When I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s memoir, In Other Words, in which she shares her journey of learning Italian, it was as if she was echoing my deepest, darkest fears. With the themes she tackles throughout the book, of immigration, of even sexism and colorism, she brings so many relatable concepts to the fore. Because when you start learning a new language, you not only discover how the different parts of the world are different. You also learn more about yourself, the grit and determination that constitute you, what your actual goals are, what you want to do with life, where you want to be at any given moment in time, and why you want to do whatever it is you want to do.
Category Archives: Book Reviews
At the Mountain of the Divine Tigress (Frank Carter – 3) by Yashesh Rathod | Book Review
There’s a certain satisfaction that comes with reading the third book in a trilogy: it wraps up the journey that we’ve been on, sometimes satisfactorily, sometimes not so much. But either way, we tend to judge the trilogy based on this book because even though we say that ‘the journey is more important than the destination’, it isn’t true when it comes to book series. At least not all the time.
Yashesh Rathod’s Frank Carter trilogy is a historical fantasy series that follows Frank Carter on an adventure through time in Something Strange Over the Yellow Lotus, and across the seas in Macabre Expedition and At the Mountain of the Divine Tigress.
Macabre Expedition (Frank Carter 2) by Yashesh Rathod | Book Review
Macabre Expedition, the second book in the Frank Carter series, picks up 8 months after the end of events in the first book. Frank Carter and his family have now moved and have established a quiet life. But Randolph Smith is now in contact with Frank again, warning him of dire consequences for having played around with the timeline. They must now go on a macabre expedition to collect three pellets that will give them the power to overcome the ancient guardian of the timeline, Um-Tuk-Nuaar, who is chasing them for having messed with it.
Tamarind: Sweet and Sour Poems on Love, Loss, Longing, and Life by Akhila Mohan CG | Book Review
When I was about 10 years old, I decided to try my hand at writing poetry. What did a poem need to be anyway? Alternate, consecutive, or all lines that rhymed? I could write anything about anything, then. At least that’s what I thought. But as I grew up, I discovered more and more about the power that poetry holds. It’s not just rhyming words. It brings out a person’s emotions in ways that we never thought it could. I grew, I understood, I learnt that in limited words and short verses, poetry can tell a person’s history, a person’s feelings, their pain, their hopes and dreams, their deepest, darkest secrets, as well as everything they live for.
Honor by Thrity Umrigar | Book Review
Today is my blog tour stop for this hard-hitting, searing work of fiction that sadly reflects reality. Thank you, Algonquin Books for having me on this tour, and thank you, Thrity Umrigar, for writing it!
Honor is about two women, Smita and Meena, whose lives become so intricately intertwined that after a while, it becomes difficult to point out where one story starts and where the other ends.
Steven Johnson and the Mission 1 by Yashesh Rathod | Book Review
There are many science fiction stories that talk about how humanity is at its end and how one man (yes, more often than not, it’s a man) has to save it by going on an interplanetary or intergalactic quest of sorts. I haven’t yet read a book in which the futuristic setting of a science fiction novel is treated as normal, as we would treat a story set in current times. That’s probably because I’m not usually that big on science fiction, although things are slowly changing in the best way possible. One of the reasons behind this shift is a short novella called Steven Johnson and the Mission 1 by Yashesh Rathod.
Nectar of All World Religions: 1000 Selections from 11 Spiritual Traditions by Ishwar Joshi Awalgaonkar | Book Review
Religion can be a tricky path to navigate, because the more you discover, the more you tend to become confused as to which is the right one. But there is no right one. Just one that you feel most comfortable and at home in, which helps you grow and makes you a better person as much as it pulls devotion out of you. So what do we do when we are this confused? Should we flit from religion to religion? Or should we randomly choose a religion based on how many tenets of it we like? Or can we get the best of all worlds?
Ishwar Joshi Awalgaonkar answers these questions in his second book, ‘Nectar of all World Religions’.
Book Review: The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit by Abhaidev
The moment we say ‘influencer’ in this time and age, social media comes to mind. Book influencers, beauty influencers, travel influencers, food influencers – so many types that exist on the vast space of the Internet! The primary job of these people is to influence others to buy the thing that they are showing off. But what if influencing could be an actual superpower? What if Influencers exist, actually influencing people’s willpowers and making the tide turn in their favor? Author Abhaidev takes this ‘what if’ and turns it into a gripping thriller called The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit that will keep your attention from start to finish.
Book Review – Frank Carter: The Complete Saga by Yashesh Rathod
Historical fantasy is a genre that can be very tricky to write. There’s so much to get right: historical events around the setting of the novel, people’s behaviors around the time, customs and traditions, accepted norms, and so much more. If done right, you’ll have a well-written, informative, entertaining book on your hands. But if even one thing goes wrong in this recipe, the end result could be a jarring complexity that could confuse you to no end.
Yashesh Rathod’s Frank Carter: The Complete Saga is a historical fantasy that, living up to its genre, has a fantastical premise, replete with time travel and the supernatural.
Book Spotlight & Book Review: Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
There are some books which you hear the names of and you think, okay, this is going to be one delicious, lip-smacking book about some delicious, lip-smacking food. Instead, it turns out to be about something else altogether – a headily intriguing mix of the sweetness of the little joys in life, the bitterness of harsh reality, the sourness of anger, the saltiness of sorrow, the bland taste of helplessness, that spicy tang of enthusiastic motivation – and it fills you up with not only emotions, but also with the reiterated knowledge that the world is way more complicated and intricately connected than we think it is. And Hot Stew is one such book.
The Melodramatic Bookworm 