Manisha V
As soon as I finished reading this book, I was tempted to write a review while still glowing with the beauty of the story. It talks about so many aspects of korean life of the early 20th century.
It is the tale of three girls primarily destined to be courtesans in a Korea of the early 1900s. Jade, Lotus and Luna's lives are intertwined in heartbreaking ways as they mature into beautiful women meeting both cruel and kind men along their way. They are brought up by Silver and then Dani to be courtesans and taught various arts deemed essential for them.
Korea's fight for independence from Japan is the backdrop for Jade's friendships with JungHo and HanChol. The occupation by the japanese and their brutality was palpable. “Rice was needed in Japan, the mother country. It is as when the body routes nutrients and fresh blood to the heart at the expense of a limb. Japan is the heart, and Korea an extremity. Also, these Josenjings are too well fed and energetic and full-blooded. They will be more docile when they are bled out”.
I loved the writing which could bring out the pain and the beauty of life most effectively and I was surprised to note that this is a debut. Relationships are complicated and evolve throughout our lives. Juhea Kim has brought out the truth of that engagingly so that it was difficult to put down the book so I finished it in three days.
I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley to read in exchange for a review.
This story is set in 1892, a time when the British crown had firmly taken hold of India after the first war of Independence was fought in 1857.. This backdrop proved to be a very important factor during the telling of the tale.
The protagonist, Jim, is a retired Captain in this British army. He is also of the lowest in the social order - half Indian and half British. He is recuperating in a military hospital in Poona after a skirmish at the Northwest frontier of the country. While reading the newspaper , he finds an article about the “Crime of the century”. Two parsee women have been found dead, fallen from the Click Tower. The husband of one of them, Adi, is convinced it is not suicide. Captain Jim is moved by his letter and wants to investigate (having been inspired by his time spent reading Arthur Conan Doyle in hospital). He is hired by the family to do so.
During the progress of the case, the Captain is aided by the sister of the bereaved husband - Diana Framji. The relationship that develops between the two while piecing together the horrible and heroic history of the Framji girls is both modern and romantic.
That said, it is not a romance. It is an intricate murder mystery deserving of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award it has received. This book was a pleasure to read and I could barely put it down. I specially loved the setting of the story, where the political atmosphere of the country came alive.
Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
I should have read this in hindi but this was an airport pick so didn't really have a choice there.
Its a simple story of an older lady forced to live alone in a big ancient house. Her only company is thee boy does chores around the house and runs errands. There is also a friend of the husband long passed who the lady co sults for all things -big and small. He suggests a paying guest in a spare room to keep her company and for security . After an initial resistance she does choose a young working girl to stay in her house.
The tale is beautifully narrated ans was actually a play originally. one can visualise the house and feel the emotions of the woman vividly. There is a mystery there too waiting to reveal the layers of small town living.
As accomplished an actor as Pankaj Kapur is, his writing was equally nuanced and evocative. I would definitely recommend this short read for a lazy afternoon.
I read this book for a book club. I picked it up only after 2-3 members could not stop gushing about it. Did the audiobook in 2 days and I am not sorry.
Delightful, optimistic, fuzzy, wholesome goodness are some of the adjectives used for this read.
The characters in the book are clearly from a fantastical realm but even so, they are really quite believable. It is one where they actually talk to each other. Some really tough aspects have been touched in the book and jokes have been used very effectively to convey feelings and thoughts. Even though the book gets cheesy in places, it does have an important message for young people. This book is a must read.
Cilka is a young jewish girl who is sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau at the age of 16. This is the story of how she survives that ordeal and more. She is then moved to Gulag after the war having been found guilty of crimes during the war. Again, she finds she is in a position where she is able to survive, all the while living in fear of the past being disclosed.
The writing is simple and powerful. After a long time I found myself reading the book in a single sitting and crying. Not too many books can achieve that. I will recommend this book to anyone who has the heart to read about the World War and its aftermath.
Its a book which delved clearly into the horrors of the time while still carrying a flame of hope. Cilka is a strong girl, capable of taking most things in her stride. Her various relationships with the inmates around her are so well depicted for all their complexity. A story such as this does not come along often.
In this time of environmental consciousness, this book brings home the importance of our surroundings and how.
A beautiful majestic oak tree is at the center of this conflict between two neighbouring families made up of completely different type of people.
The tree is representative of so many things to Valerie, most of all, her husband but it is in danger due to the unthinking selfish actions of the new neighbour Brad. The conflicts between the two families are brought to the fore while drawing vivid pictures of the characters involved. The relationship that the children of the warring parties develop is another angle worth pondering over.
This book was a pure pleasure to read and made me wish I had read the author sooner. I will recommend this one to my friends in a heartbeat. Its a great book for the book club having so many different aspects for discussion.
I finished reading The Water-dancer but truth be told, I wish it hadn't ended. Not because it's a feel good book, it's not. But because it's a book where the imagery is strong enough for me to stay with it for a long time and to visualise it almost as if I were there. The story of a slave and his journey to learn about himself and the special power that he has. It's the story of a burning need to create connections with the past in order to understand the present and live the future.
The story revolves around slavers and the enslaved. There is the Underground which helps the slaves become free and find a new life. Hiram, the protagonist, has special powers which he uses to help the Underground in their quest. The torture of the separation of the families that slavery and the masters takes on the slaves is rampant. Few are untouched by it. The author has brought the pain, of the slaves, out vividly. It is a story of slavery and of deep humanity written with much sensitivity.
The story of Su Lan evoked a number of emotions but awe is not one of them. I have mixed feelings about the read. The book starts with a seemingly tight grip on the story. The backdrop of the Tiananmen Square massacre is portentous of characters dealing with the aftermath of that fateful day. That does not really prove to be so.
I did feel though, that the author's craft of writing is excellent . I felt the power of her words in many places and found myself rereading passages a number of times.
For instance, “I never stopped loving my mother. Not exactly. A little pin fell out of the contraption of my love for her; bit by bit it fell apart, until one day I discovered she was my enemy. I never ceased to feel strongly—strongest—about her. Even long after the strength of emotion was no longer adoring, my mother retained an ability to extract, with a word, a glance, a simple tone of voice, the well of everything irrational inside me.”
(Excerpt From
Little Gods
Meng Jin
This material may be protected by copyright.)
The love hate relationship between mother and daughter expressed so eloquently.
The book seemed in my mind to have unconvincing twists and turns. Events did not always seem logical. I felt the need for explanations of things happening in the real world in more than one place. The end of the story seems like it is done in haste and there are loose threads there.
Inspite of these flaws the book is worth reading. Its a good debut novel and I feel one can expect some good writing from this author
When I started reading this book, I thought uh-oh, this is either time travel or groundhogs day. A few pages in though, I was happy to realise that it was neither. Stuart Milton, the protagonist, has woken up completely out of sync with his surroundings, clueless about where he is. What follows is most unpredictable and the suspense build up is exciting.
The writing, from the word go, is fast paced and so a lot of action constantly. I felt almost breathless with Stuart's distress at trying to understand what was happening. He knows he has a wife but can't find her. On top of this his brother too, knows nothing about Lauren. I enjoyed this book as it deals with a concept that I feel many of us wonder about (I know I do), that of parallel universes. The author has created a convincing scenario where Stuart Milton along with his psychiatrist Dr Carson, employ various means to get to the bottom of his experiences – even hypnosis. The technology being developed , the Harmoniser, by the scientists is the substance of morality dilemmas. Scientists at Oxford only mean well with their work and are trying to send Stuart back to the life he knew but it's the Chinese (hmm??!!) who are the antagonists here and want to take over the equipment for their own personal use. The buildup to the climax of the story where destruction of the Harmoniser is inevitable leaving Stuart stranded in this universe is nail biting.
The use of many narrators to tell the tale is a tough exercise but done very well. I like the multi-dimensionality that this brings to the narrative. The story moves forward but not exactly in a linear fashion with this writing technique as so much more ground can be covered. I read this book close on the heels of Recursion. The race to control the science in both is quite believable as is the science itself and even agonizing for all the moral dilemmas these stories can present. What if we actually do get there some day? Its for all this that science fiction is enthralling. For a debut author to be able to draw parallels in my head with an established one is quite a recommendation I believe.
I will definitely recommend this sci-fi to any enthusiasts of the genre. The author has also left options open for at least one sequel which I hope he is working on.
I was provided this book by the author and Booktasters in exchange for a review.
Absolutely beautiful. Each line evokes an image and a feeling. Each painting evokes an emotion. Khaled Hosseini inhabits a world of so much pain, and manages to draw his readers into that world both gently and ferociously.
Life changes and sometimes the changes are drastic. This is obviously a classic and a must read to understand Africa and how people's lives were affected by the entry of the english in their land.
This book is classified as a science fiction. That is not enough. It cannot be any more human, any more compelling a tale of raw emotions and feelings.
The protagonist is the subject of a science experiment to enhance his intelligence. His journey from a mental age of a young child to that of a genius, is the journey of growing up and finding the harshness of the real world. It is easy to understand the narrator as he goes through his various phases. The story forces the reader to ponder over the ethics of scientific proceedings. Draw your own conclusions.
I typically do not read love stories. They bore me. But when Julian Barnes writes a love story there is nothing typical about it. From the concept of the story to the treatment of it. I loved this book. Paul falls in love with Susan and then spends his whole life living around that love. The whole tale of Paul and Susan's love over time is revealed in layers of their personalities and the people around them. Julian Barnes has some very incisive revelations to make. It is a beautifully told saga of love between two most unlikely people.
Six tales, all with a twist. Murder stories really are an exploration of human nature at its worst. All one's fears, desires and what lengths some people can go to while dealing with them. Few can do a job of this as good as P D James did. Each story is a study in the human psyche and what makes it tick. One of them even made me laugh out loud with its ingenuity. This is a great quick read.
Most enjoyable as all other Louise Penny books I have read. I loved the twists and turns in the plot.
This is probably the best of all of them. Louise Penny gives me hope for the world when she writes about and emphasises kindness. It is not often one comes across such humane crime fiction. She is a fantastic author.
As far as I know there are not too many tales of Indians who go to the middle east to work. This was an eye opener. The inhumanity of the life that the protagonist, Najeeb, was forced to live was palpable. That there are lives lost while the families are none the wiser is tragic.
Once I had started I could not put the book down. I had to know what fate befell Najeeb.
This was very powerful writing. It is difficult to pick up another book for some time after such a read that leaves a major impact. Benyamin has been added to my ever growing list of must-read authors.
Its not often one comes across a book about any kind of mental illness. That too written with sensitivity and from the point of view of family members. It is a love story too, narrated by the child while managing the affected parent. The reader is a part of the family and feels each episode keenly. It was an excellent read without any depressing bits one would usually associate with mental and emotional trauma. Must read.