Adayalangal by Sethu

I started reading this award-winning novel with much anticipation. I had read only short stories of sethu before. The starting seems promising. But as chapters passed by I realised that this is not going anywhere. There were sub plots and new characters being introduced but the story is not moving. And then suddenly I realised that I am reading the last chapter. "Did I miss some chapter in between? "That was my reaction.

The story is about a mother and daughter who are living in their small world. Priyamvada, the divorced mother is an accomplished HR Manager who has handled many a crisis alone, both on the professional and personal front.  But suddenly she is faced with many personal hardships including her young daughter becoming her enemy. Most of the book describes this phase of priyamvada's life and how she tries to deal with it.

May be I am not mature enough to understand this kind of literature. May be I am reading so much of thrillers Somebody please tell me where I went wrong.
3 out of 5.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Dan Brown again takes Robert Langdon for an outing in this one. This time Langdon is in Washington D.C, trying to solve the mysteries of Freemasonry, the largest secret society in the world.

Robert Langdon arrives in Washington D.C to deliver a lecture as per a request which came apparently from his mentor, Peter Solomon. But on reaching The Capitol building, Langdon is greeted by a "Hand of the Mysteries" which symbolises an invitation to reveal the "ancient secrets". The invitation is sent by Mal'akh who has kidnapped Peter Solomon in order to know the ultimate truth of Freemasonry. There starts a cat and mouse game between the villain and Langdon. In this journey, Langdon is assisted by Katherine Solomon.

The book has all the ingredients  of  a Dan Brown best seller, but still it cannot be compared to Da Vinci Code in any way.Don't worry Mr. Brown, you can expect to deliver a book like Da Vinci Code only once in your lifetime.

The plot is not so exciting but carries the advantage of extensive research done for it. In some parts there is an overdose of violence and the last few chapters are pretty dragging. Still this makes an excellent read for those who loves puzzles, mysteries and thrillers.

In spite of an average plot and a boring last chapter, Lost Symbol gets my rating for good research and superb story telling. 4 out of 5.

Q & A ( Slumdog millionaire) by Vikas Swarup

I have been postponing watching the movie "Slumdog Millionaire"  for a long time now. The reason: I wanted to read the book first.I still haven't seen the movie . Neither I want to. I am highly satisfied with the book that now I don't want to see the complicated version in the celluloid.

First and foremost, the book is not about Mumbai slums. India is just a backdrop for the novel. This story could have happened any where. Seems like Hollywood has too much enforced the idea that India means slums, poverty and corruption.

The story is of Ram Mohammed Thomas , an eighteen year old waiter who wins two billion in a quiz show. Later he is taken into police custody having suspected of cheating, from where Smitha, a lawyer saves him.In the next twelve chapters Ram narrates to Smitha how he answered the twelve questions by linking each one of it to one of his life experiences. Thus the story of Ram is unfold from a juvenile home in Delhi  to a chawl in Mumbai to Taj Mahal in Agra and as he is with a catholic priest, a bollywood heroine, a diplomat and many more. The story touches all the issues that can be thought of, including homosexuality, Bollywood, corruption, espionage, domestic violence, illegal betting, contract killing etc. with many murders and suicides in between. Seems like Ram has lived through all the Dickens hardships. The story does not progress chronologically but still  Swarup is able to keep up the pace and the suspense throughout the book.

Highly unrealistic and highly entertaining. 4 out of 5.

The Halloween Party by Agatha Christie

In a Halloween party a thirteen year old girl boasts of having witnessed a murder and by the end of the party the same girl is found murdered. Hercule Poirot is called to investigate the murder by his friend Oliver . Now he has to first decide whether he is looking for a murderer or a double murderer.

This novel presents an exciting mystery but the way of story telling is really bad. I was so much bored at times by the dragging pace at which the story was progressing that I began to wonder whether Christie employed somebody else to write this one.As expected in Poirot mysteries, the end is very much unpredictable but the last two chapters of the novel are highly unrealistic. One notable point is the presence of Ariadne Oliver, the mystery novel writer , who is the alter ego of Agatha Christie herself.

Read this only if you like mysteries in general and Christie's work in particular. 3 out of 5.

Five little pigs by Agatha Christie

Christie's fascination with nursery rhymes are well known. Many novels like Hickory Dickory Dock, One Two Buckle My Shoe, Pocket full of Rye etc are named after nursey rhymes. Not only this book gets its title from a nursery rhyme but also it was the first book published by Christie concerning a murder in retrospect.

Carla , a young lady who is about to get married approaches Hercule poirot to investigate a murder that happened sixteen years before. The victim was Amyas Crale, Carla's father. Her mother , Caroline Crale was convicted and sentenced for life for the murder. Later, just before her death in the prison, Caroline sends her daughter a letter in which she claims of her innocence. Now hercule Poirot has to prove (or disprove) her claim.There are five persons involved in the murder whom Poirot labels as the "five little pigs". It is clear that if Caroline didn't do it , then one of these five did it. Poirot visits all the five and studies their accounts of the murder.

"Five little pigs" is a testimony to Christie's excellence in plot construction and story telling. Her genius in unsolving the mystery of a murder in retrospect is unbelievable. The only negative point that can be attributed to this novel is that at places, it seems highly repeatitive as the same incident is retold by the five suspects.

An excellent mystery novel, 3.5 out of 4.

Ring for Jeeves by P G Wodehouse

Jeeves- Wodehouse's most famous character . Wikipedia tells the following about Jeeves ".....The essential concept that drives the Jeeves stories is that the brilliant valet is firmly in control of his rich and foppish young employer's life. Much of the comic effect derives from the fact that the clueless Bertie Wooster, who narrates most of the stories, is for the most part blissfully unaware of how he is being manipulated. When Bertie gets into one of his scrapes, leading to an unwanted social obligation, legal trouble, or marriage engagement, Jeeves invariably comes up with a subtle plan to save the day, often without Bertie's knowledge." Jeeves has inspired many famous similar characters and even an Internet Search Engine.

In this novel Jeeves is not with Bertie Wooster. Bertie is attending a school for idle rich and in the meantime Jeeves is serving William Belfry, the Earl of Rowcester Abbey.Bill is in a poor fortune after the war and is working as a bookie in disguise. It is at this time, his sister and brother-in-law visit the abbey. They have a good news - Mrs Spottsworth, a wealthy widow , is considering buying the abbey and if the deal comes off, it will solve all the monetary problems of Bill. When Mrs. Spottsworth arrives , she turns out to be an old sweetheart of Bill, much to the annoyance of Jill, Bill's fiancee. Bill has to ignore Jill and play sweet to his beautiful guest and he is still more thrown when Captain Biggar, an old friend of Mrs. Spottsworth arrives and is invited to stay. Captain Biggar is in pursuit of a dishonest bookie who is none other than Bill itself. Now William Belfry has to save himself from Captain Biggar by somehow repaying his money, convince Mrs. Spottsworth to buy the abbey and at the same time, save his engagement. It is time to ring for Jeeves..........

A hilarious novel from Wodehouse. 4 out of 5.

Big Four by Agatha Christie.

I should state at the very beginning that this is one of the worst Poirot mysteries from Christie.

Poirot is up against "Big Four" comprising of a China man, an American millionaire, a french scientist and a mysterious "destroyer". The Big Four is set upon capturing the power of the entire world and Poirot ,equipped with his order, method and little grey cells are figting agaist them. This is not a single mystery but rather a thriller with a series of mysteries which are solved by Poirot, accompanied by Captain Hastings. Inspector Japp also makes appearance in the story.

Certainly lacks the Christie magic but still makes a decent read if your expectations are not set high. 2.5 out of 5.

False Impression by Jeffrey Archer

If you have read Archer before you know what to expect from a Jeffrey Archer Novel. This book offers nothing more than that.

We have a female protagonist this time (Did we hear Sheldon screaming "copycat"?) and a female killer. Dr. Anna Petrescu, an expert in art history, is trying to save Mrs. Victoria Wentworth, one of the clients of the bank she is working for, from bankruptcy by selling her Van Gogh painting. But her Boss, Mr. Fenston, doesn't want this to happen. Anna goes on with her mission even after she is fired and Victoria is murdered. As she is globe trotting to accomplish her mission, she is followed by an FBI Agent and a killer. The question is who will get her first? The story moves from New York to London to Bucharest to Tokyo and ultimately good wins over evil.

9/11 just acts as a backdrop and has nothing to do with the story even if it is mentioned predominantly on the back cover. The book has all the ingredients of a typical thriller viz. adventure, revenge, double crossing, romance and an unbelievably smart lady with good looks and a great figure. The bonus will be some art history with mentions of Van Gogh, Monet , Manet and other paintings.

A typical thriller. 3 out of 5.

Amen: The autobiography of a nun By Sister Jesme

Everybody loves controversy. This fact is proved by the popularity of this book. First published in malayalam, this best seller was later translated to English and published by Penguin Books.

When an ex-nun, who has left convent after 33 years, decides to write about her life inside the convent; publicity and controversy is expected to follow. The church calls her mentally unstable, Women's commission vows to protect her, authorities want to improve the life of thousands of nuns inside the convent....Finally it is time to accept that real mortal people occupy the majority of convents, matts etc. It is time to accept the imperfections rather than cover them up. But how long this will last? How long Sister Jesme can stay alive in public memory which has the notorious reputation of being short?

The book can be read only for the controversy aspect. Apart from that the style of writing is not remarkable at all.

A brave attempt. 3 out of 5.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The relationship between a mother and her daughter is a complex one which goes through many phases. For the mother, the daughter is "a bundle of joy" who needs to be protected. For the daughter, mother is the one who she can always cling for help. As time goes, mother continues to protect her child but ..., the daughter no more needs to be protected. She is independent and wise,or so she thinks. Mother has those pearls of wisdom still left with her which are to be passed on to her daughter but daughter is not willing to take those. She is not ready to accept a dictator as a mother and the mother cannot accept her daughter as a rebel. Time continues to fly and the dictator suddenly disappears, so does the rebel. The protector and the protected reappears but now, who is the one who protects and who is the one who wants to be protected? The mother,or the daughter? May be the answer is both.

Amy Tan's touching novel tells the story of four mothers and four daughters. All the mothers being Chinese immigrants of America, still try to remain Chinese and pass on the Chinese culture to their daughters. But the daughters, being daughters in addition to American citizens, cannot understand it. The book describes the journey of these eight individuals , their struggles and confusions.

The Joy Luck Club was started by Suyuan Woo along with her friends during the time of Second World War. They used this club as a means to get distracted from the hardships of war. Later when Suyuan Woo migrates to USA , she is restarting the club with three other Chinese friends. The book starts from the point when Suyuan's daughter Jing Mei joins the club when her mother dies. The book is organised into four parts ;each part with four stories, each told by one of the eight characters. The novel ends with the story where Jing Mei is united with her two half sisters whom her mother had lost during the war.

A touching book...4 out of 5.

The Diary of a Social Butterfly - Moni Mohsin

Moni Mohsin was writing a column by the same name in Friday Times, a Pakistani News Paper. Later some of these, which were published during the time period 2001 -2008 , were compiled to a book.

"Butterfly"- the no-brain , convent-educated socialite from Pakistan. The sole objective of her life is partying. She speaks English mixed with a heavy dose of Urdu and even a heavier dose of grammatical\ spelling mistakes.Her classic dialogues like "thanks god","celeries of servants", "what cheeks" and "thousand-thousand times" are hilarious. The book also mentions the important political events of the world , esp. Pakistan , during the time period like 9/11 attack, earthquake in Pakistan, US elections and Benazir Bhutto's assassination and how butterfly is affected or rather not affected by all these. Butterfly is sad after 9/11 that she cannot immediately go to US for shopping. After the earthquake she wants to call her friends to tell them how much they have donated. When her husband and friends are discussing politics and when somebody mentions "two-party system", butterfly is prompt to add that in that case you should have one party in the morning and the other in the evening. Later she tells the readers that everybody was so impressed by this remark that there was silence for a few minutes.

The other characters of the diary are Janoo - butterfly's husband, Kulchoo - their son, Old Bag - the mother-in law, gruesome twosome- Janoo's sisters, Mummy, Aunt Pussy , Jonkers etc.

A book not to be missed, 4 out of 5.

Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown.

This time while browsing through categories in my online library , I decided to pick a book from one category which I visit very rarely. Since it is exam time also, I wanted something very light. I thought of picking something from the children's section at first, then changed my mind and picked something from the category "chick lit".The title 'Legally Blonde' was vaguely familiar, may be because it has been made into a movie.

Elle Woods, the blonde, gets the blow of her life when Warner, her boyfriend for three years, dumps her exactly when she expected him to propose. The reason - He is going to study law at Stanford and he thinks she is not "serious" enough. After all she is only a blonde. But Elle is not someone to accept defeat. She also manages to enroll herself as a law student at Stanford. And thus she arrives at Stanford, with her fashionable designer wardrobe, her perfect made up look and her chihuahua, amidst the ambitious, power dressed law school students. And Warner is there too, with his fiancee Sarah. Even after being the laughing stock of the entire law school from the very first day, Elle is determined to prove herself to Warner. She is going to show him that she can also do whatever his "serious" fiancee is capable of doing, and that too without losing her identity in the process.


The hurdles faced by Elle were many. But finally she is able to establish herself, when she wins the case she is working on as an intern. And Warner.. ,yes! he is ready to come back to her. But now it is Elle's turn to decide, and may be Sarah's too.

Good for light reading, Enjoyable( but don't bother to use your brains). 3 out of 5.

Randamoozham -(=Second turn) by M. T. Vasudevan Nair

In this masterpiece, M.T, the famous Malayalam writer, is "reading between the lines of Mahabharatha and expanding the pregnant silence." This is the story of Bhima, the second Pandava.

Here the epic is told, not as the story of supernatural heroes, but as the story of ordinary human beings. Even Krishna is not attributed with divinity, but seen in a different light. In the narrative, Bhima dismisses many events like his encounter with Hanuman while going for 'kalyanasougandhikam', defeating a whole army single handedly, breaking a rock when he was a small kid etc as exaggerations of story tellers. Even the scene where Krishna saves Droupadi while Dusshassan tries to humiliate her is missing. Yudhishtar is portrayed as a coward and a gambler . In more than one place, the book gives stress on the fact that women were considered destined to suffer, be it Gandhari, who married Dhritharashtrar without knowing about his blindness, Kunthi ,who married Pandu but was forced to conceive sons from others or Draupadi who was forced to marry the five brothers.
Bhima , who gets only second turn everywhere, is given a human light by the author and seeing the second Pandava as an ordinary human being who was forced to sail through many a oceans of tears, is touching.

An excellent work, 4 out of 5.

The Thirteen Problems - Agatha Christie

Light reading continues.....and this time it is Miss Marple.
This is a collection of short stories. The first six stories occur at Miss Marple's residence, in the village of St. Mary Mead.There is a group of people forming a club called Tuesday Night Club where they try to solve unsolved mysteries. Miss Marple is also invited to join,only for sake of politeness. But, alas! it is this old lady who successfully solve all the mysteries. The next six stories happens at the house of Mr. Bantry where Sir Henry Clithering,who was a part of Tuesday Night Club, is staying. Miss Marple is invited , again intriguing mysteries are discussed and Miss Marple outwits others. The last story happens a little after this where Miss Marple solves another mystery in St. Mary Mead.
Unbelievable...was my feeling after reading each story. But this time it was neither the intricacy of the plot nor the intellect of the detective that was hard to believe, but the fact that Agatha Christie can come up with unexciting stories like this! Now, solving what was considered to be "unsolvable" mysteries ,sitting near the fire place, within a matter of minutes was bad enough to comprehend ; finding village parallels to each and every thing was too much.
Slightly disappointing , 2.5 out of 5.

Death in The Clouds - Agatha Christie.

I always turn for a Christie when I am really busy and need something light . And most of the mysteries from the "Queen of Crime" has left me unable to sleep till I find out who the murderer is.

In this Poirot mystery, murder happens in the unlikeliest place: in an aeroplane on its flight between Paris and Croydon. It's a case of poisoning and the poison used is a rare and deadly snake venom. The case seems to be impossible to solve, but not for Hercule Poirot. The investigation spans from England to Paris, from a hairdresser's assistant to a French archaeologist,....and as usual there is a second murder. But this cannot go on for long, because Poirot and his "little grey cells" simply cannot fail.And he doesn't...

Hercule Poirot has been my favorite detective and I quite enjoyed this one. Believe me, Agatha Christie won't let you down in this one.

3.5 out of 5.

You are here - Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

This somewhat biographical debut novel from the famous blogger - Meenakshi (aka eM) describes urban youth . The kind of youth who smokes publicly, parties every night, knows all brand names of liquor- in short the kind of people i cannot relate with. May be thats why I cannot enjoy the book.

The novel is not backed by a robust story, but the message of living life on your own terms is projected successfully. The storyline revolves around Arshi, her relationships , friends, job etc . The novel resembles the blog in that nothing is kept private or secret. Everything from lingerie to sex life is discussed. But unlike authors like Shobha De, Meenakshi is not able to convey a strong message or broadcast a good story.

Read it and forget about it - 2 out of 5.

The 3 mistakes of my life - Chethan Bhagat

Since his first two books are being made into movies, Chethan Bhagat wrote his third book with a Bollywood audience in mind, it seems. The story has all the ingredients of a Hindi masala flick - Romance, Action , Cricket, Politics , the only thing missing is an item song!

The story is a total let down , compared to his first books. It is told by Govind, a boy in Ahmedabad who tries to start his own business with his two friends, Ish and Omi, and dreams to make it big. The stark contrast in personalities of an ambitous Govind and his not so ambitous friends are glaring at many parts of the novel. It also describes many real events, like Gujarat earth quake, India Australia cricket matches, Godhra Riot etc and how they affect the boys. Even though the author has kept from exaggeration about these point , exaggeration does come to the book in the form of Ali,the cricket genius kid and Vidya, Govind's girl friend.

Overall, a nice timepass but expecting so much from this book will be a mistake of your life. Can give 2.5/5.

In the Country of Deceit - Shashi Deshpandey

I picked up this book because my friend is doing her PhD thesis about Shashi Deshpandey . Well..I cannot say I was impressed by the book, but it can be categorised as a decent book.

The story is about Devayani, an unmarried lady who falls in love with a married man, who is also many years elder to her. The first part of the book describes how Devayani is living an independent life in her new home, after the death of her mother. Her relatives ,including her married sister ,are trying to find a suitable alliance for her, but she seems to love her independence. Then she meets Ashok and finds he is attracted towards her.She ultimately enter into a relationship with him. The second part of the book describes their affair, how her sister reacts to it etc. Finally , in the last chapter Ashok is going away after choosing for a transfer and Devayani moves on with her life.

The ending doesn't look like an ending and the writer is not clear about many things. First and foremost, how did both of them fall in love? Ashok , in the book, says it was love at first sight for him. Devayani says love happened for her simply because it was Ashok.Well, I am not romantic enough to understand either of the above .In my understanding both of them were terribly alone and found solace in each other. At the same time, Devayani is guilty about it. She is feeling guilty when she meets Ashok's family . And Ashok may also have been feeling guilty about it and thats why he is opting for a transfer ."Its for my daughter..." he says in the last chapter.
Second..Is 26 really old for getting married ? even in a small town..? I dont think so.
next..Devayani is not comfortable with marrying a strange man, then how could she sleep with a man she has seen only a couple of times?

And I liked many aspects of the book like the way of narration in the form of letters. This have been used before in many other books but letters do make the portrayal of characters clearer. And the parallel story of Rani , the yesteryear's superstar , is also touching. And the best thing I liked about the book is the character of Sindhu, who appears only in the form of letters but leave a mark behind.

A well written book. Will give 3.5 out of 5.