Review: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a hilarious and funny book. All about a chef's life in the kitchen. Anthony Bourdain has nailed the profession perfectly in this book and seems to have good writing skills too. There are some interesting titbits about the kitchen like the one about fish on Mondays, the right kind of people to be hired as kitchen staff etc. I was however expecting a bit more dirt on the restaurant industry, but was disappointed. It was more of a professional biography of Mr. Bourdain. Would give it 3.5 stars.

View all my reviews

Review: The Boy

The Boy by Nrupal Das
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was a short story of about 14 pages. What started off as promising and interesting, tapered off with a straightforward ending. The author has written a beautiful story about a boy who has gone missing and his parents' despair and the uncertainty that awaits their fate. The prose is good flows beautifully. However, due to the short length the author could not etch out the characters in depth.

PS: - Free copy in exchange for a frank review.

View all my reviews

Review: A Gambler's Jury

A Gambler's Jury by Victor Methos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As usual Victor Methos never lets you down. This is the second book that I have read and I loved it. Initially I was a bit skeptical after reading the blurb about a mentally challenged boy wrongly accused of drug dealing and a lawyer who is forced to adopt him under strange circumstances, fighting to keep him out of jail. But as the story unfolds, it becomes a larger conspiracy involving the State and turns into a David v/s Goliath kind-of-a-fight, it becomes interesting and you don't want to put the book down.

I loved the character of Danni Rollins the almost drunk lawyer, who has a I-don't-give-a-damn attitude and Will, the rich private investigator who helps Danni in her investigations.

The author's note says that the story is drawn from the author's personal experience as a lawyer. For all ye legal thriller fans, one more author to watch out for.


View all my reviews

Review: The Fragile Thread of Hope

The Fragile Thread of Hope by Pankaj Giri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On GR the punchline for this book is "A gripping emotional inspirational fiction about love, loss, and finding hope in the darkest of times". It was not gripping, but it certainly lived up to its punchline - emotional and inspirational fiction. This is a decent book on human emotions of love, loss and a sense of hope. The main characters are Fiona and Soham who go through the lowest points in their life - losing loved ones. How they overcome their loss and find each other forms the main plot. Being fed on a heavy diet of thrillers for a long time, this looked like a breath of fresh air, when the author approached me for a review. And I don't regret it.

The setting is Gangtok and the author has beautifully described the place with its wonderful climate, the heavy rains, narrow roads and alleys, the tea shop, the local bookshop and Kanchenjunga at sunrise. Believe me, when I say that the Kanchenjunga at sunrise is one of the most beautiful sights to behold, it is an understatement. Also one gets a bit of an insight into the Nepali culture, traditions and language which I feel the author should have been more liberal with.

The main grouse is the author has spent too much time going into the details with a heavy dose of wordplay. Somewhere the story drags and the reader tends to lose interest. The author seems to have a very good vocabulary but I couldn't help notice a few grammatical mistakes (syntax errors ?) in some places. The first fifty pages, I was lost in the chronological order in which the author had written the book and couldn't keep up with it, having to turn the pages backwards a couple of times to check what was written earlier. Once you get used to it or maybe ignore it, it becomes easier to read.

Being a debut work, this was a decent one and I wish him all the best for the future.

PS: - Free copy in exchange of a review.

View all my reviews

Review: Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic book. If you want to turn an atheist, read this book. It debunks all myths about religion and God. The author tries to wed science with religion and concocts an immensely interesting and edge-of-the-seat thriller.

A priest-turned-scientist at CERN (the organisation where the Hadron Collider was built - remember God's particle ? ) is killed and investigations reveal that he was on the cusp of a mind boggling invention which is about to turn religion and faith on it's head. Enter Robert Langdon, the renowned American symbologist, who is called upon to investigate the murder. He teams up with the scientist's daughter Vittoria and the trail leads them to Vatican City and papal domain.

What is interesting here is the way Dan Brown recreates Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, the Pope's Office and residence and the CERN environs in detail. The book contains beautiful illustrations of the symmetrical ambigrams. I commend the author or the artist who has conceptualised these ambigrams which forms the core plot. The only part which I found a bit over the top was the helicopter ride towards the end of the book. Overall, this was one good thriller with a healthy dose of religion thrown in.

View all my reviews

Review: Meena Kumari

Meena Kumari by Vinod Mehta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a biography written by Vinod Mehta in 1972. I was always intrigued by Meena Kumari, the yesteryear actress, when I saw her act in "Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam". It was one of her best known films directed by Guru Dutt along with "Pakeezah". The book is divided into two parts. The first part is about her life which is more or less half the length of the book, and the other part is about how the author came to write the book. The book takes us through the life of the actress from the time she was a child till her death. There are some insights into her private life like her equation with Kamal Amrohi, her husband, her close relatives who live with her and actor Dharmendra. I was shocked to read that she died penniless with not even Rs 3,500/- to spare to pay her hospital fees, despite acting in over seventy films in her short career.

Vinod Mehta, was an eminent journalist ( my link text) till he died in 2015. This was his second book as an author. The author is a self-confessed fan of the actress and his views seem to be a bit biased . Also the author dwells more on the actress' relationship with her husband and her film directed by husband Kamal Amrohi "Pakeezah". The book needed a bit more fodder about her life and career and some more in-depth research. Maybe he was honing his skills as an author / journalist in 1972. Still a good book on the life and times of the "Great Tragedienne" of Indian cinema.

View all my reviews

Review: The Accident

The Accident by Shree Janani
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This 12 page long book is a mix of suspense, romance and horror all mixed together. The author has tried to put in all the elements and tried to narrate a story. When i was approached for a review, I was intrigued by the fact that whether it can be interesting enough. While it did hold my interest, the story ended abruptly and I was a tad disappointed. This might be because the story was restricted by its length. Cannot comment on the characters as there was only so much matter in the book. This being a debut, the author holds promise and would hopefully write a full length book in the future.

PS: Honest review in exchange for a free copy.

View all my reviews