Rakhi Jayashankar's Blog, page 12
September 11, 2021
Final Twist - Colter Shaw Series by Jeffrey Deaver - Book Review
Colter Shaw, one bookish character that I would scream out loud if asked about whom you might want to date. His inquest into the death rather than the murder of Aston Shaw takes him to places that he has never been to. Reading thrillers is always something that gives an adrenaline rush but Final Twist the last lap in the Colter Shaw series by Jeffrey Deaver, as the name suggests, is a suspense that keeps the readers till the end.
While it is the third book in the series, the author has kept the new readers updated about the prequels, be it his father's demise, or estrangement with his brother. The book can invariably be read as a stand-alone. The plot takes off from a dark room where Colter Shaw is held and the take-off is smooth. The author, without explicitly citing, explains how the protagonist ended up there. His connection with the other characters and the backstory are established without any lag. The pace of the narration and plot are incredible. The nailbiting experience is maintained throughout the book.
The Black Bridge and the ShawsThe author has seamlessly connected the Shaws - Colter, his father, and brother- with the BlackBridge, seamlessly without leaving any doubt in the minds of the readers about how each of them converged to the same point. The Colter Shaw series by Jeffrey Deaver reaches an all-time high in terms of engaging the readers without losing interest. The backstory has been crafted and set in place that the sequels have pieces that help them fall in place. This makes the reading experience all the more enchanting. The author has propitiously crafted the characters.
They speak to youThe characters are conversing with the readers at different levels. The plot is led by the characters and actions. Special mention is required for the library scene where the active actions maneuvered the plot and the characters to give the first jolt in the form of a twist. A pretzel in Shaw's strategy, a setback to the black bridge, and a revelation that no one expected.Having said that, the twists, thrill, and cliffhanger went off-grid due to overdose towards the second half of the plot. Too many characters, twists, and unbalanced actions sequences exhaust the readers after a point. It felt like the author was deliberately trying to fill the pages. Keeping these minor glitches aside, the book is a treat to the readers who love to read action-filled thrillers.Checkout our book activities - Outset and Ladythor
September 1, 2021
Feedspot Best Book Review Blog, New Book Club, Updated Review Program - Yes, we are growing...
Six and a half years back when I logged into Blogspot, I knew nothing. It was a space for my senseless poems so that they won't get eaten away by termites. Further, when I wrote my first book, I wanted a space to write about it. But all these gave me no sense of direction till I received my first review copy. Since then I was in a trance, reading, and review up to 45 books per month. I never thought of promoting my blog or knew anything about SEO till I got a mail from Feedspot informing me that my blog is in the top 100 book review blog list. I was on cloud 9, and it in turn gave me the sense of direction that I lacked. I learned more about blogs and SEO, and here I am with an improved position with respect to the ranking and more.
Does it sound like bragging if I have a separate post exclusively for this achievement? Because it matters the most to me. I was going through a tough phase where I was literally ignoring my blog and reviews were sounding like I was doing it for the sake of it. Many old author friends and reviewer friends asked me why I was doing this to my baby. That's when I got another mail from Feedspot. I was at #15 under the Indian Book Review Blogs. My happiness knew no bounds. This is the push in the right direction, to work to reach the top 5. Always grateful to Feedspot for supporting talent.
OL Book-Dragons
To start a book club has always been my dream. But I never got someone who could complement my ideas, till I met my soulmate Shreyasi. She is my sister, friend and more. Together we decided to start a book club and what better day than the beginning of the month when two of my kids' birthday falls. Well, that's a coincidence. In fact, I was planning to do it last month but Onam, kids health, and whatnot. Finally, today marked the beginning of OL Book-dragons. To join the club you have to do just this, send a follow request to us in the Instagram group or join us in the Goodreads groups. To be updated of our activities, join our Whatsapp Group. In addition, we have revived our review program. Visit the page to know more
August 28, 2021
The Owl Delivered The Good News All Night Long By Lopamudra - Book Review
India is a land of stories. With unparallel diversity in terms of cultural heritage and history of indigenous art and practices, this country is a repertoire of stories. Not a single child in India would have grown up without hearing the regional folk tale no matter how far ahead the society has advanced. The smell of raw earth emanated by these innocent stories has magic that never fades. This magic is woven with a wand of words by Lopamudra and Maitra Bajpai through the book The Owl Delivered The good News All Night Long. Indian folk tales story arena has a treasure to look forward to.
For a change, the review must start with the book cover. The black cover with the tinge of orangish hue amalgamated with the purple palette is a magically enticing one. The book instantly connects with the readers. The splurge of colors is hypnotic. If we look closely the image is a summary of what the book is all about.
108 pieces of pearlThe book is like a pearl necklace with 108 beads and selecting the best one amongst these is impossible. Notwithstanding the fact that I am a Malayali, I could not say the story based on Kerala is my favorite. Now I am reading the stories for my kids. This is a learning experience for all of us. We can learn about different cultures, lives, and history. As with folk tales, each story in the book has an inherent lesson that would change the perspective of the readers in several aspects.
The engaging narrationThe style of narration is lucid. The author has taken immense care in preserving the indigenous value of the stories. Without losing the essence the author has presented the tales. Be it love, despair, or any emotion or scenario, the author has made sure to preserve the positivity in the words. Some stories are reflections of all families while some are imaginative and fantasized. The author has a palette full of imagery. The book made me wonder how, despite having such cultural variants, our emotions are raw and pure. The book is also philosophical in several aspects.The book is recommended to ALL BOOK LOVERSAbout the author
Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai is a visual anthropologist, author, and columnist. She works on history, popular culture, and the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of India and South Asia. She was recently deputed as the Culture Specialist (Research) at the SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo, Sri Lanka, and has also been a Research Grant Fellow of the Indian High Commission, Sri Lanka. A former Assistant Professor from Symbiosis International Deemed University, Pune, she continues to teach at universities in India and abroad.
August 26, 2021
After I Was Raped by Urmi Bhattacharya - Review
Why this trauma?
Not a review:This is not a book review because if I review this piece of literature on the basis of characters. craft, development and grammar (which is on point), it would be an injustice to the five females featured in the book. Author Urmi Bhattacharya is sharing the first hand experience of five rape victims. One four year old girl whose vagina and anus became one tract after the heinous attack. another 9 month old "Baby" whose body was damaged to nothing after the rape. Two other women who were raped to show their place, to make sure these Dalit women won't show self respect and perseverance anymore, and the fifth, a woman who was raped twice (brutally) by her lover and lives in the guilt of bringing ituppehWh helf.Do you get what I felt when I read it with my nine year old by my side? Numbness.
Author's selfless efforts:It was surprising to see the author's growing friendship with the rape survivors which sustained for years to go by. The book is talking about their lives years after the incident. Hence it more into what it is to live like a rape victim and hence the title After I was Raped. The author deserves a special applause for not sensitizing the book. The book is as real and hence the most painful.
The experiences made me wonder in which era we are living. How could a rapist live at a stone's throw from the survivor's home and pass sleazy, lecherous and demeaning comments about her. How could a rapist come back with vengeance in an attempt to silence her? If that is not enough, how could an advocate argue that the rapist is not his client because the child recognized him as Rahul Bhaiyya and his recordic name is something else? Well, no one has an answer to this.
Painfully I realized that we are living in a fool's paradise and that I am a coward who cannot think about the trauma of the survivors again and hence stalled my review. In this scenario, the author who has been repeatedly visiting them and listening to what they have to say is GOD! No, I am not exaggerating.I am waiting for one day when I could get her on the other side of the call and hear to from her as to how she dealt with such a situation and showed the courage..
Read the book if you want to come out of the fool's paradise that you are living in...
August 17, 2021
Teenage Chronicles by Saania Saxena - Review
Every human being has passed through teenage. While the teenage memories would be different for different people, the insecurities they have dealt with would be different. Saniya, through her book Teenage Chronicles, has portrayed a detailed account of the different seemingly simple yet practically distressing situations that a teenager would go through.
Being a Teenager:The book is an unpretentious account of her personal life depicted in lucid and compelling language. A teenager's journey of self-discovery gives you a perspective that you would never expect from a girl of her age. It is endearing and awe-inspiring to see the current generation willing to have an intellectual endeavor.
Imaginary reality:The imaginary characters whom she crafted to complement each chapter added spice to the book. The micro tales, in the beginning, create intrigue about what she would be talking about next. The author has touched on all troubled topics of teenagers.
The philosophical teachings of world leaders indicate how well-read this teenager is.
The book is ideal for teenagers and parents with teenagers.
August 14, 2021
You'll Always Be My Favorite What If By Tshree
The intense trope:
Amisha and Avyansh can't stand each other and cannot live without. The fact that they havent seen each other for nearly two decades doesn't subdue their obsession for the other. Amisha is in a toxic relationship with her husband, one that is soon going to end.
Engaging narrative:
The author has presented her finesse in playing with words around human emotions. The impeccably beautiful style of narrative is the highlight of the book. The characters are all developed over time in the book.
Powerful female protagonist:It is a welcome change to see an equally powerful female protagonist as that of a male protagonist amidst flood of average girl vs business tycoon tropes. However the deliberate efforts to tell the readers about the 'richness' of the heroine is a put off. It could have been showing instead of telling.
The book is recommended to all contemporary romance lovers.
August 12, 2021
A Lizard In The Room By Kisholoy Roy
To write a 10 page book or rather microtale, and present it to the readers with conviction needs immende confidence in one's craft. Dr. Kisholoy Roy has that confidence and rightfully so.
The book is the story of a lizard who visited the author, who has been breeding a phobia of insects. The author has introduced the scenario engagingly by explaining the different types of phobia someone could have. This would leave the readers wonder if they have any one of the phobias. Further the hero of the story, lizard comes to the picture.
Quirky narration:The author has depicted the funnily fearful experience in a quirky narration. The narrative was different from the classic Kisholoy Roy style. It is refreshing to read a seemingly negligible experience explained in such a way that the readers would be left wondering what will happen next.
If I write more about the book, it would be a spoiler. The book cannot be judged on the basis of plot development and character craft as it is a single scene plot. I expect a collection of such microtales from the author in the near future.
Cover reveal - Art Cinema And India's Forgotten Futures by Rochona Majumdar
Through careful archival research, the book presents, how art films
emerged out of a particular relationship between ordinary people and
the arts.
Rochona Majumdar analyzes the aspirations, films, and writings of a small
but significant group of passionate cinephiles - Satyajit Ray, Ritwik
Ghatak, and Mrinal Sen, among them. These filmmakers worked with a new
medium—films—to craft unique readings of India’s postcolonial history.
In this, they were pioneers who anticipated many of the themes that
academic postcolonial, feminist, and other radical historiographies
developed in later years.
October 2021
Non-fiction | Columbia University Press | 304 Pages | 35 B&W Film Stills | Paperback | INR 699/-
Distributed by Penguin Random House India
Art films gave Indian cinema international recognition in Cannes, Venice,
and scores of international festivals.
Art filmmakers were among the first to see the problems with the
developmental state. The films spoke both thematically and
cinematographically of the many ills that beset the new nation state.
Certain such as the "angry young man" arose first in art films before they reappeared in Bombay films in the star persona of Amitabh Bachchan.
The novel use of songs, location shooting, melodrama, poster art,graffiti,
found footage, and sound camera techniques marked unprecedented breaks in Indian
cinema.
Why then has the INDIAN ART CINEMA gone into oblivion?
ABOUT THE BOOK
The project of Indian art cinema began in the years following independence
in 1947, at once evoking the global reach of the term “art film” and
speaking to the aspirations of the new nation-state. In this pioneering
book, Rochona Majumdar examines key works of Indian art cinema to
demonstrate how film emerged as a mode of doing history and that, in so
doing, it anticipated some of the most influential insights of postcolonial thought. Majumdar details how filmmakers as well as a host of film societies
and publications sought to foster a new cinematic culture for the new
nation, fueled by enthusiasm for a future of progress and development. Good
films would help make good citizens: art
cinema would not only earn global prestige but also shape discerning
individuals capable of exercising aesthetic and political judgment. During
the 1960s, however, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Ritwik Ghatak―the leading
figures of Indian art cinema―became disillusioned with the belief that
film was integral to national development. Instead, Majumdar contends,
their works captured the unresolvable contradictions of the postcolonial
present, which pointed toward possible, yet unrealized futures. Analyzing
the films of Ray, Sen, and Ghatak, and working through previously unexplored
archives of film society publications, Majumdar offers a radical
reinterpretation of Indian film history. Art Cinema and India’s Forgotten
Futures offers sweeping new insights into film’s relationship with the postcolonial condition and its role in decolonial imaginations of the
future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rochona Majumdar is an associate professor in the Departments of South Asian
Languages and Civilizations and Cinema and Media Studies at the University
of Chicago. She is the author of Marriage and Modernity: Family Values in Colonial Bengal (2009) and Writing Postcolonial History (2010).
July 30, 2021
Outset Top Book Reviewer Awards 2021 - Winners Announced
The long wait has come to an auspicious end. We have our deserving winner of the Outset Top Book Reviewer Awards. Outset Books extend this opportunity to express our gratitude towards authors Shabnam Minwalla and Vish Dhamija, for sparing their valuable time in evaluating the blogs and Instagram profiles of the Top Reviewer Nominees.
Best Newbie Blogger
Ananya Basu won the hearts of the judges with the depth of her reviews. Her blog Soulful Paradise is a paradise indeed for the book lovers.
The first runner up Priya Bhasin is a passionate reader turned blogger. Her blog is The Bibliophiles World.
The second runner-up in this category is Kaustav Das, who is not only a blogger but a successful Instagram as well.
Best Senior Blogger
Samata, with an experience of nearly a decade, ensures her position as the Best Senior Blogger with her reviews that are professionally crafted and lucidly laid out.
Arti Sathe is an exuberant personality who spreads her positive vibes to the readers with her book reviews and thus grabs the first runner-up position.
After three years of blogging, this twenty-year-old girl made her mark in the industry. The second runner-up in the Best Senior Blogger Category - Suzan KhojaBest Blog Design:
Designing a blog is not an easy job. It needs polished aesthetic sense and knowledge about the technical nitty-gritty. The Best Blog Design was selected purely on the basis of aesthetics and considering the fact that they have done this themselves. And here we have our winner - Priya Bhasin.
Sruthy Pisharady's Shades of Lavender is all about professionalism, and beauty and thus becomes the runner-up in the category.
Youthful and bright - Arti Sathe's Geeky Over Nerdy can be defined in these two words and hence the second runner up in the category.Best Bookstagram Images:
If you visit her profile, you would not turn away without admiring the images. Ultimate beauty of book photography - Shreyasi Badu aka @ladythor_bookblogger
Simple and elegant - These two words define Ashima Satya's @the_world_of_books. With elegance, she claims her position as the first runner-up in the category.
Muskaan Fatima has stolen hearts with her awe-inspiring editing and ensures her position as the second runner-up of the category.Popular Bookstagrammer:
These two girls gave us an overwhelming time counting the votes. Pun intended. On a serious note, their popularity is indeed commendable. This is what we call being an influencer.
This cute little girl became the runner-up in the category because she was not far behind in popularity.
It has been an energizing experience going through their profiles and shortlisting them. I am sure our judges too hold a similar opinion. Congrats to all the winners. We have more activities coming your way. Hence stay tuned...
Virtual Tête-à-tête With Rahul Saini
Indian authors are expected to write stories that fall within the shackles of morality. Morality that is defined by the masses with a veil of discrimination. When Rahul Saini wrote 'Love to Hurt You', little did he expect the backlash from the readers who have carried Game of Thrones, Fifty Shades of Grey and the likes on their shoulders. Little did the readers expect the author of The Part I Left With You, to write something a raw, gory and realistically scary. Was it discrimination or wrong expectations?
Virtual tête-a-tête with Rahul SainiWhen I read Rahul Saini 's the Part I Left with You, I was overwhelmed with emotions because the author has unpretentiously portrayed raw emotions. Nonetheless, I Love to Hurt You made me realise that raw emotions is a relative term. To surmise how he accomplished the feat of bringing two divergent plot lines out through on pen or laptop for that matter, I connected with Rahul. What happened further is pure magic.
CLICK THE IMAGE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW About the authorRahul Saini is the bestselling author of many novels, including Those Small Lil Things: In Life and Love and Paperback Dreams.
