Archive | August, 2010

Book Review by LindyLouMac
I found this title rather different to the previous novels I have read by Sebastian Faulks in that this one is a thriller which initially surprised me.
I thought the characterisation of Mike Engleby was excellent.  A student at Cambridge when the action, that he narrates to us takes place, he came across as an intelligent young man who is terribly unstable. He unsettled me and I thought he seemed creepy, with his strange behaviour and stalking of Jennifer. Mike is definitely a social misfit who…

Title : Sikander
Author : M. Salahuddin Khan
Publisher : Karakoram Press
ISBN : 978-0-578-05288-5
Reviewed by : Vibha Sharma

Sikander – A story bringing glimpses of the changes in the world. The changes which rechristened the world as:
a) pre-dismantled USSR and post-dismantled USSR (Pre-dismantled USSR phase saw the world divided more on the basis of ideologies or philosophies – communism versus capitalism. After the demise of USSR, this division lost its existence to a large extent)
b)pre-9/11 and post 9/11 – (Post 9/11 world is now divided on…

I picked up this book in the library the minute I saw it which I normally don’t do much but it had Taslima Nasreen as a writer and her Lajja is my all time favorite book, what a book that was… outstanding.

The French lover is primarily a story of “Nina” a bengali woman who married a Punjabi guy to get away from her country, to get away from a lot of memories she can’t deal with and hoping that life will become beautiful with that.

However reality is totally…

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Image courtesy Amazon

SNAP.
Written by Alison McGhee.
Cover photograph by Christine Rodin.
Published by Candlewick Press.
Ages: 9-12 yrs. Though I would personally put it at 15-18 yrs.
Reviewed by sandhya.

Eddie Beckey is an 11yr old. She has a very close friend, Sally Hobart. They have been friends since they both joined 2nd grade as new students. Eddie likes to have everything under control. She likes to make lists, and has six different coloured rubber bands on her wrist, which she snaps to remind her when she…

 Book Review by LindyLouMac

I felt the title and the blurb were somewhat misleading as I was expecting more about Justine’s relationship with the dog a female called Marcus, yes really and less about Italian culture. In fact I was unsure if I was even going to like the book as I am not a doggy person and would have been happier had it been publicised as yet another Life in Italy story. As really that is what it is, dressed up as a doggy tale to maybe attract a different…

Review by LindyLouMac

This sequel to ‘Chocolat’ was published in the USA with the title ‘The Girl with No Shadow’
It does not actually matter if you have not read ‘Chocolat’ as this novel stands alone ok, but I do think you are missing out as I personally feel  ‘Chocolat’ is better than this sequel and you are also missing out on having got to know the characters of Vianne and Anouk already.
‘Chocolat’ made it into a top ten titles of the decade that I wrote about on this…

Book Reviewed by Deepak.
Curfewed Night, a memoir by Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer, is an attempt to tell the human side of the story. Every now and then, Kashmir and its protracted insurgency make headlines. But most of them talk about the tragedy as if it were mere statistics. While working as a journalist in Delhi in early 2000, Peer tells us, Kashmir was the almost daily death count in the newspapers.

Basharat grew up in the foothills of the Himalayas in the beautiful Valley, reading Shakespeare, Stevenson, Dickens, Kipling…

Reviewed by Hydelguy

Kiran Desai was born in 1971 and this book was published in 1998. So, you could say that she was young when she wrote this book and it is interesting to read a young voice narrating a tale which is dripped in wit and, perhaps, spiked with sarcastic observations veiled in humor.

The idea for the book originated when the then young Kiran Desai read in Times of India about a famous hermit who climbed up a tree and lived there for many years.

The narrative starts…

Title : Faithful PlaceAuthor : Tana FrenchGenre : Crime/mysteryPublisher : Viking, Penguin GroupPages : 400Release Date : 13 July 2010 (US)Rating : 4/5

My father once told me that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for. If you don’t know that, he said, what are you worth ? Nothing. You’re not a man at all. I was thirteen, and he was three quarters of the way into a bottle of Gordon’s finest, but hey, good talk. As far as I recall, he was…

The Thirteenth tale by – Diane Setterfield
Publisher Atria
September 2006
Hardcover, 416 pages
ISBN-10: 0743298020
ISBN-13: 9780743298025

The Thirteenth Tale
I had read reviews about this book in magazines before deciding to buy. It had amazing reviews for a debut novel, and so I bought it the other day.
And I was happy…
This book captivated throughout. The opening paragraph set the theme, and soon I found myself entering into the worlds of the characters. The language, phrases and sentences are effective and apt. The author has been able…