Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Review: Troubled Blood (Strike And Robin #5)

Rating: 4 Stars

This book confused the hell out of me! So many characters, so much information, and Strike and Robin going round in circles! I had to go back and forth to keep everything straight, which, with a book this size, is sheer madness!

But oh the mystery, and the action! Robert Galbraith is like P.D James in my opinion. The descriptions are long, the characters have a habit of sprouting rubbish meant to be deep and profound, and important things get lost in the meandrings of the author’s mind. Yet, the story is so powerful that you don’t want to give up.

I would like to make it clear that I couldn’t care less what the writer is like in real life. If I started caring about authors and their real life problems, I’d have no books to read! I like reviewing books, not the personal lives of other human beings.

Troubled Blood starts off with Strike back in Cornwall to see his sick aunt. He meets a woman who wants to hire him to find out what happened to her mother who vanished 40 years ago. Strike and Robin agree to take the case. They set a limit of a year to get a breakthrough or give up. There are a few other cases, and both Strike and Robin are going through their own personal struggles, like always. On top of this, the initial investigations in the missing woman case are a mess.

The police detective originally investigating the crime was having a mental breakdown, and his notes reflect that deterioration of mind. But of course, all this happens after you have read so many pages that you might as well have read a whole book!

It is always fun to go on an adventure with Strike and Robin, but it is becoming harder with every new book. Galbraith needs to tighten the writing or no one is going to read these never-ending stories! I feel that a lot of focus is lost because of so many other cases on the side. A detective agency can take on multiple cases at one time, but it is not necessary to go into the details of each and every one of them.

Then there is the personal angle that bothers me so much! I have said it before, and I say it again, there is no need for Strike and Robin to be involved romantically. Their personal lives are like train wrecks, you can only feel sorry for them. It is one of the things that I dislike the most about this series.

Troubled Blood is a really good book, but I hesitate in recommending it. Because it is too long and confusing, only real fans of Strike and Robin can truly enjoy this one.

Posted on

Review: Home Before Dark

Rating: 4 Stars

Finally, Riley Sager gets it right! After complaining many times about the ending of his books, I feel like this time he has finally managed to get the right mix. Home Before Dark combines horror, thriller and twists, while keeping it this side of believable. I want to give an extra star for that climax. I had been waiting for something like this from Sager for the longest time.

Home Before Dark sees Maggie Holt return to the house of her childhood. She had spent only 20 days with her parents in this house before they all ran away leaving everything behind. It is famously known as the House of Horrors. There are ghosts in this house. Or so the book says, and Maggie’s parents insist. Maggie herself has very different views about the book that ruined her life.

When her father dies, leaving Maggie the sole owner of a haunted house that she didn’t even know he still owned, Maggie decides to go back to the house. She needs to find out herself what actually happened there. The notoriety of the book has made the whole town suffer. There are people who are not happy that a Holt is back in residence in the cursed house.

As soon as Maggie steps foot on the grounds of the property, strange things start happening. It looks like history is repeating itself. Soon, Maggie starts doubting her own convictions as the house seems to come alive just like it says in the book. It is as if her father wrote the truth, and not a fabrication that Maggie has always believed it to be. And suddenly Maggie is afraid that the truth might be worse than fiction, just like her father warned her.

I like the whole premise and the setting of this book, with the big spooky house surrounded by rambling woods, waiting to devour people. What I can never get behind, is a stupid protagonist taking unnecessary risks. It was hard for me to like Maggie, even if I loved the book overall. She comes across as quite stupid and willing to walk into danger knowingly.

Still, dumb protagonist notwithstanding, Home Before Dark is interesting, if a bit boring and slow in the middle. The climax packs a real punch and rounds off the book nicely, though I did guess the culprit as soon as they came to the house!

Posted on

Sunday Annoyance: Blurbs That Mislead And Confuse

There used to be a time, that you bought a book based on its blurb. Blurbs are what is usually on the back cover of a paperback or on the inside flap of a hardcover. It summarizes the contents of that book without giving too much away. At the same time, it builds up interest in the book, making people want to buy it.

For most people, buying a book does not require much research and analysis. There are two types of buying behaviors:

  1. When you know exactly what you want based on recommendations/ reviews by people you trust; or you have specific requirements eg. studies and research etc.
  2. When you make book buying decisions on the spur-of-the-moment. This may be because of many factors, like attractive book covers, prominent display or most often, blurbs of the books.

For serious (and serial) book buyers, the contents of a book matter the most; and the best way to make a guess about these contents is to read the summary at the back. Lately, this has become a very difficult thing to do.

As the race to reach the various best seller lists is becoming harder, many publishing houses are coming up with new ways to market books and make them more attractive for the consumers. The most common tactic seems to be endorsements from other more famous authors, or popular reviewers.

This wasn’t too bad when it was restricted to a single page inside the cover, or if the reviewer was really famous, somewhere on the front or back cover of the book. Now, all you find on the back cover are proclamations by other people or newspapers about how exciting this new book is. You open the book, and there are 2 more pages of the same!

First of all, I cannot believe how all these famous authors have the time to read all this new work. And if they do, then how can they gush about it in such a fake way? What this is actually doing is making readers question the integrity of well-known authors and well-established newspapers. The fact is that nobody cares what Stephen King or Lee Child or Daily Mail think of this book; it doesn’t really matter what bestselling list it has managed to climb. What is important is that a reader wants to know what the book is about. And these marketing gimmicks are taking away a reader’s right to make up their own mind.

How is it possible that publishing houses don’t realize that 2 or 3 pages of endorsements are less likely to sell the book, than interesting and seductive blurbs? It is nice to see that a famous author enjoyed the book, but it is also nice to feel like your choices are your own. I wish marketing departments realize that selling a book is not like selling other commodities on TV. There needs to be a limit to stop feeding egos of the writers and start thinking about actual readers.

Posted on

Review: Salt And Saffron

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Salt And Saffron by Kamila Shamsie is a light-hearted book about family history, class divisions, prejudices and familial love. Shamsie has created a fictional aristocratic family, proud of its roots that go back many centuries. She has used this family as an example of the elitism and caste system deeply embedded in our culture in the guise of family values and pride.

The very name of the family, the Dard-e-Dils (the Heartaches), is so unreal that you know what will follow can only be satirical and tongue-in-cheek. This family, the Dard-e-Dils, is proud of its heritage and they love to tell stories, mainly about their ancestors. Most of these stories are about the “not-quite” twins. These “not-quite” twins have been born quite frequently through history, and have always brought about the downfall of this family.

Aliya is the main protagonist, going back from the US to her family in Karachi, by way of London. She last talked to her Dadi (paternal grandmother) 4 years ago when they had a massive falling out. After avoiding her for 4 years, Aliya thinks that it’s time to heal the breach. But first, she makes a stop in London to see her older cousin with whom she is very close. And it is there that her own story seems to take an unexpected turn. She not only finds herself attracted to a boy who might be unacceptable to her family, but also meets the Indian side of her family.

The Indian and Pakistani sides of the Dard-e-Dils refuse to acknowledge each other, and still carry old wounds from the time of the partition. Aliya learns something about herself during her meeting with her Indian relatives. This makes it even more imperative for her to go back home and figure out what she wants from life.

Essentially a love story, Salt And Saffron also takes a look at the deeper consequences of the Indo-Pak partition; the deeply ingrained prejudices that are passed down through generations in the form of class and caste. How family history is written through stories that become legends as time passes.

Kamila Shamsie is an excellent writer and it is hard to find fault in her writing. She takes very real elements from her surroundings and turns them into a riveting story. The only problem is that since this book is written from the perspective of a particular class, it might be difficult to relate to for people who do not belong to that class. However, this does not stop me from appreciating her craft and her command of words. She is definitely a master storyteller.

Posted on

Review: The Chestnut Man

Rating: 4 Stars

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup reminds me of why I love crime thrillers more than psychological or domestic thrillers. The adrenaline rush of going after a serial killer, and learning about their motivation, is something else altogether. Police procedurals are so much more intriguing than any other kind of fiction, and Nordic thrillers are the best.

The press has given the name The Chestnut Man to a killer who is terrorizing the suburbs of Copenhagen. This killer leaves behind a chestnut doll near the victims. Theses victims have been severely tortured and have had their hands sawed off.

The police discovers a fingerprint on the chestnuts; that of a girl kidnapped and presumed dead a year ago. Her abductor is in custody, having confessed to the crime.

Naia Thulin is investigating the murders and doesn’t care much for the partner assigned to her. Europol sent mark Hess back to Copenhagen as a punishment, and he doesn’t want to stick around for too long. He is happy to let Thulin handle the case without getting too involved himself.

As dead bodies increase, so does Hess’s interest and Thulin’s determination to solve the case. However, not everyone is happy with what the two are uncovering. With little support from their own department, Thulin and Hess are in a race against time and a serial killer to save the next victim, and figure out the killer’s connection to the missing girl, the daughter of the Minister for Social Affairs, Rosa Hartung.

The story is so fast paced and interesting. Pages just fly by and before you know it, you have finished the 500 page book. There is of course, the blood and gore that has become a trademark for this genre, and it only makes things more sinister, and the odds stacked against the protagonists. The overall atmosphere is dark and gloomy, and the setting is late October and autumn, which ties in with the theme of chestnuts and dark nights.

The identity of the killer is a real surprise, and so much more satisfying than who I was thinking it was! Saying anything more would give away the story and take away all the fun. Overall, I would say that this is one book that all fans of crime and Nordic Noir should definitely read.

Posted on

Sunday Disappointment: The Vanishing Airport Bookstores

For the last 10 years, travel has been a major part of my life. I have been living the life of an expat in the Middle East, frequently travelling back home, in addition to going on vacations. This has meant that I travel to and from different destinations an average of at least 4 times a year. The one thing that has never changed in these 10 years, is my foray into the airport bookstores.

I always have an unsurmountable stack of books to read, which means that I always carry 2-3 books with me whenever I travel. Yet, there is a pull towards these bookstores that I cannot define, and almost always end up buying at least one book even if I don’t really need it.

I love browsing in bookshops, taking in the colours and the smells, finding out about new authors and new books. At airports I get enough time to indulge in this activity, unless we’re running really late, which we hardly ever are, because I have a fear of missing my flight. For the last 4 years, ever since I have moved to Riyadh, I can only indulge myself during return trips, since Riyadh airport doesn’t have a bookstore yet. I’m hoping this will change in the near future. Until then I have to be happy with other airports.

One of my most favourite places in this context has always been the Karachi Airport bookshop. It is one of the best airport bookstores that I have come across especially if I want to buy any Urdu books. Often we end up buying 3-4 books each as a family from this particular place. It is always difficult to carry those books because we already have hand carries that are ready to burst open. Yet we have still managed to do this successfully for a decade now.

So imagine my shock and sadness when last week while travelling back from Karachi, we found the bookstore not only closed, but its shelves stripped of all books, looking lonely and haunted. This pandemic has hurt many businesses, but this one really hit me hard. I had never realized how much I loved this small space full of books. I always made sure to keep aside enough local currency to spend on last minute book purchases.

Of course, I should have realized that this will happen. I had already seen Dubai airport closed down during our layover while going to Karachi. However, the actual sight of those empty shelves and plastic covered space struck my heart. I know I’m being overly dramatic. There are bookstores all over the city that are not only open, but also delivering books at home! But when you are so used to seeing something and spending time with it, it becomes a part of you; you become attached to it, and you start looking at it with affection.

I really miss that little bookstore, and pray for better times when browsing for books is not dangerous and risky. Until then, I have my local bookstores to keep me company and cheering me up.

Posted on

Review: The Guest List

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Finally, a good book after so many mediocre ones! I didn’t have many expectations from The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I hadread The Hunting Party and didn’t find it too impressive. My opinion was reinforced when I realised that this book followed the same format, going back and forth in time, and with multiple perspectives. However, it hooked me from the start. I managed to finish it in two sittings, even with all the interruptions.

The story is nothing new. We have all read murder mysteries where the characters are all stuck in a place and the killer is one of them. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Murder On The Orient Express, Shari Lapena’s An Unwanted Guest, and Lucy Foley’s own The Hunting Party are all based on this same premise. Still The Guest List manages to hold its own and tells a pretty engagung tale.

A remote Irish island is the site for a high-profile wedding. People say that this island brings bad luck. The bride is a force of nature who doesn’t let anything come in her way; the groom is a handsome heartthrob who has never set a foot wrong. As their friends and families gather to celebrate their nuptials, it becomes apparent that some of them are not as happy for them as they seem.

It turns out that everyone is harbouring secrets that can have explosive consequences. Yet, the bride is in no mood to let anything come in the way of her perfect wedding. The groom, while not too keen on gathering everyone together, goes along with the flow to keep the peace. As the story progresses, it is evident that it really wasn’t a good idea to invite some of the guests!

The identity of the deceased is not revealed till the last quarter of the book. As you read on, every single person seems to have a motive to kill the other. The setting is bleak and gloomy, with a bog and a cemetery thrown in for effect. There are so many similarities to The Hunting Party here that you can’t help but think of this book as a better version of the previous one.

The climax is satisfying, and for once, not dragged unnecessarily. Sometimes it is best to leave things be and not spoil them with epilogues. The only thing that bothers me about the book is all the coincidences that seem to have been written so that the reader will have no sympathy with the dead person. Even a couple of instances were enough to let us know that the deceased was no angel, there was hardly any need to make them into a movie villian!

Over all, The Guest List is a good thriller that keeps you glued till the end.

Posted on

Sunday Disaster Story: The Over-Smart Blogger

A few days ago, I received some unexpected help from a well-wisher who had nothing to gain. She gave me some valuable advice and provided resources to help make my blog better. Before that, I used to update blog posts without giving any thought to numbers, or tracking the audience. No one had ever guided me in this way, mostly because I never bothered to ask for help.

It would have been fine if I had just followed her advice and refrained from trying to act over-smart myself! Unfortunately, I am not that person. So, as it happened, I decided to make my blog a bit more professional by switching the hosting platform. Previously, I had been held back because it seemed like a lot of money and it was my first time writing a blog. Now, I had 2 years’ worth of experience, and I thought I might as well try to increase my reach. Big mistake.

I’m not an IT person. Whatever I know about software is from 20 years ago I think, and a bigger person would have realized their shortcomings. Me, I thought what could be so difficult about it, and proceeded to implement my plan. Within 2 minutes, I managed to work out how to backup my work and copy it onto the new blog. So far, so good.

I registered with the new host, and somehow got it into my head that everything will run smoothly and I will never even know the difference. Then something happened, and I erased the whole original website, wiped it off the face of the internet! And try as I might, I couldn’t get the new version to work properly. I was in hysterics. It felt like 2 years worth of my work just went down the drain, and nothing was left anymore.

It took 2 days of banging my head against my laptop to finally get some semblance of a blog. My biggest achievement was that I managed to retain the previous data. I had written some 110 plus blog posts, all with pictures and proper categories and tagging. Thankfully, most of it was intact. I did lose all the pictures and am still in the process of attaching new ones to the posts, but by and large, the old blog posts are still intact.

For the last 5-6 days, I have been trying to learn the inner workings of this new blog, and I can’t say that I have been too successful. The images are giving me a lot of trouble, and I keep messing up the software by tinkering with its inner workings. I look up fixes and try to implement them. Sometimes it backfires, while other times I’m just unaware of what I have managed to meddle with.

I’m getting so much data feedback that I don’t understand at all, and I’m forced to think if it was worth all that trouble? Perhaps not. But I did learn a valuable lesson: if you want to go head-to-head with your software, find a comfortable place to sit. Your butt will be very thankful.

Posted on

Review: Mythos

Rating: 3.5 Stars

When it comes to humour, Stephen Fry is one of the big names. Be it Black Adder or Jeeves & Wooster or A Bit of Fry & Laurie, he has always tickled my funny bone. Then there are his narrations that are as famous as his comedy. All this, and the man is also a best selling author, Mythos and Heroes being proof of that? Is there anything that he can’t do? So, it should be clear from the start that I have a bit of a bias towards him, and there is no denying that he deserves every bit of this adulation.

Mythos is a retelling of the Greek myths that have been popular for centuries. We have all heard these myths in one form or another, at some point in time. Which leads us to ask the question: why read something that we already know? I don’t really have an answer to that. For myself, I like reading all the different versions of these myths because every writer has a different take on what actually happened, and which god is better or worse.

Reading about these gods and heroes is like reading any fantasy novel, with good and evil, except that in Greek mythology, no one is all “good”. Every god, Titan, hero, demi-god, mortal, or any of the hundreds of characters, has a grey shade. You like them in one story, and you hate them in the next. Such characters are obviously attractive to writers who want to explore these shades of grey.

Fry maintains a tongue-in-cheek manner while telling his version of the stories. His research is extensive and he has proper references for the material, it’s just the dialogues that are his own. He muses about the most terrible of gods in such a way that you can’t help but chuckle at his audacity. Mind you, this is not a laugh out loud kind of book, just some smiles and a few grins.

In addition to being interesting, Mythos is quite informative too. I have to admire the effort that Fry has put into explaining the myths and the etymology associated with them.

A fun book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Posted on

Review: Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows

Rating: 4 Stars

Well, that was crazy! Of course, I knew that Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal wasn’t all about erotic stories. At the same time, that is exactly what it was all about! An adult English literacy class for widows, in a community center, next to a Gurdwara (A Sikh Temple) gets derailed by the determined widows, and turns into a story telling session. This is how the book starts, and this is what the book is all about. Actually, not all.

Nikki, a college dropout, has spent her young life feeling pressured by her parents, and thinks that all brown people are like her family. Until she steps into Southall and realizes that maybe she didn’t have it as bad. Southall is like a mini Punjab; everyone knows everyone else’s business, and honour is held dear. Most of the older generation here doesn’t even speak English. Hence, the need for literacy classes for widows.

The Community Development Director of the Sikh Community Association, Kulwinder Kaur, is a formiddable woman. She herself doesn’t realize that what she wants and what she has advertised are two different things, unknowingly tricking Nikki into applying for the job. During the first class, Nikki realizes that she might not be up to the challenge, but her dismal financial situation stops her from resigning.

And then, these classes turn into something that Nikki could never have imagined! The widows defy Nikki’s expectations. Their ages ranging from relatively young to very old. They are not afraid to speak out. They let Nikki know their real interests. The more Nikki gets involved with them, the more she realizes the advantages of living in a community. Until she comes face to face with the dangers too. Now, it is only a matter of time before someone discovers what is going on, and all hell breaks lose.

Balli Kaur Jaswal has touched upon the gravest of issues with a light hand. At no point does it seem like she is condemning the whole Sikh community for the sins of a few. As with any South Asian community, there is a resisatnce to change and a reverence for norms and traditions. Things like respect for elders, segregation of sexes and contempt of adopting English “ways” is common in all communities, be they Sikh, Hindu or Muslim, from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. The widows, while dressed in light colours, are the most colourful characters that you can encounter in fiction. Each with their own story and fantasy, they take over the narrative and it’s hard to let them go. I was having too much fun reading about these women who society thinks are demure and paragons of virtue and chastity.

For a book with less than 400 pages, Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows packs in a lot of relevant issues and ties them in a nice little package. It is a story of hope, determination, breaking off shackles, learning to stand up for yourself and your cause and making a place for tradition; but above all, it is a story about friendship. Friendship that transcends age, status, ethnicity or values; that makes you believe in the other person; that makes you run into a burning house to save them; friendship that you find in the unlikeliest of places.

A surprisingly light read, that needs to be read at least once

Exit mobile version