Pages: 77, Kindle Edition

Published: 2011, Random House

I am big fan of Conan Doyle’s writings that include Sherlock Holmes and this year I realised I should try adaptions of same character written by other authors. After reading Martin Greenberg’s anthologies on Holmes’ Christmas Stories I came across Laurie R. Kings Mary Russell series. Mary Russell is a young girl that Holmes after retiring from being a Private Detective and relocating him in Sussex, takes an apprentice of. This short novella can be called the origin of this new series of adventure.

The plot is interesting but the adventure Sherlock Holmes pick up at the age of 54 to save his wealthy orphaned protégée is bit off for me in terms the time it takes to develop.

I did not enjoy this much not because the adaption of Holmes and Mrs. Hudson is actually accurate but the other main character, Mary Russell is too young and clearly being shown as a work in progress.

There isn’t much to conclude for me on the writing style since this book is only 77 pages and I am going to take my chances with her other books in which the characterisation is fully developed.

2 out of 5

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Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan
on 1976
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 187
Format: eBook
Goodreads

Subtitled as a Japanese story, Richard Brautigan’s Sombrero Fallout is my second reading of the author’s work. It is a unique story, a peculiar one too, with themes that might seem bizarre at first but are actually brought to clarity as the plot moves forward

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The storyline is about a heartbroken American writer that starts a story (somewhat meta) about an ice-cold sombrero hat that falls from the sky and lands in the center of a small Southwest American town. This is where the bizarreness comes in. This scene is repeated in a different manner along those 187 pages. While the focus of the writer inside the story is on the hat he certainly tries different angles to find out why he wants to write about the sombrero falling from a sky. Along with that, we get insight into the recent events of his life. His Japanese has left him, and he is now trying to cope with the heartbreak. In order to cope, he is trying to western stories with an angle that seems pointless to him as the plot moves forward.

I cannot talk about the characterization in this novel. Because there is a single character whose imagination is the locus of this novel. It indeed is a sad tale but after reading it, I think is a perfect way to deal with broken relationships and the feeling of the void it leaves. The narrator of the novel, when searches for the lost totems of his girlfriend shows how longs for her. This is the turning point in the novel for me. It is written without any flaw and the narrative voice is important but it does not drive the plot forward. The series of real event and the events that unfold in the imagination of the novelist described in the novel drive the plot.

The book is loosely based on Brautigan’s life and the void he was left with. The perfect instability of novelist who is being considered a humorist by the society and national media, cannot be a pure work of imagination. It is a bittersweet piece of writing that one must explore.

4 out of 5

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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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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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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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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.

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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Voice of the Rain Season by Subrata Dasgupta
Published by Fingerprint! Publishing on 03/2018
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

In past two years, I feel Indian fiction is on a rise. Not only the authors are trying to do the lonely job of writing elegantly, publishers have started acknowledging it. Such a book I came across, Voice of the Rain Season written by Subrata Dasgupta. A tale full of warmth.

The plot is based on the intertwining lives of two individuals, Martin Shawncross and Joya Bose, both in their twenties one American student and the other a Bengali teacher who teaches Indian Literature in the United States. The plot dives deeper into the lives these two characters as Joya learns about Martin’s Bengali background and is intrigued by the fact stated. She is attracted to the friendliness but also to the mystery that Martin’s family’s long-forgotten secret.

The storyline clearly surpasses the geographical boundaries in order to entertain the reader and at the same time answer to the question that it possesses. What I liked about the development of the storyline is that steadily progresses with giving enough time for a reader to be intrigued by it.

It uses in third person narrative voice as a medium to unfold in front of its reader. It is rich in human emotions and a lot of emphasis goes that way. There were never any hints of twists from the start but as the story moves, an unexpected surprise element is used by the author that defines the outcome of the book. I was much thrilled by it since the book does end on a mediocre romance fiction note. The characterization as to my expectations did not develop much after a point but the plot was enough to drive me further until I reached the last page.

I recommend you if you are looking to read a book written by modern-day Indian origin or a writer with Bengali background. It is enjoyable, a bit time consuming and rich of literary forms that go back to Rabindranath Tagore.

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Having a to-do list is no harm done. It is actually good, a productive step to increase your own productivity. It is a methodology that tends to change the way you work. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and stressed, one can perform their tasks in an organized manner.

Having a to-do list helps to bring a structure to your routine. As a blogger, I do get overwhelmed by the amount of research I have to do in order to complete the task of writing an article. It took me a lot of time to get into the habit of having and maintaining a list. At times, I still struggle to maintain one and achieve the targets I set in a day.

I believe in getting the habit of maintaining a system for oneself. Keeping up with a list and to have all checks at the end of the day is not possible every day. However, it does help me de-clutter my mind. I do not have to spend every moment for getting a task done if I write it down in the list. Not only, I get most things done on most days, the sense of excitement for all things I do is a bliss.

The key concepts I have found that works for me in developing and maintaining this habit are listed below.

Having a List

Write it down in a notebook. Write it in a smartphone application. Or in your email, Whatever works for you. Do make sure, that the material or the application you use must be accessible to you almost all times.

Adding the tasks

All tasks whether, personal or professional, big or small, projects, must dos could be the items on your list. Have a system around them, a concrete format. Such that you do not have to think about changing and modifying the system every day. Add those tasks to your list that capture your attention.

Organization

It can get a bit overwhelming if you add all your tasks without an identifier, whether personal or professional. Divide your tasks appropriately such that you can focus on them and have a clear idea of what you should do next and what can be done later. Do not get into the habit of multitasking, you are only going to exhaust yourself.

Reflect

Take time in a day or twice, to reflect how far you have come and how far you have to go. If your list is organized, you won’t be spending much time reflecting. The frequent reassessment will help you prioritizing your tasks and avoiding the dead end.

Do It

Do it. Write that post. Devoting a fixed amount of time to do the research. In that time, try avoiding getting distracted by new tweets or Facebook notifications. The system does not work in your favor if you do not work on the task you are required to.

By keeping up with your system, you will feel accomplishment and that is a good feeling. You have to feel worthwhile every day to continue putting the hard work. Try this method for few days and if it is not working, reflect and modify it to your needs. Remember. Reflect, and repeat. If you’d like to get in-depth into your working habits and how to maintain them, I recommend a copy of David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist.

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Before You Start Up: How to Prepare to Make Your Startup Dream a Reality by Pankaj Goyal
Published by Fingerprint! Publishing on 24/11/2017
Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Entrepreneurship
Pages: 200
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

The debut novel of Pankaj Goyal, Before You Start Up is about preparing for the life of an entrepreneur. This book offers insight on more than having an idea, evaluating it, the financial hurdle, and other pragmatic steps of launching your own product or a service company. It is a business book that I recommend especially to someone who might have doubts in their mind about the journey.

Doubts are not at all like holes in the brain cells. They are an essential part of a critical thinking process. But they often lead to low creativity levels. I urge not to dwell in them much. Instead, read this book. The first 50 pages of this book are highly critical. The author/entrepreneur himself starts by telling his own journey, a brief period of three years of his own product. All over the book, he has used quotes and cites text from the book that is already bestsellers and popular in the business world as well as with readers. He refers to the to his story in between the chapters. But that is not the reason I want you to read this book.

This book offers a lot of pragmatic advice that is important to observe if not implement all of it. I suggest you take his advice and his personal experience as his own point of view but at the same time you will find things useful. The world is full of them. You have your own and that is very necessary. No one has succeeded in their life by walking the track already exists. It is not a linear track for anyone.

The topics this book puts emphasis on are the generation of an idea, evaluating it, finding a co-founder, but most important one I found is understanding your “why”. It is all about your “why”. Everything starts and end at the “why” part. Best chapter of the book I would say.

Rest, as I said, his opinions are his own, I do not agree with his three-year breakup analogy of running a startup. You cannot judge a company or a product with that. What if it fails in the fourth year? He sounds too harsh in first pages of the book which in my opinion could have been anatomizing over the book instead of appearing all at once with more reasoning and understanding of the reader, especially, the first time readers. Here, at this point, the author assumes, the reader is already familiar with the sense of a topic. What if he is not?

3.5 out of 5

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Maps Are Lines We Draw by Allison Coffelt
Published by Lanternfish Press on 20/03/2018
Genres: Travel, Memoir, Nonfiction, Autobiography
Pages: 144
Format: eBook
Goodreads

Maps are Lines We Draw is Allison Coffelt’s travel memoir. The book that is actually a novella, deciphers the culture of Haiti. I picked this book because of the cover and the title mainly. They both compliment each other and is a good attraction. Little did I know of Allison’s writing style at that time.

The blurb of the book describes author’s visit to the beautiful island, where beautiful means beautiful for the people of Haiti, as she recalls in the starting pages of her memoir. She is accompanied by a local doctor Jean Gardy Marius is the founder of a public health organization OSAPO. She tries to explore the island itself and everything it constitutes of, the people, their culture, recalls in between which I found very helpful as I was unfamiliar with the tumultuous history. Along being the ordinary travel memoir, it also spotlights the reality in which how aid organizations are trying to help the local economy. This makes this book unique and interesting.

What more unique I found in this book is Allison, the author’s writing style. The way she spread words for the reader has lasting charm. It is because of her writing style I could not put this book down and had to read it in one go. In the end, it left me a feeling that I can best describe as a longing for a travel and weave my own memories.

4 out of 5

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