Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende

This is the story of a young woman Eliza Sommers born to a Chilean mother and British Father. She's raised as an orphan by a Victorian spinster Rose and her brother Jeremy. They live in one of the British colonies in Chile. Eliza falls in love with Joaquin Andieta, a clerk who works for Jeremy. They maintain a secret relationship and eventually Eliza gets pregnant. Joaquin leaves to California falling prey to the gold rush in North America in 1840's. Eliza decides to follow him, seeking help from a chinese doctor Tao Chein, she secretly boards a ship set to travel to SFO.

The rest of the story is all about her journey through the rough and tumble world full of newly arrived inhabitants driven crazy by gold fever. Her journey in search of love transforms into a conquest of independence and freedom.

A story full of passion, adventure, violence and immoral sex activities. A good read, not excellent though.

Zero Percentile - Neeraj Chhibba

This is the story of a smart, intelligent boy, Pankaj, who belongs to a middle class punjabi family living in Delhi during 1990s. Pankaj aims to get  into an IIT, but due to an unfortunate reason, he cannot make it. So he proceeds to a Russian city, Volvograd,  to pursue his engineering degree. And the rest of the story is all about Pankaj's struggle and survival in the foreign land.

The story is divided into 3 parts.

First part is set in Delhi, and is all about Pankaj's birth, family,childhood, school friends and his struggle to get into an IIT and eventually not getting through it.

Second part is about his college life in Russia. The backdrop is refreshing and the protagonist's struggle is very well narrated. Pankaj's determination, hardwork and practicality are very much inspiring.

The third and the last part focuses on his love life. The story has a happy ending, leaving a feel-good feeling :)

An easy-breezy read.

Revolution 2020 - Chetan Bhagat

Revolution 2020 is Chetan Bhagat's fifth book. The tag line is 'Love.Corruption.Ambition' - the story revolves around these words and the term 'Revolution 2020' has nothing to do with the main plot or may be it would be more appropriate to say that R2020 concept hasn't been focussed well in the narration.

Coming to the plot, the story takes place in the holy city of Varanasi. Gopal,Raghav and Aarti are childhood friends. Gopal comes from a lower middle class family, he loses his mother at the age of four. His father is a school teacher, he wants Gopal to be an engineer. But Gopal is not very focussed towards his career and all he wants to become, is a rich person. Raghav is a smart, intelligent boy from a well-to-do family. Aarti belongs to an elite class family, she's beautiful, caring and a happy-go-lucky person.

As the three friends grow up, Gopal falls in love with Aarti. But Aarti treats Gopal as her best friend and she has no other feelings for him. Raghav is totally into acedamics, he manages to crack JEE in the first attempt itself. Gopal, not being able to get through the entrance exams, is forced by his father to make a second attempt. So he leaves his hometown to join a coaching centre in another town.  By the time he returns to Varanasi, Aarti and Raghav are in love.

Gopal loses his father, he faces an emotional and financial turmoil, too much for his age. His plans to join in a pvt engineering college in Varanasi gets him into touch with few people who change his course of life. With some ancestral property in hand, his life takes a U turn and within a span of three years he becomes the director of an Engineering College. Raghav after completing his engineering, joins in a local news paper office as a daily reporter. He aims to bring a revolution against the corruption prevailing in the society. Aarti, after her graduation secures a job.

The triangular love story takes some interesting turns from this point and the ending is not a very pleasant one, but I found it apt. The entire story is narrated from Gopal's point of view.His narration is down-to-earth with an average boy's outlook towards life, love and ambition. Apart from the love track, the book provides an insight into the corruption in our education system and the plight of average students to get through the entrance examinations to fullfill their parents' dreams. 

There are no lol-moments in this book as compared to CB's previous release 'Two States'. The writing style is similar to his earlier releases and it's an easy breezy read. And finally, this story has all the elements to be adapted into a bollywood movie :)

I'm not twenty four... - Sachin Garg

An MDI graduate's book bearing a cover page with a girl's legs clad in blue jeans and red stilettos and with a title 'I'm not 24..I've been 19 for 5 years'...What do one expect the story to be about? Well, I thought it would a fictious love story with an IIM backdrop. But it's not so.

This is the story of a Delhi based girl, Saumya Kapoor, an MBA graduate from MDI, Gurgaon. Having been brought up in a high-fi society, her life revolves around shopping malls, coffee shops and handsome guys. She like any other metropolitan girl expects to be placed in a corporate company after her studies. However, a confusion arises due to her unisexual name and she gets into a reputed steel company which is located in a remote village, Toranagallu in Northern Karnataka. Though she's not comfortable with the idea of staying away from city life, family and friends she decides to accept the job.

Once she lands in Toranagallu, she loves the place instantaneously. During her induction period she meets Shubrodeep Shyam Chaudary at Hampi. Shubro leads a nomadic life style, loves weed and beer more than anything else. His decision to lead a life based on a 'move-on' theory takes him through different parts of the world and now he's in Hampi for 90 days.Suamya gets attracted to Shubro's looks. After partying with a couple of other friends in a bar, she comes back to Toranagallu.

Her job profile is an emotionally stressful one and after some horryfying experiences she decides to quit after the 3 month notice period. It's then Shubro enters her life again. He decides to stay in Toranagallu for a period of 90 days as a part of his 'move-on' theory. And the rest  of the story is about how Saumya falls in love with Shubro, despite his weird habits and nomadic lifestyle and how he influences her way of thinking towards life. There's also a story behind Shubro's lifestyle and it unfolds in the last part of the novel. It's highly unconvincing, but still, it feels good when we read stories which are hard to believe and this's one such story.

Expect for the first few chapters it's an interesting read. The writing style is simple and it took less than 4hrs for me to complete.

Heartbreaks & Dreams - Parul A.Mittal

This is the story of  a teenager Tanu. She's an average looking, confident and intelligent girl who has been brought up in a middle class family. She's very much focussed towards her career and determines to pursue her degree in an IIT. She successfully cracks the JEE and gets admitted in the IIT, Delhi. The story starts at this point.

From being a nerd in the beginning, she transforms into the most outstanding student in her batch by the end of her final year.Her struggle and survival through the 4 years of college life in IIT is described in a simple, straigh-forward manner. Her initial feelings of infactuation towards her batchmate and the subsequent determination to overcome it and focus on her studies and the way she dealt with the marriage proposal from her senior are very impressive. Life in IIT (with a skewed sex-ratio, gruelling course work and biased professors) seen through a girl's perspective is quite interesting. 

Not a great read, but definitely a good one. Finished it in one go :)

Right Fit Wrong Shoe - Varsha Dixit

I love to read romantic fiction and this book was recommended to me by my cousin. The title and the genre attracted me and hence I chose to read this book first from my 2012 to-read lot of books.

Nandini Sharma works for an advertising company in Kanpur. Her best friend Sneha Verma too works for the same company. Nandini is a young, bubbly, smart looking girl. The story begins where Nandini comes to know that her company is now a part of Sarin group of industries and her new boss would be Aditya Sarin with whom she had a brief relationship in the past. Due to some unforseen circumstances Nandini breaks up with Aditya (reasons unknown to him) and now he's hell bent on taking revenge for her deed in the past. The rest of the story is about how the lovers realise their true feelings towards each other. The mystery for the break-up unfolds in the last chapter and then a happy ending follows.

Though there's nothing new in the storyline, the fast paced narration and the witty one-liners between Aditya-Nandini and Nandini-Sneha tranforms this book into a page turner. Each chapter is named after a bollywood movie and it reflects the author's penchant for movies which she candidly admits. There are too many acronyms and references to movie dialogues across the novel, thankfully there is a glossary at the end :)

A typical Mills and Boons kind of romantic novel. Also reminded me of Yaddanapoodi Sulochana Rani's romantic novels. A light, breezy read.

Six Suspects – Vikaas Swarup

This crime based fiction is the second book written by the author after his famous debut Q & A.The plot seems to be based on the murder of Jessica Lal, a model in a bar.

Vicky Roy, son of UP’s Home Minister kills a bartender girl Ruby Gill when she refuses to offer him a drink at a party. He gets acquitted by the court through his father’s influence and plans to celebrate a grand party on this occassion at his farmhouse in the outskirts of New Delhi. However, he gets killed in the party. There are six suspects in this case who were present at the party carrying pistols. And then the story takes you to the background of each suspect and their reasons to carry the weapon to the party. Finally the murder mystery unfolds in a surprising way.

Though it appears to be a murder mystery, the narration doesn’t suit to it. This actually is a multi-cultural fictious story. It takes you through different places in India (including the Andamans), the cultures, different classes of people and their mentalities. The narration relates to many  incidents like the Bhopal gas leakage tragedy, Kumbh Mela, Al-quaida blasts etc. Corruption in politics, sex scandals of politicians, bollywood  life and many more issues are described.In short, it gives you a picture of present India.

The story of Larry Page, the American guy seemed to be very unconvincing. Other than this, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The climax reminded me of the film ‘A Wednesday’. A 480 page unputdownable read

My most loved stories from around the world – Apple books

This’s a collection of famous folk tales from China, Africa, Norway and few other countires. Reading a folk tale had always been a pleasure to me ‘coz through these stories we get an insight into the culture and traditions of the society from which they originated.

Simple, short and sweet tales. They take you away to strange and distant lands. Recommended for bedtime story telling to kids

The Bachelor of Arts – R.K.Narayan

The is the story of a young man, Chandran who lives with his family in the village of Malgudi during the pre-indepence era. The story describes his journey from adolescence to matured adulthood. It’s a short, simple and thought provoking story. Another delightful read from R.K.Narayan.

It’s just about 160 pages, a quick read

The Other Side of Midnight – Sidney Sheldon

The story is about the lives of two women, Noelle Page and Catherine, both from two different parts of the world. Both of them fall in love with the same man, Larry Douglas. Larry betrays Noelle and settles down with Catherine. Noelle plans to take a revenge and in the process she becomes the mistress of Constantin Demeris, a greek business tycoon. The story revolves around these four characters. Very much entertaining and the title is very well chosen. Good timepass read.

But, strictly not for readers under 18 as it has too many steamy lovemaking scenes.

Tribal Women in development – Dr Lipi Mukhopadhyay

My interest in the life-style of tribal women began when I was reading some case-studies/fact finding reports published by the Human Rights Commission, regarding the attrocities against the tribal people. I personally feel that tribal women are far more efficient, confident and independent when compared to the women in urban/rural areas. They play a siginificant role in the socio-economic structure of their society. They enjoy more freedom regarding their marriage/personal lives than their counterparts in non-tribal regions.


This book is an analytical study of cultural,social, economic and political life of tribal women in India. Their role in agriculture, forestry, industrial areas, arts and crafts are discussed. Various case studies of tribal women across different regions of India are presented.Their beliefs, traditions and life-styles are detailed. Enviromental degradation and exploitation of non-tribal people are making lives of tribal women difficult now a days. The author finally discussed some measures to be taken for the upliftment of tribal women.

Not a casual,timepass read. Go for it only if you are interested in this particular subject.

2 States – Chetan Bhagat

I haven’t read Chetan Bhagat’s books so far and ’2 States’ is the first one.

It’s the love story of two IIMA graduates, Krish from Punjab and Ananya from Tamilnadu. It’s all about how they convince each other’s parents to get them married. The cross-state cultural differences lead to some hilarious incidents. I’m impressed with CB’s simple writing style. Though the plot is much predictable with no surprise elements, the narration is pretty good. It’s an enjoyable one time read.

I’ve read in yesterday’s newspaper that this script is going to the Bollywood sets with Shahrukh and Asin as the main leads Would love to watch it on big screen.

The Inscrutable Americans – Anurag Mathur

Gopal, son of a hair oil tycoon in MP lands in the US of A to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering. He’s a rural boy and is totally unaware of the American culture, slang etc. His ignorance leads to many hilarious incidents during his stay in America. This novel is a description of America through Gopal’s eyes. It’s out n out a comical entertainer. Quick and easy read.

I couldn’t stop remembering the book ‘Baristaru Paarvatheesam’ in Telugu while reading this.

Mafia Queens of Mumbai – S.Hussain Zaidi with Jane Borges

Mafia Queens of Mumbai is a collection of stories of 13 different women who played an important role in the Mumbai underworld. These stories are pieced from information gathered from family, aquaintances of those women and also through some official documents and reports.

It begins with the story of Jenabai Daaruwaali, a freedom-fighter who laters turns to illegal grain trade to feed her 6 young children after her husband abandons the family. She then enters into liquor business and gets into contact with underworld dons Haaji Mastan, Kareem Laala etc. She was treated with high respect both by the underworld and the police department.

Then comes the story of Gangubhai from Kamathipura who gets into prostitution much aganist her will. She turns out to be a winner here and tries to protect the rights of sex workers.


The third and the most interesting story is about Sapna Didi aka Ashraf Khan. She’s the widow of an underworld man Mehmood who gets killed in an encounter planned by Daawood Ibrahim. She decides to take revenge on Daawood unaware of how dangerous person she’s after. She’s brutally killed by Daawood’s men and her mission remains unaccomplished.

Then there are stories of Narco queens Jyothi and Mahalaxmi Papamani, Abu Salem’s lover Monica Bedi and few other women who directly or indirectly are linked with Mafia.

The first 3 stories and Monica Bedi’s episode are very well written while the other stories are too short.All these stories are real and reveal a totally different side of Mumbai’s underworld. An interesting read, I would say.

Eppudoo chadive, choose maga goondaala gurinchi kaakundaa aada goondaala gurinchi thelsukodam chaalaa baagundi

Life is what you make it – Preeti Shenoy

This’s the story of Ankita Sharma, a smart, intelligent and beautiful college going girl. She leads a dream life of any teenage girl.She’s very active, outgoing and can impress people around her very easily. She gets admission into a top management institute for her MBA course. She has certain goals and works towards achieving them.

 

 Life is not always the same. She shows signs of mental disorder and attempts to kill herself twice.  She strives to get back to her normal life and it’s not that easy. She’s admitted into a mental hospital where she regains control over life.

It’s a highly sensitive subject, narrated in a simple and apt way. Truly an inspiring and heart-touching story. It makes you realise that no matter wherever destiny decides to take you, it is all your attitude towards life that matters. Yes, Life is what you make it.

Don’t miss this one  

A film based on this story would be a good attempt to make.

Urban Shots

I picked this short story collection after an exhausted read of Millenium series. Urban shots is a compilation of 28 stories by 13 different authors. The stories revolve around love, friendship, longing, angst and relations is urban life.

Most of the stories are heart-touching and connect with our day-to-day lives. My favourites are ‘The Biggest Problem’, ‘Stick Figures’,'Slow Rain’ and ‘Dialects of Silence’. Few stories are just ordinary and end abruptly without any conclusion.

Over all, it’s a nice read.

The Girl who kicked the Hornets’ Nest – Millenium Trilogy – Part 3

This’s the 3rd and last book of the Trilogy. It’s a true sequel to the previous book (The Girl who Played with Fire). The story (in the second book) ends where Lisbeth is shot by her father, Alexander Zalancheko, a former Russian Spy and she in turn attempts to kill him. Her half-brother Neidermann escapes.There are many unanswered questions in the second book.



The third one begins where Lisbeth and her father are both hospitalised. Both of them stay in the same hospital just two rooms apart. Zalachenko tries to kill Lisbeth, but he gets murdered by Sapo’s  former chief Evert Gullberg.Salander’s enemies are determined to lock her in a mental hospital for life with the help of a psychiatrist. Lisbeth has to face a trial for the events that transpired at the end of  the second book. How Lisbeth gets freed of all the charges laid against her and how all her enemies are arrested, forms the rest of the story. Mikael Blomkvist (the journalist), his sister Annika (Defence Lawyer) and few other officers work together to prove Lisbeth’s innoncence. This book brings all the unsolved pieces of puzzle together.

Finally, the Trilogy ends with a satisfactory conclusion. This book too is very much addicting just as the previous ones. This trilogy is a complex read and it would be better  if you read all the three books back to back. Finally, as I’ve said before, Lisbeth’s character is truly amazing and she’s now one my favourite heroine (of the  novels I read so far).

Third book for the Readers marathon event.

The Girl Who Played with Fire – Millenium Trilogy – Part 2

This’s another thrilling read. I would say it’s more astonishing than the first part. Many of the characters from the first part The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo appear in this book, Journalist Mikael Blomkvist and private investigator Lisbeth Salander being the lead ones.

After solving the mystery of Harriet Vanger’s disappearance (in the first part), Lisbeth stays away from Mikael Blomkvist for reasons unknown to him. She spends a holiday abroad and returns to Sweden. Purchases an apartment, changes her indentity, address and starts a new life.

Mikael, approached by his colleague with a thesis on sex trafficking in Sweden, plans to run the story in the upcoming issue of Millenium. Shortly before the printing, he discovers his colleagues murdered in their apartment in Stockholm. The next day Lisbeth’s guardian Nils Bjurman is also found dead in his house. Lisbeth turns out to be the primary suspect in these three murders.

Mikael believes that Lisbeth is innocent and he wants to prove the same. How he gets into contact with her and how the mystery behind the murders is solved forms the rest of the story. The connection between Lisbeth and the people responsible for these illegal activities (Sex trafficking) is the main point around which the story revolves.

The author handled a number of characters with parallel narratives in an outstanding manner without losing the tension. The only one point where I was confused is that I couldn’t make any sense why he quoted mathematical equations before each part of the novel. Lisbeth is exploring the book Dimensions of Mathematics in the first part of the novel. Still, I couldn’t make a connection.
Second entry to Readers guild reading marathon.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Millenium Trilogy – Part 1

An out n out Suspense crime thriller, the first one in the Millenium Trilogy written by Swedish writer Late Stieg Larsson. I found the first few pages a little boring, but once the main plot of the novel began, I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

The story revolves around journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Co-owner of a Political Magazine Millenium in Stockholm) and his research assistant Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist loses his reputation when his article about a business tycoon(Wennerstrom) backfires and he is also sentenced for a 3 month imprisonment in the same case. At this time he gets an offer from Henrik Vanger to investigate into a  36 year old case of mysterious disappearance of Henrik’s grand-niece Harriet Vanger during a family gathering. He hires Lisbeth as his research assistant and both of them solve the mystery. Lisbeth is an unusual lady with excellent computer hacking skills and photographic memory.

The story takes place in Sweden. Lots n lots of violence against women has been described in the novel. Fell in love with Lisbeth’s Character She’s amazing.

And this would be my first entry to Readers Guild Marathon which’s being conducted by Evening Hour. Thanks Sushma for letting me know about this event.

Chander Pahaar - Moon Mountain

This is the story of a Bengaali youngster’s adventures.

Shankar, after graduation, when he was about to take up a job in his native place, gets a chance to travel to Uganda and work for their railway track construction. He readily accepts the offer and travels to Africa. Initially he works as a layman where he first encounters man-eating lions. Later he gets promoted as a station master of a remote and isolated railway station. Here he comes across the black mamba. He rescues a portugese traveller and gets influenced by his adventures through the African forests and deserts. Shankar resigns to his job and both of them start off their journey to explore the diamond mines in Africa. They face so many life threatening dangers in the forest. One day, the portugese traveller is killed by a monster Bunip. From there onwards Shankar is all alone and he searches for a way out into the normal world. And the rest of the story is about his journey through the Kalahaari desert and the diamond mines and finally back to his home.

This book was written by the famous Bengaali writer Bhibuti Bhushan Bandyopaadyaay, the one who wrote Pather Panchaali, Vanavaasi (Aranyak) etc. I haven’t come across Pather Paanchaali yet, but I happened to read his another book Vanavaasi. And this book Chander Pahaar is not that famous as his other two books, but I loved this book too much. A 200% adventerous thriller, takes you to a totally different world.
And this one was from my Peddi’s collection