Meera Nair's Blog, page 20
September 2, 2018
Book Review — A Girl, A Stolen Camera and A Borrowed Bike by Nikhil Singh Shaurya
Nikhil Singh Shaurya’s debut novella, A Girl, A Stolen Camera and A Borrowed Bike tells the story of Sonali who, upon stumbling across some photos captured by an unknown man, realizes that traveling is her true calling. She jumps at the chance to leave her mundane life behind, and dons the skin of a wanderer, moving from place to place without any planning in advance. As her journeys allow her to view life from renewed perspectives, she gets closer to learning about the man whose passion and...
August 10, 2018
Book Review — Chanakya by Ashok K. Banker
Image Courtesy – Goodreads
STORY: Ashok K. Banker in the first installment of his historical fiction series, the Chanakya trilogy, introduces us to the legendary figure as a young boy of 7 years age, also called Vishnu Gupta. Far from his home, in the city of Pataliputra, there’s a minister (Maha-Amatya Kartikeya) who rules by brute force and evokes great terror in the minds of the citizens. When Vishnu and his family head to Pataliputra for a congregation, his life gets bound in the chains o...
July 22, 2018
Book Review — Jasmine Days by Benyamin
Image Courtesy – Goodreads
Jasmine Days tells the story of Sameera as she gets accustomed to living in a Middle Eastern city with her father and relatives. This shift away from home and her new job as an RJ brings her closer to assimilating with people of different backgrounds. Her friendships take on new definition when the city gets torn apart by religious conflicts. In this contemporary fiction, the author draws up a raw and gritty picture of the effects of communal tension and violence.
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June 23, 2018
Book Review — Goodbye Freddie Mercury by Nadia Akbar
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Nadia Akbar’s debut novel, set in Pakistan, narrates the stories of the youth, as they grow up in a society ripe with corruption, volatile politics and gender bias. Nida and Bugsy are two such teenagers whose lives get entangled when they meet at a party. After her brother’s death, Nida has grown estranged from her family and chooses to spend her days smoking one joint after another. Bugsy is an RJ trying to harmonize rock music into the music scene in Lahore, a pla...
June 7, 2018
Book Review — Legends Over Generations by Ashraf Haggag
Legends Over Generations is a nonfiction book that highlights the contributions of various global leaders in fields like art, literature, science, human rights, politics etc. Each chapter is dedicated towards bringing to light basic facts about the life, upbringing, education, career and legacy of these revolutionary personalities.
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I found this book to be extremely insightful. There’s not a lot of information, just the necessary facts about all the individuals. That...
Book Review — The Soldier Prince by Aarti V. Raman
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In The Soldier Prince, we come to read about Prince Alexander Heinrickson of the Royal House of Stellangard, who is not in the least bit interested in putting on the princely attire and carrying out the duties of the royal family. The loss of a loved one pushes him to swap that life for one in the military as a soldier. But when a fated catastrophic encounter with the attractive Sasha Ray threatens to expose his true identity to the world, he must rush back home and...
June 1, 2018
Book Review — A Cage of Desires by Shuchi Singh Kalra
Shuchi Singh Kalra’s A Cage of Desires comments on the state of Indian marriages within a conventional family, while giving wings to the sexual identity of a woman. Renu is a married woman who, between taking care of her children, her father-in-law and the house singlehandedly, finds no relief for herself. Her loneliness and lack of affection in a loveless marriage urges her to get lost in the words of renowned erotic fiction author, Maya. This novel draws parallels between a woman subdued by...
May 26, 2018
Book Review — Who Owns That Song? by A.R. Venkatachalapathy
C. Subramania Bharati is a renowned Tamilian poet whose works spoke of nationalist sentiments and paved the way for the future of poetry in Tamil Nadu. Who Owns That Song? chronicles his journey as an artist and how his works changed hands a few times before finally being released by the government into the public domain, free of any copyright claim. A.R. Venkatachalapathy’s nonfiction also introduces us to the early stages of the media industry in India.
Image Courtesy – Goodreads
Having stu...
May 17, 2018
Book Review — The Bitter Pill Social Club by Rohan Dahiya
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The Bitter Pill Social Club tells the story of the Kochhar family in all its tumultuous and extravagant existence. As a multi-generational tale, the novel follows the lives of the young and the old, striving to stay relevant in the age of casual hookups and social media driven popularity. When there’s a wedding in the family, all the Kochhars get together only to be reminded of just how volatile their relations are.
The synopsis and the cover had me so excited to r...
May 15, 2018
Blog Tour — Favourite Quotes from The Bitter Pill Social Club
This is my second post as part of the blog tour for Rohan Dahiya’s The Bitter Pill Social Club. I’ve read and reviewed it. The review post will be up in a couple of days. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:
“The theory of comfort food is perhaps more personal than the clothes one uses to cover themselves from nakedness… The concept at its basest level is a concoction that can not only bring peace to a stressed soul but also evoke the feeling of home, one that’s usually lost in...
