"I was a lingual conservationist."
"Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom."
"Lately, I've been leaning towards kindness."
Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts
Monday, 5 January 2015
Quotes: Sharp Objects
Book Review: Sharp Objects
ISBN13: 9780307341549
Author: Gillian Flynn
Pages : 336 pages
W&N, 2007
Format: Digital
Gillian Flynn! Gillian Flynn! Gillian Flynn! For me she sparkled right through 2014. Gillian Flynn had me first excited about her book, Gone Girl, which was my first tryst withe her creative brilliance, and then the movie, which she screen wrote herself. (To find out how I felt about her book click here.)
So, I naturally wanted to progress onto her other works. But you know how you don't want to OD over heady, dark and gritty books? That's exactly what kept me away from this one for this long.
Let's now venture into what this book is about. Camille Preaker, a journalist who is just out of an asylum is dealing with her own self when she's handed her first major assignment, to cover a twin abduction and murder in her native, Wind Gap, which is the last place she wants to be. The turn of events following the investigation of the twin murders puts her face-to-face with a lot of issues she isn't equipped to deal with yet. As the story unfolds we find us reeling in a whirlpool of mess Carmille is in.
The story is intensely disturbing and complicated, fiercely raw, dark and gritty. This one is not for teenagers or kids, given the number of teen aged characters it has. Unless you are a grown up you don't want to read this, not for the sexual content (it's not the least bit erotic), but for the bod rawness.
I often wonder what being in Gillian Flynn's mind would be like. I read this book at a time when my mind was clouded with dealing with some of the toughest decisions of my life. It was a time when I questioned by sense of self worth and this book urged me to take control over my life. You know how sometimes knowing people with much more messed up lives than you puts your life into perspective? That's sort of therapeutic. That's what this book did to me.
Rating: 4.5/5
Verdict: The book hits the right spots if you like dark, raw and gritty subjects.
Verdict: The book hits the right spots if you like dark, raw and gritty subjects.
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Book Review: Rozabal Line
ISBN10: 1780221355
Author : Ashwin Sanghi
Pages : 359 pages
Westland, 2007
(Borrowed book no. 1 from ChaiCofi)
Pardon me for being tardy to this blog here, but with life and work all spiraling all over and around me, this is one thing I don't want to let burden me. Hence, I do solemnly affirm that I shall and will write in my time and ease and record my will in this tiny virtual pocket of mine. When it comes to writing about books, the 3rd love of my life, nobody and nothing will ever be allowed to force me to pour my heart out. This is and will be my stress-buster and escape route from reality till I find a time machine! Enough about me now. With that reference to a time machine, let's get on to our task at hand (yes, I said t-a-s-k) at hand, and deal with this book-Rozabal Line.
But before we get into this book, the universe wants us to talk about Dan Brown because the entire universe has been comparing this book with The Da Vinci Code.
Now, Dan Brown is a diligent researcher. Period! I had to read two of his books, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, to reach this conclusion. Don't get me wrong, but I'm not judging his literary skills here (I'm not up to do that!). I've read the likes of Amish Tripathi and Devdutt Pattnaik, who are better known for their ideas, perspective and stories rather than their literary proficiency, and I have enjoyed their works boundless. So, mythology is not a new genre to me. And yet, my bone of contention with Dan Brown is exactly that. I appreciate both his consistent and diligent research and his dexterity in piecing one and one together to get the story going. And that brings us to Ashwin Sanghi's Rozabal Line.
This story is the saga of the three. It has three storylines merging into one to finally reveal what the whole book is about. There is an American priest, Fr Sinclair whose regressed memories from past lives start emerging causing him much surprise and terror. Then, there is an elite army of 13, who call themselves Lashkar-e-Talatashar, with Armageddon as their agenda. And then there is the Rozabal tomb in Kashmir which holds the key to a riddle that will unfold the Armageddon. The story has enough twists and turns to entangle you into confusion and chaos, much because of the absurdity of the tangents the story goes into defying logic all the while. I cannot deny that the research that went into this book is pretty neat. But that's about it. This book is all research and no story with some fiction that goes all over the place.
But if you like conspiracy theories and history and mythology, like I do, you might like this book here and there. So, it's neither all bad, nor all good. It's just one of those books you like, but not in its entirety.
Rating: 3/5
Verdict: If Dan Brown's research are your forte, if you hated the way he completely ignored Indian mythological texts in his extrapolated conspiracy theories, and you hate his extremely repetitive plot-lines, then Ashwin Sanghi is most definitely what you had been waiting for. You will L-O-V-E this book.
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But before we get into this book, the universe wants us to talk about Dan Brown because the entire universe has been comparing this book with The Da Vinci Code.
Now, Dan Brown is a diligent researcher. Period! I had to read two of his books, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, to reach this conclusion. Don't get me wrong, but I'm not judging his literary skills here (I'm not up to do that!). I've read the likes of Amish Tripathi and Devdutt Pattnaik, who are better known for their ideas, perspective and stories rather than their literary proficiency, and I have enjoyed their works boundless. So, mythology is not a new genre to me. And yet, my bone of contention with Dan Brown is exactly that. I appreciate both his consistent and diligent research and his dexterity in piecing one and one together to get the story going. And that brings us to Ashwin Sanghi's Rozabal Line.
This story is the saga of the three. It has three storylines merging into one to finally reveal what the whole book is about. There is an American priest, Fr Sinclair whose regressed memories from past lives start emerging causing him much surprise and terror. Then, there is an elite army of 13, who call themselves Lashkar-e-Talatashar, with Armageddon as their agenda. And then there is the Rozabal tomb in Kashmir which holds the key to a riddle that will unfold the Armageddon. The story has enough twists and turns to entangle you into confusion and chaos, much because of the absurdity of the tangents the story goes into defying logic all the while. I cannot deny that the research that went into this book is pretty neat. But that's about it. This book is all research and no story with some fiction that goes all over the place.
But if you like conspiracy theories and history and mythology, like I do, you might like this book here and there. So, it's neither all bad, nor all good. It's just one of those books you like, but not in its entirety.
Rating: 3/5
Verdict: If Dan Brown's research are your forte, if you hated the way he completely ignored Indian mythological texts in his extrapolated conspiracy theories, and you hate his extremely repetitive plot-lines, then Ashwin Sanghi is most definitely what you had been waiting for. You will L-O-V-E this book.
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