Review: A Newlywed's Adventures in Married Land by Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Title: A Newlywed's Adventures in Married Land

Author: Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Publishers: Indireads

Date of Publication: June 12th, 2013

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: Ebook (pdf)

Length: 102 pages

My Source: Ebook (pdf)

“Dependent!!?” Mythili and Siddharth realize that being newlywed in a foreign country is very different from being passionately in love, long-distance. She has just moved to the Philippines to be with the love of her life and new husband, Siddharth. After being a hard-as-nails reporter who covered crime stories of the goriest kind, Mythili is now just a ‘dependent’. On top of that, unemployment, encounters with expat-wives and culture shock leave her feeling like she has fallen down a rabbit hole. Will their love survive, or will she become just another unhappily married expatriate wife? Will this real life Alice ever embrace her Wonderland?

This was an ARC that I thought would be fun reading. My prediction wasn’t quite correct but the book wasn’t a disappointment either. It was a fast-paced, light read and a mixture of lots of emotions involving little bit of fun as well. One of the prime reasons for my choosing this book was the similarities that the author have drawn with “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”- I was curious about how she had connected the two completely different phenomenon, and while reading the book, I found the metaphor was woven wittily and meaningfully.

After marrying Siddharth, Mythili finds herself landing in Manila, detached from his own world, friends and relatives. Back in India she was a passionate crime reporter but after reaching the foreign country with Siddharth she is tagged as a merely ‘dependent’ person. The ‘Desi Gang’, comprised of NRIs living out there was no help at all. The story is about how Mythili adopts herself there against all odds.

From the very beginning I liked Mythili’s character. One can easily understand her state of mind after leaving her country and being in a whole new world, surrounded by bunch of new and different people who were nothing like her. She could hardly be herself with them. After working passionately all her life, being jobless and the dependent status totally sucked! But the series of events somehow made her discover herself better and her bond with Siddharth strengthen even more. Siddharth was very supportive of her and tried his best to make her feel comfortable. The relationship the two shared was beautiful and really sweet.

To cut things short, Shweta has done a pretty good job with the book. The narration is lucid and captivating. All in all, it was an interesting and enjoyable reading experience for me. 

Shweta Ganesh Kumar is a writer and travel columnist. An alumnus of the Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, she worked as Communications Officer for Greenpeace India and as a correspondent with CNN-IBN, before dedicating her life to writing. 

Her third book and first novella, 'A Newlywed's Adventures in Married Land,' is now available worldwide from Toronto-based publishers Indireads. 


Her second novel ‘Between the Headlines-The travails of a TV reporter’ was released in May 2012 and is now available in bookstores and online stores. 

Her first novel ‘Coming Up On The Show… The Travails of a news trainee’ sold more than 10,000 copies within the first two months of its release in May 2011 and was also listed on multiple bestseller lists.


A mother herself, she writes on the joys and trials of being a parent in a five day a week bulletin called 'The Times Of Amma - the motherhood bulletin with badly-drawn cartoons.' 


The New Indian Express, One Philippines and Geo (Indian edition) have published many of her travel columns. RobinAge, a leading children’s newspaper features her pet and travel columns for children. ‘Kiski Kahani – The Ramayana Project’, an Open Space initiative, features her essays on the diversity of the Ramayana. 

Her non-fiction pieces have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Indian Spiritual Soul, Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul – On Friendship and also in CBW’s India’s Top 42 Weekend Getaways eBook. Women's Web has featured her feminist columns and Mahindra's Mom and Me - her columns on being a new mother. 


Her short fiction has been published in Indian Voices- an anthology, Shades of Love (An Anthology of Short Stories), Winds of Change (An Anthology), Australian Women Online, Single Solitary Thought, Pothiz, Damazine and the Asia Writes Project.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Review: The Reckless Engineer by Jac Wright

Title: The Reckless Engineer

Author: Jac Wright

Series: The Reckless Engineer #1

Publishers: Soul Mate Publishing, New York

Date of Publication: 19th Oct, 2013

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Format: Paperback

Length: 400 pages

My Source: e-book from the author

Love is a battlefield. 

The aftershocks of an affair reverberate out to those in the lives of the lovers, who will NOT take it lying down.

Jack Connor's lives an idyllic life by the Portsmouth seaside married to Caitlin McAllen, a stunning billionaire heiress, and working at his two jobs as the Head of Radar Engineering of Marine Electronics and as the Director of Engineering of McAllen BlackGold, his powerful father-in-law Douglas McAllen's extreme engineering company in Oil & Gas. He loves his two sons from his first marriage and is amicably divorced from his beautiful first wife Marianne Connor. Their delicately balanced lives are shattered when sexy Michelle Williams, with whom Jack is having a secret affair and who is pregnant with his child, is found dead and Jack is arrested on suspicion for the murder.

Jeremy Stone brings London's top defence attorney, John Stavers, to handle his best friend's defence.

Who is the bald man with the tattoo of a skull seen entering the victim's house? Who is "KC" who Caitlin makes secret calls to from a untraceable mobile? Has powerful Douglas McAllen already killed his daughter's first partner and is he capable of killing again? Is Caitlin's brother Ronnie McAllen's power struggle with Jack for the control of McAllen Industries so intense that he is prepared to kill and frame his brother-in-law? Is the divorce from Jack's first wife as amicable on her part as they believe it to be? Are his sons prepared to kill for their vast inheritance? Who are the ghosts from Caitlin's past in Aberdeen, Scotland haunting the marriage? What is the involvement of Jack's manager at Marine Electronics?

​

The cast of characters is made even more colorful by the supporting entourage: the big Scott and his gang, Hosé and Heineken, who carry out Douglas McAllen’s “troubleshooting;” McAllens' bumbling solicitors McKinley and Magnus Laird; Caitlin McAllen’s handymen, Cossack and Levent; and Jeremy’s sidekick, the gay black actor working in the London West End.



While Jack is charged and his murder trial proceeds in the Crown Court under barrister John Stavers’ expert care, Jeremy runs a race against time to find the real killer and save his friend's life, if he is in fact innocent, in a tense saga of love, desire, power, and ambition.

I received a copy of The Reckless Engineer from the author Jac Wright in exchange of an honest review. I hadn't heard Jac's name before when he approached me, but as the blurb seemed to be interesting, I took this ARC request and I'm quite happy that I did.

This is the story of Jack Connor, a womanizer and the unfaithful husband of Caitlin McAllen, beautiful and elegant daughter of a wealthy businessman. The story begins when Jack is arrested and accused of killing a woman, Michelle, his colleague and also pregnant with his child. Jack calls his friend Jeremy for help and Jeremy's friend Harry Stavers, one of the London's top criminal lawyer, takes charge of Jack's case. 

As Harry works on Jack's defense, Jeremy investigates what happened and tries to untangle the mess Jack has put himself and his family in by having multiple affairs with women at work. The action follows Jeremy to the McAllen English estate and Scotland where Caitlin's family still lives and works.

The story-line of the book is very interesting and the mystery is solid. Jeremy who is an engineer by profession, attempts to find the murderer before Jack is convicted and sent to prison. Jeremy is also trying to keep his engineering firm solvent, reconcile with his ex-wife, be loyal to Jack's ex-wife and his current wife, and keep a good working relationship with the McAllens, who have hired him to run the company in Jack's absence.

This is a well-written mystery and I was having a hard time guessing who actually killed Michelle until it was revealed. I think some part of the book, like Jeremy's attempts to get back in the relationship with his ex-wife, Maggie could have been excluded as it has nothing to do with the main plot. Also, some of the Engineering stuffs seemed a bit unnecessary. However, since this is the first book of the series, perhaps the author plans to elaborate the relationships even more in the sequels. 

One positive thing about the book is its character building. All the characters are well and vividly described. The narration (its a third person narrative) is good too, the scenes are properly described. 

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. I'd recommend it to all who love reading mystery/thrillers. And lastly, I want to thank the author for approaching me to read and review this book. It was worth reading. 

Jac Wright is a published poet, a published author, and an electronics engineer educated at Stanford, University College London, and Cambridge who lives and works in England. Jac studied English literature from an early age of three, developing an intense love for poetry, drama, and writing in Speech & Drama classes taken every Saturday for fourteen years, and in subsequent creative writing classes taken during the university years. A published poet, Jac's first passion was for literary fiction and poetry writing as well as for the dramatic arts. You will find these influences in the poetic imagery and prose, as well as the in the dramatic scene setting and deep character creation.

These passions - for poetry, drama, literary fiction, and electronic engineering - have been combined to create the first book in the literary suspense series, The Reckless Engineer. There are millions of professionals in high tech corporate environments who work in thousands of cities in the US, the UK, and the world such as engineers, technicians, technical managers, investment bankers, and corporate lawyers. High drama, power struggles, and human interest stories play out in the arena every day. Yet there are hardly any books that tell their stories; there are not many books that they can identify with. Jac feels compelled to tell their stories in The Reckless Engineer series.

Jac also writes the literary short fiction series, Summerset Tales, in which Wright explores characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances in the semi-fictional region of contemporary England called Summerset, partly the region that Thomas Hardy called Wessex. Some of the tales have an added element of suspense similar to Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. The collection is published as individual tales in the tradition of Geoffrey Chaucer's Caterbury Tales, Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and Thomas Hardy's Wessex Tales. The first tale, The Closet, accompanies the first title in the author's full-length series, The Reckless Engineer.

Social Media Links

Amazon Author Page | Website | Facebook | Blog | Twitter

Review: Eighth Grade Bites (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Book One) by Heather Brewer

Title: Eighth Grade Bites

Series: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #1

Author: Heather Brewer

Publishers: Dutton Children's Book

Date of Publication: August 16th, 2007

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult

Format: Hardcover

Length: 172 pages

My Source: Ebook

Synopsis

Junior high really sucks for thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod. Bullies harass him, the principal is dogging him, and the girl he likes prefers his best friend. Oh, and Vlad has a secret: his mother was human, but his father was a vampire. With no idea of the extent of his powers, Vlad struggles daily with his blood cravings and his enlarged fangs. When a substitute teacher begins to question him a little too closely, Vlad worries that his cover is about to be blown. But then he faces a much bigger problem: he's being hunted by a vampire killer.

Review

This book follows a 13 year old boy, Vladimir Tod, a vampire, through his first year of high school. Vlad is a human-vampire hybrid with a human mother and a vampire father. Vlad deals with the usual dilemmas in high school like crushing on the pretty girl at school, putting up with bullies and having your aunty hide your blood fix in your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…


Vlad has to deal with a creepy substitute who seems to know exactly what he is. Vlad begins to discover secrets of his parent’s who died 3 years earlier in a mysterious fire and the secret’s his father had been keeping from Vlad and his mother. Without giving away any spoilers, I love Henry, Vlad’s best friend who just happens to be the only human Vlad has ever bitten. Throughout the book, Vlad is figuring out his vampire powers and lives with his Aunt Nellie who hides his blood fix in Twinkies (whatever they are) and sandwiches. While I think he could have just taken a normal drink bottle to school full of blood, I still love the creativity of the whole “hiding the blood capsule” thing.

Vlad discovers his father's journal in the attic and is learning about the reality of being a vampire and the powers that he may possess. Vlad also becomes convinced that there is a vampire killer in town, and that he is next on the killer's list. Things go from bad to worse when Aunt Nelly invites Otis to dinner and he confronts Vlad with what he knows. 

Overall, this book is a first in a series so it has a few plot holes and leaves you with a lot of questions as to how Grade 9 is going to be for Vlad. Vlad is refreshing and one of the best characters I’ve come across. So while the plot of this first book is a little washy, Vlad is freaking awesome and I’ll definitely be reading the next four to find out where this series is going.

About The Author

Heather Brewer was not your typical teen growing up. She wore black, danced under full moons and devoured every book in sight.
She hasn’t changed much.

Today, Heather can be found writing in her funky, black Happy Bunny jammie pants, dancing under the full moon, devouring every book in sight, and attending Renaissance Festivals in costume (and in character). 

When Heather's not writing, dressing up, dancing and reading, she's answering email, which she LOVES to get. You can email Heather by using the contact form on the right. But before you do, make sure you check the FAQ to see if your question has been answered there. Unfortunately, Heather cannot respond to all emails, as doing so would take up valuable writing time (and we wouldn't want that, would we?), but you can always reach her by commenting on her blog or her Facebook, or by following her on Twitter.

My Friendship Bond

My Reaction

Review: What Young India Wants by Chetan Bhagat

How I came to Know about The Book: I bought this.

Format of The Book: Paperback

Genre: Non-fiction

Length of the Book: 181 pages.

A Short Synopsis: In his latest book, What Young India Wants, Chetan Bhagat asks hard questions, demands answers and presents solutions for a better, more prosperous India.

Why do our students regularly commit suicide?
Why is there so much corruption in India?
Cant our political parties ever work together?
Does our vote make any difference at all?
We love our India, but shouldnt some things be different?
All of us have asked these questions at some time or the other. So does Chetan Bhagat, Indias most loved writer, in What Young India Wants, his first book of non-fiction.

What Young India Wants is based on Chetan Bhagat's vast experience as a very successful writer and motivational speaker. In clear, simple prose, and with great insight, he analyses some of the complex issues facing modern India, offers solutions and invites discussion on them. And, at the end, he asks this important question: Unless we are all in agreement on what it is going to take to make our country better, how will things ever change? Non-fiction If you want to understand contemporary India, the problems that face it, and want to be a part of the solution, What Young India Wants is the book for you.

Review: 

Please note that this review is not written by me. While going through the reviews on this book on Goodreads I came across this review written by Subroto  (to view his profile on GR use the link given) and seriously there was not a single word to which I wanted to disagree. It was so well written and moreover, it says exactly the things I felt while reading the book. Hence, instead of writing a review myself, I opted for posting his on my blog. Here it goes:

"If this book does even 1/10th of the magic of what he has been able to do with his earlier books (brought reading back in fashion for a net addicted generation, inspired hundreds and thousands of indians to write, with his simple straight english reached hinterlands of india where english language reading was scarcely there ) - he would have made a much more significant difference to India than a lot of intelligent thinkers out there. 

This book will be remembered less for the exact solutions he's proposed for the problems of India (many might debate that they are too simplistic and also India is not that simple an animal) but more for what it stands for - his encouraging us to start thinking - and to start thinking in whatever capacity we are and to never stop thinking cos that is to lose hope - lose hope in our country ever getting better and thus letting the problem fester. He encourages us to be impatient and to try and use all juggad one can to solve the problems of this country :) 

Chetan through his own example leaves back a message for us to not just oppose and debate - but to propose a solution - however simple or rudimentary it might sound. He challenges us to have the balls to propose a solution on (as a lot of intellectuals / politicians would call) incomplete knowledge, even as a lot of other supposedly much qualified people (who have themselves not been able to solve it except cry foul and debate) knock you down with study and data. In such times, he makes a case for us to keep looking for solutions in his own inimitable style. 

Some of his own common sensical solutions make you whoop with joy - allow educational institutions to run on a for profit basis to encourage quality educational set up by private entrepreneurs, run a political party where young professionals are paid salaries /stipends so that people aspire to be one, cut defense expenditure by leveraging strategic defense partnership and astute foreign policy and divert those funds for education / health care set up. 

His style of writing remains what many would say high school. Simple sentences. No words for which you need to use the dictionary. It takes some time to get used to it but after some time you start enjoying his simplicity. Most appealing about this book is the part where he on his own confesses that he may not be right about whatever he's stating here - that's not the intent. There could always be many solutions to a problem. All he's saying is that lets not in all our analysis paralysis forget that the problem exists. Don’t let it drag to its own death or be pushed by another bigger problem. Debate is good for college hall rooms and year long research and theses are better suited for phd students - not to take decisions for a billion strong country. 
Chetan Bhagat haters be damned - I totally loved this book and will recommend it to each and every young man and woman I meet!"

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Review: The 3 Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat

How I came to Know about the Book: I bought this.

Format of the Book: Paperback.

Gene: Indian fiction, Contemporary, Romance.

Length of the Book: 258 pages.

A Short Synopsis: In late-2000, a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind dreamt of having a business. To accomodate his friends Ish and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. Govind's wants to make money and thinks big. Ish is all about nurturing Ali, the batsman with a rare gift. Omi knows his limited capabiltiies and just wants to be with his friends. However, nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize their goals, they will have to face it all - religious politics, earthquakes, riots, unacceptable love and above all, their own mistakes. Will they make it? Can an individual's dreams overcome the nightmares offered by real life? Can we succeed despite a few mistakes?


Characters of the Book: Govind, Ishaan, Omi, Vidya, Bittoo mama, Ali, Ali's father and others.


My Review:  It opens with Bhagat receiving an emailed suicide note from someone in Ahmedabad he's never heard of before. Intrigued and worried he wants to do something to help, but doesn't know what to do. Fortunately, "there are advantages in having a wife who is smarter than you" and she tells him to call an old college professor there... Finding out the unknown suicide's name and what hospital he's in, Bhagat can't relax at all and flies from Singapore to India to talk to him.

From there it's all Govind's story about his and his two oldest best friends' ambitions and the three big mistakes he made that drove him to kill himself.

Set against a backdrop of real events in Gujarat and India, earthquake, religious riots and international cricket, we follow the rise of Govind, Ish and Omi's small business as they try to balance their individual interests. Only Govind has a head for business, math and logic, but he learns about passion from his friends, like Ish's passion for cricket and Omi's for his family's political ambitions. And when he curses strongly in front of Ish's younger sister and apologizes she says he needn't, it's a sign of passion and she likes when he does it.

In the end, all three mistakes are resolved, of course. One is resolved long before the end and hardly seems a big mistake at all. The others take a bit more time.

I love Chetan Bhagat's ability to connect with his readers, his simple language flow just grips you. Yeah, there sure are some limitations, but highly ignorable. 

Apart from a few events like Omi's death, the story was a light and enjoyable read. Instead of bothering about the literary content too much and criticizing Bhagat for it, if you want to enjoy reading the book, it's surely suitable for you.

Rating:

My Reaction: 

 

Review: Lajja (Shame) by Taslima Nasrin

How I came to Know About the Book: I heard about Taslima Nasrin and her books (especially this one) a long time ago, but I wasn't allowed to read those back then since I was said that 'these books are not suitable for your age'! But a couple of months ago I read this borrowing it from a friend.

Format of the Book: Hardcover

Genre: Cultural, Religion.

Length of the Book: 216 pages.

A Short Synopsis: The Duttas - Sudhamoy, Kironmoyee, and their two children, Suranjan and Maya - have lived in Bangladesh all their lives. Despite being part of the country's small Hindu community, that is terrorized at every opportunity by Muslim fundamentalists, they refuse to leave their country, as most of their friends and relatives have done. Sudhamoy, an atheist, believes with a naive mix of optimism and idealism that his motherland will not let him down... 
And then, on 6 December 1992, the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in India is demolished by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists. The world condemns the incident but its fallout is felt most acutely in Bangladesh, where Muslim mobs begin to seek out and attack the Hindus... The nightmare inevitably arrives at the Duttas' doorstep - and their world begins to fall apart.

My Review: 
"Let another name for religion be humanism."

The book presents story of a hindu family living in Bangladesh/East Pakistan in 1992 when Babri Masjid riots were going on in India. The book tells the story of Dutta family which loves Bangladesh, even though they see clear discrimination, violence and hatred for Hindus. The nation of Bangladesh was created for people who called themselves as 'Bangla', but slowly a movement started which converted Bangladesh to an Islamic country. The vision of the nation was to be a secular country, but it ended up as an Islamic country. The story revolves around the lives of a family consisting Sudhmoy(husband, doctor), Kiranmoyee(Wife) and their two kids Suranjan and Maya. The book shows in the beginning Suranjan is patriotic and wants to bring social justice in his country Bangladesh. His father is as patriotic as he is and ridicules Hindus who are leaving Bangladesh during the troubled times. However, after the Babri riots happen, all hell breaks loose and the family faces really hard times. Slowly Suranjan starts identifying himself as Hindu and not Bangla anymore. The story ends with the family giving up their hopes and aspirations to be knows as citizens of Bangladesh.

The tale is very touching and shows how a nation betrays its citizens, even when the only emotion they have for their country is patriotism. The nation of Bangladesh has failed to live upto the dreams and aspirations of its Hindu citizens which helped in its creation.

However, there are certain aspects of writing which make the book less appealing. There are real life facts/events which have been directly copy pasted in the middle of the text. It becomes very boring to read them after a few pages. The characters seem to have a flawless memory of all these events as they remember and narrate them without any problems at all. All this happens way too often and it becomes annoying. The patriotism seems to be impractical, even when your daughter is being kidnapped and raped, its impractical to imagine that you will still praise your nation without any complains!

I can certainly understand or rather feel the reason behind writing the book, but I didn't like the way it was written.

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Review: In Love of Honey, Money...and My Virgin Passport by Mita Jain

How I came to Know about The Book: From Goodreads. It was for an ARR request that I read the book.


Format of The Book: ebook (pdf).


Genre: Contemporary, Indian Fiction


Length of The Book: 205 pages (for pdf version).


A Short Synopsis: Let’s play a game. I say a word, and you think of the next few words that flash in your mind.

Hyderabad –
Bangalore –
Gurgaon -
Mysore –
Pune –

Did something click in your mind? Is there something common about all these places? If so, you already know what this book is about: the very iconic software a.k.a. IT industry.

Is this industry really a way to easy & money-minting job? Maybe yes. Maybe no. What do you say? Perhaps, Vinay can help you decide. (Goodreads Page).

Characters of The Book: Vinay, Loveleena, Cyrus, Farheen, Rajlakshmi, Nikhila, Paramjeet, Samar, A.D., Sunanda Khare, Anoop, Vishnu, Karthik, Khushi.

My Review: Vinay, a fresh graduate in IT opts for a stable and secure job in the software industry. He tries to formulate success
and at the same time balance his professional and personal lives. This book speaks of the hurdles, achievements, feelings 
and deeds of Vinay, a simple yet aspiring, nervous yet intelligent and industrious guy. This is a story of his getting into 
the industry, knowing the industry, his success and struggles out there, and his notion of love and life.

Campus placements, training period, project allocation, team work, party nights, on-bench period, getting involved in a
project, office-politics, KT-sessions, late night works, salary SMS, work pressure, irresponsible colleagues and 
every other thing out there is a part of this book. These are things supposed to happen to most IT professionals in the
first few years. Everyone from IT industry would be able to relate himself with Vinay or at least some of his colleagues among Cyrus, Paramjit, Samar, Rajlakshmi or Nikhila. Mita's way of describing the events and the characters is 
simple and yet distinct. The style of narrating is lucid and quite enjoyable. Every character from Vinay to Samar is very 
much visible to us.The light yet meaningful quotes and the witty humour have made it a good read, indeed.

In his engineering days, Loveleena had been his best friend and a constant support. Meanwhile he gets placed in a renowned software company and shifts to Hyderabad
along with some of his class mates who were placed in the same company. But soon he realizes surviving and succeeding in the
industry is not an easy task. He tries to make a place of his own in the industry amidst office politics and others conspiracy.
And between this hustle and bustles, he realizes his love for Leena, and conveys his feelings. After crossing a few more
barrier of difficulties, he gets an onsite project and a good team to work with. The team succeeds and he gets a good
recognition within his company.Finally gathering lots of experience in a year, he returns to India. He sees his own reflection
in the new recruits of the company, sees history to repeat itself.

Rating: 

My Reaction: