Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Yuval Noah Harari GENRE: Nonfiction. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 2015. RATING: 2 stars. Outlier Review Alert! I don't what is it about Harari's books that always inspire food metaphors in me. With Sapiens, it was masala chai vs. coffee . This time, it is an Eid special, as this review is coming to you on Eid! Wanna know more? Read on! Imagine being served a scrumptious biryani. Everything smells great and looks great. But when you start eating it, you realise that the meat (sorry, vegetarians!) isn't upto the mark and has been left raw in some places. No matter how flavourful the rest of the biryani is, the meat has spoiled its entire taste. To me, that is Homo Deus in a nutshell. Homo Deus literally means "Man God", man trying to be God. Part 1 of the book talks about man dominating animals in order to emerge as a superior species. In Part 3, Harari dexterously covers humankind's attempts to govern the world with their technological advancements. But...

AUTHOR: Shubha Mudgal GENRE: Short Story Collection. PUBLICATION DATE: July 10, 2019. RATING: 4.5 stars. No music lover would be unaware of Shubha Mudgal and her rich voice and impassioned singing. This same richness and passion is visible in her debut book, an anthology of stories from the Indian music world. Each of the 7 stories in the book is written with brilliance. They are heartwarming and heartbreaking. The stories aren't set in the typical metropolises but in the heartland of Indian music. But what got my attention even more was the language. The words used are so conversational, and where needed, local languages such as Hindi or Marathi are used. This lends to the stories a greater realism. You don't feel like you're watching a movie with bombastic dialogues, but as if you are an onlooker to something unfolding in real life, in front of your eyes. To put it differently, this is the India viewed from the eyes of 1980s Doordarshan rather than 2010s Star Plus. The tr...

AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman GENRE: Dark Fantasy. PUBLICATION DATE: June 18, 2013 RATING: 4.25 stars. I am a very visual reader. Whatever I read translates itself into crystal-clear pictures in my vivid imagination. ( That's why I can't read horror. Rather than getting an adrenaline rush, I end up scaring myself! 🙈) This habit of mine gets tested when I read fantasy. To picture dragons and unicorns and horrifying creatures and alien beings and scary ghouls and strange Gods does challenge the limits of the imagination. Yet I inevitably succeed in my endeavour and relish these out-of-the-world images even more. For the first time ever though, my imagination has failed me. And all this is courtesy one man: a man whose creativity never ceases to amaze me. From the door leading into the unknown in Coraline to the graveyard full of varied types of ghosts in The Graveyard Book, this man can go where no other author can take you. The book that caused my imagination to struggle is his masterful...

AUTHOR: Babu Devakinandan Khatri TRANSLATOR: Rohini Chowdhury SERIES: Chandrakanta Santati #1 GENRE: Indian Fantasy PUBLICATION DATE: 1888! RATING: 2 stars. The book is full of twists and turns. It would have been a great success in the Race film series if it could be transferred to the modern timeline. Interesting story, a bit dated of course because of the period it was written in. The first book I've ever read where the hero faints pining for his beloved. So I'd put this adaptation as a one-time read.  I have no doubt that the original Hindi version would be a much better read. Somewhere, it did feel like things were lost in translation. But the aiyyaars and their aiyyari, wow!

AUTHOR: Jane Austen GENRE: Classic. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1793 RATING: 3 stars. It is totally unlike any other Austen work. Not just by the writing style (she was just a teen after all!) but by content too! Never expected Austen to be so naughty in her teens. There's a hint of mischief throughout the 50 odd pages. Austen-lovers, you might want to check it out. Not recommended to anyone else.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: Rebel Girls GENRE: Children's Nonfiction, Biographies. PUBLICATION DATE: November 20, 2017 RATING: 4.75 stars. Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls is one of these modern marvels that is a must-read for every girl child aged 5 and above (it can be read to younger children too). This book has been a trendsetter and has spawned so many other books using the same premise: Stories for Boys who Dare to be Different, Like a Girl, Women in Science/Sports, The Good Guys, She Can You Can, Fantastically great women who made history, Fantastically great women who changed the world,..... The list is endless! These books give me hope for a better tomorrow, a tomorrow where your gender doesn't define you, nor does it restrict you. If there's only one book that you can gift your children, let it be one of these.

AUTHOR: Andrea Warren GENRE: Historical Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: March 1, 2001 RATING: 4.5 stars. A factual biography based on the life of teenaged concentration camp survivor, Jack Mandelbaum. Jack, who was 14 when WW-II began, narrates his struggles about life in the camps, and later, to locate his family. This is supposed to be a recommended read for children. I read this little 140 page book last night and was blown away by the narrative. This is exactly what I would expect of a biographical book. Only facts, no masala.  Andrea Warren narrates Mandelbaum's life in such a well-penned manner that you can't help but turn the pages to find out what happens next. Jack's line, "This is a place of endless sorrow. Think only of yourself and those closest to you. If you allow yourself to feel emotion, you will die quickly", shows his determination to come out of the concentration camp alive, all the time motivated by the thought of seeing his family. He admits that t...

AUTHOR: Tayari Jones GENRE: Contemporary Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: January 29, 2018. RATING: 3.75 stars. Celestial and Roy are married just for little more than a year when Roy is imprisoned for a rape he didn't commit. What impact would this have on their young marriage? When I read the blurb, I thought the book might contain who actually committed the crime, Roy's name being cleared, the judicial process, and other such factors that are common in crime books. But the book stays true to its purpose. The entire focus is on the marriage of Roy and Celestial.  The story is told from three perspectives, the two people above and Andre, Celestial's childhood friend.  The book was absolutely fabulous till about 75%, when it suddenly turns into a cliche. The ending redeems it somewhat but not much.  Go for it if you don't mind the Bollywoodish end.

AUTHOR: Pearl S. Buck GENRE: Historical Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 1946 RATING: 3.75 stars. Madame Wu takes an unheard-of decision on her fortieth birthday. She decides to withdraw from her "marital duty" [sic] and ask her husband to take a concubine to satisfy his physical needs. On top of that, she decides to search for the suitable concubine herself, because she feels she knows her husband best. This happens in chapter one. What happens as a result of this decision comprises the rest of the 466 page book. If you can forgive the excessive religious ideas (Pearl S Buck's father was a missionary, and that shows in her writing), then the book is definitely worth your time.  Madame Wu is a character who will stay with you. The other female characters are quite intriguing too, each facing their own demons and dealing with them in different ways.  The book is fantastic almost entirely. Unfortunately, it falls flat towards the end (say, the last 70 or so pages.) I j...

AUTHOR: Lisa Ray GENRE: Memoir PUBLICATION DATE: August 1, 2014. RATING: 3.5 stars. Lisa Ray recounts her life starting from her Indo-Polish background in Canada, her modelling and acting career, her various romances, her tryst with religion and her struggle with cancer. I had picked this up because it had received fabulous reviews in another readers' group. And it does deliver to a certain extent.  Rather than a bimbo talking about her name and fame, Lisa Ray comes across as a girl who stumbled into her reputation and didn't quite understand how to handle it. She seems quite honest about everything, including her lifelong struggle with bulimia, her domestic abuse at the hands of an ex, her use of relationships as a crutch to escape troubles...  What I didn't like was the excessive philosophy in certain chapters. This might be an outcome of her disease but the latter chapters especially go on and on about religious beliefs and the soul, which would be quite ok for some rea...

AUTHOR: Marjane Satrapi GENRE: Graphic Novel. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 2003 RATING: 4.5 stars. A group of ladies has gathered for an afternoon tea. The conversation slowly turns to their married lives, and sex, and love, and the common factor across these three points: men. Hilarious and hard-hitting at the same time, Embroideries will make you feel like you are sitting with your lady friends and gossiping away.  Do note, the embroideries in the title doesn't refer to the usual meaning of the word. So don't go looking for pattern ideas in the book. 😜 Not recommended to men.😁😁

AUTHOR: Albert Camus TRANSLATOR: Matthew Ward GENRE: Absurdist Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: May 19, 1942. RATING: 4 stars. The English version of Camus's well-reviewed French book, L'etranger. An ordinary man is drawn into a increasingly absurd spiral of events, some beyond his control. Raises questions on what can man do when he is confronted with things that seem senseless. My very first philosophy based book. But no regrets reading this at all. Right from the first line, you are sucked into the vortex created by the book in your brain. You read and you question and you read and you question...  A superb experience. I'm glad I didn't read this as part of any course because I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much.

AUTHOR: Teresa Driscoll GENRE: Psychological Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: March 22, 2018. RATING: 2 stars. Sophie thought she could trust her new friend, Emma. Both bond over common interests plus they have sons of the same age. However, with time, some cracks appear in Emma's carefully constructed image. The story is narrated parallelly in two timelines. That is the only plus point of the book. The story just drags, and plot twists can be seen a mile before they occur. You soon begin to see what takes Sophie a whole book to discover.  In short, it's not a psychological thriller, just a psychological torture.

AUTHOR: Anukrti Upadhyay GENRE: Indian Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 2019. RATING: 4.5 stars. Bhaunri: A Novel is set in rural India.  Bhaunri, the eponymous lead, though uneducated, strives to live life in her own terms as far as she can within the male dominated and casteist society. When confronted with a situation that doesn't suit her temperament, she too cracks mentally, but in a very different way.  I would rate the book a 4.75 out of 5. Definitely worth reading if you are seeking a book with strong women characters living life in a society that places men on a pedestal, whether they deserve it or not.