Few good books to read

Thanks to my kindle...I have gone berserk since last 2 months. These are all crime/thrillers written by Indian authors.

1. Penumbra
2. A murder in Gurgaon
3. Patang
4. Second lives
5. Ashvamedha
6. The Murder of Sonia Raikkonen
7. Seduced by murder
8. The Monsoon murders

books n movies...

Books:

Ice station: Matthew Reilly (if you love fast paced..over the top thrillers)

2.5/5

Area7: Matthew Reilly (if you love fast paced..over the rooftop thrillers)

2/5

Theodore Boone: John Grisham

1.5/5

Movies:

True grit: 3/5 (Jeff Bridges rulz!)

The fighter: 3.5/5 (watch out for Christian Bale's acting..simply awesome)

Tangled 3.5/5

The band’s visit: 4/5 (must watch)

Tanu weds Manu: 2.5/5 (first half is good...second half sucks.)

The ghostwriter: 4/5 (gripping...must watch)

Books and Movies:

Books:

Godaan: 4.5/5

Munshi Premchand is a genius and Godaan is a masterpiece!
Godaan is a political novel, and there are pages where Premchand actually puts forth his thoughts about social injustice and reforms , but generally he concentrates more on recounting the lives of these many characters and showing by example.
As one of my friend says "Premchand's novels touch you to the core, because he writes the truth...only the naked truth!!"


Movies:

Band Bajaa Baraat: 3.5/5

The movie is one of the better hindi movies that have released of late. There is nothing new in the story, but the presentation is fresh and the cast has done a good job.


Phas Gaye re Obama: 3/5

The usual Rajat Kapoor and gang, in yet another lively comedy.. not as a good as Bheja fry..but worth a watch.


Break ke baad: 2.5/5

Not bad... not good either!!


Despicable me: 4/5

Hilarious and wacky.. this is a must watch!!


O Brother where art thou? : 3/5

This is a no brainer comedy with a strong cast and excellent dialogues. But not for everyone..


A Beautiful mind: 3.5/5

Excellent movie. Another must watch!

Movies and books

Dabangg : 3/5 (Without Salman it would be around 1.5)

Ek ruka hua faisla: 3.5/5 (Excellent performances by Pankaj Kapoor and the other theatre actors)

Paanch: 3.5/5 (An Anurag Kashyap masterpiece all the way..)

Juno: 3/5

Pulp Fiction: 4/5

The Man from St.Petersburg-Ken Follett : 3.5/5

Movies n books...

Grown Ups (2010): 3/5

The Expendables (2010): 1/5 (I would love to dissect this movie..but am busy with a lot of other things)


Keep the change- Nirupama Subramanian : 3/5 (I would have added another 0.5..but the end wasn't too great). But overall...its much much better than many of the Indian authors I have read. Recommended!

movies and books...

And thereby hangs a tale: Jeffrey Archer

2.5/5


Adventureland (2009) : 2.5/5

Date night (2010) : 3/5

Inception (2010) : 4.5/5

Keep off the grass - Karan Bajaj

Keep off the grass is not as good as Johnny Gone down.
The book comes across as confused...the first 50 and the last 50 pages are the essence of the book.
The remaining 100 pages are a drag.

However, since his second book was better than the first, I will surely buy the next one.

Movies and books

Movies:

Big Fish: 4/5

Fantastic Mr.Fox: 3.5/5


Books:

There was no one at the bus: Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay : Translated by Arunava Sinha

3/5

The story is very good but the translation takes away some of the essence. So if you can read Bengali, read the original book.

Johnny gone down - Karan Bajaj

There may be couple of reasons as to why I may have liked "Johnny gone down" by Karan Bajaj.

1. My last read book was "Oh shit, not again!!" which was shitty..and there existed a possibility of me overrating an average book.
2. The person who lent me this book didn't have anything good to say about the book..so my expectations from the book were almost zilch...
3. I have not read "Keep of the grass" which is Karan Bajaj's debut novel...which meant, I was clueless about his writing style. This meant that I hadnt still formed any positive/negative opinion about him.


But, to my pleasant surprise, the actual reason why I liked the book is because... its good and it tends to break free from the conventional Indian author books... The story is good, the narrative and pace, excellent, and the book has a subtle underlying message.

Highly recommended!!

Rating: 4/5

books and movies

Movies:

Kickass: 2.5/5
Badmaash company: 1/5


Books:

Money changers: 4/5
The immortals of Meluha: 4/5
Oh shit not again: 2/5

New Indian books

I usually pick up books written by Indian authors for my journey from Mumbai to Pune. Mostly I pick up books on an experimental basis and sometimes on recommendations.

Last weekend I bought two books:

Second Degree- Prashant John

The book takes us through one year spent by Prashant in IIM A for a Executive MBA.
Firstly lets talk about the good part:
-The book is well organized.. usually other Indian author books are either hurried or stray from the theme.
-The book gives one an inside view to how things work inside the IIM A campus. Probably the book may appeal more to IIM A students who have actually gone through the same things as described in the book.
-The language used in the book is good. Overall I would say that its very well written.

Now the negatives:
-Though the book is well written, it fails to impress me because there is no major plot in the story. It is in fact a journey with many small sub plots (which are very ordinary and sometimes even boring).
In my opinion Prashant John could make it big if his second book has a more stronger theme or storyline.


Love, Life and Dream On- Animesh Verma

No positives here.. only negatives:
- The book needed some serious editing and unfortunately for Mr.Animesh, the editor didn't go a very good job. The book is full of grammatical and spelling errors.
- Most of the book is full of repetitions. Reading the same thing over and over again every five pages isn't very interesting.
- The writing is below par, the concept is below par, event descriptions are below par, order of events is chaotic, order of dialogues is also chaotic.
- This is easily one of the worst books that I ever read. The only reason I completed it is to write this review.

The Fourth Estate

The Fourth Estate - Jeffrey Archer

The book is about Keith Townsend and Richard Armstrong, and their rivalry to become the biggest Newspaper Baron. The book first acquaints us with the families and childhood of the these two characters. In typical Archer style, it then moves into their personal and professional life. How their paths cross, how each of them tries to go one up on the other, who wins in the end is for you to read and find out.
In my opinion, the middle part of the book is boring. Also the end is very hurried... Some people say that this book is similar to "Kane and Abel", but I don't agree!
The good part about the book is the excellent character build up and the duel between the two characters.

Overall, I would rate this book as 3/5.. but Archer has written better books.

Two States - The story of my marriage

The title says it all!

Punjabi Boy meets South Indian girl...they fall in love...parents dont agree...the usual complications involved in an inter caste marriage in India...

You have seen it a million times in bollywood movies or heard about it trillion times from Indian couples themselves....

The usual drama, hiccups, close calls, opportunities, dreams, depression, luck... yes its got it all!! In fact looks like Mr.Bhagat has written this book with solely one intention.. to clinch another movie deal :) ... but be more careful with the contract this time mate!!

BUT.... I would still recommend this book....for many reasons...

As usual, Mr.Bhagat's storytelling ability is fantastic.. though the book is predictable, it has a good pace (the end is a bit hurried though) ..so you never get bored..
There are many instances in the book which make you smile... and there are a few which actually make you laugh too....
The characters are well portrayed...most of them are ideal representatives of their states...
You can relate to the characters and the incidents...


So, if you are planning to watch the new Himesh movie "RADIO" for 100 bucks, skip it.. buy this book for 95.. Its a better way to spend three hours.

The catcher in the rye.

After a long time, I came across a book which I cannot describe. I am unable to put into words even a single sentence about this book. However, the closest that came in my mind was written here:

http://www.tmtm.com/sides/catcher.html


Do read it...

My review of I too had a Love story

I too had a Love story – Ravinder Singh

As I have said before, the best stories are the ones which are felt in the heart.
The book is a tragic love story of a common guy who works for Infy. As quoted by Mr.Narayana Murthy, the book is simple, honest and touching. I completely agree.

The book is a must read for everyone who has fallen in love. You can relate to the story easily and you will definitely end up loving your partner even more once you are through.

Thanks to Mr.S.P. for recommending this book.

My review of Maximum City

Maximum city: Suketu Mehta

Since long I had being hearing a lot of good about this book and being a Mumbaiite, I wanted to read this one. I was finally able to lay my hands on this book last month (Courtesy QA Library). Now that I am through with it, I am glad that I didn’t buy this book (thanks to Vijay who always discouraged me from buying this book). I didn’t like it.

The author is an NRI, who had moved out of Mumbai in his school days. He came back to Mumbai with his family after fifteen years. This is when he did his research and wrote this book. The book is actually a peep into Mumbai (Mumbai, he says is one of kind.), from different angles. Mehta has written about the Mumbai weather, the 1993 riots, politicians, Bollywood (films and people), Mumbai police, schools, real estate, gangsters, bar dancers, slum dwellers, visitors to the city, the spirit of the city, etc, etc.. The only good part about the book is that it is honest and transparent and I would give full credit to the author for his meticulous research (since it would be difficult for an outsider to actually unearth information regarding some of the sensitive issues he has written about). Mehta is also very observant. There are many things which he writes about, which only people who have stayed in Mumbai for long can visualise.

Now the bad part! Since most of the book is based on interviews, most of the data is scattered and lacking continuity. You could read about a topic for five pages, then suddenly there would be something completely new on the sixth page, then again the old topic would resume on the eighth page and so on. There is a clear lack of continuity. Most of the people Mehta has written about are the ones whom he had befriended (some names in the books have been changed… but surprisingly only the names of people who are not famous have been changed.. The popular names are all in there adding to the selling value of the book.. Smart move on the part of the author!). Infact Vidhu Vinod Chopra was quite upset when Mehta included some private information about him in the book, which he shouldn’t have (http://soniafaleiro.blogspot.com/2005/09/twas-me.html).

There are also some topics on the book, which have been stretched. There is also a lot of repeat of material. Some of the topics are just tales of his interaction with the people, which have no connection whatsoever with the ongoing topic. The worst part is the last seventy pages of the book, which are better to be skipped. All in all, only a select few topics in the book.. which is approx 1/3 rd of the book (riots, Mumbai police, bollywood) are worth reading and the rest can be ignored. The good part of the book gets over in the first half, the second half is boring..no other word for it.

Mehta comes across as fearless, if you take into consideration the things he has written about some of the big men here…but its easy to do that when you stay in another continent. I don’t think he will ever return to Mumbai.

Mumbai…where people don’t forgive easy.

Clive Cussler- Deep Six

Just finished this book. As good as Atlantis found (http://infinitumnegativity.blogspot.com/2008/10/atlantis-found-clive-cussler.html).

Atlantis Found - Clive Cussler

Just finished Atlantis Found. This was my first shot at a Clive Cussler novel. True to his description at Wiki (American Adventure Novelist and a marine archaeologist), he has created a first-rate thrilling fiction story. The story stars Dirk Pitt (A James Bond kind of character) working for N.U.M.A. (National Underwater and Marine Agency). Giving away anything about the story would be horrible for anyone wants to read the book. But the story consists of blend of high adventure, technology, numerous twists, outlandish plots and beautiful women that keep you engrossed. Do read it!

Yet another Indian Book

Bombay Rains Bombay Girls – Anirban Bose

The book is about an uncertain lad, Adityaman Bhatt (Adi) from a small town landing up in Bombay to pursue a Medical degree. The book is a roller-coaster ride of his first two years in college and his bittersweet experiences with Bombay and Bombay girls. The book describes how at the end of two years the uncertain, unsure Adi is transformed into a confident and decisive youth.

I loved the book because of the splendid narration and also because I could relate with most of the things spoken about in the book. Anyone of us could be either Adi or one of his friends.

Another Indian book that I read

That thing called love – Tuhin.A.Sinha

As the title of the book suggests, it revolves around romance and the emotional turmoil involved in relationships. The plot revolves around the lives of three working men in Mumbai. In fact, the central story (Mayank, a young bachelor on the doorstep of marriage, falling in love with an older married woman, Revathi.) completely dominates the book and the other two stories (Vishal and Anil, who are Mayank’s friends and colleagues) are used just as fillers. The book has confused start but the author has made up for it in the second half. The good thing about the book is that it has depth. Overall I would rate it as 3/5. I would have given it 2.5, if not for the last 30 pages.