1. Keep the Change by Nirupama Subramanian
Chicklit.Chitlit.Chicklit- Screamed the cover of the book.I loved it!. Story of B.Damayanti who is sick of her life at Amman Kovil street in Chennai and her employment with SSV and sons. She decides to chuck her job in chennai and get herself a new lifestyle in Mumbai.Makeovers,f new riends and love follows.Plot was cliche,but sometimes,its the execution that matters and Nirupama's book is a breezy ride thats been executed very well. The book is set in a bank and the plot something i could relate to having worked at a bank myself.Purists might pan the book saying it was brainless,but i think i was refreshing breath of fresh air.
GOSH.Thats the only word i can think of after reading a ghastly set of stories that won a spate of awards.Of course the GOSH was accompanied by wrinkling of the nose and was not uttered extolling the virtues of the book. Seriously,if you want to read some spaced out reading,you need to pick up this book.Right from a monkey that is a companion to an old lady to the story of a jeans,the book was a total let down for me. I must give Ms Koshy this much credit- Her words are luscious and the descriptions very visually potent.Other than that, a complete tangential,weird collection of stories.
3. Chai chai by Bishwanath Gosh
The writer visits some imporant train station junctions that are never final destinations for most people (like Jhansi or Jolarpet)and attempts to find out what these places look like beyond the stations. a very interesting idea,if you ask me!But the execution is shoddy and the writing very ordinary.The author made the destinations sound as if there was nothing worthwhile or remarkable to share about them..In the end it seemed like he wanted to do nothing more than get sloshed and stay inside hotel rooms.Even the random exploring he does gets boring after a few chapters.DRIVEL.DRIVEL.DRIVEL.Hubby said that the book put him in a nice holiday mood,but other than that it didnt work for him too. The languorous pace almost killed my brain-cells.
4. The Blaft anthology of Tamil pulp fiction- Pritham K chakravarthy
Mad scientists,avenging robots and cleavage touting detectives-what's not to love ?. Translated works of some of the best known Tamil pulp fiction authors. Like any anthology,there were a few odd-balls that were bland and unduly preachy,but on the whole the stories were good fun to dig into.Some of the stories i loved were by Indra Soundarajan and Rajesh Kumar Incidentally,Rajesh kumar has written over 1500 novels and is trying to get into the Guinness book for the most number of novels written by a single author.Find generous servings of sexual fizz in the stories. After all, whats pulp-fiction without a little harmless fun ? :-)
I am currently on the second Blaft anthology and starting Life and times of a thunderbolt kid by Bill Bryson next..Whats on your bed stands?
I think Bill Bryson is over-rated. No, I haven't read him yet; I tried to read his "Walk in the Woods" but couldn't persevere.
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