drficticity

Author – Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaiman
Genre – Fantasy-Comedy
Publisher – gollancz / workmanpub / corgi
Published in 1990
Pages – 288
Rating – 4.5/5

The book is such a fun read about the birth of the son of Satan and the coming of the End Times.

The angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley who were to look after the earth and when the time comes they are to make sure the ‘end of world’ happens perfectly.
But they have become alittle too accustomed to their comfortable surroundings in England and also kind of developed a liking for the humankind.

And when the time comes, they unknowingly mess up on the day of birth of ‘Antichrist’, who is now growing up with the wrong family, in the wrong village. So when the day comes and so do the ‘Four Horsemen of the apocalypse’ its all a huge mess and our angel and demon want to sabotage the D-DAY.

Filled with fun characters, that have enough space to breathe,the friendship between ‘the them’ and the angel and demon is to die for, & filled with mystical characters perfectly blended with the 90s nostalgia, this is a treat.

There’s something strange in the after effect of reading a Haruki Murakami story.

It’s as if time stands still when the last line has run out, the last word read and the last letter comes to a stop with a sombre period.

And then a feeling of utter helplessness washes over as the realisation of nostalgia, fate and tragedy come to the fore together.

He takes his readers through grief, tragedy, happiness and loneliness – all-in-one go – with some jazz. .

The beauty of his work lies in fantastical stories that are embellished in reality and his lonely, nomadic characters that are left searching for the green light in the ruins of themselves.

This is a collection of seven stories by Haruki Murakami. In his own psychedelic style and powers of observation he introduces us to seven men including lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders and all of them in their own ways, find themselves alone not just without women but also friends.

And the stories revolve around the themes of : What does it mean to be a man without women, both in the title story and throughout the collection?

📎Summary

The plot is set in the backdrop of Mighty Dhauladhar range of Himalayas where a construction of dam is under process.

The book amalgamates around three characters and how their destinies collide.

Nanda, the engineer on the dam,comes from Kerala after a series of events, basically he has evaded law and is now on the run.

Khusru, a Kashmiri boy who tripped into the hands of terrorist,is now one of them and trying to blow up the dam

Rekha, a doctor by profession and Kathak dancer at heart is treading on her own set of journey

The heart of the book is in right place, and overall it’s a beautiful character driven novel 3.5⭐ /5⭐

📎What I liked?

1.The detailed description of Kalaripayattu and its tradition.

2. Characters with a detailed history –
author introduced them so well to readers by giving several insights and background stories in the initial stage.

Cultural Diversity – The author covers the traditions of people from Kerala to Kashmir,the mountains life style,the detailing, the authors research just stand out all over the book.

📎What I didn’t like – the plot is something I didn’t enjoyed much, to be honest I’m not a fan of character driven books but specifically Rekha,who has such as clear vision about herself just sleeps with her kidnapper, this is not Stockholm syndrome. For that the you need to have alot more interaction with the kidnapper,also there are too much technical details about dams that I didn’t get,may be someone who likes technical details would appreciate it.

**I know it becomes difficult to critique a book which the author has spent precious time, effort and money in bringing it out. However, I also believe a healthy and balanced criticism would only help him in his future endeavours. Would like to congratulate Mr.K. Shibu and wish him the best for the future

📎Would I recommend it and to whom?
Yes I would
if you like characters driven books like ministry of utmost happiness and hundred years of solitude,you would definitely like this book

A definite 5⭐/5⭐

📎 Summary

This book is a retelling of “The Little Mermaid”,the storyline is something that you would expect and then something you would not at all.

The writing style is so beautiful,imaginative,it creates a whole new mer-world around you to dive in & at the same time dealing with almost all the issues girls and women deal in their everyday life so beautifully,

Everything from taking pain in the name of beauty to patriarchy and it’s effects on men and women,of course everything is behind the aqua layer so it’s there but not at the cost of plotline or entertainment factor of the book.

I usually don’t judge books by covers but this cover deserves all the love,it’s just so gorgeous

📎Would I recommend it?
This is one such book I made my younger sister read and I would recommend it to everyone.

I think, if you were going to pick one book to explain feminism to someone, it would be Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists

“But by far the worst thing we do to males — by making them feel they have to be hard — is that we leave them with very fragile egos.The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is,

Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage ,

And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males “

“We choose career paths after graduation that excites us, not the most profitable ones. MBA education is an experience for us,not the money minting machine. Your system kills the ‘experience’ part and the worst part is you are willingly becoming the victim of it.”

This line on Page 202 explain the condition of the characters, as well as many of us, college life is a whole new world in itself and this book takes you inside of a management college

📎Blurb and characters –

Although they joined MBA for different reasons,while in College these four youngsters end up forming a team called as 23:59:59 and the story revolves around the struggle of these characters,filled with all the emotions we all go through during our College life,the pressure to become something, live your dreams, to look out for your family and love

📎For me this was Jay’s story,the goodboy, who is also an amazing blogger and not so sure why is he here in MBA but struggling alot to get through it

Abhimanyu is the cool guy,He is that friend who manage to do everything and he is clearly in MBA for money

Ishaan is here for his dream, he is the strong head guy who can get very rude at times

Shalini is the fat friend, it was refreshing to see her as a friend and not just the love interest but rest of her seemed very mediocre to me

📎What I loved ?
The theme of the book,the ups and downs of college life both in terms of academics and personal life.
#relatableaf

📎What I didn’t like?
Not being a grammar Nazi but this book could do with a good proof-read and editing.

📎Blurb – it’s a sweet and simple love story,in a simple language,with poems in between.

Story follows the two protagonist yauvani and shayane as they meet and fall in love,and eventually seperate and the pain of heartbreak and loneliness yauvani feels can be felt through the words as the story is in yauvani’s voice, most heart breaking is a phase in the story where she gets very obsessed with shayane and is literally stalking him,and meanwhile the guy being a total jerk

What I liked ?
The shayaris in between were something I really liked

What didn’t work for me? I didn’t understand crazy love of yauvani, especially the phase I mentioned earlier, I don’t like wear protagonist women,who are putting up with shitty men and then forgive them as soon as they behave remotely human.

2⭐/5

I’m not a fan of character driven books but this book just made me go all aww over it

This book is just beautiful
4⭐/5

This is such a sweet and powerful story of a boy called August. He isn’t any different from any of us – his heart, his soul. But his face – yes, that is different.

A ten year old boy auggie,who has severe facial deformation due to a genetic disorder and has undergone years of treatment and many surgeries and is starting proper school for the first time and as we all know it kids can be very mean sometimes.

But he is so strong – coping with operations and bullies and everything with so much love it’s moving.

Also we also see auggie’s story from other people’s eyes and dive deep into his life and the life of people around him – how they have changed and developed through knowing him.

My favourite eyes were of his sister Via,who is a teenager and going through all the teenage stuff herself.its all just so beautiful

I loved this book so much that I wrote one more blog on it

Ashok and the nine unknown by Anshul Dupare
Publisher Rupa publications

“hybrid between facts and fiction”

📎 Summary – The story revolves around the aftermath of Kalinga war ,one of the bloodiest wars of the history

A war victim who is damaged beyond words confront Ashoka regarding the results of the war,the bitter confrontation led both men to two different paths

Ashoka moves towards creation of a secret society of nine unknown men,who possess the knowledge regarding various topics and Amartya moves on his different journey and as the story moves ahead we watch the converge of these storylines

The story is very interesting and easy to read,kept me hooked
Cover is good, representative of elements in the book

3.5⭐

The Night everything changed by Neha Prakash Naidu
Genre – suspense novel

📎Blurb – Aditya the protagonist is an orphan and he is looking forward to fill that void and get settled, finally his dreams come true and he settles down in USA with miss perfect(daughter of a very rich dad)

He finally have a family,financial security, he is “living his American dream”

As he comes down to goa a night of partying and taking multiple drugs turn into his worst nightmare

A person in his group dies! And he becomes the suspect and not only for the police but at times we see him doubting himself

But he certainly cannot recall,what exactly happened,and readers are also looking for the same answers as him

The writing _ feels very real time,you know only as much as the protagonist and leading to a lot of twists and turns we reach to a good climax.

📎What I liked ?
A justified ending,that all the buildup lead us to

📎What could have been better?
Narrative is good,but at times is was not very clear,if it could be a alittle more elaborate.

📎Recommended?to whom?
People who love mysteries and thrillers,this is going to be treat .