50x3 Grey shades - Erika Leonard

Yeah. The trilogy. Yum. Yum. Actually I had a tough time hiding the 3 books away from the teenagers roaming at home during the reading breaks. And so I devoured the books within a  week and now I'm a certified speed reader. Too bad that I didn't get time to highlight or write footnotes nor ref reminders.

Moral of the story:- A few ideas, objects n positions can color up the grey shade of your life.

Haroun And The Sea Of Stories - Salman Rushdie

Confusion. Confusion. How to categorize this book? Fantasy? Children's Lit? Classic? Political satire? Magical realism? Whatever. It's brilliant to the beat. I loved the names of places n characters like - Kahani, Chup, Princess Batcheat, Prince Bolo, General Kitab, Iff the water genie, Khattam Shud..... But my teenaged junior finds the names a li'l difficult to comprehend. Hindi like Delhi is far far away.... The story is racy, action packed , suspense filled and makes the reader content n victorious at the end. Granted, I find the sequel Luka and the fire of life a better witty and joyful ride.

Rushdie dedicates this story to his then teenaged son. Great. But look at the mother figure. Haroun's mother elopes with their neighbor in the beginning of the story itself and joins them back at the end as cool as a kakdi. What nonsense. Autobiographical?

Another country - Anjali Joseph

 Anjali Joseph:''Stop trying to label me.''   

Hii Anjali, are you a  Malayali ? Half-Malayali ? Google says you are a Bombayite. Not that it matters. Anjali - a commoner in South India. The lack of a surname - so typical of Keralites and so I bought the book because of your name.


Another Country details the dull n dusty daily dramas of Leela Gosh - born in India, brought up in London, works in Paris, London and Bombay. The supposedly modern chick suffers from commitment phobia and dutifully goes through a string of 'boring' affairs. She seems to celebrate the staleness of modern life.

The novel is a freeze-dry read, full of stomach clenching real life situations. I didn't like the former and the latter too bitter to swallow. This surely is not my cappuccino. I'm on holiday.

F?ck Knows - Shailendra Singh

WTF !!

Yet another millionaire entrepreneur wakes up with a porous heart and  BOOM!  Let's welcome Mr Singh, the self anointed self-help guru. f?ck knows.....! What's this book about? All those tried and tested tricks to fire up the buttons of  600 million youths under the age of 25. Thus the title and the language. Why am I reading this book? The same. I share the book with my niece, she grabs, reads, loves n flaunts it in FB. The magic of The 'F' words !

Evaluation

A huge help to be cozy n comfy around the glorious 'F' word. Hereupon you are licensed to boost your f?cking swear-esteem. Refer Urban Dictionary.

F?ck only knows..... that life is not worth a f?ck.

Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K Jerome

Ridiculously hilarious !

Poor poor class 9 students. They need to dissect, assess and evaluate this book - on an exam point of view. What a comic tragedy.

Three Men In A Boat  is an amusing n entertaining boating escapade of 3 friends - Jerome, George n Harris and to say nothing of the dog Montmorency on river Thames. English humor at its best.

The moral of the travelogue :- Read, roar and plan a pleasure trip with friends ASAP. And indulge.

Idle Thoughts of An Idle Fellow - Jerome K Jerome

         on duty                          

Idle thoughts of an idle fellow on varied topics like love, babies, weather, cats and dogs, eating and drinking........ exactly on 14 subjects sprinkled with practical wisdom and warnings. Funny. Witty. Sarcastic. All done on idle mode. That's Jerome K Jerome. I simply loved his musings. Thanks to Jainco Publishers.

'' Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen.''

And The Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini

 I buy Khaled Hosseini's new book within 3 weeks ! From DC Books, Cochin. I'm so loving it.

His third novel is not about war and refugees. Of course, I enjoyed Hosseini's previous works and they are two of the best books I have ever read. However, war is war and I'm grateful for this diversion. Hats off to the Afghan story teller.

The story of Abdulla and his sister Pari starts off splendidly with a breathtaking bed time story from Afghanistan and goes through different people scattered far n wide and ends in Abdulla n Pari in a weak knot. It's just like the so called new generation movie that tells the story of different people who are connected to the main character in one way or the other. But in this case, the network is tipsy and draggy. The much anticipated reunion of the brother n sister is the best part of the book.

I gobbled down the book and ......... no, I didn't burp.