Thursday, October 27, 2016

Books to Read - List V (alphabets O,P,Q,R & S)

Now I have come up with this idea, I will keep adding the names of books in a list here in aiphabetical order and whenever I will be able to read the book I will remove it from this list and add it to the Books Read list. This list could also be useful to the readers like me, who want to have names of good books handy.
But now as list has grown considerably its necessary to organise the names. For this I have arranged them in alphabetical order....the alphabets are O, P, Q, R & S

O
01. One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan
02. Our Moon has blood Clots by Rahul Pandita
03. Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

P
01. Playing with fire by Tess Gerritsen
02. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
03. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
04. Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback by George Plimpton

R
01. Ravan & Eddie by Rohintan Mistry
02. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
03. Restart by Mihir Sharma (politics)
04. River of Fire by Qurratulain Hyder
05. Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond

S
01. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
02. Second Life by S.J. Watson
03. Serena by Ron Rash
04. See Jane Run by Joy Fielding
05. Station Eleven by Emily St.John Mandel

06. Stolen Lives by Malika Oukfir

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Books to Read - List IV (alphabets J, K, L, M & N)

From time to time I come to know of some of the names or recommendations of some good books. I make list of the books, so that I could remember to read them in future and then when I search for some new book to read, I forget about the list only.
I made a list in a Diary and kept it, then I forgot about the Diary. After that I made a list on my laptop in a file but while buying a book to read, it was a bit difficult to consult the file. 
Now I have come up with this idea, I will keep adding the names of books in a list here and whenever I will be able to read the book I will remove it from this list and add it to the Books Read list. This list could also be useful to the readers like me, who want to have names of good books handy. 
But now as list has grown considerably its necessary to organise the names. For this I have arranged them in alphabetical order.

K

01. Kindred by Octavia
02. Karna's Wife by Kavita Kane
03. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

L

01. Life after Life by Kate Atkinso
02. Lord of the flies by William Golding
03. 
Long Man by Amy Greene 
04. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

05. Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner
06. Live the dream by Josephine Cox
07. Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah
08. Land where I flee by Prajwal Parajuly

09. Looking for the Rainbow by Ruskin Bond

M
01. Missed Connections by Sophie Blackall
02. Mari by Easterine Kire

03. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier. 

N
01. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell

02. Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
03. Night by Elie Wiesel

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Books to Read - List III (alphabets E, F, G, H & I)

From time to time I come to know of some of the names or recommendations of some good books. I make list of the books, so that I could remember to read them in future and then when I search for some new book to read, I forget about the list only.
I made a list in a Diary and kept it, then I forgot about the Diary. After that I made a list on my laptop in a file but while buying a book to read, it was a bit difficult to consult the file.
Now I have come up with this idea, I will keep adding the names of books in a list here and whenever I will be able to read the book I will remove it from this list and add it to the Books Read list. This list could also be useful to the readers like me, who want to have names of good books handy. 
But now as list has grown considerably its necessary to organise the names. For this I have arranged them in alphabetical order.


E

01. Em and The Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto
02. Emma by Jane Austen
03. Embassy Town by China Mievillle
04. English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee
05. Everything I never told You by Celeste Ng
06. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet


F

01. Far from the maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy
02. Fire on Mountain by Nanda Kaul
03Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
04. Free Country: a Penniless adventure the Length of Britain by George Mahood

G
01. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

02. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

H
01. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Samuel Johnson Prize and Costa Book of the Year award)
02. Her by Harriet Lane
03. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski


I
01. I, the Jury by Micky Spillane
02. In Custody by Anita Desai
03. Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera
04. Intensity by Dean Koontz
05. In the Woods by Jana French
06. In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
07. Intensity by Dean Koont
08. I Worked alone-Diary of a Double agent by Lily Sergueiew

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Books to Read - List II (alphabets C & D)

From time to time I come to know of some of the names or recommendations of some good books. I make list of the books, so that I could remember to read them in future and then when I search for some new book to read, I forget about the list only.
I made a list in a Diary and kept it, then I forgot about the Diary. After that I made a list on my laptop in a file but while buying a book to read, it was a bit difficult to consult the file. 

Now I have come up with this idea, I will keep adding the names of books in a list here and whenever I will be able to read the book I will remove it from this list and add it to the Books Read list. This list could also be useful to the readers like me, who want to have names of good books handy. 
But now as list has grown considerably its necessary to organise the names. For this I have arranged them in alphabetical order.

C
01. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut


02Catch 22 by Joseph Heller


03. Cemetery Girl by David Bell


04. Curious Lives by Richard Bach


05. Chasing Tomorrow by Sydney Sheldon

06. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese


07. Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

08. Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman

09.Codename Tricycle - True story of II WW's most extraordinary double agent by Russell Miller


D

01. Descent by tim Johnston

02. Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little 


03. Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood

04. Defending Jacob by William Landay 

05. Difficult daughters by Manju Kapur

06. 
Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston

07. Double Agent-First Hero of World War II by Peter Duffy

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Books to read - List I (letters A & B)

From time to time I come to know of some of the names or recommendations of some good books. I make list of the books, so that I could remember to read them in future and then when I search for some new book to read, I forget about the list only.
I made a list in a Diary and kept it, then I forgot about the Diary. After that I made a list on my laptop in a file but while buying a book to read, it was a bit difficult to consult the file. 
Now I have come up with this idea, I will keep adding the names of books in a list here and whenever I will be able to read the book I will remove it from this list and add it to the Books Read list. This list could also be useful to the readers like me, who want to have names of good books handy. 
But now as list has grown considerably its necessary to organise the names. For this I have arranged them in alphabetical order.

01. 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup 

A
01. A man called Ove by Fredrik Backman
02. A Village in Bengal by Chirodeep Chaudhuri
03. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
04. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
05. An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma (Hemingway Foundation/PEN award and Whiting Writers' Award)
06. Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
07. All the Light we cannot See by Anthony Doerr
08. An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
09. And then there were None by Agatha Christie
10. A Child called it by Dave Pelzer



B

01. Baumgartner's Bombay by Hugo Baumgartner
02. Boats on Land by Janice Pariat
03. Broken Harbor by Tana French
04. Before I Go to sleep by S.J.Watson

05. Bailey's Story: A Dog's Purpose Tale by W. Bruce Cameron

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Brunch Book Challenge 2015

I took the Brunch Book Challenge 2015 for reading 30 books in a year. This challenge was given on Twitter by @HTBrunch #Brunchbookchallenge. The list of books read by me in the year 2015 with the ratings by me, are as given


01. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins ***

02. Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik **

03. 
Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar - Review available *****

04. 1920s Omnibus by Agatha Christie ***

05. Poirot the Perfect Murders by Agatha Christie ***

06. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood ****

07. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo ****

08. Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad *****

09. Child/God by Ketan Bhagat ***

10. The Recession Groom by Vani **

11. Other Colours by Orhan Pamuk ***

12. Malala - The Girl who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala **

13. The Agony And The Ecstasy by Irving Stone ****

14. The Accidental Prime Minister : The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by Sanjaya Baru ***

15. And then One Day : A Memoir by Naseeruddin Shah ***

16. God is a Gamer by Ravi Subramanian ***

17. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

18. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger ****

19. Resonance by Ajai **

20. 1984 (Nineteen Eighty Four) by George Orwell **

21. Looking for Alaska by John Green ***

22. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin **

23. Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon ***

24. Small Remedies by Shashi Deshpande ***

25. Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins **

26. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini *****

27. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini ****

28. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini *****

29. Adultery by Paulo Coelho *

30. Dilip Kumar - The Substance and the Shadow : An Autobiography **

31. Half Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat **

32. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte *****

and other books in 'iBooks' of my Phone
1. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad ***
 

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Cuckold

Book : Cuckold
Author : Kiran Nagarkar
Award for this Book : Sahitya Academy Award
Other books by Author
1. Ravan and Eddie
2. Extras : *ing Ravan & Eddie
3. God’s Little Soldiers
4. Seven Sixes are Forty –Three
5. Bombay
6. Black Tulip and Bed Time Story: A Play



About the Book: A Historical Fiction set in the early 16th Century of  Rajput kingdom of MewarIndia. According to the author, he had started with a fiction but to put some geographical accuracy in his story, he started his research and ended in this beautiful life story of a fictional character Maharaj Kumar. This character is based on the real life ruler Bhojraj Singh, son of famous Rajput king Rana Sangram Singh or Rana Sanga. The character of his wife, who is known as Little Saint in this story is based on and resembles the wife of Bhojraj, Mira Bai.
The book is written from the perspective of the narrator, i.e., Maharaj Kumar himself.  Here Little Saint is shown having jealousy for her husband's second wife and behaving in childish manners many a times. But in Indian history Mira Bai was considered as one of the pillars of the Bhakti Movement in India and many legends are attached to her, making her Divine. She was a devotee of Lord Krishna and there are little known facts about her.
In the Book, The History is depicted beautifully.
Rajput kingdoms, the internal politics of the Palaces, power of moneylenders in small Rajput kingdoms of that time, values and honours of Rajputs, Hindu Muslim disturbances, attackes of Mughals and battles, the Society of that time and the fight of a Crown Prince for his right, his sacrifices, his love for his wife; who considered Lord Krishna her husband, the struggle of the prince to change the old habits and values of Rajputs in battlefield. His calling himself a cuckold in spite of his courage and thus this title of book.
My TakeWhile took the book in my hands, I thought it to be a fiction set in Rajput Kingdom. I don't like a fiction which seems like real and plays with the historical facts. But when started reading it, I came to know about the research gone in writing the book. And how I learnt some more reading about Rajputs and their history. Mesmerizing and captivating novel. 

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Brunch Book Challenge 2014

In the year 2014, I had taken the Brunch Book Challenge 2014 to read 24 books. This challenge was started in 2014 by Hindustan Times on Twitter as @HTBrunch #Brunchbookchallenge. The Books read by me in the year and the star ratings are as follows

01. Bougainvillea House by Kalpana Swaminathan **

02. Wicked Widow by Jayne Ann Krentz **

03. Calculated in Death by Nora Roberts ***

04. Indulgence in Death by Nora Roberts ***

05. Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee *** 

06. For the Love of a Son by Jean Sasson ***

07. The Kill Switch by Tucker Wayne **

08. Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez ***

09. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike 2) by J. K.Rowling ****

10. The Cuckoo's Calling by J. K.Rowling ****

11. Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi  ***** 

12. The  Secret Of The Nagas by Amish Tripathi *****

13. The Oath of the Vayuputras by Amish Tripathi *****

14. Don't Loose Out, Work Out! by Rujuta Diwekar ****

15. Women & The Weight Loss Tamasha by Rujuta Diwekar ****

16. Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight by Rujuta Diwekar ****

17. Chokher Bali by Rabindranath Tagore *****

18. Losing My Religion by Vishwas Mudagal  **

19. Ten Thousand Miles Without A Cloud by Sun Shuyun ****

20. Barbarians At The Gate:The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar ***

21. Prison Diary: Purgatory by Jeffrey Archer ** 

22. A Prison Diary by Jeffrey Archer **

23. As The Crow Flies by Jeffery Archer ***

24. First Amongst Equals by Jeffery Archer ***

25. Twist in the Tale by Jeffery Archer ****

26. The Fourth Estate by Jeffery Archer ***

27. Best Kept Secret (Clifton Chronicles 3) by Jeffery Archer **

28. Time To Kill by John Grisham **

29. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett **

30. The Alchemy of Desire by Tarun Tejpal *

31. Worth Dying For by Lee Child **

32. A Tug on the Thread by Diana Quick **

33. To Kill a Mokingbird by Harper Lee ****

34. Bankerupt by Ravi Subramanian ***

35. Devil in Pinstripes by Ravi Subramanian **

36. On a Clear Day You Can See India: The Little World of the District Official in India's North East by C. Balagopal ***

37. Srinivasa Ramanujan: Man of Mathematics by Sridar Elumalai ****

38. Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger ***

39. Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger ***

 
and other books in 'iBooks' of my Phone

1. After Dark by Wilkie Collins ***

2. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins ***

3. The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins ***

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Books Read in 2013

The Books I read in the year 2013. List with names of authors is given for reference. To make the choice more clear, I have given the star rating. 


01. Disclosure by Michael Crichton ****
02. Age of Extremes by Eric Hobsbawm **
03. Salim Must Die by Mukul Deva ****
04. The Road by Cormac McCarthy -- Review available ***** 
05. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown ****
06. Inferno by Dan Brown ***
07. White Mughals by William Dalrymple --Review available *****
08. The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple --Review available *****
09. Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple ****
10. On Balance (Autobiography) by Leila Seth ***
11. The Purple Line by Priyamvada N Purushotham ***
12. The King'S Speech by Mark Logue ****
13. Mafia Queens of Mumbai by Jane Borges and S. Hussain Zaidi ****
14. Indian Summer by Alex von Tunzelmann ****
15. The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt ****
16. Love In A Torn Land by Jean Sasson ***
17. Desert Royal by Jean Sasson **
18. The Take by Martina Cole ***
19. The Jump by Martina Cole ***
20. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.James **
21. Fifty Shades Darker by E.L.James **
22. Fifty Shades Freed by E.L.James **
23. The Land of the Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed ***
24. Complications by Atul Gawande ****
25. Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith **
26. The Bankster by Ravi Subramanian ***
27. If God was a Banker by Ravi Subramanian ***
28. The Incredible Banker by Ravi Subramanian ***
29. The Better Man by Anita Nair ***
30. Sea Of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh ****
31. Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck ****
32. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee ****
33. To Kill Rasputin: The Life And Death Of Grigori Rasputin by Andrew Cook ***
34. The Autobiography of a Sex Worker by Nalini Jamila ***
35. Last Man In Tower by Arvind Adiga ****
36. The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga ****
37. Timeline by Michael Crichton ***
38. The Last Child by John Hart ***
39. Surrender by Melody Anne ***
40. The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story by A. Revathi ***
41. Om Puri by Nandita Puri ***
42. Three Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat
43. Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat

Sunday, September 15, 2013

The Road

Book : The Road
Author : Cormac McCarthy
Prize : Pulitzer Prize, James Tait Black Memorial Prize 
Other Books by Author :
01. The Orchard Keeper
02. Outer Dark
03. Child of God
04. Sutrree
05. Blood Meridian
06. All the Pretty Horses
07. The Crossing
08. The Gardner’s Son
09. Cities of the Plain
10. Border Trilogy
11. No Country for Old Man
12. James Drake
13. Counselor

About the Book: This is a story about a father and his son, who walk alone through burned America after some unspecified disaster. Much of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy".