in honour of our canadian citizens

Geronimo Stilton - Elisabetta Dami

 This post is dedicated to my daughter n her friends - little fans of the famouse Geronimo Stilton ! I totally enjoy these fabumousely cheesy pieces also the Malayalam version of Geronimo Stilton - Detective Rajappan. O! it's fun - the illustrations, the creativity, word games, onomatopoeia and the puns intended.

Just wondering...... do mice really love cheese? 

                                                                                                                                                                          

Ladies Coupe - Anita Nair

Anita Nair of curly locks n big expressive eyes. I became a fan of her magic quill with The Better Man . Her first novel is mostly about men and the second totally on women. Cool.

Hmm. I enjoyed reading the book. An easy read, engrossing too. It chronicles the evolution of 6 women into efficient manipulators to find happiness n fulfillment in their respective lives. Though the narrative becomes grey, depressive and dragging at times, each lady finds out a promising prospective to look forward to and that makes the reader feel good.

Feminism? Women empowerment? What nonsense!  Manipulation - that's the word of the day, the key to success.

The Better Man - Anita Nair

The better Man is Anita Nair's first novel. It is set in Kerala, a village called Kaikurussi. The novel kicks start slowly and laboriously and becomes so picaresque that you can relate to each character in that novel/village. It's like watching an old good Malayalam movie with a good message.

Anita Nair is a great story teller.I loved reading this book. This is one of the best books I've ever read. Thus Anita Nair gets one more admirer to boast about.

Chanakya's Chant - Ashwin Sanghi

The front cover boasts of Shashi Tharoor's praise about the book - ''A delighlightfully interesting and gripping read.''  Allow me to disagree.

The novel is composed of 20 chapters. 10 of them retells the life of Chanakya and the rest reviews the modern political guru Gangasagar Mishra. Though violent n crafty, Chanakya chants with a mission - to unite Bharat under one supreme king Chandragupta Maurya and he succeeds. Mishra's aim is to secure supreme power at any cost and he too attains it through his prodigy Chandini Gupta. I prefer Chanakya. 

I'm a sucker for spiced up historical  and mythological characters n novels. Howbeit, if you have viewed the TV serial Chanakya and watched politrix movies, better avoid this novel, it has nothing new to offer.

Hey, who is your favorite  manipulator? Mine is Krishna ◕‿↼

The Walled City - Esther David

Patroness of Ahmedabadi Jews

Esther David the authoress, artist, sculptor, art critic, columnist, historian and Sahitya Akademi Award winner is the supreme living authority on the history and culture of the Bene Israel Jews of Ahmadabad. As you know the biblical heroine Queen Esther of Persia saves Jewish people from genocide and she personifies beauty, wisdom and valor. Esther David of Ahmedabad lives n stands up to her name. Amen.

The Walled City is Esther's first book and my first Esther book. Also my first Jewish novel without the grim n chilling shadows of the holocaust. Good. The story details the life, customs n conflicts of the secluded Jewish community in Ahmedabad esp that of the womenfolk. It's an emotional n touching tale, a bit depressing. 

Let the walls crumble n the doors open.....

Magic Seeds - Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul

Long time ago, I tried Naipaul's The enigma Of Arrival  but did not reach anywhere. I was hoping better luck with this book - currently the last of his looong literary career. Magic Seeds is a sequel to Half A Life. I was not aware of that. That's fine. You won't miss anything. The novel is not an easy or pleasant read. Of course I can relate to Willie Chandran the drifter, who floats through many a countries, his acute passivity towards life n people and the way he lets events unfold around him perfunctorily. I liked Willie's guerrilla life in India and his monologues but the conclusion of the novel dodged my thick skull.

Naipaul writes 2 novels to remind us that there are no magic seeds to wipe out our troubles ! That's so uncool !! The brute.