Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

"Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout. This book won Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2009.

This book is a collection of 13 stories. But this is not a typical short story collection because all these stories take place in one costal town called Crosby, Maine. And Olive Kitteridge appears in all these stories.

Olive is a large lady, a retired school teacher who taught mathematics, not known to be delicate with words, who lives with her husband and has a son who is a podiatrist (doctor specializing in feet).

The stories are woven around citizens of Crosby, Maine and visitors to the town. Small and seemingly minor and at times innocuous incidents that have significance to the characters. The stories are about human emotions and relations, priorities likes and dislikes.

The stories are good, subtle and shows Elizabeth Strout's power of observation and ability to delicately peel the cover and bare human emotions for the readers. The stories are short and crisp. Although these are separate stories the central theme seems to be old age, sufferings and relations. At the end of each story you get a feeling that something is missing, much is left unsaid.

Although 'A little burst' and 'Basket of trips' were good stories, 'Incoming tide' and 'River' were the ones that I liked most.

Elizabeth has become obsessed with the title of the book. She has brought in Olive Kitteredge in a couple of stories, as a guest appearance when none was required, for no real reason other than to be faithful to the title.

Read if you like reading about emotions and feelings without much happening around. Otherwise avoid.

A wanted man by Lee Chil

"A wanted man" by Lee Child. This book won "National Book Award" (An award for British writers) in 'Thriller and crime novel' category in 2012. More than a million copies of this novel have been sold.

This is the 17th book of Jack Reacher series but the first one I read. Jack, the protagonist, is ex-military police.

A man is murdered by two men. There is a eye witness. County sheriff starts the investigation. Soon FBI special agent Jessica Sorenson takes over the investigation. State department and CIA are also interested. Hunt for the killers begins. Eye witness goes missing.

Jack Reacher, a huge ex army police investigator, hitches a ride with 2 men and a women, who claim to be a team working together. Jacks finds discrepancies in their statements, that a common man would have easily missed. The women in the car communicates to Jack by blinking eyes while other two are asleep (don't know why she does not simply mouth the words) and tells him that the two men have hijacked her car.

Who are the two men? Who is the murdered man? What is the motive? These two guys seem to be resourceful, how come? Can FBI track them? What role does Jack play?

Lee Child has displayed amazing power of deduction. Identifying inconsistencies and drawing conclusions has been shown as Jack Reacher's forte. A lot of time is spent traveling on straight roads in the american dessert. Not much happens for long stretches of time in the book but you still do not get bored. Readers are hooked to the story. This, I think, is the key to success of this book.

The climax was supposed to be full of action, but turns our to be a low key affair.

Read if you have time. It's also OK to give it a miss.

Shiva and the rise of shadows by Kanika Dhillon

Mandar's book review (16th Feb 2014)

Completed reading "Shiva and the rise of shadows" by Kanika Dhillon. This is a young adult fiction.

It is 2019. Suddenly mushroom clouds appear killing the plants, animals and humans. Bangalore (then capital of India), Chennai and Hyderabad are wiped out entirely. Shiva, whose parents died in a lightning strike, is hiding  in Dharavi with his elder brother, Shakti, and younger cousin, Vasuki. Suddenly Shakti goes missing. Spiders decide to inhibit Vasuki's body and Shiva loses his consciousness.

Shiva wakes up in a school full of weird students. Students in west wing, where Shiva is located, are students with special abilities like ability to disappear, turning into an animal or bird, smelling emotions, telekinesis etc.

Shadow is rising and humanity is up for the final battle with dark forces. Suddenly creatures that were supposed to be extinct start surfacing. Shiva had heard bed time stories from his father regarding such creatures.

Was his father giving him a message? What are Shiva's special abilities? Will the other children at school accept him or target him? Who was his father in this equation? What is the final battle? Is there a traitor? There is a girl  who had survived atom bomb blast. Shadows and keepers want her. What's so special?

This book seems to be influenced by Harry Potter (school, teachers, magic etc.) and X-men (Special abilities, controlling them etc.)
Author has done a good job of Indianizing the story by giving Indian context and by making use of Indian mythology and characteristics of mythological Shiva. Kanika has shown good imagination while assigning powers to the characters.

By the time Shiva knows his special ability almost half of the book is over. The canvas of the story is huge. A lot of creatures, magical animals, men with special abilities, villains were to be created. This requires a lot of page space in order to introduce such characters, create a story, make it interesting and take it to conclusion with tantalizing climax. This book is  about 230 pages long and  author has clearly fallen short of page space. This has resulted in running through events without proper justification, not letting the story bloom and missing details thereby creating loop holes. That's why climax also turns out to be somewhat anti climax. We can expect more from Kanika in future.

The book ends with a battle won. But the war is not over. Kanika definitely wants to create a series out of this.

An OK read for teenagers.

The tenth unknown by Jvalant Nalin Sampat.

"The tenth unknown", a debut novel by Jvalant Nalin Sampat. This is a historical fiction.

Samrat Ashok discovers 9 books in royal library. These books  contains secrets about warfare that includes propaganda, weaponery, rocketery, aeroplanes, space travel, communication without using a messenger etc. He entrusts 9 individuals to hide the books, in 232 BC,  and pass on the responsibility to next generations because of the importance of information and to prevent it from falling in wrong hands. He also makes them promise that their loyalty will be only to humanity and not to any king or kingdom. He calls them the 9 unknowns.

It's 1938, Hitler's Nazi forces accidentally unearth the first book and using its contents Hitler garners public opinion of the nation in favor for war. Now he wants remaining books from British India. British come to know this and want the books for themselves.

The clue to location of next book is to be found near the previous book, hence the books can only be found in sequence. The present day 9 unknowns come to know of the German and British interest and decide to find the books before them. The onus is on young Prithvi Rathore, a rich care free and intelligent man, whose grand father is the head of 9 unknowns.

The chase begins all over the world. The books are located in various parts where Hindu or Buddhist religion had reached. Will Prithvi get the books? Can he match the might of British and Nazi empires? How long does it take? Does this impact the outcome of world war? Who is the 10th unknown?

The book shows that Americans get hold of two books and that enables them to manufacture atom bomb and send man on moon. Fascinating idea, isn't it?

Although the story takes place few years before independence, the author has not used period language. He has used modern language of today in a story of yesteryears. I think by doing this author has missed a great opportunity to create the impact and atmosphere of that time.

The book takes the readers on a roller coaster ride. The backdrop of world war is used intelligently. Some of the real incidents and characters are used to supplement the fiction very well.

Rather than publishing this as a pocket book, Niyogi Books (the publisher) has used large page size, good font and adequate spacing to make the reading experience better.

The author refrains from specifying what happens to the recovered books at the end and how they were hidden again. This may be a seed for a sequel.

A good book. Recommend reading for a change.

Salim must die by Mukul Deva.

"Salim must die" by Mukul Deva. This is the second book of Lashkar series.

The book shows that Osama Bin Laden (without naming him) was captured in Hyderabad, Pakistan, but died of medical conditions within hours. Mind you this book was written before Osama was captured. Shows clairvoyance of the author.

Brigadier Murad Salim of ISI, whose death was faked in previous book (Lashkar), and his side kick Major Cheema are back in action. This time the plot is much bigger. Objective is to carry out multiple terror strikes at multiple locations simultaneously. The perpetrators, this time, are not misguided youth but sleeper agents from various countries of different races, age groups and backgrounds. The strike wepon is also very deadly and objective is to create a bang bigger than 9/11.

What is the plot? Who will execute it? What kind of weapons will be deployed? What is the role of a Chinese scientist in all this? What  are the targets? Do they succeed? Which intelligence agency will be pressed into action? Would they be able to act in time?

Author has spent a lot of pages to describe the preparatory work for the grand terror plot. The book is 415 pages long. By the time the preparatory work is over you are through half the book. This part does not make you sit on the edge of you chair. Then the story gains speed. Force 22 (the ultra secret Indian special operations group headed by Colonel Anbu) is pressed into action. A decision is made to kill Brigedier Murad Salim of ISI. However this decision comes after 250th page and leaves limited page space for the actual killing. Iqbal from previous books makes a vital contribution.

The breakthrough needed by the intelligence agencies to unearth the plot comes as a lucky break rather than fruit of hard intelligence. The story gains speed after the break and you enjoy the climax.

Although this book is sequel to Lashkar, it is not as good as the predecessor. This book is good as a standalone book but seems bland in comparison with Lashkar. The story is slow. It keeps you interested, you don't abandon it, but the heightened expectations after Lashkar are not met.

An OK book. Read if you plan to read the next two books in the series.

Yugant" (युगांत) by Vinod Gaikwad

"Yugant" (युगांत) a Marathi novel by Vinod Gaikwad.

This novel is written from the point of view of Bhishmacharya (भिष्माचार्य). Novel starts from the curse to Ganga (to be born on earth) and ends with the death of Bhishma.

The book is written in first person but the narrator keeps changing. First narration is by Ganga and is then taken over but Devavrat, Satyawati, Amba, Bhishma, Vidur and Krishna. Since every one knows the story, I will avoid synopsis.

Although it is the story of Bhishma it is not a retelling of Mahabharata, though Mahabharata is inseparable part of it. Kauravs and Pandavs enter when book is 80% over.

The Marathi used for this book is very refined, flowery, difficult and influenced by Sanskrit. Marathi lovers will enjoy reading this book for the language alone.

Bhishma is the central character of this book. Whatever he did is analyzed, explained and justified. His Bhishma Pratidnya (Terrible oath), his refusals to accept throne after deaths of Chitrangad (चित्रांगद) & Vichitavirya (विचित्रवीर्य), his refusal to impregnate Ambika & Ambalika, Draupadi vastraharan (वस्त्रहरण) and fighting final war on behalf of Kauravas are analyzed and justified.

However I felt that the author has fallen short while explaining why Bhishma remained silent during vastraharan (वस्त्रहरण) . The justification is neither satisfactory nor  elaborate enough. His siding with Kauravas should also have been elaborated further. I would have preferred if author had spent few pages for Bhishma's relationship and understanding with Krishna.

Some times a couple of modern words have slipped into the book thereby creating a sour note (रसभंग). The page space allocated to the period  from the birth of Kaurav and Pandav till the end of war of Kurukshetra seemed insufficient. This caused the author to fast forward incidents and miss some details. Although this book is 352 pages long, it should have been longer by @50 pages.

Character of Bhishma is very well presented. His power, bravery and knowledge, his sagacity, impartiality, his skills and foresight. His unimaginable sacrifice for his father and oath to relinquish claim to throne & of remaining unmarried. His mountain like resolve makes him unique. You can not help but admire him for willingly becoming a keeper of what was rightfully his (the throne of Hastinapur). And you can not help pity him for having to see the  destruction of all that he had strived to maintain and prosper and having to see the demise of his own clan.

A good book. Recommend reading.

The price you pay by Somnath Batabyal

"The price you pay" a debut novel by Somnath Batabyal.

Abhishek, a young journalist joins Express. He is mentored by legendary crime journalist Amir Akhtar and Deputy Commissioner of Delhi police Uday Kumar and helped by ACP Mayank. This coupled with his nose for story allows him to generate three fist page stories in the first month of his service, an achievement unheard of.

Abishek also finds out that Babloo Shankar, once a kidnap king and now hiding in Singapore, is planning a return to India and get back into business. There seems to be some equation between Uday, Amir and Babloo.

Abhishek gets an offer from TV channel News today (This channel seems to be based on NDTV) and accepts. He suffers a lot of humiliation at the hands of his colleagues and is at his low when, while thinking of returning to newspaper, he decides to break a story that will make or break his career.

What is the story? Will Abhishek settle in TV or go back to newspaper? What does mysterious, beautiful and sexy Archana Pandey have to do with all of this? Does Babloo return?

Somnath has explained in detail how newspaper industry works. How corrupt and honest survive. How police and reporters have a love hate relationship. How journalists are manipulated. How TV journalism is all about TRP rather than news. The hollowness of it all and the hope in it, as well.

The story takes place in Delhi. Naturally there are multiple references to places, roads, people in Delhi. Author has captured the pulse of Delhi perfectly. Readers come to know the identity of city of Delhi. Full marks to him for that.

The book is 285 pages long and the story moves at an easy pace for about 250 pages and then suddenly accelerates in last 30 odd pages. The climax could have been longer.

The book is a novelty. Read for a change.

Dark angle by Geoffrey Archer

"Dark angle" by Geoffrey Archer.

Tom and Markus are good friends. One day Tom's 14 year old sister goes missing. While searching for her in the woods with police they find her violated body. The friends grow apart after this incident. The murderer is caught and sentenced.

Tom and Markus meet again in Korea while serving in army two years later. They come to know that Binny, the girl who had a crush on Markus, has married his elder brother. Markus has amorous encounter with a Korean girl but loses her in the heat of war. Years after returning from Korea, Markus goes to jail on charge of man slaughter. At the time of his release, his daughter from the Korean girl, now an American,  comes looking for him.

Tom is still not convinced that the convicted guy was murderer of his sister. But how can he find the truth? Is there a different truth? Was there a secret of his younger sister? Who was the murderer? Who is the dark angle?

Author has made the canvas of this book very big. The time span is about 50 years. A lot of space is occupied by the story in Korea much of which is not directly related to the story. That section could have been cut down to less than half. Although you know the killer towards end, the book does not end at that. The end of book is a bit unimaginable.

This book would have been more interesting had it been shorter. Not in the same league of other Archer books.

A so-so book. Not recommended.