Cris’s Book and Blog Reviews

Venue: DC Books Fair, Trivandrum
People in story: Friend called J, self called C

C finds Meenakshi Madhavan Reddy’s (owner of compulsive confessions) You Are Here and says “Wow its that book, its her book”. J raises an eyebrow uninterestingly and says “Mm yeah”
C says “I am taking it”. J now raises all eyebrows and limbs “Stop right there!”. Red alert. “Do not buy that book, I say, do not buy that book!”
C asks “Why not?”
J: “Why do you want to?”
C: “Because I want to promote a fellow blogger. Some day when I write a book, I want people to read mine. It’s a wanna-be-writer thing I guess”
J: (smiles) “But I can tell you what is in there”
C: “No. I am buying this. I have made up my mind” (which of course means I haven’t)
J (understanding the uncertainty symptoms prompts not to): “I wont ever buy it, I may read it but I wont buy it.”

Mathias B Freese and his Down to a Sunless Sea. That’s the latest I have read. And it is special to me because this was the first time an author had asked me to review his book, after seeing my blog. I was even more enthralled when he took the pains of sending me the book thousands of miles away to India, to me.

Alright full name of the book is Stupid White Men …and Other Excuses For the State of the Nation!
Some books make you think about the story/content, some about certain characters while others make you think about the author. Stupid White Men is one such book, it makes you wonder what kind of a guy Michael Moore, the author of the book is. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, that someone could actually go and write a book like that in the US of A, about its white men, about its George Bush! But Moore did, and he does that – not able to think of another word - brilliantly!

Ok been a while since I gave a book review, and that’s cause I have been really lazy about reading books. I am sure there is something called reader’s block! There can be no other reason to explain why I am so enthusiastic when it comes to taking volumes of books from my library but cant get around to reading any! (And end up paying a huge fine always! Hmph!)

Another short Wodehouse done. “Do Butlers Burgle Banks?”
This was a 158-er. Hehe page counting is the first task I perform on getting any book. Typical Wodehouse, with some burglary stuffed into it. Not that it’s anything unusual, Wodehouse characters have always been in the habit of pinching things. Here though burglary comes in the form of a butler. And butlers in Wodehouse novels are imperative.

Hero here, is Horace Appleby, the man who can be a charming butler when he is not plotting house breaks. Horace finds his new target at Bond’s bank and conveniently slips into the Bond household to enter his new role as the efficient butler of the house. And he is proud of his butlery skills.

Read a P G Wodehouse. Small one. Bachelors Anonymous. It is a small package in 139 pages, which was what made its way into my hands. Small books have that kind of attraction with me.

Going into the book, there was something I missed here. From the usual Wodehouse books I mean. There was no butler to set things right, which was made a mess by a young bachelor. There was no older guy who formed the thick and thin of it all, after being exceedingly trouble-seeking for his age.

“This business about fairy tales having happy endings – that was bull shit. Sometimes people melt. People go away. People die. And we’re left with stories and memories, which, if we’re lucky, will be good stories and good memories and then we get on with our life.”

Realize there are a couple of words here I should enlist in the sensor board but I thought I will leave it as it is. I liked it that way. And the lines are from the book what the title says is, Hard News by Jeffrey Deaver. This is my first Deaver book. Have to admit, I have never heard the name before stumbling up on it in another blog. And this book became the choice because it seemed the shortest of Deaver’s in my library, at 291 pages. Hmm, a little too long for my standards.

Done with another Agatha Christie murder mystery. And it was my very own favorite fictional character Hercule Poirot starring in it as the mystery solver. Uff I just had to go and check the title! “After the Funeral”. Funny, somehow I don’t place a lot of importance on Agatha Christie book titles, after I have taken one of them.

I have said before there are 2 kinds of novels you read, one you read cause you liked to appreciate the language, another cause it was too thrilling to be kept for later. This book definitely belonged to the second genre. Not that the language was anything non-commendable! I always like Agatha Christie’s narrations, the words are chosen carefully and the lines are connected beautifully. It was not only about suspense and murders, it was also about telling it admirably.

Finished Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Actually meant to take Helen Somebody-Else but forgot the last name and ended up with Fielding. But no regrets. Enjoyed it.

Having finished the book, the first thought that came to my mind was can your story and your life and your self be extracted from your diary? I wondered now about my diary. I didn’t think anything you write to a diary ever made a lot of sense. You wrote when you wanted to talk, about yourself or what bugs you, or maybe for no reason. But all of it from page 1 to last, would it define your life? The answer, I found is yes, at least w.r.t. BJ. Hmm, point to be taken care of: be careful on what you write to your diary, no knowing what readers may come across it.

Pardon me if this sounds disrespectful, for I know how much the book I am about to write about is worshipped globally. But I did not enjoy Mario Puzo’s ‘The Godfather’.
There. I said it. Whew!

I took it from my library, no doubt because of its reputation as everyone’s favorite. Such books, I should learn from experience do not work on me somehow. Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist and Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead had similar effects on me. Not that I am proud of it.