Nisha!!

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai My rating: 5 of 5 stars This however is an ill-fitting finish to a marvelous masterpiece Dear Kiran Desai, This is by far, one the best hilarious books I have brought myself to read in a long time. I completely enjoyed it. Having devoured "The Inheritance of Loss" a long time back, I can't imagine why I procrastinated this long to lay hands on this chef-d'oeuvre The work of fiction vaguely reminds one of RK Narayan's "The Guide", and briefly transports us into the pages of Thoreau's 'Walden', nonetheless, humor reigns supreme. The true to life descriptions of the expectations from Indian bride's - to be able to sing and dance, but never to be practiced after marriage, or that she was expected to be always shy when talking of husband and children, are a few dew drops in the ocean of interesting facts laid down bare to the reader. The invention of human bite is also note-worthy. The story i...

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster My rating: 5 of 5 stars I opened this book, simply because I felt like reading something with a lot of pictures. Is this a kids' book? Says who? What a surprise! What an amazing, thought-provoking book with a lot of meaningful messages! What intelligent word play! This is simply one of the best books I have read in a very long time. All the time I spent enjoying 'Alice in Wonderland', thinking that it was simply irreplaceable, and here is a chef-d'oeuvre by Norton Juster that simply surpasses all levels of imagination and intellect! Marvelously brilliant! The subtraction stew is undoubtedly an unforgettable invention proudly patented in the name of Juster.   “So many things are possible as long as you don't know they're impossible.” I wish someone had recommended this book to me much earlier. View all my reviews

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini My rating: 5 of 5 stars Thank you Khaled Hosseini, for delivering such an amazing piece of Afghan History. I feel extremely honored to have read this book. Thanks to my friend Vidya for recommending this author to me. I am completely spell-bound. I have lived through three generations of Afghanistan, seen poetry, Koran, war, death, rape, torture, lost my leg, murder, love, friendship, loss, and best of all hope... The way the characters shape themselves over the pages is amazing. What would one not do in the name of love? For the love that is shamelessly denied, for a love that comes seeking from the most unexpected crevices? Anything for Love! In a land shrouded in warfare and injustice against women, there are two things that live on - Love and Hope.. Thank you Khaled for taking me through such a marvelous experience, the feel of which is simply beyond words!! View all my reviews

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read this book out of curiosity to find out what made it so famous. The point is, I still don't understand why.. Some books make you feel that America is filled with scientists, geniuses, spies or detectives. This one gives you an impression that the USA is replete with scary psychopaths, liars, drunkards, murderers, womanizers and cheats. The thought that I actually went through this book makes me puke. Damn it. One single event goes back and forth, back and forth, through the eyes of an alcoholic woman, and the problem is, she is such a heavy drunkard that all her memories are blurred. Where is the point in going back and forth, and back and forth on something: 1. which never happened or 2. she just doesn't remember completely. A total waste of precious time.. My precious. Our precious. They stole it from us. Paula Hawkins. View all my reviews

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery My rating: 4 of 5 stars An interesting read, where a talkative unwanted girl becomes indispensable. The ending was quite predictable though. View all my reviews

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy My rating: 2 of 5 stars That was one ridiculous piece of compilation of horrors and sorrows from across India - mainly focusing on Kashmir. What is the correlation between the title and the novel? There seems to be no 'happiness' anywhere, leave alone 'utmost happiness'! Is this a compilation of related newspaper articles, or Ms. Arundhati, did you really sit with this book for 20 odd years? If so, your efforts are undoubtedly counterproductive. I enjoyed most part of the book, however, I did not feel good at the end of it.. What I enjoyed most: the bold ridicule of Indian leaders - 1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee - Lisping Poet Prime Minister 2. Manmohan Singh 3. Narendra Modi - Gujarat ka Lalla 4. Anna Hazare 5. Kiran Bedi 6. Aamir Khan 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' will make a good study of contemporary Indian history, that apart, nothing more impressed me. When the story started off with the transgende...

சுடாதே...: Sudadhe... by Maheshwaran Jothi My rating: 2 of 5 stars I volunteered to read this book and received it as a free copy, in exchange for an honest review. A typical mystery.. Three people get going in three different directions, and magically come together at the end.... But something is lacking.... The character development of the book was good but inadequate. All the characters were very interesting and entertaining. Sudadhe.. was an interesting page-turner. However, the ending let me down. I found the personality of the protagonist too haughty, and the investigation was not satisfactorily logical. View all my reviews