Aman Mittal's Blog, page 6

BOOK REVIEW: Prime Time Crime by Vrushali Telang

Prime Time Crime by Vrushali Telang
Published by Vishwakarma Publications on 2018
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
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Vrushali Telang’s latest book, Prime Time Crime is a novella. It conspires a story of a news reporter and a mafia Gangster in the city of Mumbai. The plot is intriguing and at the same time well structured. It is something new to read and expect from an Indian writer.

The plot starts with the introduction to our first protagonist of the story, a shooter who works for top-notch don and kills at least 3 to four high profile people in a year. He intuition of using a rifle is what got him the job in the first place. Dwell further, we are then introduced to our second protagonist who is an intern as a news reporter.

Within a month after joining she manages to grab an interview with the gangster, A.T. This leads to a mutual attraction between. A. T. is then promoted by his voice as the leader of a particular gang and is assigned to kill rival gang leader without using a gun. Meanwhile, Ritika, the news reporter’s career goes up too with some help from A. T. Both are passionate about each other until Ritika is caught red-handed by a police officer who then tries to manipulate about getting whereabouts of the gangster.

The plot is well organized throughout the book and not once did I feel that it gets distracted. The theme of the plot is interesting to me and I am sure it will lure many readers towards itself. The author has used the element of gangster and underworld in a minimal manner but smartly. This is not a typical romance fiction or romance fiction at all. It is a tragic tale.

The characterization in this novel is good. Characters are completely developed and mature from the start. The only thing that progresses is the relationship between the two. The writing style is excellent and fully verbose. There has been some use of a dragging element in between though.

Something interesting, very intriguing and the writer’s effort in creating it is completely reflected throughout. Will keep an eye on Vrushali’s next books.

4 out of 5!

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BOOK REVIEW: A Beginner’s Guide to Losing Your Mind by Emily Reynolds

A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind by Emily Reynolds
Genres: Nonfiction

Published: May, 2017

Pages: 240, Kindle Edition

Emily Reynolds latest book, A Beginner’s Guide to Losing Your Mind is memoir about battles with bipolar. She has spent years trying to cope with her symptoms after being diagnosed as bipolar in her early 20s and has spent years trying to understand how to live with her diagnosis.

This memoir is about her personal story which includes advice for individuals who are managing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Living with mental illness is isolating, infuriating and painful but also very boring. She has covered variety of topics such as ho to cope with exam pressure at school or university, handling self-sabotaging and suicidal thoughts, advice for family and friends and even tips for dating.

Later in the book she has provided in detail advice and suggestions on diagnosis, treatment and maintaining one’s mental health. After reading, I have found some of her suggestions are applicable in our daily lives since we all, in someway cope with mental stress and pressure a lot these days. It’s not only a memoir, this book is an honest exploration in the field of mental illness.

Her writing is flawless and her experiences are engrossing.

This book is beneficial and directed towards readers who want a better understanding of what mental illness is like and how it affect a person’s life. It indeed will sound eye-opening if you haven’t read something on this topic before. In that case, you should read this book.

4 out of 5!

Note: I received this book from the publisher but that doesn’t mean my review is breaking all the rules.

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BOOK REVIEW: Side Hustle – From Ideas to Income in 27 Days by Chris Guillebeau

Pages: 272, Kindle Edition

Published: September 2017

Cover Rating: 5/5

From the author of The Art of Nonconformity, The Happiness Pursuit and The $100 Startup, we have now in our hands a book that describe tips and share stories of similar ambitious beings who are earning extra cash while hustling. The book is an idea out of the popular podcast hosted by the author himself, Chris Guillebeau: Side Hustle School which is available both on iTunes and for Android.

Side Hustle can be a great start for someone who is obsessed with the idea of entrepreneurship or want experience starting their own business. In the book, the anecdotes and real-life stories shared by the author of people who is already hustling in various fields clearly follows a pattern of little investment in those businesses. So what is a side hustle? It can be anything from an online product selling the business to a service provider. In past year, I have met and learned about people who work remote, have quit their 9-5 jobs, are happy, working hard and supporting themselves by doing what they want to do. Thus, a side hustle does not have to be something big for which one tends to have business school experience, but it is about to settle on an idea to generate that extra amount of cash, or support yourself full-time and to give in the hours along with your full/part-time job.

This book can be a great start for readers who are interested. It provides basic anatomy inside this hustling business. I would not call this a bubble because side-hustling has existed in our culture from ancient times. The fixed mindset of doing or working on one thing for the rest of your life by sitting in a cubicle is changing with time. It is not the most secured reality anymore.

Having read almost every book written by Guillebeau, I have come to a conclusion that I like his writing style. It is simple, easy to understand, and the coverage area of his topics are in my interest and very much engaging. The book does provide necessary tools that have already in practice and seems a pragmatic approach if you are just starting out to build a profitable side hustle. From brainstorming an idea to implementation, this book walkthroughs a reader step by step.

4 out of 5. Recommended!

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BOOK REVIEW: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

Pages: 221, Kindle Edition

Published: 2016, Bloomsbury

Cover Rating: 5/5

Nominated for The Man Booker’s Prize in 2016, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy has been siting on my virtual shelf for over a year. I thought, before this year ends I should give it a go.

With an interesting cover, the plot revolves around Sofia, a twenty five year old anthropologist, born to a British mother and a Greek father. She believes she has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s unexplainable illness. She is frustrated by her mother’s constant complains and travels with her to the coast of souther Spain to see a famous consultant in the hope that he might be able to cure her mother’s unpredictable limb paralysis. With doctor’s strange methods, Sofia track while tracking down her mother’s symptoms in an attempt to solve this msytery of her pain but along this journey that, she discovers her own desires, her sexual personality and coming on terms with herself.

The storyline starts flat but as it moves forward it becomes interesting and enjoyable. It might take some readers to adjust with the plot but let me tell you this is one of the books where plot is secondary. This I realised after I was done with almost half of the book. The characters are the mai point of this book. These characters are always thinking and feeling. They develop on their own, some of them instantly and are interesting personalities. Whenever the author shifts focus from our protagonist I observed how intelligent the other characters in ths novel are.

Moreover, one gets to see the transformation of some characters as the plot move forward. The writing style has a pace with it and I highly enjoyed the narrative. The writer has clearly captured the strangeness of a mother who demands attention from her child who is an adult. The element of this type complexity is explored through out the novel. The landscape described in the book is limited but I think it has high impact both on the readers of the book and the overall characterisation.

I enjoyed reading Deborah Levy’s work. She is now one of the those authors on my list that I have to explore and read their other published works. This book can be finished in a day as I managed to read. Something different, not your usual contemporary fiction.

4 out of 5

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BOOK REVIEW: Reading People by Anne Bogel

Pages: 226, Kindle Edition


Published: 2017 by Baker Books


Cover Rating: 4/5





Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes is the latest written flick by Anne Bogel. The title is so cliched and attractive at the same time that I decided to pick this book last week. For those of you, likewise me, are unaware of who is Anne Bogel, well, she is a blogger who excessively read books and share stuff like #bookstagram on her blog Modern Mrs. Darcy.

The title of the book is misleading to an extent but I love the fact the author has the power to attract readers. However, one of my later realisation about the title came when I completed reading the book. It’s actually directed towards the reader. “Reading People” is all about reading yourself by yourself. Yeah, now it might sound self-help and it certainly is but this book does not enforce “tips & tricks” like most do. The book shares Anne’s personal insight, about her career, her marriage, an HSP she is (wait till you read the book, I am sure you will grab one or two terms like these).




The book is develop on the basic idea of Introverts/Extroverts introduced by Carl Jung in the previous century. Anne introduces the concept in detail and along in the narration a reader can start to realise what type of personality the writer is. This, I believe is a great excersice and a useful to indulge themselves (from a reader’s point-of-view) such that when reading ahead, a reader can clearly classify themselves and gain insight on their own personality type. The author then covers most of the useful and pragmatic personality frameworks such as Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, and Enneagram.





She explains to readers the life-changing insights that can be gained from each and shares specific, practical real-life applications across all facets of life, including love and marriage, productivity, parenting, the workplace, and spiritual life. Her writing style is personal, relatable, casual and enjoyable. The pace of the book is picks up once a reader is introduce to various frameworks. I think this book will be helpful in any way to any reader who addresses it. There is something to gain (maybe more) and nothing to lose if you decide to read this book.





4 out of 5

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BOOK REVIEW: Age of Azmoq – The Valantian Imperium by Rajamayyoor Sharma

Age of Azmoq - The Valantian Imperium by Rajamayyoor Sharma
on 17/01/2018
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy
Pages: 479
Format: eBook
Goodreads

Reading a highly imaginative tale can go either way, the good or the bad. Out of the imagination comes the plot and the characters which form the complete story. The effort of the writer does not diminish itself, but these are the two main factors I look in every fantasy novel.

Age of Azmoq – The Valantian Imperium by Rajamayyoor Sharma is a fantasy novel. Azmoq is a rare metal found on the planet. It’s the ultimate source and symbol of real power, and the Valantian Imperium controls it all in Valantia. It is a tale that consists of magic and sorcery. and adventures that fill all 470 plus pages.

The storyline of the book is divided into forty-eight chapters. The quest begins when a youth living in the village of Villasboro, Devrath, the protagonist of our story is asked by his master to inquire about a stranger who is staying there for almost a year and a half. This quest then leads to further adventures such as the unveiling of the truths and secrets for the first time. I would not say the plot makes this novel exactly a page turner but yes, it is fast-paced.

There are subplots that consist twists and turns which both adds an advantage and a disadvantage to this novel. The advantage is that these subplots are intriguing and important. That is how a fantasy tale is told. The disadvantage is that sometimes it did get out of the track and was baffling.

The characterization is vast and it is hard to keep track of it. Though I guess it can be a challenge for the reader. The writing style is appreciable as the author has put a lot of effort in terms of that. I would not declare this book an absolute epic fantasy since it needs to improve few things I have mentioned. But yes, it is close to one and is a delight for the fans of fantasy.

3 out of 5

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BOOK REVIEW: Powerful by Patty McCord

Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord
Published by Silicon Guild on 09/01/2018
Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Entrepreneurship
Pages: 228
Format: eBook
Goodreads

The nature of business in the modern digital and information overload age is ever-changing. The foundation of Patty McCord’s book Powerful – Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility is that the as workplace progress, so should human resources.

The author challenges the old, traditional corporate HR that include annual performance reviews, retention plans, engagement programs, etc. She clearly speaks her mind in the early chapters that these activities and actions are a mere waste of time and resources and why the modern day companies, irrespective of their number of employees should not practice them.

I liked this ideology. I feel this is the most positive point in the book. All that corporate mumbo-jumbo is a distraction and I have experienced it myself while working full time in previous years. It does stop an organization’s development process. Patty McCord’s pragmatic suggestions in managing a company are discussed in detail throughout this book.

Although the book starts stating that it is not a memoir, after reading it, I’d say that it is. It is written from the perspective of the author and her experiences in the organizations she worked. Especially, at Netflix. Another thing I did not like while reading is that the writing style is plain and it failed to create any enthusiasm in me as a reader and a learner looking to get something out of this book. While the practical insights shared from her own experience at Netflix in the book are a must-read, the way they are presented is not an ideal one.

3 out of 5

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BOOK REVIEW: The Aryabhata Clan by Sudipto Das

The Aryabhata Clan by Sudipto Das
Published by Niyogi Books on 05/12/2017
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Historical
Pages: 476
Format: Paperback

The delightedness of reading a book depends on very few factors. One of them is how the plot unfolds in front of the reader and his mind. Afterall, every story has some of it. Without a storyline, a book or a novel is spineless. Sudipto Das’ latest work, The Aryabhata Clan is a great example of why storyline matters.

The Aryabhata Clan is the second novel in the series after Ekkos clan. The genesis of the plot is coupled with some facts based on author’s research of ancient India, some 1500 years ago. The storyline starts in the present day New Delhi and takes its reader back in time as it advances. The plot is as follows:

The Islamic State has spread its tentacles in India, penetrating stealthily into the academia, media, and politics. The mastermind is Shamsur Ali, a physicist from Bangladesh. To destabilize India, he wants to create a sort of apocalypse, which the 21-year-old Kubha must prevent at any cost, come what may. Much of the plot involves Kubha. The book is murder mystery at the top and that brings the element of thrill on the table.

The interesting thing about the plot of this book is the amount of research author would have gone through. He has touched not only history, but linguistic, paleontology, and politics. There is a good amount of illustrations that explain the concepts involved in this novel.

The writing style is good, mostly involves third person narrative. The characterization in the novel does try hard to cope with loads of information and to advance the storyline at the same time. This does make few parts feel like a drag, but without these characters, this novel would not have been intriguing to read. The length of the book is around 470 pages and I think it is perfect.

I appreciate the effort author has put in creating a world of his own. This is what I want to see to in Indian Fiction and I am being outspoken about it for years. The thrill along with in-depth research sounds like pre-The Lost Symbol Dan Brown?). I do think the writer did try to satisfy most of his readers but with complex structures, you cannot and that is okay with me.

4 out of 5

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BOOK REVIEW: Clarity is the Only Spirituality by Susunaga Weeraperuma

Clarity is the Only Spirituality by Susunaga Weeraperuma
Published by Fingerprint! Publishing on 02/2018
Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

How often to do you think a human brain, your mind, is at peace? Not the ultimate peace, but the one from all the daily chaos that makes it scattered and eventually affects our decisions. Susunaga Weeraperuma who devotes different forms of yoga, organic gardening, creative writing, reading, and meditation, thinks has the answer to the above question and has come out with a book with the same level of wisdom to enlight his readers.

The book starts on a high note and directly with the first chapter. The author addresses the title of the book in the first chapter and goes on talking about ‘attention’ span of a human mind in the first chapter. The whole book is divided into eighteen chapters. Broadly, these chapters are about the importance of communication, religious tolerance, forgiveness, giving, societal activities, utilizing time, books and solitude, stress, chastity, and death. Each chapter is an essay which describes author’s experiences with the title or the subject.

Sounds a like a self-help but I think it is not a traditional one. Moreover, it is a collection of essays that revolve majorly around one thing, YOU. The writing style is easy to understand and cope with. The flow of each easy is interesting as the author tends to build a story and then dives deeper into the matter. The length of the is around 220 pages but that does not make it a light read. It is time-consuming and heavy.

Some of the essays do no conclude well in my opinion. They resemble the writer’s personal opinion in particular situation or in life but that is not true for everyone. There are things which can be generalized such as the way he talks about stress, not many have done in their work. That kind of effort is appreciable. Having a strong opinion is good, but nothing is constant except the change. Forcing down one’s opinion and passing it to the reader as a proclamation tells a lot about the writer and is disappointing. Overall, most of the essays are good to read.

3 out of 5

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BOOK REVIEW: Macbeth by Jo Nesbø

Macbeth by Jo Nesbø
Series: Hogarth Shakespeare
Published by Hogarth on 05/03/2018
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 512
Format: ARC, eBook
Goodreads

The latest addition to Hogarth Shakespeare Project is Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth. For those who do not know, Hogarth was launched in London in 2012 to retold one of the greatest stories of all times by modern day bestselling authors of today. Hogarth was founded by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard Woolf in 1917.

This modern-day adaption of Shakespeare’s original play, sharing the same title is set in the 1970s. The book starts in a vividly poetic style. It is a crime plus noir version of the play that was written almost 400 years before. It focuses on a police force attempting to shed the drug problem in the local town. A drug lord, who keeps the whole town by the strings as if they are his puppets and him, the puppeteer. He has connections that get him what he wants. Absolute power. A major portion of the main cast is introduced in the first chapter. A Lot happens in the first few chapters which set the speed of the novel.

The titles so far have been published and the upcoming one!

Macbeth is the captain of the SWAT team. Duncan is the commissioner. Banquo is still Macbeth’s friend and Lady Macbeth renamed as ‘Lady’. There are those three witches which turned the life of Macbeth upside down by implanting the seed of greediness. It does seem Nesbo enjoys a lot by giving these characters a life of their own. The character of Duff, the original Macduff, is developed along with the plot to rain down Macbeth. In the original play, his character was not entirely developed. Nesbø fills this gap in his work.

There are a lot of similarities with the original play. Both sets of characters share almost identical traits. The plot has the identical flow but what makes this book interesting in my opinion is the way it is written. Each and every detail unfolds in front of a reader like an offspring. There are detailing that as a reader you would not expect the author to go into even though you have read the play and know a lot about the plot. Just like the development of characters like Macduff. Every character, now in 21st century breathes on his own. The length of the novel signifies that it is big but I think once you immerse yourself in the book, you will forget about it.

It stays true and close to the original plot. This is the reason I like this book so much and enjoyed reading it. Fans of Shakespeare’s Macbeth will find a delight in this modern-day retelling. Fans of Jo Nesbø’s will appreciate the hard work the writer might have gone through while retelling the tale.

5 out of 5

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