrillers can be as addictive as any adult book in this genre.
Cadence comes from a rich and privileged family, who owns a private island in Massachusetts, USA, where they go to spend summers every year. Cadence, her cousins Johnny and Mirren, and their friend, Gat, are known as the Liars. They hang out together at the island every year and get into scrapes like normal teenagers.
Then, an accident changes everything. Cadence cannot remember what happened that night, and her family is not willing to remind her. She enlists the help of the other Liars who gradually help her piece together the events of that terrible night. We are taken on a journey through a summer where everything seems normal, but nothing is as it seems.
I even let my teenage son borrow this book to read, and he really enjoyed reading it too. A great book for ages thirteen and above.
The Silkworm
After Harry Potter, J. K Rowling found it hard to get out of her own shadow, and be taken seriously as a writer of adult books too. As a result, she decided to write another series under the pen name, Robert Galbraith. As it happened, her identity couldn’t remain hidden and by the time the first book came out, everyone knew who had written it. Still, it makes a difference seeing a new name on a new adult detective series, instead of a name known for writing Harry Potter.
I loved the first Cormoran Strike novel and was eager to read the second. In my opinion, the second, called The Silkworm, was even better than the first. We already knew the back story of Cormoran Strike, and had been introduced to his assistant, Robin Ellacott. This book not only cements their partnership, but also provides the requisite thrills in the form of their next case.
Owen Quine is a novelist who has gone off somewhere by himself, and his wife wants Cormoran Strike to find him and bring him back. However, as Strike probes into the disappearance, he realises that something is not right. The writer had recently finished a novel which revealed secrets about a lot of people. People who are influential, and who have a lot to lose if the book ever sees the light of the day.
And then Owen Quine turns up dead. The murder is brutal and just how Quine wrote it in his book. Strike is at a loss to understand the reasons or what the killer might do next, and it makes for a most exhilarating read. The whole book is like a roller coaster ride, and you never know what might happen next.
While it is better to have read the first book in order to understand the background of the two main characters, The Silkworm on its own is a stellar thriller. It shows the brilliance of J. K. Rowling, and her unique talent of creating unforgettable characters. A great book from one of the best authors of our time.
The Chalk Man
Another excellent book that is a recent addition to my favourites. The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor is different in that it has a male protagonist and narrator. Here we have a middle-aged man, battling with his own demons, trying to appear as normal as possible, and failing to do so.
Eddie Adams is a British twelve-year-old in 1986, hanging out in his small town with his four friends, when their lives are changed irrevocably. Thirty years later, Eddie Adams, a middle aged, single, English teacher with a drinking problem, still living in his hometown, gets a letter with a piece of chalk. The letter has a stick figure drawn on it. Memories of that long ago summer have left their scars on everyone, and it all starts coming back to Eddie now. When an old friend’s drowned body is found, Eddie realizes that things did not end thirty years ago, and he has to find the truth before another body turns up.
The character of Eddie Adams is interesting. The way he narrates the book, you know you shouldn’t trust him along with anyone else in this book. That he is a kleptomaniac, is established early on in the book. On top of that, he is a sleepwalker who has trouble differentiating between his dreams and reality.
The book is fast paced and gripping. It makes you hold your breath and wait for what comes next. There are so many twists and turns that take you by surprise. Even if you’re able to predict some things, there is still a lot that makes you feel dizzy. For a fan of thrillers, this book is the perfect read.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the first crime thriller that became my favourite. Believe it or not, it was included in our school curriculum in grade 9. I read as soon as I got my hands on the syllabus books! It was and still is one of the best books that Agatha Christie ever wrote. And she wrote quite a few, since she is still considered the Queen of Crime.
When Mrs. Ferrars commits suicide a few months after poisoning her abusive husband, Roger Ackroyd starts suspecting that she was being blackmailed. She was after all the woman he loved. And then he gets a letter that might confirm his suspicion, but before he could finish reading it, he has been murdered.
Hercule Poirot has retired from his work, and is busy growing marrows in the village, when Flora Ackroyd requests him to solve the mystery of her uncle’s murder. Tired of vegetables and the slow pace of village life, Poirot decides to investigate this strange murder which seems to have little or no motive.
With the help of Dr. Sheppard, Poirot goes about digging into facts and stories, and reaches the truth. The truth, however, is stranger than fiction in this case. With a finale that is equal parts shocking and unexpected, this is Agatha Christie at her finest. A great whodunnit for all ages.
I would also like to add some other books, which are also very high on my list of must-read thrillers:
A Time To Kill by John Grisham
If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith
Deception Point by Dan Brown
SharpObjects by Gillian Flynn
The Breakdown by B. A. Paris
You Will Know Me by Meg Abbott
This list can go on and on, except that I cannot remember a lot of other books that I have read but don’t own. Maybe I can make a part two of this list when I remember more. Until then, add these books to your reading list and enjoy!
A few days ago, I was talking to someone about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and how it was bound to be appealing to men even though it has been written by a woman. The book is widely considered groundbreaking and presents a new philosophy called Objectivism, which while panned by academic philosophers, is still followed by a faithful group.
The Fountainhead itself is a book that is more likely to be read by a younger audience, during college years, and early career, when it seems like the ideal text to follow. As they grow older and become more worldly, this idealism seems to fade from the minds of these readers. It is not so easy to read this book once you have left behind your student life. The text is too long and too slow, and the theories too idealist for the real world.
The book traces the life of Howard Roark, architect extraordinaire, and an egoist to boot. He is reviled for his ideas and integrity, and the world in general seems to be baffled by his genius. From humble beginnings, he becomes an architect known for being forward looking, while at the same time he is persecuted by the society for being rigid and unyielding on his principles.
Roark is wired in such a way that he believes that in order to do the most good, a person needs to be the most selfish. This selfishness is the only way to achieve happiness and contentment in life. For him, selfishness is giving precedent to his happiness and not what others think of him. A person wants fame and money because of an unnatural need to be validated in front of the world. According to him, if he changes his work to make others happy, then he is not being true to himself, and if everyone tried to make themselves happy instead of listening to others, the world would be a better place for it.
The Fountainhead presents the ultimate hero, one who is not willing to compromise, even if it means paying hefty fines, going to jail, or losing the one true love of his life to his biggest enemy. We have seen many versions of this hero over the years, both in books and movies; the man who is not afraid to take on the world for the sake of his principles. The only difference is, that these other heroes are all eventually revealed to be altruistic and philanthropic, redeeming themselves in the eyes of society and mankind.
The Fountainhead puts forth the philosophy that an ideal heroic man is one whose purpose in life is to keep himself happy, and his nobility lies, not in doing good for others, but in being productive and useful to himself. It presupposes all humans as rational beings capable of sound reasoning.
On paper, this sounds like the perfect world, more so to the younger reader who immediately casts himself or herself in the role of Howard Roark, standing up for what is right and just in their eyes. What it doesn’t account for, and what these young men and women learn as they grow older, is that it is next to impossible to keep their emotions separate from their reason.
So, while Roark looks like the ultimate hero, who sacrifices his only love for the sake of his principles, it remains subjective which principles to uphold; because every individual has a different moral compass. What is sacred to one man may not be important for another.The drawback of going against collectivism is that it refutes all laws and regulations. By the same token, if everyone started standing up, and there was no compromise in the world, there would ultimately be chaos.
So, it could be that while Howard Roark has some principles that he will fight for till death, why should his principles be important for any other individual, who wants to succeed in his own field? In the real world, this philosophy seems too good to be true, for the simple reason that not all individuals are strong in character. In the book, however, Howard Roark remains the ideal man, a man willing to go to any lengths to uphold his beliefs and not surrendering his convictions in the face of adversity.
It was International Women’s Day on Thursday, and all I saw on social media were posts about empowering women and girl power etc. I wanted to post something profound too, and racked my brain for a good idea. Alas, all I could hear in my brain was cheap Bollywood songs (which I had been listening to all day Wednesday) and how I needed to fortify myself before my son’s friends showed up for their play date in the evening! My brain becomes a useless organ when I need it to function the most. So I just gave up the idea of being deep and profound.
Then I thought maybe I could post something funny and witty (my brain refused to help me there either) but I had to drop that idea too because making fun will only lead to people being offended and telling me that I’m an evil woman who doesn’t care for the suffering of her sisters. It is after all “THE” thing to do – get offended by others’ opinions, while citing “Freedom of Speech” for your own. Le sigh.
So here I was with nothing to say about the most important day in a woman’s life. It’s women like me who bring down other women, not sharing their enthusiasm about such a landmark day! Just the thought of this had me scrambling to write an apology to my fellow sisters for being insensitive and unfeeling. Again, this useless brian of mine! Every word I wrote seemed like it would be offensive to someone, and I couldn’t take the pressure. Also, I thought, no one likes an apologist any way, so I’d better come up with some other idea.
With no ideas forthcoming, I thought I’d better get on with the cooking and cleaning. But it was my day, and I’ll be damned if I cooked or cleaned on my day! No way! My kids should be bringing me flowers, and my husband should be taking me out to dinner! I knew realistically it won’t be possible; said children have school from which they come back in the evening, and said husband was out of town for his office work. Still, cooking and cleaning were out of question for today.
As I was thinking about all this, my cleaning woman came to do her work. Oh, how I wish I had agreed to a man coming to clean the house, when given the option. Then I could have made him work without feeling guilty. I never plan for the future! So, I thought I’d give the maid a day off for Women’s Day, but she looked at me like I was crazy and said that she would rather work since she was being paid hourly. This Women’s Day was turning out to be a nightmare for me!
All was not lost though. I could still refuse to cook. That would show my kids. They need to remember these days, after all! So, I put away everything that I had taken out, and sat down with my book and went on to enjoy the day like I deserved after working so hard.
My ungrateful kids, though! They came home (with friends, I might add), and asked what we were having for dinner. I told them I hadn’t cooked anything because it was a special day for me. “But you didn’t cook anything yesterday either, or the day before. So what’s so special about that?” Pesky little so-and-so’s. “Mom, it’s Thursday. You never cook on Thursdays. We were just asking about what to order in!” Have I mentioned how I hate my kids?
I don’t know if the problem lies with me, or if there is something really wrong with the thrillers being written these days. It doesn’t matter which one I pick up, they all tell the same story, over and over and over again. I have read so many books that essentially have the same plot, similar characters, and predictable twists. Now, I love reading Crime Thrillers, Mystery Thrillers as well as Domestic and Psychological Thrillers, but lately there has been a flood of such books, all selling the same thing.
The definition of a thriller novel is a book that is designed to hold the interest by the use of a high degree of intrigue, adventure, or suspense (Merriam Webster). It is something that makes a reader want to know what is going to happen next and leaves them amazed with its unpredictability. By this definition, thrillers have been around since Homer’s Odyssey. Intrigue and suspense can be found in all types of stories, from fairy tales like Snow White and Red Riding Hood; to Shakespeare in Macbeth and Merchant Of Venice; to H. Rider Haggard with King Solomon’s Mines. The basic makeup of a thriller is the same, but over time it has branched out into many sub-categories making it more widely read than any other genre of books.
The most well-known type of thrillers have always been the Mystery Thrillers. Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, and many such writers were masters of this genre which continue to entertain readers even today. In the 1980s, writers like Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Sidney Sheldon wrote about intrigue, crime and espionage, and were considered some of the best writers of thrillers. In early 1990s, John Grisham became a best-selling author by writing another type of thriller, the Legal Thriller which became an instant hit with readers.
All this time, it was widely accepted that this genre was mostly dominated by male writers who wrote for mostly a male audience, except for a few like Sidney Sheldon who appealed more to women. In the 2000s, with writers like Dan Brown and Jo Nesbo, who appealed to a wider audience, there was a visible shift in the narration styles of writers. Then came Stieg Larsson with his badass female protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, and things started changing for the genre known as the Thriller.
In 2012, came the success of Gone Girl, a thriller novel with a psychotic element, and before you knew it, people became aware of another genre of thrillers, the Psychological Thriller. Gone Girl was not the first of its kind, it was just more successful than the others. As a result of this success, other female writers began getting noticed and this genre became a constant presence in all bestselling fiction lists. And then came what always follows success – the Great Psychological Thriller Bandwagon!
I know I’m not an author, and I know I can never understand what they go through, and all that; but really, ORIGINALITY, people! There are only so many crazy females that the world can take. Not every female protagonist needs to be a certifiable murderess, or a crazy bitch; nor do they have to be depressed drunks. I like suspense and mystery and thrill and intrigue, but we’re back to where we were in the 1980s and 1990s with macho heroes doing their thing, and batshit crazy villains trying to take over the world; the same story being recycled again and again.
And please, please, PLEASE stop comparing each and every book to Gone Girl, already!!! I had decided not to read anything that compared itself to the book, to find that ALL the books have it mentioned somewhere in the reviews. To tell you the truth, there have been a couple of books that were decent on their own, but I disliked them on principle, because if they want to be compared to Gone Girl, then they deserve to be judged on that scale!
Same goes for the other trend of writing about domestic abuse. It really makes me mad when abuse is used as a prop in a book. Some books have portrayed such horrifying instances of domestic abuse that they leave you reeling and nauseous. I love those books. On the other hand, some writers take domestic abuse and use it as a tool for guaranteed success when it is glaringly obvious that they have no idea of what they are talking about. I HATE such books.
Going after commercial success rather than originality means that everyone loses out at the end, the reader, the writer and the genre. I’m a genuine devotee of the thriller genre, and I absolutely love the idea of a book that scares me yet I cannot put it down, a protagonist who I hate but cannot help sympathising with, and a setting that makes my hair stand and still I refuse to stop reading. All I want is a genuine story that doesn’t leave me with a feeling of having read it before!
There’s nothing I like better than old-fashioned mystery solving. These days Thrillers are all the rage, Crime Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Mystery Thrillers, and so on and so forth. I am a big fan of these Thrillers too. But nothing beats the good old mystery solved by a detective, professional or amateur. From Famous Five to Nancy Drew and from Sherlock Holmes to Hercule Poirot, there has always been something about detectives that has made me want to be one of them.
Enid Blyton was the most prolific writer of mysteries. The Famous Five, The Five Find Outers, The Secret Seven, all made it look so easy. There was always a mystery to be solved in the neighbourhood. Too bad our neighbourhood was nothing like that. We had a pretty dull life because we didn’t have any mysteries to solve!
Enid Blyton paved the way for Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, those cool teenagers who always got pulled into adventures and came out of them unscathed and triumphant! How jealous I was of these teens who could drive their own cars and go around fighting criminals and villains without worrying about studies or school. In contrast, my life was full of homework and school projects that were as boring as ditch water! So, I continued to live precariously through these awesome individuals who never seemed to age.
I read all the adventures of Sherlock Holmes with a wide-eyed wonder. He was a genius and could solve any mystery. However, as I grew older, my awe turned into irritation at how self-centered and mean he appeared to be. It was only after watching the retelling of Holmes in the series Sherlock that I was able to forgive him and change my views about him. But not by much.
In recent times, I have liked both P.D. James and Robert Galbraith. Though I find that their books have more action and broken limbs than exercising brains and collecting clues. With P.D. James, there is the added boredom of pages and pages of descriptions ranging from the scenery to the appearance of a character, making the readers yawn and think about leaving the book halfway. Still, her books are well worth the odd yawn or two because of the great stories she spins.
Robert Galbraith, while very good, carries the additional baggage of actually being J.K. Rowling which puts a much bigger burden on those poor shoulders. And Cormoran Strike, while one of my favorite characters from recent times, is somewhat violent and prone to being beaten up a bit too much for my liking. Yet, I have devoured the books and wait impatiently for the next one.
The ultimate Queen of Crime, for me, has always been Agatha Christie. I have read even her more mediocre books with much excitement and pleasure. Poirot, of course, is a favourite, for even though he is egocentric, he is never mean. I don’t care that much about Miss Marple or Tommy and Tuppence but I still read their books when I don’t feel like reading anything else. For me, there are no other books like And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. These books are perfection, the best mysteries that anyone can write. I am also partial to The Man in The Brown Suit, The Passenger to Frankfurt, Murder on The Orient Express, andDeath on The Nile.
As I write this, I realize that almost all the writers I have written about are females! With the exception of Hardy Boys and Sherlock Holmes, all characters have been created by extremely talented female authors. It also occurs to me that both Holmes and the Hardy Boys have always come across as cocky and self-centered! Well, that’s kind of funny I think. I wonder why it took me so long to realize this. Oh well, more power to women, I guess. I will keep reading and loving mysteries, no matter who writes them or who solves them. After all, my favourite TV sleuth has always been Scooby Doo!!!
