Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Peter Wohlleben GENRE: Nature Nonfiction. RATING: 4.25 stars. As humans, in no other year has it been more important than in 2020 to look at the impact of our actions on the environment. It is easy to blame a virus for bringing the world to a standstill, but if we think about it, we humans have been the biggest parasites for Mother Nature, sucking everything out of her like a leech and then complaining if she hits us back with cyclones or forest fires. Let us all be more conscious of our actions now onwards. After all, Earth doesn't need us, but we need Earth. So we need to be more environmentally aware and environmentally responsible. Else, we'll soon join the league of extinct creatures. Let's today vow to leave a better planet for our children. Every step counts! Every human action matters! One of the most ignored aspects in terms of environment are trees. In Mumbai, every year, people complain that trees fall during the monsoon and there is a big hue and cry ov...

AUTHOR: Ruth Hogan GENRE: Magical Realism PUBLICATION DATE: February 21, 2017 RATING: 4.25 stars. On some days, you don't want an adrenaline-increasing book, but just something mellowing and calming, not something full of action-packed adventures but something full of bittersweet moments, something that won't cause you to bite your nails in anticipation but that would tug at your heartstrings.... That is a day you ought to pick up "The Keeper of Lost Things" by Ruth Hogan. The book narrates two stories across two different time frames. The first story playing out in the present time frame tells of Anthony Peardew, an ex-writer, who is the eponymous "keeper of lost things". After having lost something precious, he begins collecting lost things and meticulously maintains a record of how and where he came by them. Laura, his housekeeper and friend, needs to take over this task after a change in certain circumstances. The second storyline spans a time of forty y...

AUTHOR: Michael Morpurgo GENRE: Middle-Grade Adventure. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1999. RATING: 4.25 stars. In school, we used to have a special period once a week called "Rapid Reading", where we used to read aloud all those abridged S.Chand classic editions. This RR period probably sowed the first seeds of a strong love for the classics in my heart. Two such books I was mesmerized by were "The Coral Island" by RM Ballantyne and "Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann Wyss. The common thread between these two books was that of humans being stranded on an island after a shipwreck. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, arguably the most famous book in this genre, wasn't a part of the school RR syllabus but my Dad convinced me to borrow it from the library and give it a go. It seemed darker and more dangerous than the first two books ( probably because I was reading the unabridged version ) but I still enjoyed it. After all these years, I have finally found a book t...

AUTHOR: L.M. Montgomery SERIES: Anne of Green Gables #5 GENRE: Historical Fiction, Classic. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1917 RATING: 4.5 stars. Book number 5 of the Anne of Green Gables series is finally done, and I am as happy & satisfied as I was after reading the first Anne book. After the boring third book and the disastrous fourth book , I had almost given up on this series. Today, after completing Anne's House of Dreams, I'm glad my romantic curiosity got the better of my logical side. After the unnecessary story stretch and boring characters of the previous two books, we finally have the story moving ahead clearly and beautifully. Gilbert is a doctor now. Anne and Gilbert are wed, and they move into their own "house of dreams" in a distant village to begin their new life together. The writing is crisp and picturesque right from the first page. Though it is still descriptive, it does not overdo it. The new characters introduced are so interesting that you ...

AUTHOR: L.M. Montgomery SERIES: Anne of Green Gables, #4 GENRE: Historical Fiction, Classic. PUBLICATION DATE: June 28, 1936 RATING: 1 star. Book 4, Anne of Windy Poplars, mostly contains massive missives sent by Anne to her fiance Gilbert who is away at medical school.  So far, and by far, the most boring book of the series. It is an epistolary novel, but the letters by Anne just seen to drag on and on and on with totally useless trivia about the locals in the new place where she is working as a school Principal.  I discovered later that though this is the fourth book in terms of series chronology, it was actually written seventh! I wish LM Montgomery hadn't written this at all. I was almost on the verge of quitting the series after this disaster of a book. Only the curiosity of seeing Gilbert and Anne together made me continue.

AUTHOR: Emma Donoghue GENRE: Contemporary Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: August 20, 2010. RATING: 3.5 stars. My husband wanted to watch this movie and I wanted to complete the book before going for the movie. Hence taking a tiny break from my Anne of Green Gables series, I picked up Room with high hopes. Now that I'm done with it however, I'm left with very mixed emotions. Room is the story of a five year old boy and his mother, who had been kidnapped by a perverted sadist seven years prior and locked up in a "Room". The boy is an unfortunate outcome of the nightly rapes, and yet, he becomes the beacon of hope and means of escape for his mother. Their lives in their locked Room and after their escape, their attempt to settle in the "Outside" forms the crux of the story. The story of Room brought to mind the Fritzl case of Austria, where a perverted father kept his own daughter captive for an unbelievable 24 years. I remember being horrified at that cruel realit...