Rosh's Reviews

Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde Genre: Middle-grade Fiction Rating: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: I kept swivelling across 4 and 4.25 and 4.5 for this book. The ending made sure it was a 4.5. Loveable characters, beautiful story, soothing writing. Story: Eleven year old Stewart Little (Like the mouse, but not like the mouse) has never known his parents. He lives on the farm with his elder sister Stacey (a nurse in training) and his elder brother Theo (student, suffers from cerebral palsy). Stewie spends his free time taking care of his late grandma’s hens and selling their “fresh eggs” at a premium price in his village. Marilyn is a crotchety old lady living at the far end of the village. She has a secret and to keep it, she maintains a firm distance from everyone. When the paths of those two individuals intersect, Stewie sees in Marilyn a version of his beloved grandmother and he is determined to win her over. Marilyn is equally determined not to connect with this boy who doesn’t seem to leav...

Author: Ada Rossi Genre: Literary Fiction. Rating: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: "April is the best time of the year to dig a grave." - When this is the first sentence of the book, you know you are in for a treat. The book is weird in many ways but I loved it! Don't know what this says about me! 😂😂 Story: In April 1972, Maureen Thompson’s husband Frank died. She buries him on her allotment and pretends that he ran away, leaving her alone with her ten year old twin daughters, Lucy and Carol. Why did Maureen do this? How did she cope with the aftermath of her decision? Why is she suddenly revealing her secrets now? You have got to read the book to find the answers to these questions. The story is written in the first person pov of Maureen, addressed in second person to some mysterious "my dear", whose identity is revealed towards the final quarter of the book. This has got to be the shortest story synopsis I have ever written for a full-fledged novel. And yet, it is...

Author: Aditi Wardhan Singh Genre: Anthology Rating: 2.5 stars. Some decent stories in this anthology but the book requires a LOT of editing and will have a very restricted appeal. This is a collection of 30 stories, the length of these being quite varied right from 2-3 pages to almost of novelette size. Some are quite intelligently written, beginning one way but soon showing you a different direction. But the length works against the story a few times as it is over even before it has begun. This tale then feels like a small abrupt narration than a well-developed and well-structured tale. The stories are quite sweet and in many cases, they seem to be written with one clear agenda in mind – to spread moralising knowledge (or ‘gyaan’ as we Indians call it) on some topic (the topic depending on the theme of the story.) Most of the stories move in the form of incidents in the characters’ lives, wherein they face a major/minor problem, and either sort it out by themselves or though some oth...

Author: Srivalli Rekha Genre: Poetry Rating: 4 stars. I have had this book on my agenda for a long time. But books are meant to come in our lives at the right time. And this was the right time for me to take some “violets in hand”.Srivalli’s first book, ‘Violets in Hand’ is a collection of 50 poems that she wrote either for online competitions or for her own creative fulfilment. What makes this different is that she doesn’t just put across one poem after another. For each poem, she adds a note detailing some information such as the poetic prompt wherever applicable, her thought process while writing the poem, some information about the poetic style, and a question to the reader related to the poem. These notes made a big difference to my experience. On the whole, the poems were more complex than my meagre poetic capacities are capable of understanding. By "complex", I don’t mean verbose or metaphorical. On the contrary, the words are simple and the thoughts clear. But these f...

Author: Priscilla Morris Genre: Historical Fiction. Rating: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An enlightening and traumatising fictional account of a war I wasn’t much aware of – the Bosnian war of the early 1990s. Well-researched, well-written, bitter-sweet. Story: 1992, Sarajevo. Zora is a 55 year old artist who teaches art at college and loves to paint bridges and nature scenes in her spare time. She stays with her 70 year old husband and also has her 83 year mother staying nearby. When the war begins, Zora’s family doesn’t believe that it would go on for long. But when the law and order situation degrades after some ethnic groups tussle over their rights, Zora’s husband plans to take his sick mother-in-law to the UK where his daughter lives with her family. However, the transport lines are closed soon after his departure and Zora find herself stuck all alone in a war-torn city, with hardly any resources, very few trustworthy neighbours, and no hope of escape. The story is narrated in the t...

Author: Stevie Rae Causey Genre: Retelling Rating: 3 stars. An interesting take on the classic fairy tale. I don’t want to reveal much about the story because this is a novelette, just 37 pages long. So anything I reveal will take away the fun of discovery. So just know: 😍 It isn’t a typical retelling. 😍 There’s no romance. 😍 There’s a magical library. 😍 Belle is a motorcycle-riding book editor! Beast is a…. well, he is not what you think he would be. 😍 There are many odes paid to the original story. For instance, Belle’s motorcycle’s name is ‘Rose’! 😍 The story is a testimony to the power of books and of the written word. 😍 It is decently gripping, especially in the latter half. BUT… 😑 There are a lot of inner monologues, despite the fact that it isn’t in first person and that it is just a novelette. 😑 Belle’s background isn’t elaborated upon at all. In a novelette, there's a limited amount of space for back stories but if a point related to the character’s past is raised...

AUTHOR: Christiane Dorion ILLUSTRATOR: Yeji Yun GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: May 3, 2022 RATING: 4.25 stars. An excellent illustrated book for the 7-12 years age group who wants to see the extent of the ingenuity present in nature. The book covers a wide variety of animal and even plants, revealing how each of them has some skills related to architecture, engineering, materials, conservations of resources, and so on. All these skills are much needed by humans and by an educated study of these animal habits and habitats, we can hopefully understand their approach and even incorporate a few in our lifestyle. The range of animals is vast, right from desert animals to underwater creatures to even tiny insects. The book is 80 pages long, and each of these pages (except for a few) contains details on one specific animal/plant and a few of its important habits that we humans could learn. The content is organised into sections such as construction, materials, shapes, an...

AUTHOR: Freida McFadden GENRE: Domestic Thriller SERIES: Housemaid, #1 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A bit farfetched but it still provided me with almost everything I look for in a thriller. Story: Millie has just been hired as the housemaid to rich Nina Winchester. Millie is hiding a secret from Nina in order to get the job as she is desperate. She decides to become the perfect housemaid so that she can earn her way out of her maniacal employer’s clutches. Nina seems to be delusional, even crazy at times. She loves her husband and her daughter Cece but for some reason, can’t stand Millie. Andrew, Nina’s husband, is the perfect guy, too good to be true. He empathises with Millie’s plight but can he go against his own wife? Someone has ended up dead in the prologue of the novel. Is it one of these three? Or was one of them the murderer? What happened in the Winchester household after the new maid was appointed? The story comes to us in the first person perspective of two of the ma...

Author: Gracy Translator: Fathima EV Genre: Short Story Anthology Rating: 2.5 stars. There are some good stories in this collection but most of them weren’t the kind I enjoy. Gracyude Kathakal, who writes as “Gracy”, is supposedly "one of the finest practitioners of the short story in modern Malayalam literature." So it is with a bit of shamefacedness that I admit I had never heard of her. Like many Indian regional writers, she seems to have been restricted to readers of the language she writes in. If I am not wrong, this is the first English translation of her works. Needless to say, I had high hopes, but her writing style and my reading preference were unfortunately on parallel tracks for most of this journey. The 36 stories in this collection range in length from micro-fiction to novelette. The tales come primarily from female protagonists, and are mostly dark. The content is quite provocative, feminist and sexual – none of which are adjectives I would associate with India...

Author: Sibylla Nash Genre: Middle-grade fiction. Rating: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An interesting children’s fairy story but ends on a cliffhanger. Wish I had known this before requesting it because I don't like cliffhangers. 😟 Story: Twelve year old Max (short for Maxine) is the last fairy godmother in her realm. The fairy realm seems to be in some kind of trouble, but no adult fairy is revealing what exactly is the problem except that the number of fairies seems to be dwindling. Max finds out that granting the ‘one true wish’ of a human girl named Amara might be the solution to the problem. So she travels to the human realm. But things here turn out much more dangerous than she had anticipated and she soon finds herself battling not just communication errors with Amara and her cat, but also a grave danger from some mysterious force who is capturing and annihilating fairies. The story is written in the limited third person pov of Max. If I were a child, I would have been mighty ...

Author: Lata Gwalani Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: I think my expectations went awry with this one. I was primarily looking forth to a historical fiction about a woman longing for her homeland, but the road taken by this character to her ‘Abana’ was not the one I had expected. Nevertheless, if you go in with the right expectations, you will probably enjoy this one better than I did. Story: Paari stayed in Sukkur, a small town in the Sindh area of a united India with her family. Despite umpteen personal struggles, she relished her life with her kin and her work as a seamstress. However, the Indo-Pak Partition in 1947 caused chaos, resulting in Paari losing everything and living in deplorable conditions in a refugee camp in Ulhasnagar, on the outskirts of Mumbai. Paari now has just one dream in life – to return to her home. And she is ready to go to any extent to fulfil this dream, even if it means testing the limits of morality and humanity. Will Paari ever f...

Author: Cho Nam-Joo Translator: Jamie Chang Genre: Literary Fiction, Feminism Rating: 4.75 stars. Reread – April 2022 I had loved this book when I first read it two years ago and I was hoping that my experience would be the same this time. Isn’t there always this fear that revisiting an old favourite will create disappointment due to the high expectations? I needn’t have worried at all. My second read of this book provided just the same level of satisfaction and frustration as the first time around. This is the story of 33 year old Kim Jiyoung, a young homemaker and mother of a toddler, who just snaps one fine day in 2015. Her husband describes her as "basically a cheerful person, full of laughter, who made [him] laugh by doing impressions of celebrities." But now, she seems to be channelling the spirit of various women in her life, past and present, and using their personality to voice her deep-set frustrations. The story then goes right back to 1982, and takes us through Ji...

Author: Neha Bansal Genre: Poetry Rating: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: An interesting collection of feminist poems. I can count on one hand the number of poetry collections I have read. I don’t have as much a fondness for poems as I do for prose, nor do I have any poetic bone in my body that allows me to dig deep under the metaphorical layers to find the essence of the lyric. So when Neha approached me saying she wanted me to read her book, my first response to her was “My poetry knowledge is zilch.” She still sent me her book. Thankfully, her poems were of the style that I can read AND understand. The preface begins with the African proverb: “Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.” Right there, I was captivated by what was to come in the book. What a brilliant way to introduce the idea of feminist-oriented poems! To use Neha’s own words, the poems cover “the life of a woman from womb to tomb.” The 39 poems can be broadly classified into two categories. ...

Author: Linda Trinh Illustrator: Clayton Nguyen Series: The Nguyen Kids Genre: Children's Fiction Rating: 4 stars. A sweet little story that tackles the dark topic of racism in a way children will relate to. This is the fist book of the Ngyuen kids series. 9 year old Anne Nguyen is the eldest of three children. Her Grandma Noi has passed away recently and Anne’s family is paying respects to her spirit by putting out food in the family altar every new moon. Grandma Noi has kept certain gifts to be passed on to her grandkids and Anne inherits a pretty jade bangle. Surprisingly, when she wears the bangle, her Grandma’s spirit visits her and demands more authentic Vietnamese food as offerings instead of the Canadian food that Anne’s parents keep. Noi also offers to teach Anne how to cook traditional Vietnamese dishes. A parallel track is of Anne’s experience with a racist teacher in her ballet class. Her words and her attitude affect Anne deeply and she begins wondering where she belon...

Author: Richard P. Feynman Genre: Memoir Rating: 2 stars. Want to read a book that is full of bragging and humblebragging?  Here’s a great option that fits the bill! Reading this was like sitting across a table with an interesting person, only to realise that he finds just one topic interesting: himself. Pompous prig alert! 😬 What Richard Feynman wanted me to learn from this book: 1. Richard Feynman is fabulous at physics. 2. Richard Feynman is fabulous at mathematics. 3. Richard Feynman is fabulous at biology. 4. Richard Feynman is fabulous at picking up girls. (He “loves beautiful girls.”) 5. Richard Feynman is fabulous at unlocking safes. 6. Richard Feynman is fabulous at playing musical instruments, even live on stage. 7. Richard Feynman is fabulous at learning new languages (or at least pretending to.) 8. Richard Feynman is fabulous at coding and decoding ciphers. 9. Richard Feynman is fabulous at dancing. 10. Richard Feynman is fabulous at teaching. 11. Richard Feynman is fa...

Author: Peter Bunzl Illustrator: Lia Visirin Genre: Middle Grade Fiction. Rating: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A really interesting story about how a young girl saves her father from the Russian prison with the help of chess and a ‘clockwork queen’. Story: Sophie Peshka loves chess and has learnt the game in detail from her grandmaster father, Ivan. But now, Ivan is imprisoned in the dungeons of Queen Catherine for a very silly reason. With her mother dead, Sophie is left to survive using her chess skills. When an old friend re-enters her life with a chess-playing automaton named ‘The Clockwork Queen’, Sophie’s life changes and she sees a glimmer of hope to rescue her father. Will Sophie succeed? The story is told in the first person narrative pov of Sophie, who goes from ages 10 to 12 during the narrative. I simply couldn’t keep the book aside. Of course, its being a quick read helped tremendously – it’s hardly 115 pages long. The book has so much going for it. The details of chess are o...

Author: Ankur Chaudhary Genre: Short Story, Horror. Rating: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: I liked the idea but the development and the editing required a lot more work. Story: Ajita, a middle-aged woman has just moved to Mumbai with her husband and her newly-employed son. When she plans to make ’chicken vindaloo’ on a special occasion and goes to borrow the masala from her neighbour, the woman is shocked and warns her to stay away from any non-veg preparation as there is a ghost of an old lady roaming the society and this ghost is known to have an affinity for chicken vindaloo. Ajita doesn’t believe in such fantastical tales and goes on with her culinary agenda. Several paranormal misadventures result and yet Ajita isn’t deterred from cooking her signature dish again and again. How will this all end? Where the book worked for me: 👻 It was quick. Barely 30 pages long. Can be read in just about half an hour or so. 👻 I liked the Mumbai-related titbits, though they didn't really feel neces...

AUTHOR: Carmen Oliver ILLUSTRATOR: Miren Asiain Lora GENRE: Children's Picture Book PUBLICATION DATE: September 6, 2022 RATING: 3 stars. Mixed feelings for this one. I didn’t find it engaging enough. Yays: - Great idea with a librarian who calls out to little critters at night to tell them a story. - The words create a vivid picture in your mind about the natural world and its gentle sights and soothing sounds. - No forced rhyming verses. - Colourful watercolour-style illustrations that would be wonderful on paper. Nays: - There’s no proper story in the book. A major chunk of the plot is reserved for the arrival of the critters in response to the call. It was over before it even began. - The prose is quite descriptive but it doesn’t flow smoothly enough for a bedtime read-aloud. There are a few difficult words for this reading level. - Children’s picture books are usually either for fun or for a moralising purpose. This is neither. - I wasn’t a fan of the formatting. ( I hope this ...

Author: Emily J. Taylor Genre: YA Fantasy Rating: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: This could have been outstanding. It ends up above average. But as it is a debut work and aimed at the Teen/YA crowd, I’ll cut it some slack. Story: 17 year old Jani is doing all she can to take care of her 13 year old sister Zosa after the death of her mother a few years ago. But even her best efforts lead to a minimally fulfilling existence. When she hears that the legendary Hotel Magnifique is going to be in town and hiring new staff, Jani decides that she will secure a job for them both there, no matter how. After all, the hotel appears just for one night in a decade and she can’t miss this chance. Luck works in her favour and she somehow finds herself on the staff of the hotel. But while the hotel is as opulent as outsiders claimed, there seems to be something sinister and dangerous underlying its magic. What has Jani got herself and Zosa into? What’s the secret behind the mystical maître who runs the hote...