Book Opinionist

Novel set in the backdrop of the First World War, begins with the introduction of the protagonist/narrator ,war veteran Hastings and his arrival at Styles Court Manor, a large mansion where a well respected aristocratic family of England lives. When tragedy strikes the matriarch of the family Hercule Poirot comes in to start sorting the mess out. With one obvious suspect and many others with ulterior motives and gains, plot gets more and more exciting by every page.  Surprisingly this is my first Agatha Christie book, even though I have read mystery and crime fiction before. I have been a Sherlock fan, ever since I started reading large books. Many of my friends are hardcore Christie fans. I never got time or willingness to try Christie's books. Because I always had many others on my mind. One day, in my discord server, for the book roulette event, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" came up and I was ready to try a Christie book at last. And what happened was that this bo...

The Great Gatsby is a novel, which if someone said to you was written today, you'd believe it. The story, its cultural implications and presentation gives the novel a timeless element to it. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest novels written. It is one of the best American novels that I have read and has a unique place in the crème de la crème classics in my heart.  I am not quite sure if F Scott Fitzgerald could be compared with other Classical novel writers like Dostoevsky, Hugo etc. , because they lived decades before Fitzgerald. But still he could compete with them in terms of prose quality and flow of words, since that is what makes his Novel special, at least in my opinion, more than the story. But the story itself is an exceptional piece of imagination and the story telling even more impressive. The title character doesn't appear until Chapter 3 or something. But he is set up and mentioned from the first pages of the novel itself, adding suspense and exc...

The second book from “A song of Ice and Fire” series is beautiful, mesmerizing and tragic. It brings out all kinds of emotions in the reader, even the ones we don’t quite enjoy. It is a culmination of all genres and types of writings, just like its predecessor in the series. Told from multiple point of views of completely different characters we are given a diverse view of the war that had spilled over from the jar in Westeros, where the conflict in the story is concentrated. As the dragon magic resurfaces in the world so does all other forms of magic and all kinds of evil. The book is very detailed in its construction of the fictional world, like other fantasy books. The vivid colours and the lurking noirs are presented in equally beautiful and attractive words. So diving into the world would take no problem at all. That is, if you are well versed in English. If you are not then you might find many words which are beyond your vocabulary. Most of them are actually simple words but...

What I said to myself after reading this book was "What the hell man!! I didn't know that you could write an entire book ripping off a real life event, by just changing some of the the main characters to animals, make money off it and gain critic praise for it." "Simply phenomenal!" is what the book is. Simple in its writing style and words used, the book is an easy read for anybody who is familiar with the English language. If you have a decent knowledge of politics and history you could easily spot which animal is representing which real life character. Being somebody who has done a MOOC course on the "History of the revolution in 'Animal Farm' "(if you don't know which place the animal farm is in real life then Google it), I had to go through the same feelings of shock, anger and disappointment I felt originally when did the course. So it was like a double burn. If you are going to read the book then I should warn you that it is quite d...

 He was a man who had a great vision for India; A man who asked 128 Crore Indians to dream; When I was a kid, people always told me to read books of Kalam sir. Partly because I used to say my ambition was to become a space scientist back then! And APJ was the most popular scientist in Indian. He was well respected among the common folk. Even all the politicians, irrespective of their differences in political opinions respected Dr. Kalam. And I was always looking forward to reading his books. I wanted to buy the his autobiography "Wings of Fire" initially but it was a large book for me. So I chose "Ignited minds" instead. This happened when I was only 12 or 13. I was only getting started into the world of books. So obviously this small book with lot of big words (mostly technical terms) did baffle me and I was demotivated to read further. It didn't matter to me how many rockets he launch or missions he take on, because it looked all the same to me. All his urges...

 A brief History of time by Stephen Hawking is a unique attempt by a legendary theoretical physicist to explain complicated scientific theories to us ignorant fools :) Cosmic Science has been, for centuries, something that "common folks" couldn't fathom with ease. Instead it has always made them perplexed, more than enlightened. It is very curious indeed, when one sees that, the same science the farmers, smiths and tradesmen use so jovially, while solving one's day to day problems, becomes a cause of large aversion and boredom for them when it reaches the cosmic level. I am not trying to simplify things here by generalizing some trades and professions, but still "not to know more than a certain point" is something that is built into the humans.  Then there are the people who very much thrive by exploring such ideas and concepts. For them discussing these things means life and every second they may spend without exploring the secrets of the universe is consi...

 "A philosophical debate which is also a psychological crime thriller" is what Dr. Jordan Peterson said (not his exact words, but the gist ) pitching 'Crime and punishment' to his audience during a lecture. This is exactly what I felt while I was reading the novel.  Crime and Punishment is set in the 19th century St Petersburg, where the poor lives like vermin, rich live like kings and those in the middle barely gets by. I read this book expecting a story with good philosophical insights and discussions and I was not disappointed at all. It's a gripping tale of cold blooded murder, where the intentions of the murderer is very different from what we have usually seen from fiction so far. It is also a summary of almost all the philosophical and cultural discussions of that period.  For me the main purpose of reading a book, when I was younger than I am now, has always been the eagerness to listen to heartwarming or intriguing stories, filled with characters who I c...

I thought it would be all about Gandhiji but it was not. Set in the backdrop of freedom struggle, this book is actually the story of a young man, belonging to a fairly well off family, who is abandoning his grandma and going to participate in the satyagraha movement with Gandhiji, only because he could pursue his love interest who happens to be one of Gandhiji’s disciples. It’s funny if you think about it. But it also reflects on the aimless and impulsive nature of being young. The book is not kind to the protagonist. He is portrayed as this man caught in this web of larger than life things and he doesn’t know how to react to it. He is needy of affection and love. He doesn’t have much principles or idea about what he is doing. Imagine leaving your only living (close)relation, who is an old woman, and walking off to participate in the Freedom Movement, ignoring all the tears and protests of the woman who took care of you for years. That is what the protagonist is actually doing. He...

The Green Mile was the first book I read written by Stephen King, using his own name (I had read the roadwork earlier, which was written under his pseudonym Richard Bachman). So, I was extremely enchanted by the book that I couldn’t put it down. It was a well organised from page one to the end. For your information I was reading this book as a whole novella. I have to state this here because it was released part by part initially. That is why if you read the novel as a whole now you can see after a new part begins King takes a few pages to recap what had happened earlier in the story in case the readers have forgotten, which was quite annoying, but that is why god gave us the ability to skip stuff. “The Green Mile” is another one of King’s books where the supernatural is presented in a realistic setting. I am not well aware of the concept of ‘magical realism’ to call this that but I’m putting it out there. The story begins at a penitentiary, where there is an electric chair to exe...

A whole town haunted by a shape shifting eternal being, which lurks under the city, randomly appears out of nowhere handing out balloons to little kids, telling them jokes and eating them alive. "A magnum opus of terror" is actually a good description to Stephen King's It. But more accurate would be " a heart touching tale that reminds us of our lost childhood". Because it is more  than just about the terror. It is about how a bunch of  'losers' come together, bond and team up to defeat something that takes the shape of worst fears of every kid. The book is very creepy. And many readers have found it to be too graphic and disturbing. There were some things that everybody found disturbing and unnecessary. Well Mr King was high on Cocaine while writing this. So, what can you expect. The language used in the book is very solid and apt for anybody trying to improve their English vocabulary. Descriptions of the surroundings and the world they exist are give...

Time bombs among us How often have you wondered about those unpleasant incidents you see on newspaper? The stuff like "Loony husband kills the whole family and commits suicide", "School shooter takes 3 lives with him", "Shooter in a truck takes the lives of innocent bystanders before blowing vehicle into bits". You get the idea right. We see these stuff in the newspapers and maybe even exclaim for a bit and say "God, what a world we live in now" or just dismiss them as 'work of the devil' and 'mad ravings of the crazies'. I am asking you how often have you wondered about the person committing these kinds of acts. Where is his conscience? Forget conscience. What is going on his mind? What makes someone do such acts? Again you can say that the people committing these acts are loonies. Yes most of them, if they were examined by a Psycho-Analyst would be detected with some sort of mental conditions that led them to these atrocities...