Rosh's Reviews

Author: Beetashok Chatterjee Genre: Anthology Rating: 3.75 stars. The People Tree (the name being an interesting wordplay on the ‘peepal” tree) is a collection of 14 stories on a variety of themes. The central point of these stories is, obviously, people. Relationships, emotions, connections, frailties… The set explores every aspect of “being human”. (No, Salman Khan hasn’t sponsored this promo. 😛) Other than the ‘people’ factor, there is nothing in common to the stories. They span a range of places (Mumbai, Bangalore, New York, London,…), a variety of topics (1980s insurgency in Punjab, WWII, first loves, 9/11 attacks, rebelling against parents,…), and an array of protagonists (lovers, soldiers, hitmen, students, office employees,…) Some tales are quite casual episodes from regular life while some others are more esoteric in their scope. Many stories will allow you to guess the direction they are going in, but the writing style will still keep you reading. Some other stories aren’t s

AUTHOR: Delia Owens GENRE: Historical Mystery. RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: This went better than I had expected, because I had zero expectations. 😉 I loved some parts, but found some other parts preposterous. So mixed feelings overall, being just a little bit tilted towards the positive side. Whether and how much you enjoy this book will strictly depend on what you focus upon while reading it. Story: The book has two distinct timelines that merge towards the end. 1969. The body of a popular local young man named Chase Andrews is discovered in the swamp. There seem to be no obvious clues about how he died, but the Sherriff and his assistant suspect murder. The only suspect is a young girl Kya Clark, who stay in the marsh, isolated from “civilised” society. This timeline focusses on the investigation. The other timeline begins from 1952 and works its way towards 1969 and beyond. This timeline shows the background of Kya, beginning from when she was six years old. Abandoned by eve

AUTHOR: Chris Naylor-Ballesteros GENRE: Children's Picture Book RATING: 5 Stars! Remember reading a book in your childhood with a big grin on your face throughout? Ever had an experience where the grin starts off as a smile and goes on increasing in size until you are actually laughing out loud by the last page? Here’s a book that will do exactly that, and much more! These two are best friends and love playing hide and seek. Or maybe I should say, Bert loves to hide and Frank loves to seek. Unfortunately Bert isn’t very good at hiding and Frank inevitably finds him. When Bert finally laments about how he might have a better chance if Frank counted till a hundred instead of till ten, Frank, being a good sport, agrees. Does Bert manage to find the perfect hiding spot? There are children’s books with morals, and there are books that are for entertainment. This book falls in both the categories. The idea of friendship vs. competitiveness is nicely brought out in the story. Frank’s coun

AUTHOR: Terri Tatchell ILLUSTRATOR: Ivan Sulima SERIES: Endangered and Misunderstood Animals, #1 GENRE: Children's Picture Book RATING: 4.25 stars. After I chanced upon the third book of the “Endangered and Misunderstood Animals” series—a book named Okapi Loves His Zebra Pants , I was so impressed that I immediately searched for the other two books. Luckily, both of them are on KU and this made my pocket happier. This is the first book of the series. (The second book was Adventures of a Pangopup .) Aye-aye the lemur is a happy soul who delights in playing pranks on the people of the nearby village. The result is that he gets banned from entering the village. As a result, he is heartbroken. Luckily for him, he meets a new friend, a flying fox, who shows him the error of his ways. Aye-aye learns that pranks can’t be fun if they result in fun only for him and trouble for the others. He understands with the help of his new friend that being kind and helpful is a much better way to be,

AUTHOR: Terri Tatchell ILLUSTRATOR: Ivan Sulima SERIES: Endangered and Misunderstood Animals, #2 GENRE: Children's Picture Book RATING: 4.5 stars. After I chanced upon the third book of the “Endangered and Misunderstood Animals” series—a book named Okapi Loves His Zebra Pants , I was so impressed that I immediately searched for the other two books. Luckily, both of them are on KU and this made my pocket happier. This is the second book of the series. And it is just as cute as the third one. Pangopup, a little pangolin, is fed up of being at home. His mother doesn’t allow him outside as there are many dangers and he is very small. One day, tired of his boring house, he sneaks out of the house while his mother his asleep. He discovers a beautiful world full of a variety of creatures. He has a fun time playing with them and even makes a new friend, a dik-dik deer, who introduces him to more adventures. Pangopup is quite confident now that his mother was wrong and that he can take care

AUTHOR: Terri Tatchell ILLUSTRATOR: Ivan Sulima SERIES: Endangered and Misunderstood Animals, #3 GENRE: Children's Picture Book RATING: 4.75 stars. What a gorgeous book this is! It delivers highly on story and moral and illustrations. Okapi adores his lovely striped legs. But when a naughty chimp teases him for having stolen “zebra pants”, he starts questioning his unique legs. As he hasn’t ever seen a zebra, he decides to go across the jungle to locate a zebra. Accompanying him on this journey is his best friend, an African Grey parrot. They meet a huge variety of animals such as gorillas, lions, elephants, hippos and so on. And finally, Okapi spots a whole zebra herd and discovers, to his surprise, that they are entirely striped, unlike him. This is a beautiful book about self-acceptance and friendship. There is also a segment where the parrot teaches the chimp how we shouldn’t be mean to others about looks. The content is written in rhythmic prose that works wonderfully without

AUTHOR: Kari Allen ILLUSTRATOR: Tatjana Mai-Wyss SERIES: Maddie and Mabel, #1 GENRE: Children's Fiction, Chapter Book. RATING: 4.5 stars. A sweet little story that shows the beauty of sibling relationships. Maddie and Mabel are sisters. Maddie is the elder one; she’s the planner who wants to handle everything. Mabel is the younger one; she wants to contribute more in their fun. Together, they learn the value of having a sibling and discovers the joys of sharing, of having a partner to play, and of adjusting to each other’s wishes. The sisters’ antics are assembled into five stories, each with a specific theme. Not every tale is moralising. Some of the tales are simply funny! I enjoyed all the little nuggets. The adventures of the children are quite relatable, so children are bound to enjoy this little gem. This book is written in easy-to-understand vocabulary and each story has a lot of repetitive sentences to aid coherence. What’s worth mentioning is that the dialogues are exactl

AUTHOR: Jaimie Admans GENRE: Romantic Comedy RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: If only I had managed to read this in time for Christmas! This was a heartwarming read, albeit with minor writing issues. My quest for a beautiful and magical Christmas story of 2021 finally ended a couple of days into the New Year. Story: Sasha Hansley isn’t a big fan of Christmas, though she loved it as a child. After her mother passed away, her dad left her in the care of her strict maternal grandma. As such, Christmas memories became dull rather than magical. But now, after all these years, Sasha has received a phone call from her dad all the way from Norway, asking her to come urgently to help him out at his Christmas-themed holiday village as the doctor has told him to slow down after a heart attack. Homebody Sasha, who hasn’t ever left the UK and hates travelling, has no choice but to leave for Norway, where she works along with her father’s right hand man, Taavi Salvesan, to get the holiday village up