Thread by @mesoumya, Hello all! I'm trying to up my reading skills & thought a [...]

Hello all! I'm trying to up my reading skills & thought a good way to start can be sharing my opinion on books I've read.I won't be sticking to a genre,there might be something for everyone. If you've read any of the books I review or have interest in them,please share your views

Starting with 'The Division of Heaven and Earth' by Shokdung. We can only trust independent publishers like @speakingtiger14 for giving access to such controversial works
The book is a call for action,& for us outsiders,a glimpse into the misery in heaven

https://bit.ly/2XF0kLn

#2 This weather deserves some light reads that touch some unexpected cords of the soul. Erich Segal is capable of that magic which I only discovered too late.
My review: https://bit.ly/30PBoxM
The title of the book still makes no sense to be honest.

#3 Isnt it a lesson for our times to let each other be even if we don't understand each other?
Nine Lives by @DalrympleWill delves into an India that we pretend to understand yet know so little of. Diversity presented with unprecedented nuance.
My review: https://bit.ly/2GFzTuo

#4 Love is timeless, but is all fiction? A literary giant like Marquez is hard to critique, especially when the prose is so beautiful & full of pieces of wisdom. But from a twenty-first-century lens, nothing is infallible.A @PenguinIndia classic
My review: https://bit.ly/2Tsu2hf

#5 As the 'Shadow Lines' crisscrossed between decades and from London to Kolkata, I would imagine @GhoshAmitav as a carpet weaver, weaving colours through the threads of time and space, and creating this exquisite masterpiece.
My review: https://bit.ly/2PqMIzH

#6 A good primer to the dark world of the supposed caliphate, how it recruits the young and educated and how it sustains itself. Edna Fernandes manages to remain fairly objective, but might only be scratching the surface. @speakingtiger14

My review: https://bit.ly/2kEszau

#7 Does getting a publishing deal before embarking on an expedition aid or hinder a full experience? It is like a vacation for instagram?
Elizabeth Gilbert in 'Eat Pray Love', candidly takes us on an expedition, but the rewards aren't the best.

I review: https://bit.ly/2lJgDVn

#8 Doubt myself to be capable enough to critique someone like Woolf, but after reading Mrs Dalloway twice in succession, followed by the movie adaptation 'The Hours', I feel like I have a lot to say.
@PenguinIndia

Here I just scratch the surface: https://bit.ly/2mjSdlQ

#9 One of the rare cases where you really admire a person but can't seem to enjoy their book. To Mrs Sudha Murty's credit, enjoyment wasn't the target emotion & the practical lessons do their job well. Only wish if the stories were better told.

Review: https://bit.ly/2n9PJH1

#10 A necessary primer for the layman to understand the legal background of issues that not only changed India but continue to affect our lives. Zia Mody's 10 Judgements That Changed India is a concise, lucid tale. @PenguinIndia

Review: https://bit.ly/31QRK9H

#11 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. Cannot put up a blurb, please just read?

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3013275408

#12 It took some time to get here, but because I wanted to do my thoughts some justice. @UnamPillai in 'Rebel Sultans' spins tales which will ensure that you can never look at your history books the same way again

My review: https://bit.ly/33Ll5nu

@juggernautbooks

#13 There is a force with which Ayn Rand puts forth her argument in Atlas Shrugged that's polarising yet admirable.
You do not have to agree with her economics to appreciate her positivism.
If only it weren't so verbose!
If you have the time and patience, do read.

#14 We seldom doubt our memories, taking them as facts, mostly as they're our own creation & there is little reason to distrust ourselves. But people change with time
Barnes explores this idea beautifully in The Sense of An Ending with some great prose (But botches up the ending)

#15 I am new to both Proust & @alaindebotton but How Proust Can Change Your Life is so brilliant that it doesn't matter. There is beauty in every chapter, a new perspective towards life, or rather one that always existed but was blurred. Then you see clearly.
Highly recommended!

#16 Jeremy Paxman in 'On Royalty' gives an informed & anecdote-filled take on the role of royals in the 21st century that goes beyond the binary of republicanism vs royalism.
It's a soap opera in print (not unlike @TheCrownNetflix )

#17 Youth and death aren't topics discussed in tandem, which is why when Murakami does it, with his elegant prose in Norwegian Wood, one pays attention. How do we deal with love and death and everything that comes in between, with the limited but confident wisdom of college life?

#18 The lives of women everywhere are the same, what weighs them down and ties them up in Africa isn't much different from the subcontinent. But Chimamanda Adichie in The Thing Around Your Neck gave me a new lens, the one I didn't know I needed.

#19 @Trevornoah adds the male gaze to my newly acquired African lens. Born a Crime's triumph is how it manages to be an easy read, despite describing the tragedies of apartheid & failings of a state. At its heart it is a mother-son tale of two incredibly inspirational people.

#20 Always equal part fascinated & conflicted by semi-autobiographical works masquerading as fiction. Too easy, too personal, too real. Esp when you know the tragedy set to befall. Sylvia Plath makes you feel her tragedies in 'The Bell Jar', its not pleasant, its not meant to be

#21 If reading out the news without even properly attempting to mask identities qualifies as fiction, only then can 'Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous' by Manu Joseph be classified as one. There are a few good one liners, but they're too far apart. Disappointing.

#22 If you want to know more about the Obamas, youd read from the horse's mouth.Alyssa Mastromonaco in 'Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?' provides interesting & fun insights into the world of a working woman in politics/state. Except there are too many frivolous details.Passable

#23 Autobiography meets fiction in Paulo Coelho's Hippie. Travel, love and spirituality feature in abundance, as if it's a concoction of Imtiaz Ali movies- good writing, but average dialogue, well rounded protagonists but half baked side characters.

Does the hero find himself?

#24 'In Service of the Republic' by Vijay Kelkar and @ajay_shah needs to be a compulsory (even though that goes against the grain of the book) reading in all of bureaucracy/policy circles. There's much to learn, in lucid language,& they make sure every pointed is driven home well

(A more detailed review is in the pipeline)

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