Neeraj Chavan
I think this is the best dystopian novel I have ever read! Ray Bradbury has created a masterpiece here which is bound to make you think long and hard about the world and where it's headed.
The story begins with the protagonist Guy Montag, who is a fireman. And in this dystopian world, the firemen burn down books and the houses hide them.
The metaphorical message this book tries to convey is thought provoking and profound. It instills the importance of critical thinking and highlights how humanity is doomed if we stop reading books and learning from them. And how our role is to educate people who have abandoned books, and eventually abandoned thinking altogether.
And given the times we live in now, with social media being in cahoots with governments and billionaires, which in turn influences our minds and almost everything about the way we think, reading this book felt like a bleak and haunting experience. It also highlights how important it is to educate people and the role of an individual in a society that's deteriorating without being aware of it.
A must read book. I would recommend this to every reader out there! 5/5 for this work of literary brilliance!
I have a new found admiration for Irish writers and this year has been the year where I have read a lot of Irish literature. And Barry Sebastian managed to impress me with his beautiful prose and style of writing. Reading this book has been a journey into historical Ireland and I loved every bit of it.
The story takes place in a mental asylum in Roscommon and the narration keeps switching between two main characters. Roseanne, an almost centenarian woman who's been lodged in the asylum for nearly her entire life, reflects upon her past and starts jotting it down on paper.
Meanwhile, the other narrator is, Dr. Green, the psychiatrist who looks after the asylum patients and is now trying to assess the inmates as the asylum is due for demolition and about to be shifted to a new place.
Barry's writing flows like a honeytrap which pulls you in and then hits you in the gut towards the end. It's a tragic story of loss, grief and how we humans have no control over our fate and destiny. The story of endurance and resilience in the face of tragedy and its lasting impact on the human soul. Of how truth is eventually a mere story that we tell ourselves to go on living in this world!
A brilliant read! 4.75 out of 5. I would love to explore more of Sebastian Barry's works!
This is one of those books that is bound to stay with you in that little corner of your heart, ages after you have finished reading it. A beautiful coming of age story of a woman who has been through some unexpectedly dangerous incidents in the past and has survived to be a rather responsible adult. Well, as per what the society expects of responsible adults. Except for one thing, she has never got around to exploring what it means to be an emotionally intelligent adult.
She is an extremely awkward character who is discombobulated in social settings one can even say an unlikable misfit who doesn't even try in the slightest to fit in. On top of that, she's judgemental to her very core and often comes across as rude and mean with her words. Although, I enjoyed her internal monologue throughout, which is funny and makes it a hilarious read.
The whole story is divided into three parts, the good, the bad and the better. I loved how the book explores the theme of loneliness in adulthood and its devastating consequences on our mental health. The story also sheds light on how important it is to come to grips with our past and how crucial it is to learn to forgive ourselves and make peace in the present.
Eleanor Oliphant highlights those parts of us which we may have maybe hidden away in the crevices of our hearts, never to be bothered again. The message the book tries to impart is one of hope and how it's very important to talk and share our heart out from time to time with the people who care about us and our loved ones. And that it's never too late to start doing that. The conclusion when Eleanor comes to realise that how everyone is going through something or may have been through something and it's imperative to be kind to people. It's a long way for her and damn difficult but good to see her walking down that path of growth, towards the end of the book.
A beautiful read! I'd give this one 4.75 out of 5. Deducting 0.25 stars for how the writer has shown Eleanor being mean to people at times, with her words. That something I think could have been toned down a bit. Overall, it's an amazing read!💯
This one was a fun light-hearted read. Filled with lots of typical young adult drama, peppered with some romance.
The story is about the lead girl who happens to be a chess prodigy but has stoped playing the game due to some traumatic background story relating to her Dad and her family.
The lead guy is this unbeaten world chess champion who is described as some hot shot celebrity genius, which reminds me somewhat of Magnus Carlsen. The story begins when somehow the protagonist enters an open chess tournament with reluctance and somehow ends up beating this lead guy. This makes the lead guy fall for her and keeps on trying to "play chess with her", throughout the novel.
The plot revolves around their everyday lives, their emotional back story, family dynamics, friendships and yes, chess. Mostly chess. I enjoyed reading this book as it reminded me of my college days when I was pursuing my master's and also pursuing the love of my life, who's now my wife. We used to play chess online during covid lockdown where I used to teach her how to play and eventually she ended up mastering it and started defeating me regularly. Fun times indeed!
It's a simple read with the language and narration catering to a young audience. The dialogue sounded teensy to me but that's alright as that's how young adult romance is I guess.
The book also highlights the gender gap in chess and lack of women representation and the issues they have had to face with casual sexism. That part was interestingly eye opening.
Would like to explore more of Ali Hazelwood's works. Maybe something that's more mature.
Overall, I'lll give this 3.5 out of 5.
A heartwarming read that's going to make you emotional and on the verge of tears as you reach towards the end of the book.
I stumbled upon this book on Libby, labelled under the cozy reads section. It's about an old guy who has recently lost his wife and is coming to terms with his life without her presence.
The story revolves around how the protagonist's children take care of him and try to watch over him in this period of grief and mourning. A few days later the old man is visited by a white dog which only he can see. What follows is a rather humourous tale of his family's reaction to it and them being concerned if he's going crazy.
It's a beautiful story with the theme of death and loss of a loved one. I enjoy books which have pet dogs or any other animals in them. The book portrays the beauty of having strong family relationships and the beauty of love.
The end of the book nearly got me to tears. Surely worth reading!
Ever read one of those books that make you wonder about your life and how you're living it? Well, this book manages to do that.
The story is about an old guy who upon receiving a letter from an old friend who's dying of Cancer, heads out to post a letter back to her but instead decides that he'll go and meet her. He abandons everything and just sets off on foot, walking nearly 700 miles, for 88 days straight to meet her one final time to wish her a proper goodbye.
The book is a journey into Harold Fry's life, while he takes this unlikely journey to meet his friend. The book reflects on many themes like relationships, friendships, parenting, life, love and loss.
The book is like Vodka. A bit slow paced in the beginning but halfway through you get pulled into Harold's walk and then out of nowhere the ending hits you like a brick. It's emotionally intense and bound to make you feel things. Especially if you have lost a loved one. Surely worth a read.
Well, this book took me by surprise. Going in, I didn't have a lot of expectations from it but I liked its premise. By the time I finished the book, I was hooked to it. Especially the last few chapters of the book were really good!
Based in town of Ballina, in Mayo, Ireland, the story revolves around a few characters and how their lives get intertwined. The story has everything, right from dealing drugs to kidnapping and robbery. The best part is that it doesn't feel exaggerated or unrealistic. The writing takes getting used to and it takes time to understand some of the local slangs. But Colin Barrett has done a very good job with narration and storytelling. That makes this book worth reading.
Wild Houses is indeed a wild novel and is bound to leave you pondering. A farily quick and short read. The Irish in me enjoyed reading this one!
This is the second book from Claire Keegan that I have read and I'm in awe with her writing style! Her writing evokes a strong sense of belonging and makes you live in the shoes of the characters. A fairly quick read but it packs a punch.
The story's based around Magdalene Laundries in Ireland and how the young girls and women were subject to exploitation by the Roman Catholic church. The story follows a protagonist who's a family man and finds himself in a quandary when he stumbles across one of the girls from the convent, who's being exploited. What follows is the moral dilemma the protagonist undergoes on whether to save this girl or to turn a blind eye and continue living his own life with his wife and five daughters.
Keegan's writing is powerful and thought provoking. It is bound to grip you in through its descriptive storytelling and narration. A masterpiece of literary fiction! 5 out of 5 for this one!
This is one short and sweet read! It has three chapters which consist of three beautiful stories. Each story will make you empathize with the characters and grip you in their little tale and the lives that they lived.
The premise of the book is that there's a photo studio, which acts sort of like a pit stop where people arrive after their death. The narrator of the book is the guy who runs this photo studio. Every time someone arrives there, carried by Yama, they have to choose a picture for every year of their life that they have lived and then these pictures are shown to them before they move on towards the afterlife.
The book explores the idea of death, afterlife and visiting the past through time travel. I think Japanese writers have mastered the art of magical realism! Sanaka Hiiragi has woven a magic of her own with this book and the stories within.
Definitely worth reading if you like books like What You're Looking For Is In The Library or Before the Coffee Gets Cold.
A tragically heartwarming read which is bound to make you feel all those strong emotions and bring out a lump in your throat!
John Boyne has written a brilliant story that spans nearly a century. Starting off in Dublin of 1945 and ending in Dublin of 2015, this is one beautiful tale of love, friendship and societal stigmas. It also explores Dublin, Amsterdam and New York during this period.
The book's protagonist narrates his story of growing up homosexual in an adoptive family. The story took me through streets of Dublin which made it even more fun to read as I'm living and have walked along these streets. The book sheds light on human emotions and what it means to be human and to accept oneself and others, with your whole heart, in a society that's trying its best to trap you into its ambiguity and depravity.
One strong character that stood out for me is Catherine Goggin, the mother of the narrator. I was hooked throughout the whole story and the end was satisfying indeed!
Surely worth reading! John Boyne writes is a great storyteller and I would love to explore his other works!
I remember Stephen King referring to this book as his breakthrough book which established him as a writer in his memoir;On Writing. That's when I decided I need to give it a read. It's a masterpiece!
A hotshot writer gets trapped in a psychotic woman's bedroom, who claims to be his "number one fan in the world". What follows on is a story of Annie Wilkis making the writer write for her and his failed attempts to escape the wrath of this woman's descent into psychotic madness. Initially when I read the premise, I had my doubts over the limited setting of the story. But King has managed to build out this book beautifully. It's action packed, thrilling and an absolute page turner!
Another one of King's novel which I have to give 5 out of 5.
This book is a beautiful magical experience! A web of stories within a main story; it grips you in right from the first paragraph. Magical realism at its finest!
The story is about a boy who stumbles upon a book which happens to be the only copy of that book and then gets pulled into its writer's life, who has now mysteriously disappeared and all his books are being burned out of existence by someone. Amidst the gothic architecture of Barcelona, the tale unfurls slowly and blooms into a majestic tree, where the characters branch out into enchanting stories of their own.
Reading Zafon reminded me somewhat of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. I absolutely loved the writing and how everything is eventually tied together in the end.
Probably one of the best mystery novels I have read! Would love to explore the other books in this series.
This book was one magnificent journey! Daniel Keyes has created a masterpiece with Flowers for Algernon. The basic story is about a mentally challenged guy undergoing some sort of surgery that is intended to make him into a genius. What follows is a remarkable metamorphosis of the protagonist, his life and the people in his life.
It highlights how our society often times gives too much importance to intelligence and how it affects the less fortunate, in that sense. The book also explores the idea of healing from past and childhood traumas.
It is a moral lesson into humanity. The thing this book taught me was how intelligence without human affection and kindness is worthless.
The story is heartbreaking and makes you feel all the emotions the protagonist undergoes. A must read! Especially in current times where the world is on the brink of an AI revolution. This book should act as a reminder of what eventually makes us a good human being.
This one's very inspiring! Marie Curie is one iconic personality who'll always be remembered for paving the way for women in science. Her curiosity and love for knowledge and science, is empowering to all women out there. A feminist in the most unabashed sense, her life will continue to motivate everyone in the world of science and technology.
I enjoyed reading about her life and all the women whom she taught; who later on contributed generously to the furthering of science and humanity.
Surely worth reading!
Absolutely loved reading this! Stephen King here has managed to caputure the whole essence of what writing means in the most honest sense.
It's an insightful read for every aspiring writer out there. From the basics to the most advanced concepts, King narrates how he views and practises writing. The book also delves into his personal life, like an autobiography and illumines the parts that made him into a writer.
This is King's story with “writing” as the main character. The master storyteller breaks down the art and craft of writing for us, in the most simple yet profound manner.
I would recommend this as a must-read book for every writer out there! It's golden advice and guidance straight from the horse's mouth!
What this book did for me is to make me motivated to pick up my laptop and get back to the blank page again & start writing.
I have always wanted to read Greek mythology as I had heard quite a few standalone stories which have fascinated me. But given the vastness of it, it always felt overwhelming to get started.
From Kronos eating his own babies to Midas turning his wife and daughter into gold statues! Every story has its own taste and charm. Stephen Fry has done a brilliant job at wonderfully compiling these stories, sprinkling his own humor and wit along the way.
If you're like me who has always wanted to delve into Greek mythology but didn't know where to start, this is the book that you need to pick up.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and was transported into the world of Greek gods and demi gods who often teach us a lot about ourselves and our mortal world, through these beautifully tragic (mostly) and interesting tales.
I look forward to exploring other works as well in this series.
I picked this one after hearing about it on a Financial Times podcast. Being a data science professional, it piqued my interest and I wanted to read it.
It's a very interesting book about the impact of Bayes theorem in our lives and its presence in our world. Through this book, Chivers has tried to shed light on its omnipresence in our day to day lives and how we are unintentionally acting as a Bayesian system when making decisions in our lives. Right from the smallest of small decisions to big life decisions.
It's very informative and for someone who's never heard of Bayes or probabilities and their role in our life, this book is a go-to book that I'd recommend. Some of the terminology would be a bit difficult to grasp for people who're unfamiliar with statistical terms like precision, specificity etc. But overall, the writer has done a good job at explaining every concept or idea in a simple and straightforward manner.
Personally, I loved the chapters titled Bayesian Science and The Bayesian Brain. Some very fascinating ideas were discussed in those chapters about how our prior beliefs shape how we view the world and our actions and decisions. And how Bayes theorem is at the heart of these decisions that we make. What the book did for me was make me further curious about reasoning and consciousness and the science of rational thinking. I have added a couple of books and authors who I'd like to read up on.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book was that I felt it was repetitive and trying to show how Bayes theorem is playing a significant role in almost every chapter. But I guess that was the whole point of this book. Additionally, I feel the chapter dedicated to the war between frequentists and bayesians could have been kept short.
I'd surely recommend this to every data professional as well as anyone who wants to understand how probabilities play a vital role in shaping our world and our understanding of it.
Breathtakingly fantastic! This book is one unforgettable journey of survival. Yann Martel has created a masterpiece here.
A teenage boy and a royal bengal tiger stuck in a lifeboat for 227 days. What follows is a story of survival, as their boat drifts off across the vast expanse of the Pacific ocean. The story will make you experience all kinds of emotions and feel them all through its beautiful prose and narration.
I finished it in less than 10 hours and it's one of the best books I have read. Probably the best I read this year. Would love to end the year with it. A must read book that I would recommend that everyone give it a try. If you're looking for a book to shake your soul with some hardcore motivation, this is it.
I had placed a library hold on this for several weeks till I finally got my hands on this book. The moment I started this book, I felt discomfort reading it. The characters are not likable or maybe I didn't understand them well. Whatever it was, the fact that this book won the Nobel prize for literature is very surprising to me.
The story is about the main character who wakes up one day from a dream and decides to become a vegetarian. What follows is a surreal story of the character's descent into madness. Where she tries to starve herself to death and soaks in the sun by undressing herself, as if she wants to undergo photosynthesis. The other characters too are very complex and difficult to follow. Their actions and motives are unclear.
The only thing I liked about this book is the writing style and the author's unusual way of narration. I'd have given it 2.25 stars but that extra half star is for effortless writing.
This book will make you feel unpleasant things and if you're looking for something existential to shake up your soul, I'd suggest going for it. If not, avoid reading this altogether.
I have had my share of bleak existential fiction books from Sartre to Kafka and Nietzsche to Camus. But I feel I'm past that phase now to find the idea of death as something fascinating. Will I pick up any other books by Han Kang? Not likely though. Not in the near future.
Raw and unflinchingly bleak. This is my first Kevin Barry book and it took me a while to get used to his style of writing. After a couple of chapters in, at one point I even considered quitting it. But I'm glad I stuck around for the sake of the story and the fate of its characters.
It's a tragic tale of love and death. Filled with a narration that feels surreal and fascinating.
I didn't like how this book ended but I'd surely recommend it to people who are looking for an old time short and tragic love story.
A very wholesome read. It's one of those books that you need to pick up when you're looking for some kind of inspiration in your life or maybe just something to read when you don't know what to read or what to do next in your life.
A collection of beautifully interlinked stories where the characters are woven together with one thing; books. A must read of people who love reading and the joy of books. And how a visit to your local library can change your life. It shows how words have the power of transforming you and bringing in magic into the everyday life.
I'd recommend it to everyone! One of the best I've read this year. Michiko Aoyama has created a masterpiece with this one.
I borrowed this one up from Libby and read it on my Kindle. Actually I wanted to read The Secret History but it wasn't available at that time and this one was, so went ahead with it. Took me 3 weeks to finish it. It's quite a long read but the writing is very engaging and the prose is beautiful.
The storyline seems a bit slow paced but it draws you in at the right times, wherever needed. It's bleak most of the times and the primary characters are unlikeable with their drug addiction and misery. But if you like reading books that have a rich narrative based around art with existential philosophy as the underlying theme, go ahead with it. I could find similarities between this book and Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Well, if you liked that one, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch might amuse you as well.
This is my 4th Backman novel. I'd say it's a good short read about eight year old Elsa and her Granny. Sort of like a children's book which even adults can enjoy and learn something good out of it. The characters are unique and each has their own peculiarities. My personal favourite was Wurse here.
Towards the end the book concludes with each character getting a satisfying closure. Good to cosy up and read this one as a Christmas tale with a good ending!
When I started it, I didn't expect much and thought about it as just another book about rabbits. Sort of like Orwell's Animal Farm. But as I went on reading, I got pulled right into the wonderful world of these rabbits! Bigwig, Hazel, Fiver, Dandelion, Kehaar, General Woundwort! Every character was beautifully written. One of the best books I have read in a while.
Richard Adams has created a masterpiece here. And as I go to bed tonight, I fondly remember Shiroo, my beloved pet rabbit who is right up there in heaven, watching over and blessing us with love! Would surely recommend this one for everyone to read.
Picked up the audiobook as I wanted to read Didion's works for a while now. It's a good memoir of her difficult time when she lost her husband and her daughter was in an induced coma. I respect her telling the story but I guess I kind of expected more depth. It felt very repetitive at times and the medical jargon and terminologies could have been less.
Towards the end chapters, the book managed to get better and focus more on her feelings and emotions during this period of grief but it was too late till then to strike a chord with the reader in me.
Maybe I'll pick up some of her other works.