Category: From My Bookshelf

There are lots of books stacked on my bookshelf. When I pick one of them, I dive into the amazing world created by an author as soon as I open the cover. However, there is always “the end” written on the last page of the book. Have you ever felt that you are in the same world with those characters? Witnessing those scenes written on pages in your hand, hearing voices of characters speaking dialogues scripted for them? There are a few books which have taken me in their world. And I must say, they are magnificent. Valentia created by Rajamayyoor Sharma is on top of my head as far as Indian fiction is concerned while James Clavel has taken me to mediaeval Japan. I have roamed around London with Sherlock and Poirot.

And yet, the journey in those realms, started from the cover page, has its end marked. The author takes the characters by hand and takes them to their destination by the end of the book. They fulfil their destiny. If a writer chooses to give happy moments at the end, we enjoy them. If it’s a tragedy, characters at least get closure at the end. Many times, I wish to ask the author if he or she has forgotten to write something for me? What about my destiny at the end? What about my share of the closure? Haven’t you thought about me as an uninvited traveller on this journey when you wrote a book?

Here you will find my reflections on my readings. Hope you will also enjoy these stories as much as I did.

  • That’s life for you, in rhymes and rhythm! – Book Review

    That’s life for you, in rhymes and rhythm! – Book Review

    If you are into poetry and want to have a nice short package describing our day-to-day life, go and fetch this book titled “Whimsical Poetry: Fiction and Reality”.

    I really loved the way Syeda Javeria Fatima has added small small anecdotes about the poems she put in this short collection. The snippets of the comments she received when she talked about her alma matter, the way she see and feel proud about her mother! It all makes these poems very relatable.

    Only thing i would have loved in this is more poems!

    Blurb

    “Whimsical Poetry” is a poetry compilation penned by a young author Javeria. This book contains fragments of fiction as well as reality. She is certain that this book will take the reader on a rollercoaster ride. Be it happiness, grief, peace, admiration, or sorrow, she will make you feel it all!

    About the book

    Title: WHIMSICAL POETRY Fiction and Reality
    Author: Syeda Javeria Fatima
    Pages: 52
    Publisher: Notion Press

    My review

    Poetry: 4/5
    Cover Design: 3.5/5

    Overall rating: 3.75/5

    Where to Buy

    Should you read it?

    If you like poetry and want to see a reflection of our day-to-day life in one, definitely pick this book.

    If you want more book recommendations, click here.

  • Life is beautiful with a seasoning of salt – Book Review

    Life is beautiful with a seasoning of salt – Book Review

    Every day we witness so many instances which are part of a story unfolding around us. It is really a difficult thing to pick those instances up and look at them as a third person and narrate a story. Storytelling is indeed a difficult task. You have to know how to build it up to give one of a kind experience to reader or listener of your story. After reading this book, I can safely and happily say Asfiya Rahman has a knack to keep you engaged in her stories.

    Life With a Pinch of Salt is her latest collection published in Blogchatter’s Ebook Carnival. I am thankful for them to put it in reader’s hands. Stories included in this very short collection are woven around tiny instances of everyday life which we all experience. This relatability made me finish this tiny collection in one sitting.

    Things which I enjoyed

    First of all, I can’t stop myself from praising the gorgeous cover design with simple salt and paper shakers. Life is really bland without seasoning of fun, quirk and bizarre. Asfiya has story for everything above and some extra. Even though stories are very short flash fictions, they are complete in itself. I am eagerly waiting for more stories from her. Hope she bring out more and more such books!

    Blurb

    Life is a wonderful gift that each one of us has been given. We often get bogged down by the mundane routine of life and the weight of our expectations and forget this. This collection of short stories and flash fiction is a small attempt to remind us that life is messy and adventurous and full of surprises.

    Life isn’t meant to be perfect, it’s meant to be lived.

    About the book

    Title: Life With a Pinch of Salt
    Author: Asfiya Rahman
    Pages: 38

    My review

    Story: 4/5
    Cover Design: 4.5/5

    Overall rating: 4.25/5

    You can grab your copy of Life With a Pinch of Saltby Asfiya Rahman here.

    Should you read it?

    I enjoyed this little book and I hope it has picked me up from my reading slump. I hope this will pick you up from yours too if you are having one.

    This is a part of Blogchatter’s Ebook Carnival. If you want more book recommendations, click here.

  • Dharma Artha Kama Moksha – Poetry by Seethalakshmi Suraj

    Dharma Artha Kama Moksha – Poetry by Seethalakshmi Suraj

    My journey in the world of poetry began quite late. I hardly enjoyed them during my school days. However, when I was in college, something came to me spontaneously and my journey started. My lines were not polished, nor they had a particular form. So I started to read about poetry. After a decade or so, I can dare to say that I write a decent poetry in Marathi with one audiobook under my belt. “चिमुकली स्वप्ने” my first and only poetry collection is available on storytel for you all to enjoy.

    However, my understanding of English poetry is that of a beginner’s level. I sometime fail to comprehend if a particular piece is a poetry or just a paragraph. I found Seethalakshmi’s “Dharma Artha Kama Moksha” in Blogchatter’s E-book librabry. This particular book is a part of their Ebook carnival where I have also put up my book ओंजळभर प्रेम.

    Who did I like this one?

    Let me tell you very frankly that I fail to understand quite a few poems in this book due to my lack of understanding. Yet there are few pieces which grabbed my attention and one of them is “I See a Monster from My Window”. I just loved the way she has created this imagery of continuously growing plastic eating monster which one day will eat us all. My most favorite lines from the poem are

    Who feeds the monster, you ask?
    Oh, to remember every name, is a task
    It’s definitely me, it’s definitely you,
    It’s our every neighbour, old & new

    I see a monster from my window | Harita (Dharma Artha Kama Moksha by Seethalakshmi)

    She has penned poems covering four aspects of human life and I am sure every poet atleast once have written about Moksh / Mukti in one form or the other. Even I couldn’t stop myself from writing

    लागे मज आस, सायुज्य मुक्तीची,
    तोड बेडी आता, कर्मचक्र… ||

    I liked the way she has designed the book. Yet only think which is missing in the copy of ebook is the cover used in other graphics. Use of the same cover would have improved the appearance a bit. I am enjoying my this learning experience and am sure people who are ahead of me on this path will enjoy this collection for sure.

    You can grab your copy of Dharma Artha Kama Moksha by Seethalakshmi here.

    This is a part of Blogchatter’s Ebook Carnival. You can read more of my book recommendations here.

  • One when you miss the bus – Review of The Demons of Jaitraya

    One when you miss the bus – Review of The Demons of Jaitraya

    Indian mythologies have such a strong characters and folklore surrounding it, that any fiction author will get enticed to work on them. Some try to retell the story from different character’s perspective or some try to take the characters to entirely different era and see what will happen to them. Shubira tried the second thing.

    Review

    Plus point of The Demons of Jaitraya is a very strong plot to work with. However, I find the book an okay read for one time read. Her book couldn’t keep my eyes glued to words she has written. But i would not attribute this to her writing or storytelling. I think this book could have been more crisp and enticing with a better editing. There was a lot of repetition. Some things were told again and again which almost felt like copy paste of earlier paragraphs. I hope other books of this series have taken care of this. Cause I don’t want to lose out on this wonderful plot of events happening when Demons escaped from past wreaking havoc in today’s time and age.

    Blurb

    The epics say, in the great War of Ramayana, a number of rakshasas escaped. They hid in the bowels of the Earth, in the water and in space and remained dormant for eons. In the 20th century of the Christian era, however, some of them reappeared in different forms to plague the Earth with Wars and illnesses. At the end of his war with Ravana, Rama had asked Hanuman to raise and train a contingent of warriors who would take birth multiple times on Earth, to contain the demons. Aishani and adheesh are two such warriors, blessed with divine weapons and powers to fight the world’s evils at present times. Read this exciting story to know who finally wins. The good or the evil? The demons of jaitraya is the first book of the trilogy of the war between demons and humans.

    About the book

    Title: The Demons of Jaitraya
    Author: Shubira Prasad
    Publisher: Vitasta Publishing Pvt Ltd
    Pages: 242

    Where to Buy

    My review

    Story: 3/5
    Editing: 1/5
    Writing style: 3/5
    Cover Design: 2/5

    Overall rating: 2.25/5

    Should you read it?

    Personally, I think book has missed the mark and is ok to read once if you are into mythological fictions. Overall, strong story, poor editing, ok cover. Pick up at your own risk.

    If you want more book recommendations, click here.

  • Zero Day: Masterpiece of Thriller Mystery

    Zero Day: Masterpiece of Thriller Mystery

    You guys by now must have understood my liking for good mystery, crime and thrillers in the book world. I enjoy reading a good fiction novel or a story having crime, investigations, espionage and all the thrill attached to it. This new book by S. Hussain Zaidi is a masterpiece and sheer pleasure for any bibliophile who enjoys these genres. 

    What makes this masterpiece unputdownable?

    Any mystery or thriller works on three points, what crime is committed, who committed it and why? Generally opening with a crime scene story or novel moves through the maze of clues and challenges to reach the pinnacle where investigators reveal the identity and motive of the perpetrator. But hold on, Zero Day beats this stereotype. You know who the criminal is as well as why he’s doing what he is doing. Yet you will just keep reading to know the missing links. This is a very unique style of writing crime fiction.

    Language used by Zaidi is so simple and the narrative so fast paced, readers just get hooked on to the story. Once you start reading it, you won’t put it down until you have the answers to all the questions by the end of the book. I have finished this book with little over 200 pages in 6 hours. That too because I have to keep completing my tasks for the day on my job. If I could, I would have loved to finish it in one go.

    Blurb

    Mumbai is in a state of chaos. All traffic signals across the entire city have stopped working.

    Shahwaz Ali Mirza, head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, receives an anonymous email claiming it to be a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. He quickly puts together a crack team that includes his protege, IG Cybercrime Vikrant Singh, and gets to work trawling the dark web for more information on this mystery attack. However, a move to bring forward the hacker backfires, leading to a second, deadlier attack on Mumbai’s lifeline, the railway system.

    It is their first brush with cyberterrorism: a zero-day vulnerability in the Indian government’s system that could bring the country to its knees. Racing against time and investigating a case unlike any other, in Zero Day, Mirza and Vikrant face the most dangerous mission of their lives.

    About the book

    Title: Zero Day
    Author: S. Hussain Zaidi
    Publisher: Harper Collins
    Pages: 216

    Where to Buy

    Should you read it?

    I think I have found the first 5 star book of the year 2022. I can not recommend it enough for you guys to read. If you are a sucker for good investigative stories, you should not miss zero day. I have given you the link to grab your copies above. Do let me know how you like it if you have already read the book!

    This review is powered by the Blogchatter Book Review Program. Also read more book reviews penned by me here.

  • Tongue of Slip- a subtle humor that life brings

    Tongue of Slip- a subtle humor that life brings

    When an Indian person comes across the name of Coorg, one can only think about beautiful weather, rolling hills and coffee plantations spread across vast lands. However, today I am introducing you to one gem of a person who has dipped his toes in many areas of life. He holds a masters degree in Chemical Engineering, manages his a coffee plantation. And has also written a few books on the history of the region. Meet, Mr. C. P. Belliappa. I recently came across his book called Tongue of Slip while browsing through kindle stores. This one is full of humor

    Humor is spread everywhere in our lives. This is the thing which makes our lives better and he has managed to bring it all in this book. It has a humor from his work, funny things happening around the game of golf. In addition, there is a whole section in book which accounts situations when one literally have experienced tongue of slip or teek in chongue.. (fumble intended)

    If you like to have a good laugh on subtle humor that life brings in. Tongue of slip is your book. I simply loved this good humors book written by C P Belliappa. The way he narrated various funny events, anecdotes and memories is incredible! You should not miss this one…

    Blurb

    In this collection of over fifty anecdotes, well-known humour writer C. P. Belliappa showcases, with his trademark wit, warmth and wisdom, the funny side of life. These slice-of-life stories, drawn from his personal experiences, cover topics such as the wonder years that is childhood and hilarious cultural bloopers, and are replete with pithy observations on everyday situations. From embarrassing diplomatic gaffes committed by State dignitaries to the authors language misadventures in Paris and China, from It Happens Only in India to other rip-roaring social blunders, this book has it all. Sit back and enjoy the eloquent wit and sublime humour contained in Tongue of the Slip this is Indian satire at its best.

    About the book

    Title: Tongue of Slip

    Author: C. P. Belliappa

    Publisher: Rupa Publications India

    Pages: 182

    Where to buy

    You can read more of my reviews here. I am very happy to be a part of Blogchatter’s #TBRChallange.