A Horse Walks Into A Bar David Grossman (Trns. Jessica Cohen) 2014 Penguin pp. 194 The book is about a stand up comedian in Israel. The book runs through one of comedians acts. The narrator is an old friend, a retired judge who the comedian invites to his act. The act turns away from comedy…
Last Train to Istanbul Ayse Kulin (translation by J W Baker) 2002 (reprint 2013) Amazon Crossing pp. 396 Set in wartime Turkey and France, the novel revolves around the lives of a Turkish family. The younger woman in the family has married a Turkish Jew. The family refuses to accept their marriage and the couple…
Namak Swadanusar Nikhil Sachan 2017 Westland pp. 160 Namak Swadanusar is a collection of short stories that revolve around the most common theme that I read : Life. In the initial few stories, I was wondering why I picked up this book. I know why I picked it up: I was craving Hindi. It is…
The Unceremonious Revenge Arpit Shrivastava 2018 Half Baked Beans The Unceremonious Revenge is a fictional account of the trials and tribulations of a college drop out. The female lead falls for the young, responsible gentleman who is a victim of circumstance, having had to shoulder family responsibilities at a young age, at the cost of…
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957 Random House pp. 1168 Atlas Shrugged is a popular work of fiction by Ayn Rand. The plot describes the struggle of railroad business tycoon Dagny Taggart and her lover, and steal business leader, Hank Rearden in working with efficiency in a fast crumbing American economy. The two work hard in…
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions Edwin A. Abbott 1884 Seeley & Co. The novella is written from the perspective of a fictional character, a Square, living in a Flatland a land of only two dimensions. The story is a satire on the Victorian culture and the social structure therein. However, it is also a…
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 Atria Books pp 388 Reid writes the story of a Hollywood star of the yesteryears, telling her biography to be released post her death. The plot starts by the star handpicking a not so famous journalist for writing a piece on her. The mystery starts…
Half of a Yellow SunChimamanda Ngozi Adichie2007 (first published 2006)Harper Perennialpp. 433Adichie writes about the forgotten civil war in Biafra and the making of ‘united’ Nigeria. The story revolves around the lives of twin sisters of upper middle class Igbo family. A life spent in realising and living the contrast between the haves of middle…
Winsome Winnie and Other New Nonsense NovelsStephen Leacock1920Kindle editionGeneral Books (2010) It takes a lot of effort to reach an author like Leacock. In my quest to meet the Extraordinary Reading Challenge by The Curious Reader, I was to read something funny. Now, heavens alone know why, but we are constantly fed with satire in…
The Shadow LinesAmitav Ghosh1988Penguin Indiapp. 288The Shadow Lines is one of the earlier works of Ghosh. I picked it up as part of a reading challenge. The temptation was to read one of his books since I haven’t read any of Ghosh’s works earlier. I was a bit disappointed, and I believe his other books…
