The Project Dragon

  This is the best book I have read recently. The style is unique, the tone is witty, the characters are really entertaining and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. I can't think of any other book that so cleverly tells the story as Stroud has done with this series. It’s written from the third person perspective for the young boy Nathaniel and the first person perspective for the superior Djinni, Bartimaeus. The footnotes that can be found in Bartimaeus chapters greatly enhance the story with humorous remarks. It may sound tedious to read a bit, jump to the bottom for the footnotes and then carry on back up top. But Stroud has done it masterfully and these footnotes add magic to the book. They actually bring out a whole new aspect to Bartimaeus' character. I’m not enamored with the protagonist, Nathaniel, but I actually really like that he isn’t a self-sacrificing noble boy. Instead he is a selfish, arrogant, and ambitious apprentice. It’s g...

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman Dragons! I never get tired of reading about dragons. That love over dragon stories caused me to find most stories somewhat predictable. But Seraphina's world is really intriguing and captivating. Rachel Hartman has marvelously crafted this dragon world; the transformation of dragons to humans, consequences of human emotions, consequences of love between humans and dragons, the half humans and their abilities, and the co-existence of both species. I like almost all the characters, especially Seraphina and Lucian; they both are very clever, brave, and altruistic. The side characters that add colors to the story are also really fascinating. I'm really grateful that there were no confusing thoughts and dramas as we see in most YA novels. Even though there was a smell of a love triangle in the corner, I hope Hartman would be able to craft it without an irksome drama. What glued me into the book ap...

    Have you ever read a book which you absolutely like and your mind is all over the universe after reading it? And still think about some characters and hard to review because can’t think what to say and how to articulate those thoughts? And the Mountains Echoed is indeed a “thousand tragedies per square mile” as Hussain mentioned in the book. It has been few months since I read this story (or short stories) of human characters and I still can’t put my thoughts into words. ...

  “Shades of Milk and Honey is precisely the sort of tale we would expect from Jane Austen, if she lived in a world where magic worked.” This is how the Shades of Milk and Honey is described on the back cover of the book. So I picked this book hoping to dive into a romantic historical fantasy world with deep characters. The story is about Jane Ellsworth, 28 years old plain woman who is a skilled glamourist with no hope for a marriage due to her plain features. Her younger sister, Melody is gifted with beauty and charm. The two sisters became jealous at each other when they began their hunt for eligible men, especially for Mr. Dunkirk. With the arrival of Mr. Vincent, Jane and her skills of glamour gets more attention which makes Melody unsecured of herself leading to a tragic mistake of love and judgment. Throughout this drama, there is beauty woven into each scene with the touch of magic to enhance the art. What’s most refreshing ab...

“Perfume should tell a story – the story of who you are, who you might be, perhaps even of who you fear becoming… all of these things are possible. It’s a very intimate element of a woman, just like her signature or the sound of her voice. And it conveys feelings and states of being that have no name, no language. Its very ambiguity makes it truer than words because, unlike words, it can’t be manipulated or misunderstood.” The Perfume Collector is not all about perfumes or the history of perfumes. It’s about two women and their life journey, about their dreams and hopes. With fascinating details about perfumes, the story reveals the beginning, the middle and the end of the life story of Eva D'Orcey. Being married to a loathsome man, Grace Munroe attempts to find her true self. Without her knowledge she takes a huge part in the story of Eva D’Orcey. Eva is a beautiful, charming and intelligent woman. She has a good sense of finance and business. She is always w...

I’m guilty of only buying this book because it revealed the real author behind the pen name, Robert Galbraith, is JK Rowling. Before that I have not heard about this book. As soon as I heard JK Rowling’s new secret book is a detective novel, I paid a visit to a local bookstore and purchased it. The Cuckoo’s Calling is a murder mystery. Lula Landry, a supermodel, fell to death from her apartment a few months earlier. The police closed the case as suicide because of Lula’s history of drug problems and her fragile mental state. But her brother, John Bristow, doesn’t believe it was a suicide. He hires Cormoran Strike, an ex-military man who is currently a private detective, to investigate the case. Somehow this book reminds me of a few old mystery novels. Cormoran’s military background and the physical damage from the war remind me of Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes. Also Cormoran’s investigation style and the final revelation brought back old memories of Sherlock Holmes s...

I must confess that I didn’t just like this book, I loved this book. Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches is a mixture of fantasy, history, science and romance, which is a perfect read for me. In this fascinating world of A Discovery of Witches , vampires, witches and daemons have to live without interfering into human lives while hiding their true nature from people and pretending as humans. Thus, different creatures have to live separately from each other and it is forbidden to associate with different groups since humans become suspicious when these different creatures blend. Diana Bishop, a witch, is falling in love with Mathew Clermont, a vampire, in this forbidden world after discovering a long lost manuscript that contains the origin and the evolution of all creations. Diana and Mathew have to protect themselves from the congregation of creatures while learning to control the great power that Diana possesses without her knowledge. The research on h...

I have heard nothing but good about this book, so I thought of give it a try. The first time I got this book to my hand I really liked its outlook, its cover, its quality and all things. I knew that this is a teenage romantic story, but I expected this would be different from other stories that I have read before. But to my disappointment I didn’t see much difference on the plot from other romance stories. It might be because I’ve read a lot of stuff like this, or watched lots of movies similar to this plot, and it’s something that happens in real life sometimes. So the plot was really predictable to me and it didn’t surprise me or startle me at all. But things I love about this plot - the book takes place in Paris, and the happily ever after ending.  Stephanie Perkins’ characterization is really awesome. Those characters were very realistic. I really enjoyed Anna, the way she thinks and the way she talks is unique and kind of funny, but she’s not a perfect girl. Also I...

The second book of the Tiger’s Curse series, Tiger’s Quest , is one of those books that I cannot fully express my thoughts; how I feel about the book. I really love this book more and it was better than Tiger’s Curse .    I can’t think about how to write about this book without spoilers. So I am going to write about it in shorten.    The plot was very attractive and unique as the first book; I think it’s better than the first book.  Though the start was bit slowly, I really liked the twists and turns in this book. There were lots and lots of description about the history, mythology and India.  Those were fascinating and glued me to the book. I really like the twist of the love story and it kept me out the story from boring.   We can read more about the main villain in this book and the battles were started. Lokesh was really a very spine-chilling character. The one character I really loved in this book is Kishan. I like his personality more...

Sing You Home is the first novel that I’ve ever read about gay relationships. I got caught up in the story and it glued me to the book. This story made me think about my own values and views.   Even though there is the same formula in the story as most of Picoult’s novels, I really like the way she narrates the story through different characters which helps readers to understand the every aspects of the story rather than knowing the story from one side. And her emotional writing made my eyes filled with tears. One thing I really like about Picoult’s books is the characters which feel so real. In this Story Max, Zoe, Vanessa, Reid, Liddy, Pastor Clive, they all are real to me. I’ve met many of them in my real life. Picoult nicely built their personality throughout the story and sometimes I forgot that I am reading a fiction. I really liked Zoe and Max. Also I liked the passages of Zoe’s music therapy sessions.  One character I really admire in this ...

When I was at the international book fair few weeks back, I found this interesting book. I was attracted to the book because of the cover. I picked the book and read the back cover and it seemed interesting to me. So I bought this book Tiger’s Curse and the second book of the series Tiger’s Quest . I am glad I bought it.   I found it is very hard to put the book back once I started reading. I really love the plot, which blends Indian mythology with romance and adventure.  Houck surely has done a lot of research into the mythology and it reads well and feels so real. I always love to read about myths and this story with the actions and romance…. oh I really love it. First I didn’t much like the writing of the story. I thought it was very childish, but after reading few chapters and glued to the book, the writing style didn’t matter to me. But I felt like something missing, because Houck was telling the story rather than showing it.   The characters of the st...

Thanks for the Memories; this book delivers a magical tale about a woman, Joyce Conway, who begins to have memories and skills of Justin Hitchcock, after a terrible accident and a blood transfusion. Cecelia Ahern nicely narrates Joyce’s Journey through the memories of Justin. I enjoyed the book since the plot really grabbed my attention, and so Joyce’s father Henry. He was hilarious and a wise man. The funny dialogs between Joyce and Henry helped me to make the story enjoyable. I jumped out laughing when I was reading the part that their visit to the antique roadshow and steal a bin to appear on the TV program. For me this story is a mystery than a romance, though there is romance. It is very light hearted magical tale and easy read.  My Rating: 3 out 0r 5

Even though I’m not a HUGE fan of Chick Lit, past few days I desperately wanted to read a light Chick Lit novel , must be because I wanted to be stress-free from serious study stuff. When I was wandering around the book store I found this book, The Carrie Diaries. I’ve never read or watched Sex and The City . But when I’ve read the back cover of this book I simply wanted to read it. So I picked the book and curled up with it. I surprisingly found myself compelled to read and hard to put the book back. I read it for hours without a break. The plot is nothing much but it represents some usual and serious issues that teenagers confront; Competition, jealousy, friendship, attention, sex, and boys. I liked Carrie, She is wacky and funny. And has her head screwed on properly. But the relationship between Carrie and Sebastian was irritating and the relationship between Carrie and George was kind of pissed me off. Even though Roberta (a.k.a. The Mouse) was an under developed...

I didn’t like this book much, though Cecelia Ahern is one of my favorite authors. I felt very bored when I was reading the first few chapters. The story was slow and predictable. However the message given in the book is worth reading. While reading this book I really wondered how someone becomes such a workaholic, abandoning their family. But, at one fell swoop I realized that there are such people in this world.  For those people, this book gives the message of the importance of time being with their families. Here are the words that Ahern says in the end of the book; “ Time is more precious than gold, more precious than diamonds, more precious than oil or any valuable treasures. It is time that we do not have enough of; it is time that causes the war within our hearts, and so we must spend  it wisely. Time cannot be packaged and ribboned and left under trees for Christmas morning . ” “ Time can’t be given. But it can be shared . ” ...

Have you ever wondered where your missing stuff goes? One moment you have it and the next moment it disappears. Sometimes this happens to me and I search everywhere and later find it in another place. But I’ve never wondered and never thought that stuff would be landed up another place. But Sandy always wondered where that stuff goes and finally she finds the place, a place called “here”, where all the missing stuff lands up. This was my first book of Cecelia Ahern and I really liked the concept, though the story can be slow at times. And it’s wonderfully written. The characters, I liked most of them, were built well. I truly enjoyed reading this book and look forward to read more Cecilia Ahern. Here are the words that Ahern says in the last chapter of the book and it really touched me.   “ Sometimes, people can go missing right before our very eyes. Sometimes, people discover you, even though they’ve been looking at you the entire time. Sometimes, we los...

  The story of the Peach Blossom Pavilion starts with an elderly Chinese women telling her memoirs to her great-granddaughter. She articulates her childhood, her adolescence and her adulthood, how she was forced to become a prostitute in order to survive.   The plot is interesting; nevertheless there are some language issues that surface every now and then.  Also there are many Chinese metaphors to describe sex.  For example, metaphors are used like "letting his jade stalk enter your golden gate" and these phrases kept getting repeated. However, I enjoyed the book and think fans of Memoirs of Geisha sure to be liked to read this book. My Rating: 3 out of 5

One of my friends recommended this book for me and I’ve read it several months ago. I’m not a huge fan of Jodi Picoult, but I like some of her books and this book is one of those. I love the way she narrates the story through many of the characters. It gives the reader such insight into each of their true thoughts and feelings. The actions of the characters are so vivid and no one in the story is easily characterized as “good” or “bad”. It compels us to question each character’s actions, motivations, and how we would react in the same situation. The most innovation and fascinating part of the novel is integration between graphic novel and text novel. Within the sections of the graphic novel are hidden letters, which put together make up a quote, and it encapsulates the theme of the book. It took me a while to put together those letters, because you have to hunt some letters hard. Overall, I think this novel is a good read and well-written. ...