Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

50-50 Challenge : Completion (sort-of)

Written By: amodini - Dec• 27•12

So, I signed up for this sometime this year. It is hosted by these good folks and the rules are simple:

Commit to reading 50 books and watching 50 movies in the next year, 2012.

The year is ending shortly, so how did I do ?

MOVIES

I’ve seen 50 for sure, and just for kicks I will try and list them all here (links will take you to reviews on my movie blog) :

– Here are my Top 10 Hindi Films (total count = 10)
– I saw bunches of films on Netflix (total count = 30)
Skyfall
– This is 40
– Looper
Madagascar 3
– The Dark Night Rises
– IceAge : Continental Drift
The Amazing Spiderman
– Men in Black 3
– The Bourne Legacy
– Taken 2
– The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Avengers
Contraband
– Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Dog Days
– The Red Balloon
Ek Main aur Ekk Tu
Cocktail
Heroine
Ek Tha Tiger
Agneepath
Jab Tak Hai Jaan
Student of the year
– Aiyyaa
Ferrari ki Sawaari
Saaransh
I am Kalam
– Teri Meri Kahaani
Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl
– Ishqzaade
Tanu Weds Manu
Harishchandrachi Factory
Agent Vinod
Dhobi Ghat
Pyar ka Punchnama
Sahib Biwi aur Gangster

That’s 65, and I’m definitely forgetting some.

BOOKS

I’ve read 33 so far (34 if you count “Great North Road” as 2 books, since that was a **tome**), so am 2/3rds of the way through. You can see all of them on Goodreads. Those that I have reviewed appear here.

Book Review : Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton

Written By: amodini - Dec• 19•12

[amazon_link id=”034552666X” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Great North Road[/amazon_link]Title : Great North Road
Author : Peter F. Hamilton
Genre : Sci-fi, Mystery
Publisher : Tor
Pages : 1089

Source : Netgalley/ Publisher ARC
Rating : 2.5/5

Before I requested this book on NetGalley I did a quick net lookup on Peter Hamilton – I hadn’t read him before. General reviews were good. I’m guessing then that I’m in the minority because I don’t quite get this book. It is a tome, and I didn’t realize this since I normally don’t pay attention to pages when I read – especially on the kindle, where all I see is the percentage read. With Great North Road, I would read and read and discover that I’d read maybe only a couple of percent, so I looked up the book specifications. This one has close to 1100 pages!

With a book of this length one would expect some rambling prose. And that’s true here – it rambles on for about the 1st third – progress so glacial that I was tempted to just thrust it in my “not-finished” pile. I persevered by skipping through arduous pedantic descriptions of police work.

“Great North Road” is a mix of sci-fi and murder mystery. It is set in the future when the world has run out of natural energy sources and now depends on “bioil” produced by the algae-paddies of St.Libra, a planet accessible via a spatial gateway. The earth is now connected to many planets this way, courtesy the technological innovations of the Norths – a great family of clones. The original North makes 3 clones of himself (2Norths), and then they are further cloned (3Norths) etc. All North clones look and seem alike. When a North is found dead, floating in the Tune river, there is great pressure to find the killer.

This task falls to Detective Sid Hurst, who plods along in the absence of clues. The North is unidentifiable; no North clone has been reported missing. Moreover death has occurred via what looks like to be a knife-fingered hand – 5 slashes appear on the victim’s chest and his heart has been pulverized and shredded. A similar crime has occurred 20 years back on St. Libra, with the murder of Bartram North and his household. The sole escapee, one Angela Tramelo, has been incarcerated for the past 20 years for a crime she denies committing.

Angela believes that the killer was an alien “monster”. With Sid investigating leads on earth, the HDA (Human Defence Alliance) office decides to mount an expedition to St. Libra to find this “alien”, with Tramelo’s help. The expedition starts with energy and approval, but the rosy hue fades soon enough. Expedition members are being targeted and killed off one by one by an unseen nemesis, and the hostile terrain of St. Libra is making things very difficult . . .

As I have said above this is a long book and could have been cut down to a compact half. I enjoyed Hamilton’s imaginative prose – especially talk of the “smart dust”, “intelligent meshes” and life-span extension, but I found that the pace was stilted with detailed descriptions of plodding police work. Characters are strong but many and it is hard to keep the large cast straight in your head. Angela is the most interesting character of the lot and her story unfolds in a series of “flashbacks” – a technique I quite liked. However I never quite got immersed enough to root for any protagonist. Maybe it is just me, or maybe large books with many characters, such as this one, are designed to be so; seen from afar and without any emotional involvement.

Given that Tramelo is this book’s main character, it is a little disconcerting to see the degree to which she is sexualized. Also unexpected and off-putting in this sci-fi tome are the sex scenes/orgies. Hamilton has his characters talk in quaint expressions : “aye”, “pet”, “crap on it” – so very not-space-agey. I’m going with a 2.5 rating on this book – for a mystery, Great North Road couldn’t quite develop the steam needed to leave the reader wanting more.

Book Review : Broken Harbor by Tana French

Written By: amodini - Dec• 12•12

[amazon_link id=”0670023655″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Broken Harbor: A Novel (Dublin Murder Squad)[/amazon_link]Title : Broken Harbor
Author : Tana French
Genre : Mystery/Thriller
Publisher : Viking
Pages : 450
Source : Publisher ARC
Rating : 3.5/5

Broken Harbor features Detective Mike “Scorcher” Kennedy, who appeared in a minor role in Faithful Place – French continues to build upon her “connected” people stories. Scorcher must investigate the murder of the Spain family – father, mother, 2 children in a new housing development in Dublin – Brianstown, or Broken Harbor as it is now known. Only the mother survives – barely. Along with his ongoing investigation, Scorcher must also deal with Dina, his mentally unhinged sister. Dina, deeply affected by a family tragedy makes several appearances in Scorcher’s life, mostly at inopportune times.

Tana French is in form here – her descriptions are lyrical, languid and detailed; all that you’d want to know to get entrenched in the mystery. You get a feel for the Spains’s life, their upwardly mobile, happy-does-it philosophy, so there is some pathos to this story, when it ends the way it does. The economy is in recession, and Pat was jobless. Broken Harbor is a promising new development now stalled and decaying, much like, it appears, the Spains marital relationship might have been.

Scorcher and Robbie look into the Spains’s personal lives, their friends, family and relationships, so there is some intrigue here. Jenny and Pat seem to be sensible folk, she of a sunny disposition and he of measured restraint. Theirs has been a much looked up to relationship. Both, very much in love, were a part of a tight-knit friend’s circle, a circle of people that have now scattered, leaving behind the residue of jealousy and a huffy parting of the ways that only comes with changing circumstances.

Scorcher has a rookie partner, Richie Curran, who comes from a blue-collared background and has carried over his mental baggage to his job. French gives us a flavor of this newly developing partnership and the nascent element of trust between the two. Scorcher himself is firing on all cylinders – keeping unearthly hours on the job, and spending the remaining trying to make sure he doesn’t fly off the handle when baby-sitting Dina on one of her “off” episodes.

For all her gorgeous word-play, I did not think that this book was on par with her previous work, mostly because of the lack of psychological intensity. Yes, we do get haunted memories (Scorcher’s) and unnatural physical settings on the crime scene – the Spain home is set up with hastily set-up video cameras, as though to catch an intruder. Emotions factor in – jealousy, insecurity, envy, and red herrings abound. But I never truly got any insight into the Spain’s lives from a psychological point of view, something which French excelled at in her previous books. Jenny and Pat’s friends seemed a little flat and clichéd, and the reasoning for the crime just didn’t seem believable. So when the conclusion came, I was not truly convinced – something that has never happened before with a French mystery.

This is still a decent book as far as mystery-thrillers go, even if it is a let-down coming from Tana French. I still think she’s a great writer though – it is not often that mysteries can read like literature. I will look forward to her next book. If you haven’t read her yet, I recommend “The Likeness” and “Faithful Place”.

Wordless Wednesdays #14

Written By: amodini - Dec• 05•12

Peix (Fish), Frank Gehry, Barcelona

Book Review : What The Body Remembers

Written By: amodini - Nov• 29•12

[amazon_link id=”0385496052″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]What the Body Remembers: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : What The Body Remembers
Author : Shauna Singh Baldwin
Genre : South-Asian
Publisher : Doubleday (Random House)
Pages : 471
Rating : 4/5

While I’ve read many female-centric desi novels, I’ve read very few stories of women during partition, and even fewer from Punjabi writers. In WTBR, there are two women, both bound to one man. Satya is Sardarji’s first wife, strong and intelligent, but unable to give Sardarji the children he so desires. So after 26 years of marriage, at 42, wealthy Sardarji takes a second wife, Roop. All of 16 years old, Roop is the daughter of “Dipty” Bachan Singh, an authoritative figure of modest means. Motherless, and naïve in her belief of happiness, Roop marries Sardarji, hoping for a sister-like bond with her “saukan”. The bond never develops because Satya cannot countenance Roop, and plots and schemes to make her life miserable.

Sardarji is mostly oblivious to the war between the wives, and continues viewing them, according to Roop, through “the corners of his eyes” – like all men view women. This theme is often repeated as Baldwin brings home the fragility and insecurity of women living in a strongly patriarchal world, their every action a response to a man’s bidding. There is Roop, one of three children and the more beautiful of Bachan Singh’s two daughters (hence the name Roop, which means beauty). Cosseted by her father, Roop and her sister Madani are treated to rudimentary education even as their brother Jeevan is encouraged for higher studies. The realization that even her loving father is more concerned with his “izzat” than his daughters’ well-being, that he is just like all other men, seeing women but not really seeing them, hits hard, and is one of the more moving moments in this novel.

Then there is Satya (the name means truth) unable to lower her grey eyes before Sardarji, or to tamp down the many questions that Sardarji cannot answer. Capable and intelligent Satya cannot deny that her life and fate are tied to Sardarji’s – a man she truly loves – goodwill and favor, but even so cannot forsake her almost feminist beliefs. His ego appeased by the unquestioning adoration of his little-brown-koel Roop (Roop is learning fast), Sardarji tires of a strident Satya, and her influence slowly ebbs, but not before she delivers two cruel blows to Roop’s happiness. As the political climate changes, and partition becomes a reality, Roop must heal herself and be strong for her children, and Sardarji. A brave new world awaits, if they make it across the newly drawn border between Pakistan and India.

Baldwin’s language is laced with vernacular Punjabi, and her descriptions are languorous and all-seeing. Rich details serve to open up before us the wounds of betrayal and despair that are inflicted on Satya and Roop, both mere pawns in male-controlled destinies.

Roop waits for him to ask her so she might say it, but he does not ask at all, he assumes she will want what he wants. Sardarji’s suggestion is to assist her in learning his wishes, every woman is a Sita to her Ram, and what Ram wants, Sita will enjoy doing.

Roop has been conditioned to speak softly, never give any trouble, “never feel bad”, however unjust the circumstance, and she tempers this learning with her sister-in-law Kusum’s common-sense – say “haanji” to all questions, but do not obey immediately. Even as we get to hear from both Satya and Roop, it is quite amazing to note that neither one of them rebels outright, or questions the unfairness of it all, but work within the pre-ordained social order, haranguing the women below them and kow-towing to the men above.

She absorbs Bachan Singh’s fears, just as her mama did while confined in purdah, and ripens them to fullness. For Roop’s heart has become a storeroom where Bachan Singh hoards the full measure of her giving. That young heart presses like a coiled steel spring against her breast. Heart that does not venture outside the haveli for fear of Bachan Singh’s displeasure, heart afraid to glance at or speak to an unrelated man in the village unless he be a small boy or a white-bearded elder for fear of what-people-will-say. Heart that beats hard and fast as a table in her chest if her chunni falls but once, for a moment, to her shoulders, lest a man be smitten becasue Roop tempted him.

By now, Bachan Singh, Gujri, Revati and Kusum have done their duty well: Roop has learned shame.

Roop has come to dread what-people-will-say.

In this book, Baldwin touches upon many evil social traditions and practices, cruelties meted upon women by other women wishing to remain in the good books of the all-powerful patriarchs. Some remain to-date, and some have thankfully almost disappeared. WTBR is a reminder then, that wars are fought on women’s bodies, whether they be the overt physical brutalities that occurred during partition, or the subliminal cruelties of forcing women to live life on tenterhooks and jostle for power as subservient, dependent daughters, sisters and wives.

Completed : E-Book Challenge 2012 (Sunday Salon Post)

Written By: amodini - Nov• 25•12

I’ve finished my E-Book Reading Challenge! Checking in this Sunday to list out all the books read for the it. I elected to read at the CD level, which meant 10 ebooks, and I’ve read 18 ebooks so far! All of my ebooks were NetGalley ARCs, and they are:

 

E-Book Challenge

Goal : 10
Read so far: 18

Results of the “Broken Harbor” Give-away

Written By: amodini - Nov• 19•12

Thanks to all the participants. The winner is Mohit G. – I hope you enjoy this fantastic book!

All those who requested this book via twitter, please note that you did need to follow me to be eligible. For those commenting at the blog to enter the giveaway, please comment on the give-away post so I can keep track of your entries.

Till next time, happy reading!

Book Review : Bowl of Heaven

Written By: amodini - Nov• 15•12

[amazon_link id=”0765328410″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Bowl of Heaven[/amazon_link]Title : Bowl of Heaven
Author : Gregory Benford and Larry Niven
Genre : Science fiction
Publisher : Tor
Pages : 416
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 2.5/5

A human spaceship, the SunSeeker, on it’s journey to a planet called Glory, comes across a strange object – a large bowl-shaped “ship/planet” cupped around a star, moving in the same direction as the human spaceship. Running out of fuel, and hoping to get some from the habitable-looking “bowl”, Captain Redwing decides to send out an investigative party. On the bowl, the party gets split into two. The group headed by biologist Beth Marble gets captured by the native aliens – large bird-like creatures with colorful plumage. The other party headed by Beth’s lover Cliff Kammash manages to keep on the run, encountering many different life forms on the unusual curved surface.

The birds apparently are the creators of the bowl, and top dog among the many species which they have captured and “adapted” to the earth-like environs of the bowl. The humans are the newest “alien” species, a rather aggressive and independently thinking one, and the birds are in the process of deciding whether it might not be best to kill the troublemakers once and for all, rather than try and domesticate them. The natives attempt to understand the psychology of the humans via their distinctly developed “underminds” (akin to human subconscious), and the book gives us their point-of-view from the perspective of Memor, the chief bird investigator. Beth and Cliff also share in the narration, but they do little more than run around trying to escape capture and potential annihilation.

This book is the first collaboration between hard sci-fi heavyweights Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape), so expectations are high. The book unfortunately falls way below them. There is little sci-fi here; most of the book is devoted to the description of local flora and fauna, and the anthropological structures of the native bird society. There is also human drama – emotional thoughts about love, bonding and friendship; mores human drama and less sci-fi.

Overall, I’d describe this book as tiresome; I finished it by sheer force of will. The writing was not cohesive, and the events in the book got repetitive. I enjoyed descriptions of the “bowl”, the great structures built by the bird-people, and their societal norms – the expression of emotion via a change in plumage color was particularly interesting – but they were so often submerged in the non-sci-fi thread of narration that it watered down the pleasure. I do enjoy innovative descriptions of foreign worlds and their inhabitants in sci-fi heavy books; “Bowl of Heaven” unfortunately was sci-fi in name only. It read like it was written by a non-scifi writer – “Indiana Jones” propped up by a thin science fiction construct. Plus I didn’t get to know the humans in the book well enough to like them, so wasn’t invested in their well-being or their story.

A sequel to this book, Shipstar, is promised. While I hope that that is better than this, I’m not sure I’ll be lining up to read it.

Wordless Wednesdays #13

Written By: amodini - Nov• 07•12

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

New Books : Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman

Written By: amodini - Nov• 01•12

[amazon_link id=”067002497X” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version[/amazon_link]Philip Pullman is the author of “The Golden Compass” (the first in the very popular His Dark Materials trilogy). His new book, a modern take on some old tales, will be available November 12th. Here’s a little about his new book, courtesy the publisher :

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Grimm’s fairy tales. To celebrate, Viking is thrilled to publish FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM, a retelling of fifty beloved stories by Philip Pullman, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the first volume of Children’s and Household Tales. Now, two centuries later, fairy tales are once again all the rage with TV shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time dominating ratings and two movie adaptations of “Snow White” out in the same year. With FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM, Philip Pullman brings these much-loved tales back to the page.

From stories like “Cinderella” and “Hansel and Gretel” to lesser-known treasures like “The Girl With No Hands,” “The Three Snake Leaves,” and “Godfather Death,” Pullman retells fifty of Grimm’s timeless classics for the modern age in his lively, beguiling prose. He includes all the most familiar characters—Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, the Frog Prince, and Rapunzel—while also introducing readers to some they might not have met yet.

Pullman has consulted a variety of editions of the work to pull together a seamless version of each story that focuses on engaging readers and demonstrating exactly why these fairy tales have been told over and over again, remaining vibrant since their original publication in the early 19th century. With FAIRY TALES FROM THE BROTHERS GRIMM, Pullman pays homage to the tales of romance and villainy that inspired his unique creative vision—and that continue to cast their spell on the Western imagination.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) has sold more than fifteen million copies and been published in more than forty countries. The first volume, The Golden Compass, was made into a major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Pullman is at work on a companion His Dark Materials novel The Book of Dust. He lives in Oxford, England.

Pullman’s interview in the Telegraph, and his article in the Guardian is here.