• Rated 4 stars

“I had heard a lot about this book and had to give it a try. I am glad I did. This is one of the most touching books I have read till now.

I did not know anything about the book, which was good in a way, because I was completely shocked when I started reading it. Kate and Anna are sisters. Kate, the elder one, is diagnosed with leukemia and can be saved by stem cell transplantation. She needs an exact match donor for this. Enter Anna. She is genetically created (as in the embryo is created) to become the exact match for her sister and the donor, the savior is born. Kate has a kidney failure and needs her sister’s kidney to stay alive. The story takes a turn when Anna files a suit against her parents claiming medical emancipation and refuses to donate her kidney.

The book is a mixture of different emotions of interesting characters. At the center of the book we have Anna. She is torn between saving her sister’s life and standing for her own rights. She shares a warm relationship with her sister and still refuses to donate her organ. Sara, Anna’s mother, is torn between her two daughters. She wants to save her daughter’s life at any cost and is shocked by Anna’s refusal. Brian, Anna’s father, agrees with Anna, but wants her to save Kate’s life. None of the character is sure of what he/she is doing. Some of the scenes are just too touching. I was crying in some places.

What I really liked about the book is the author’s ability to convince the reader that every character’s opinion is correct. When the focus is on Anna, I felt her reasoning to be logical and found myself supporting her. When the focus is on Kate, I sympathized with her. When the author was talking about Sara, I too felt torn between my daughters and couldn’t make up my mind which one I should support.

If you are looking for an emotionally heavy book and do not mind sniffling while reading, pick up this book. This may not be one of my favorite books, but this is one of the most memorable ones for sure.”

Book Reader wrote this review Sunday, March 9 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“This book reminded me of To Kill a Mocking Bird. The narrator in both the books is a girl child. Both have Black people and their rights as one of the main themes. And I loved both the books.

This book is about Lily Owens, a fourteen year old, who lives with the guilt of killing her mother, although accidentally. A fight between her parents turns ugly and Lily accidentally fires the gun and finds her mother dead. Lily cannot forgive herself for doing this and thinks the entire world judges her by this. Her father is not much of a help. Lily finds her repulsive, scary and disappointing.

Rosaleen, a Black woman, is Lily’s housekeeper. She gets in trouble with a bunch of white boys and is imprisoned. Lily musters courage and helps Rosaleen escape from prison and both of them run away from home. They end up in a beekeeper’s house. August, the lady of the house, June, her cynical sister and May, the child at heart find themselves liking Lily and Rosaleen.

Kidd’s writing is poignant and humorous at the same time. The story is told from the kid’s perspective and she questions certain ways of life just like a kid would. The adult in us laughs at the kid’s innocence and is forced to think about the underlying meaning. Kidd creates a world where human lives are so comparable to the life of bees and still not as superior.

Kidd creates memorable characters. August with her head above her shoulders comes out as the perfect housekeeper who knows her stuff. May with her condition of “not being able to differentiate between her own grief and that of the world” evokes sympathy and love. The idea of “the wailing wall” and the little notes she keeps in the crevices tugs at your heart. I almost wished I had such a wall where I could lose myself.

Lily is just what a kid should be - full of questions, curiosities, presumptions and expectations. Her questions are startling and thought provoking. Certain incidents are disturbing. It is interesting that a kid can describe an incident in such a plain manner and it still disturbs you.

An excerpt:
"Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life. I’d traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I don’t know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now."

A quote about bees precedes every chapter of the book. This quote acts like a summary of the chapter. Kidd’s comparison of the queen bee with August, worker bee with May, and in general comparing the bees’ life with ours is simply beautiful. This book is not so much about the life of bees as about ours.

At the end of the book, I had a warm feeling and yet my heart felt heavy. I loved every word of this book and felt bad it got over so soon. I really want to give it a re-read. This is one of those books which remains with you for a long time.

Read this book.”

Book Reader wrote this review Friday, February 15 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“The English Patient is set in Italy against the backdrop of the second world war. The book begins with the plane crash of an English man (nicknamed as ‘The English Patient’) who gets badly burnt in the crash. He is taken care of by a nurse, Hana. They live in an abandoned church turned into a hospital during the war. When all the other nurses and patients move out, Hana and her patient decide to stay back. The patient stays because he cannot be moved and Hana stays because she is in love with him. The book proceeds and we see the entry of two more characters, Caravaggio and Kip.

This book is about these four characters, affected by the war in their own way. It is about their love, their loss, their eccentricities and their lives.

The first thing that gets you is the writing. Ondaatje’s writing is like poetry - it is like free flow of a river. His choice of words, his description - it is a pleasure to read this book. No words can describe his skills, so let me just quote a few lines from his book.
"She entered the story knowing she would emerge from it feeling she had been immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of sentences and moments, as if awakening from sleep with a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams."

The second best thing about the book is definitely the characterization. Ondaatje skillfully shows the oft quoted rule in writing, ‘Show; Don’t tell‘. He creates his characters and lets them reveal themselves through their actions. An incident in the villa, a character’s habit, an eccentricity, a thought, an opinion - these build characters like no character description can. Each character is so beautifully etched - they will remain with the reader long after reading the book.

I didn’t find anything extraordinary in the story. It’s a typical love story - a story of survival and loss and post-war effects. I really didn’t pay much attention to the story when I was gorging on Ondaatje’s words.

This is not one your run-of-the-mill books. Some may even find it heavy and slow. When you start reading this book, if you find yourself looking forward to the story and happenings, you should probably stop reading. Just enjoy the journey, relish Ondaatje’s exquisite writing and the book will be a treat.

This book may not feature in my favorites list, but Michael Ondaatje certainly figures in my favorite writers list - right on top.”

Book Reader wrote this review Monday, February 11 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“After the heavy reading of The Accidental and On Beauty, this book comes as a refreshing breeze. This book is short and sweet and is over before you know it.

On Chesil Beach is about Florence and Edward, the newly weds who decide to go to Chesil Beach for their honeymoon. The book opens with the two of them sitting uncomfortably in their honeymoon suite and wishing that the dreadful moment of their marriage consummation never occurs. Florence thinks she is ‘odd’ because she has never felt the physical urge and she finds the very thought of it repulsive. She is a virgin, of course, and is not really looking forward to that moment when she has to give it up.

Edward, on the other hand, is perfectly normal and fantasizes about it and looks forward to it. His worry is that he might act too quickly and thus spoil his bride’s fun. The author captures this tense moment beautifully and the reader really wishes that the dreaded moment never occurs.

McEwan doesn’t waste too much time in setting the plot or establishing the characters. He directly takes the reader to the scene where the action is and then takes the reader back in time to give a bit of a background about his main characters. Neither of them had a normal childhood, so to say, and the reader tries to attribute the reason for Florence’s so called oddity to her childhood.

All credit to McEwan for handling such a sensitive subject in a graceful way. Be it his description or his choice of words, the reader never feels that it is vulgar. He gives it just the right amount of focus and importance to create the tension required.

The first scene in the honeymoon suite has constant switching of POVs between Edward and Florence and this made it difficult to read. Just as you begin to sympathize with Florence, the author suddenly drops you in Edward’s mind and then you are confused! I wish he had split the two POVs into separate chapters and may be describe the same scene twice in two different POVs. That would have been interesting.

The novel ends with an emotional note. Before the reader can react to the story, the author chooses to end it. I liked the book and wanted it to go on. I probably liked it because it was short.

This is a nice, little book, little being the key word here. Give it a try. If you like it, well and good. Even if you don’t, you don’t have to worry too much about it, because you won’t spend so much time reading it.

The following paragraphs contain some details about the book which may be termed as spoilers:

The uncomfortable night progresses and the two end up having a fight. The fight scene itself is narrated completely from Florecen’s POV. McEwan describes her emotions so beautifully in this scene. She is upset with herself for behaving in a certain way and her inner voice says she should apologize, but she suppresses it and puts the blame on Edward. This scene is so captivating. It probably would not have worked so well from Edward’s POV.

The couple decides to separate and the last couple of scenes is told from Edward’s POV. I wonder why the author chose to narrate it this way. The author does not even reveal what happens to Florence, apart from her dream of a live concert coming true. I would have liked it better if the last few scenes had Florence’s POV. I wanted to know what her emotions were after the fight and whether she felt she made the wrong choice.”

Book Reader wrote this review Monday, February 4 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“I picked up this book after my friend’s recommendation. After reading Palmuk’s Nobel award acceptance speech, I was looking forward to reading more from him.

At the first glance, the book is a murder mystery. It also has a love story woven into it. Readers get to explore Istanbul and other towns in Turkey through the author’s eyes. One also gets a peek into Islam and its customs.

It is based in Istanbul and revolves around a group of miniaturists, painters and gilders who create manuscripts and books. The book begins with the murder of one of the artists and goes on to solve the mystery of who did it and why. Black can be termed as the main character of the book who is madly in love with Shekure. Her beauty is so generously praised all over the book, one eagerly wants to witness her beauty. Whenever I come across such descriptions (’the most beautiful girl who every man fell in love with’), I begin to wonder if such a woman can ever exist. I must admit, I am sometimes put off by such exaggerations.

The original book is written in Turkish and it has been translated to English by Erdağ M. Göknar. Though he has won acclaims for his translation, I found the sentences too long and flowery. In the later stages of the book, the language was actually a strain - I wanted someone to read the lines and tell me the gist of it.

Another problem area was the pace. Initially, the book moves really fast and somewhere midway, it slows down to a halt before picking up pace again. I feel the book could have been shorter - it was a little too long.

The best thing about the book is definitely the creativity of the author in writing the story from different perspectives. You must have heard about this many times now. He writes from the perspective of a tree, a dog, a gold coin, and even a corpse. I particularly enjoyed the chapter written from the perspective of a gold coin. The coin talks about moving from one person to another and about fake coins. This chapter had some philosophical undercurrent to it.

I happened to notice an error in the book. It was on page 276 in the edition I read. It is that part of the book where Stork, Butterfly and Black team up and go to confront Olive. Stork is wearing an armour and the chapter is narrated by Olive. He says ‘Olive in his shining armor’ or something like that. It should be Stork since it’s Stork who is wearing an armour.

This book is not one of the best I have read, but was not bad enough for me to ditch it. If you want a little peek into Turkey and its people, if you want to read a murder mystery, do read this book.”

Book Reader wrote this review Tuesday, January 29 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 1 stars

“This is not a book review, even though I label it so. Why? Simply because I did not understand it. This is my humble attempt to gather my thoughts and post them here hoping that a kind soul will enlighten me as to what the point of this book was.

I struggled to get into the book. First few pages was an arduous task and I was tempted to put down the book and not pick it up again. I wanted to be fair to the book and the author (after all, it was shortlisted for Booker 2005), so I kept telling myself that the reading would be smooth later on. Sigh, that never happened.

Smith creates an interesting set of characters and in each chapter, she writes from a different character’s point of view. In one chapter, the narrator is focusing on Astrid, the little girl and Smith writes like a little girl. In another, the narrator is Michael, the womanizer English professor and one can notice the appropriate use of words in this chapter. Without knowing, the reader to hops from one character to another along with the author.

Chapters do not begin with sentences. You read that right. They begin mid-sentence as if the author is picking up a thought left behind. Chapters end mid-sentence. Why would one want to do that? One wonder if it was to get attention and gain an entry into the Booker shortlist.

It is hard for me to say what the book is about. I could gather this: it is about a woman who pays a surprise and unexpected visit to a family of four and touches their lives in her own way. That’s all I know. I don’t know what the author was trying to say with this book. I mean, what was the point of the book? Every book has a point, doesn’t it?

After reading this book, I have started to ask if I should ever pick a Booker shortlist again. As I say this, my eyes rest on Zadie Smith’s "On Beauty" lying on my bookshelf.”

Book Reader wrote this review Friday, January 18 2008. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“I like Maugham for his elegant writing style and his understanding of human nature. I believe he is one of those people who can judge someone in the first glance and they are almost always right. When I came across the book ‘The Razor’s Edge’ and realized it had a spiritual element in it, I was curious to know what Maugham’s take on spirituality was.

The book is biographical, all the characters actually existed, with a few names changed. Maugham is the narrator and appears as a character in the book. He follows the life of Larry Darrell, who due to an unfortunate incident in the wartime, turns spiritual. He starts asking questions about the purpose of life and its creation and so on. The author meets this man on and off over the span of several years and the reader gets to know the happenings in Larry’s life as well as the author’s.

Larry grows disinterested towards the earthly life and its belongings. He decides not to settle down, but to wander around and look for answers for his questions. He visits different countries and meets various people and gains knowledge, as he puts it. We see a gradual change in Larry as the story progresses. By the end of the book, Larry is a man who has found answers, to the best of his satisfaction and a man who knows what he wants in life.

We see characters like Elliot Templeton and Isabel who are starkly in contrast with Larry. The former has made society his main aim of life and the latter, money. In certain incidents, the co-existence of these characters along with Larry, highlight Larry’s thoughts and opinions which would not have been possible if the two characters were not present.

It is hard to believe that the book is biographical when one looks at Gray’s character. Too good to be true. One wonders if the author invented this character! Sophie’s character is certainly believable, but Larry’s behaviour towards her is not. This was the only thing that didn’t fit in with Larry’s image in my mind.

The reason I picked up this book was to know Maugham’s thoughts on spirituality. Keeping this element aside, the book is certainly enjoyable as any other fiction novel. Maugham’s writing is as enjoyable as ever and the ending is just right. The concluding paragraph says it all. If your reason for reading this book is the same as mine, then the conversation on spirituality appears only much later in the book. Part Six, to be precise and it covers a few tens of pages. And this particular chapter begins like this:

" I feel it right to warn the reader that he can very well skip this chapter without losing the thread of such story as I have to tell, since for the most part it is nothing more than the account of a conversation that I had with Larry. I should add, however, that except for this conversation I should perhaps not have thought it worth while to write this book."

Only Maugham can write such beautiful words. He informs the reader that he can skip this chapter but also makes a point that if the reader does skip it, then there is not much point in reading the book.

I found reading the book worth while. For me, the essence of the book lies in those few pages mentioned earlier, which I would certainly go back to it if I feel like it and I am sure I will.”

Book Reader wrote this review Sunday, January 13 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“The new year couldn't have started in a better way. With the first book of the year turning out to be so good, I am looking forward to the literary journey this year.

Jasper Fforde's 'The Eyre Affair', as the name suggests, has the book Jane Eyre at its center. Thursday Next is a literary detective who handles security of original manuscripts, piracy and other crimes related to the literary world. Acheron Hades is set out to destroy an original manuscript, or worse, change it and it is up to Thursday Next and her team to stop him.

Fforde's book is science fiction and humor mixed into one. With elements like Chronogaurd, plasma rifles, Prose Portal, this book is as close to science fiction as any book can be. The part where Next visits her hometown and her uncle gives her a tour of his laboratory is very interesting.

Some parts of the book are just hilarious. I laughed out loud while reading the incident where bookworms expel apostrophes, hyphens and em-dashes. Even the choice of name for his leading lady goes on to show Fforde's sense of humor.

The book moves fast and doesn't let the reader stop and think. Writing is charming and characters are lovable. Thursday Next wins your heart as the no-nonsense, independent woman who has her head over her shoulders. Hades is a villain with an evil mind and a smart brain. His thoughts about crime are definitely different from that of any other villain.

Fforde could have written this book with a serious note and the book would have ended up as any other science fiction book about threat to mankind and such stuff. But, the touch of humor makes this book so charming and weird that you can't help but love the book. Thank God, Fforde has a sense of humor and a good one at that. On the other hand, because of humor, I never took the story serious enough to be worried about the fate of the manuscript. I was reading the book with the certainty that Next will save the manuscript.

Kudos to the author's imaginative powers. He gels the literary world and the scientific world together and weaves a story that is interesting and highly imaginative. Even thinking up a story where a villain tries to kidnap the leading lady of a book (she is not even real!) and thus creating panic in the literary world takes a lot of creativity and Fforde takes this simple idea forward and creates a book which is simply charming.

If you enjoy light, humor reading and do not mind a bit of science fiction, then please do pick up this book. You will enjoy it till the last page.

With this book on my good-books list, I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in this series.”

Book Reader wrote this review Monday, January 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 2 stars

“The hero of the book, Ram Mohammed Thomas has won a billion rupees in a quiz show. Nothing wrong in winning, but if the winner happens to be a slum-dweller who has never attended school, things do look fishy. And if the producers of the show do not have the money to pay, they will make sure it looks fishy.

Twelve chapters and twelve questions. Each chapter of the book revolves around each question of the quiz show. The prologue begins with Ram’s arrest and gives a little background about the characters and the plot. Once the chapters start, the book picks up pace. Each chapter takes the reader to a particular period of Ram’s life and as a side-effect justifies how Ram knew the answer for the questi