“To kill a Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee

🍂”Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit’me, but remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
– Harper Lee, To kill a mocking bird
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🌼If you have been a reader for some time, you would have definitely come across a mention of this classic, and most of you would have already read it.
But if you have not yet come around to reading this coveted novel, here are all the reasons why you should!
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🌻 A classic set in 1930s Alabama is told by the point of view of a little girl, Jean, fondly known as Scout, who is witnessing her father, who is a lawyer, struggle to stand for a black man accused of raping a young white woman, in a town surrounded by people of racial prejudice.
As the events unfold leading up to the trial, will Atticus Flinch, the father, uphold his morale even when everyone is against him?
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🌺 Easily one of the easiest to understand classics, the story flows lyrically, the words almost poetic, the intricacy of the characters so memorable, the words don’t leave you long after you are finished reading them. Compassionate, striking and deeply impactful, the book talks of important themes of racism and inequality, by means basic subtleties of life, of human behavior, its innocence, its kindness, its cruelty, its love, its hatred all at the same time.
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🍁 A masterpiece that takes a story of two kids growing up in a world where all things are not fair, and the conflicts of a father trying to be an example for his kids and do the right thing, the characterization makes for a great story that constantly keeps you hooked and brings out the messages in a poignant manner.
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: classic, fiction, historical-fiction

“Once Upon a Curfew” by Srishti Chaudhary

Set against the backdrop of 1970s Delhi, an era of Rajesh Khanna’s movies, the cold cozy winters of Delhi and a time when a wave of nationalism ran through the society, “Once Upon a Curfew” takes us through the life of our young protagonist, Indira Narayan, who wants to convert her grandma’s old flat into a library for women, one where she has left behind hundreds of books, collected over all her years of living there.
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Indira’s family thinks it is a suitable idea since it will keep her occupied until she marries her fiance, Rajat, who is studying in London for two more years.
But when she meets Rana, a young lawyer full of life and humor, and the Emergency declared in India, the world that she once thought was perfect for her, will turn upside down. What kind of life will she choose now?
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A refreshing take on the era surrounding the Emergency when the times were filled with political tension and yet Delhi was booming with life, it’s movies, it’s winters and it’s love for Bollywood movies, the plot digresses significantly from how the story first started.
The romance brewing between two young souls, against the backdrop of a library, does sound promising but the narration dragged a bit when the courtship of Indira was developing, and the book could have done better with fewer dialogues.
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Would have loved if the story moved in one direction and not scatter abruptly into subplots so much.
But with a strong plot-line, a very pleasant premise, lovable characters, an old school love story blossoming in a library and a peek into the yesteryear’s struggle of people during the Emergency, this book has all the elements for a cozy mushy read.
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🍂Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5
🍂 Genre: fiction, indian-literature, historical-fiction, romance

“The Farm” by Joanne Ramos

“The problem is that she is too pretty. When you are too pretty, the other parts of you do not become strong.”
-The Farm by Joanne Ramos
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Jane a struggling mother and an immigrant from the Philippines finds herself in a valley retreat, one where she can enjoy all the amenities, organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. And even get paid for her time there.
The only catch, “The Farm” is actually a fancy place to keep surrogates till the time they breed for their uber-wealthy clients.
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While the idea itself is really intriguing and fans of ‘The Handmaid’s tale’ would find themselves leaning towards the novel, but I felt the actual execution lacks the same harrowing and intense experience.
The story primarily revolves around Jane’s character and you do feel empathised by it, her innocence and motherly instincts make you feel sorry for her being trapped in a place like this, but the various subplots and narratives were all scattered here and there without coming to a tangible conclusion.
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The contrast between the rich and the poor and the emphasis on the wealth-divide between the two, by means of a subject like pregnancy, is very well portrayed and worth mentioning.
Overall, an average read touching on a lot of modern-day subjects that hold potential for a good book, if not for the various plots thrown in random directions.
Thank you @bloomsburyindia for the gifted copy in return for an honest review.
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Rating:⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: fiction, contemporary, dystopia

“What Mina Did” by Geeta Menon

“What Mina Did” by Geeta Menon is a story about twenty-two year Mina, who moved to the US, to start a new life with her husband, after her mother’s death, to run away from her past demons and leave behind some twisted secrets.
Will she ever find peace? Or will she succumb to her internal conflicts?
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What started as an interesting plot, slowly lost track, and divulged into a confusing and unenthusiastic.
The relationship between Mina and her mother is portrayed very beautifully and piques one’s interest. But some of the portions of the book, which tries to paint a picture of how Indian society works turns out to be an enforcement of the already existing stereotyping which are so much more than a mere generalisation.
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The first few chapters of the book are worth reading but the latter part of the book failed to garner any kind of engrossment.
Overall, a book that promised a lot, but the diversion from the actual plot made the narration monotonous.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, indian-literature

 

“Snakes in the Meadows” by Ayaz Kohli

It is 1987 in the hilly village of Pathri Aali, Jammu, and Kashmir, two young lovers, Aslam and Ashwar dream of marriage and good things in life. But things never work out the way you think. Amidst unrest in the valley, Aslam leaves the village and Ashwar is bound to marry another man.
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How their lives take different turns and how the people of Pathri Aali are in a constant state of misery, both by the Army and the mujahideen, “Snakes in the meadows is a saga of the onset of militancy and the resilience of pir panjal.
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The author has penned each word beautifully describing the allure of Jammu and Kashmir and the way story proceeds, the atrocities that the villagers are subjected to and how each characters life advances, makes the book unputdownable.
The various subplots and shift in narratives do make the plot a bit confusing and I felt some of the subplots could be avoided for the sake of making the narrative more cohesive.
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All in all, a riveting and engaging read, filled with a lot of emotions and heart-rending stories of the perseverance of the people of Pir Panjal.
Rating :⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: fiction, indian-literature

“Atonement” by Ian McEwan

“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.”
– Ian McEwan, Atonement.
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It’s the summer of 1935, and a thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis misunderstands her older sister Celia’s relationship with their family gardener Robbie, and in a day a series of events will lead her to commit sin more grave than anything the price of which the two people have to pay for years, and she will be left atoning for it for the rest of her life.
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While the premise of the book is so enticing, the story goes real slow and the element of suspense and wonder what first made me go for this book was lost in the slow pace writing and overly detailed description. Very few books can make the narration from different POVs work, and this just didn’t work for me.
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The wartime chapters were extremely generic and unnecessarily crawling. Also, the idea of the ‘flawed’ judgment of a teenager, bringing in dire consequences felt like a fluke.
Other than that the writer has worked well with words and you can feel yourself looking forward to find out what happens next, in bits and pieces.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Reading difficult: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, historical-fiction, romance, classics, historical

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon

“Sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don’t know why we are sad, so we say we aren’t sad but we really are.” -Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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The narrator and the main protagonist of the story, Christopher is an autistic child, trying to solve the mystery of the murder of a dog in the neighbourhood. Christopher has a thing for details, he loves maths but has his own eccentricities like hating certain colours and being abhorred by touching.
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On first glance, it sounds like a mystery like no one else, one that is seen from the perspective of a different child and sure enough, Christopher’s character is one to be loved for his practical and logical approach to everything around him, which also makes for a funny read.
However, the excessive focus on detailing steers it away from the plot and fails to pique interest as a true mystery novel.
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I would recommend this to know better about the lives and perspective of autistic kids and their loved ones who have a hard time taking care of them.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, mystery, young-adult, contemporary, psychology
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐/5

“Oxygen Manifesto: A Battle for the Environment” by Atulya Misra

🌱 Oxygen Manifesto is a fictional interpretation of a world where the environmental problems that our Mother Earth is facing as of today, are solved by bringing out positive changes around the community by a jealous and honest IAS officer, Ravi, with the help of Thatha, a man determined to plant trees in any corner he can.
🌱 The book primarily focuses on establishing a new polity based on conservation of habitats, both for humans and animals and to have decentralised governance, one where each community is responsible for its own administration.
🌱 While the manifesto highlights the problems that our environment faces today, I found the solutions advocated lacked depth and it is very hard to see how the points of the manifesto are going to solve the very big problem of ‘environment degradation’. Somewhere the narration also lies flat and only comes off as a series of bullet points that attempt to touch the topic from the surface.
🌱 The idea that communities as a whole can restructure themselves, evolve and work towards making a better future, sounds promising but as is with any society the first point is having awareness and the will to change, and how often do we see that in people? Yes, it is a good attempt at bringing forth awareness for the multitude of issues that mar the land, the air, and the sea, but without the will to change does a manifesto help much?
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Anyhow, credits to the author for attempting to talk about a topic that demands utmost attention now, more than ever.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, indian-Literature
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐/5

“Small Days and Nights” by Tishani Doshi

“We raise our heads to the sky as if the sea was a window and we were climbing out of it.”
– Tisha Doshani, Small Days and Nights.
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Having had a normal childhood, born to parents of Italian and Indian descent, Grace finds herself in a small coastal village of Paramankeni, running away from her failed marriage and having found her sister, Lucia who was born with Down’s syndrome and was kept a secret from her all these years.
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Escaping the restless and highly active social life in States, grace decides to move into her mother’s house, with Lucy, the village housekeeper Mallika and little dogs to surround the house.
A story that looks so simple on the surface, turns complicated as one unveils the layers of a life of a single woman living alone without any men in a village in India, by the sea.
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Grace’s days are filled with taking care of her sister, feeding the dogs, taking them to the beach and in the process trying to find her lost self, and make meaning of a life she has spent in Madras, Italy, the States, Kodaikanal and now Pondicherry.
But the nights are full of fear and anxiety, for the endless glares and attention a house being lived by a single woman attracts, of someone breaking in, of someone marring the beauty of the life they are trying to build here.
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The prose is absolutely lyrical full of metaphors and analogies, that warms the heart and can be cherished long after one is done reading.
The beautiful description of the sea and the sand, and the nights and the days, and you can almost feel yourself walking on the beach or strolling on the streets of Italy suckling on a gelato.
The writing reminded me of Subhangi Swarup’s portrayal of all the alluring landscapes.
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An absolutely marvellous account of a story of survival, or finding one’s lost self, making peace with the misgivings of a family, of mistrust and finding trust, unveiling secrets and accepting them.
But above all, it is a tale of the one’s self-discovery amongst all the chaos, loneliness, heartbreaks and confusion.
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A sad yet thought-provoking novel full of life and the various emotions of ecstasy it has to offer.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5
Genre: contemporary, fiction, indian-literature
Reading Difficulty: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5

“To Kill the truth” by Sam Bourne

Sam Bourne’s latest in the series of former White house operative Maggie Costello’s encounters with a dire threat, “To Kill the truth”, opens up with a Professor of History dead, libraries around the world that house evidence of the history of important events like slavery and holocaust are getting burnt, digital records are being wiped out, and someone is trying to destroy all documentation of the greatest crimes committed, in a bid to rewrite history.
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Can you imagine how frightening a world like that would be where there is no written proof of anything and people forget the atrocities some sections of the societies have encountered?
Now it is up to Maggie to find who is behind all these killings and blazing and stop them in time.
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An interesting and thought-provoking premise coupled with a fast-paced and compelling narrative, this makes up for an exciting political thriller.
Although, having read the first one from the series does account for gaps in the character development, but the gripping plot and provocative theme more than makes up for it.
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A highly captivating and riveting political thriller that is sure to stir up your grey cells.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Genre: fiction, thriller, political-drama, adult-fiction