80 Not Out by Dickie Bird
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When you read a book where Dickie Bird is praising Bob Paisley, saying how humble a man the Scouser was, you know you have something special in your hand.
This book is a running commentary on how to stay humble even when people know you, recognize you and clamour for your autograph.
It also acts as a guide for people looking for ways to stay humble, even after receiving truckload of honors, including a couple from Her Majesty.
It can also serve as a textbook for those looking to keep their feet firmly on the ground, after coming to know that they have been appointed the President of World famous county cricket club.
It should be regularly given to sport stars(the ones with super inflated ego, basically each one of them) so that they may remember how to lead a “normal” life.
It should also be given to budding writers, to realize that a great book can be written by using common words, phrases, sentences etc.

View all my reviews

Modi Mandate 2019: Dispatches from Ground Zero by Pradeep Bhandari
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5/5

What worked for me:
1. The length of the book : Thankfully the author kept the book short and all the chapters were precise and too the point.
2. Academic : If you are looking for juicy tidbits on inner workings of any political party then you wont get it here. This is much more about constituencies, their caste combinations, the vote transfers etc.
3. Reach : If the author is to be believed, then he and his team had surely reached out to almost all the constituencies in the country, and ended up predicting the numbers quite accurately.

What didn't work for me:
1. Boring : This feels like an academic work, with no view into the inner mechanisms of the parties. We don't get to know about the strategies or the logistical challenges faced by them.
2. Weak writing style : The book feels repetitive. The phrases are repetitive, it feels that if you have read about one state you know all the other states.
3. Bengal : The author wants me to believe that everyone he managed to interview spoke Hindi in West Bengal. That's pretty unbelievable for me.

View all my reviews

My Adventures with Satyajit Ray: The Making of Shatranj Ke Khilari by Suresh Jindal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5/5

What worked for me:
1. The bag of information which is presented to us.
2. The book gives us a glimpse into the professional life of a film producer.
3. The letters add a personal touch to the whole book. Instead of using a narrative style, the letters almost makes the reader feel that he/she is privy to their conversation.
4. The photographs, their quality and their numbers.

What didn't work for me:
1. The letters do not shed any light as to the selection process of many of the artistes. As to why they were chosen, or some of them were rejected.
2. I guess, some of Mr. Jindal's letters are missing, as quite a few times we can feel that the letters of Ray did elicit an answer from the author, but there aren't any letter to support that view. Maybe he had used the telephone.

View all my reviews

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three point review:
-Nothing out of the ordinary, plot wise, but it did have some nice twists.
-Characters were few, and they were perfectly tailored for a thriller.
-Cloud have done with a little bit of editing and shortening of length.

View all my reviews

Let Me Say it Now by Rakesh Maria
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What worked for me:
1. Everything. The fluid writing style, the details, the arrangement of the chapters...everything was tailor made to make the reader feel at ease, while sitting on the edge of the seat.

What didn't work for me:
1. Nothing, except that the book should have had some snaps. Some pictures from his life would have been a pleasant addition.

View all my reviews

Spring Tide by Cilla Börjlind
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Spring Tide by Cilla Börjlind, Rolf Börjlind is set in Sweden and features the duo of Olivia Ronning and Tom Stilton. The writer duo is known for their script writing for the martin Beck film, and this book also feels like a well scripted fast mystery movie. Keeping in tune with Nordic crime thrillers the book did have its moments of brutality, but these moments were instead of being put on paper, more left to the imagination of the reader.

The plot was fast, and had it fair share of twists and turns. And most importantly the writers were able to stop me from guessing quite early where the whole story was heading; instead they did a brilliant job of putting a BIG red herring and leading me the wrong way. A very enjoyable mystery which without going too deep into psychological thing, kept the book crisp and entertaining.


View all my reviews

The Blind Man of Seville by Robert Wilson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Ups:
1. A healthy and intriguiging start.
2. A very evocative description of Seville and Tangiers.
3. Falcon Sr.’s journals.

Downs :
1. After 200 pages have gone by the speed starts to slow and slowwwww.
2. The investigation gets nowhere and the personal problems of the protagonist piles up.
3. The ending. After a boring and long drawn 400+ pages, this is the ending that the author wanted to reveal. Dissapointing to say the least.
4. Never knew someone wrote journals in direct speech approach.
5. The protagonist hardly creates any emotion in my mind except that he came out to be weak and whinning.
6. This book felt just like a P.D. James novel.
7. The book should have been names “The Co-Incidences of Seville”

Verdict : Why can’t these guys just write a nicely twisted and fast paced crime novel.



View all my reviews