You are anxiously waiting for the announcement of the next book from an author. The day finally arrives. You are delighted, only to realise that the book is written in a genre you rarely read. I might be going against the tide here, but mythology has never piqued my interest. I watched Ramayan and Mahabharat as a child on television because it was a family ritual. Whatever I know about this subject is based on the tidbits I heard from my grandparents and parents during my growing years. For me, it was about bonding through story-telling rather than my curiosity to delve further into this space.
The Perils Of Being Moderately Famous is a refreshing, breezy and compelling read. It is a heart-warming collection of personal essays from the various walks of life of the author. I have often wondered about how it must be to be known as someone’s sister or someone’s daughter or someone’s sister-in-law, and this book answers all this and more.
The good thing about reading a novel from a new author is that you enter its world without any preconceived notions or conjecture. With “A Season for Dying: A Vikram Rana Mystery”, my mind was a blank slate as I plunged into it and I was in for a pleasant surprise.
“But then in life we all have a permanent blindfold on and yet we pretend to be safe.”
It is lines like these that make “Onaatah of the earth” an engrossing, sublime and enlightening read, which lingers in your mind for a long, long time.
I am an ardent follower of author Archana Sarat’s Saturday Shots. So, when I got to know about the launch of her debut novel, I was keen to read it. The day I received the novel, I was already in the midst of reading another one of a different genre. Hence, I decided to park “Birds of Prey” aside till I completed the current one. But, the book cover and the words of appreciation from Jitesh Pillai, the editor of Filmfare, made me curious and the plot, as I figured from the synopsis, compelled me to read the prologue.