The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

One of the best novels I have read in the recent past. The story just flows and the format of the book is like letter writing. A person from Guernsey writes a letter to this writer requesting a book. The conversation continues and the writer gets an idea for her new book. Her friend at Guernsey gets others in the club to write to her too about their experiences during the war. The conversation is mostly about the German occupation of Guernsey and how they formed the literary club. There is a subtle love story, but that hardly gets much importance and is exactly the way it should be.

Do grab a copy at your nearest library and read this one!

Three Mistakes of My Life

Alright, biggest mistake of "MY" life is reading this book. Its like a horribly written Bollywood movie, that I wouldn't even watch if its free! Cliched story! Has been told a million times - cricket, religion and politics. Language is too simple and story is pathetic! Please pass up on this one!

The White Tiger

Back to reading and updating again...

This book talks about nothing new that we Indians don't know, but does a good job reminding us of the other face of India. A corrupt India is what we choose to conveniently ignore/forget and this book brings it all back. A lot of people feel that this book shows India in a poor light, but I think it shows India exactly the way it is!

The story is in the first person, its a story of rags to riches of Balram Halwai. Born in his village (called Darkness), he moves from there to become a driver and later becomes at entrepreneur in the Bangalore (called Light). The corrupt journey he undertakes is the essence of this book.

A good read and a light one too! And for once an Indian book that does not talk about sarees, sindoor and spicy food, like its meant for Westerners.

Good Quotes :

See the muslims have one god. The christians have three gods. And we hindus has 56000000 gods.

Only three have never let themselves be ruled by foreigners: China, Afghanistan and Abyssinia. These are the only three nations I admire.

To break the law of his land-to turn bad news into good news- is the entrepreneur prerogative.

To sum up-in the old days there were one thousand castes and destinies in India. These days, there are just two castes: Men with big bellies, and men with small bellies. And only two destinies: eat or get eaten up.

These are three main diseases in this country: cholera, typhoid and election fever. The last one is the worst; it makes people talk and talk about things that they have no say in.

The Great Gatsby

March was a slow month, in terms of reading. A lot going on at my end, so was able to read one book amidst all that life has brought.

Lesson learnt : Never be fooled by Amazon reviews. If 1000 people find it a 5-star rated book, you need not.

If you watched Bollywood flicks, then this story comes as no surprise. The heros, heroine, affairs (extra-marital ones) and so on. No character in this book is a hero to celebrate except the author himself. The setting is good, prose is great and the story has been re-told several times.

A short book, took me longer than expected to read, but give it a shot! Not much to lose there.

Sold

If you have read Memoirs of a Geisha (one of my favorite book) or watched Umrao Jaan (a Hindi movie), this is the same in a much more simpler form. But the topic of human trafficking is never a simple one. It does make you cold, especially if you have kids of your own. This is a story of a Nepalese girl sold by her step-father for a few rupees. It is a story, in first person, about how she felt each moment. It does not have a fairy-tale ending and leaves the reading wanting to know a little more. But it sure delivers its point and leaves you a little disturbed. It is a Young-Adult book. So it is spaced and a very quick read. Maybe one afternoon, at the most.

Tuesdays With Morrie

Yet another book, that says nothing new, but kicks you in the butt, just in case you forgot how to lead your life. This one, like the Last Lecture, has nothing new to offer. It is the same inspirational kind. But you need one such book every year to realize that a mechanical life does not lead you anywhere, and that there is a huge difference between "want" and "need".

Good quotes:

Love each other or perish.

People are only mean when they're threatened.

When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.

Death ends a life, not a relationship.

Once you know how to die, you know how to live.

You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean.

If you can accept that you can die at any time - then you might not be as ambitious as you are.

Three Cups of Tea

Have you ever sat through a movie because so many people said its good and you thought the best is coming yet? That's exactly how I felt about this book. 1200 people on Amazon cannot give wrong reviews. I trust them. So I kept pushing myself to read this book despite the fact that skipped a few paragraphs here and there. Then I reached page 333. Nothing yet! Mr Mortenson's work is absolutely laudable. But the book, awful! painful to read!

The whole book is in third person. A first person report would have made it more personal and a pleasure to read. Too many adjectives to describe something simple and finally, too much of deviation from the whole point. It could have easily been several pages shorter. Maybe the young reader version is better. Try that one.

Five Point Someone

I just finished reading this ebook online and well, it deserves an ebook only! Very breezy read, thanks to amateurish writing. Complete fiction. I mean rosy endings, Bollywood style!

So much for criticizing. Then why did I read through it. Well, it was hilarious. You could relate some of it to your own college life. Bunking classes, ragging, hating the strict Profs, hanging out with friends etc - Some of these moments, you relive through the books. Thats what kept me hanging. You just wish he had kept the love life part of it out of the book and did not go into much detail there. But what you desperately wish, is some reality check and a good writing.

Read it online free.

Unaccustomed Earth

This is another set of short stories and they are good. That is all I can say. Her stories have gotten too monotonous for me, and except for the surprise endings, there is not much. They are again descriptions of Bengali families that grew up close to MIT or Harvard and the differences in generations. Ms Lahiri is a good writer. She has talent, but I think after a certain point, descriptions of sari, vermilion, fish curry etc becomes plain boring. I was looking forward to something a little more than that but was disappointed. If you can ignore or skip these trivial things, the stories are not bad. I particularly enjoyed the second part which has one story in 3 parts.

If you want more detailed review, go here : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/books/review/Schillinger3-t.html

A Long Way Gone

This is one book thats a must read!

It is about the author's childhood in Africa. He starts the book with what seems like a normal childhood when his village is attacked by Rebels. He loses his family and run from village to village, as the rebels keep attacking the villages. He stays in a forest for sometime and eventually joins the army to fight the rebels. His transformation from a young innocent boy to this monster teenager that can kill people is pretty painful. He writes about how easy it was to brainwash a little boy into killing so many innocent people. This book is a page turner and is extremely honest. The language is quite simple, that you feel someone is telling this during a friendly chat. The first part where he runs and learns to live independently but the second part, where he becomes a normal child again seems a little rushed. I wish he had written a detailed ending about his life after. But the author sure leaves you wondering and seeking more.

Eat Pray Love

Yet another book that I like in some ways and don't like it in some other. This is a travelogue of the author. She is a divorcee and travels through Italy, India and Indonesia. She enjoys the food at Italy, the prayer and meditation in India and she finds love in Indonesia. While I enjoyed the Italy part and Indonesia part, I did not quite enjoy the India part. I could be biased since I am from India and though her description of everything seemed OK, sometimes it felt like a drag. There is some humor in her observation and I personally think that the book is such a hit because of her talented and very honest writing.

Some humor:
"Here in Rome, the pope's health is recorded daily in the newspaper, very much like weather, or the TV schedule. Today the pope is tired. Yesterday, the pope was less tired than he is today. Tomorrow we expect that the pope will not be quite so tired as he was today."

"In Bali, there are only four names that the majority of the population give to their children, regardless of whether the baby is a boy or a girl. The names are Wayan, Made, Nyoman and Ketut. Translated, these names mean simply First, Second, Third and Fourth, and they connotate birth order."

Water For Elephants

I have a very mixed opinion about this book. It is a story of a boy that joins circus, as circumstances force him to, and his journey along with the team. He is currently 90 years old and living in an old age home. The chapters alternate between his past and current life. There are certain parts of the story I really like and that includes his current life and his old age feelings. His journey with the circus is also described very well. But eventually, it is a love story and I think I have outgrown love story days. So thats a big no-no. The narration is quite brutal too, describing how life in Circus was during the Great Depression and how badly animals and workers were treated. It may be worth a read, if you enjoy love stories.

A few of my favorite quotes:

Age is a terrible thief. Just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back. It makes you ache and muddies your head and silently spreads cancer throughout your spouse

One of the greatest indignities about being old is that people insist on helping you with things like bathing and going to the washroom.

With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini has this way of writing that brings every character to life. And even after you close the book, the characters come back to haunt you for several days. He has done a brilliant job, just as he did with Kite Runner. This is a beautiful story about women, relationships between woman and Afghanistan during the 90's. It is a story about this woman Mariam, he childhood as an illegitimate child and her journey through womanhood. It is about how bad her luck was and how it got worse. The story also involves another woman Laila, who was born lucky but her world turns upside down due to the way. The author also given an insight to how the Talibans treated woman and how everything we take for granted like freedom of speech and freedom of life is not free!

Definitely a must-read book. The author has left me craving for more of his work.

The Last Lecture

The last lecture is the kind of book you read when you need to derive inspiration or when you need someone to just remind you how precious, unpredictable and darn short life is! I know I can find faults with this book like any, but I picked the book fully knowing that this was one man's view of the world. So I will save the criticism this time. I also watched the video on YouTube and I was touched by this man's words. Randy Pausch passed away in July 2008, but I am sure the world will continue to remember him.

This book goes a long way in telling you what life is all about. There are some wonderful quotes in this book, some of which I would love to remember a life-time and re-iterate to my kids.

- When there’s an elephant in the room, introduce him.
- We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
- When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that means they have given up on you.
- I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones that I did accomplish. (About one of his dreams)
- You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work.
- Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
- Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.
- Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.
- Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.
- Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.
- The best piece of parenting advice I’ve ever heard is from flight attendants. If things get really tough, grab your own oxygen mask first.

The Old Man and The Sea

This book, while simple and a beautiful read, has so much of depth in every sentence, that it is hard to not miss some. Every line written can be analyzed and compared to our everyday actions. The tale starts in a small Cuban village and most of it is in the sea. There are a few moments that make you realize how old age is but then there are a few that bring strength and valor back. The old man praises the fish for his dignity and says he is noble but then wants to kill him soon.

It is a very small book, some 125 pages and I enjoyed reading it. It took a couple of hours.

My favorite line:
They beat me, Manolin," he said. "They truly beat me."
"He didn't beat you. Not the fish."
"No. Truly. It was afterwards."