Jazeera: Legend of the Fort Island

Jazeera: Yash Pawaskar

Yash Pawaskar seems to be a seasoned story teller. This particular story takes us on an odyssey of adventure and redemption and belief. His story is supple and nimble. Reading Jazeera seems like retelling of a folklore but with more delight and conviction. The language is easy and plot moves swiftly and doesn’t have a lull moment in the book. The plot of the book is well contrived and researched, characterization is appropriate and realistic.

The book beautifully ethos contemporary India of 14^th century, this is a story about struggle of the people for their land and the ego of cruel ruler of island Jazeera sultan Zorawar. Zorawar’s character is penned in such a way that you would hate him from 1^st instance, he is cruel oppressive and a tyrant. The book is divided in 3 parts 1^st part of the book familiarizes with the plot of the story and different characters and the problems and bigger prospective of the Bharatvarsha. The 2^nd part narrates the past due to which the people have tumultuous and troubled present. And the 3^rd and the final part 9 is about the struggle of power and war for Jazeera. Yash’s description of war is surreal and cleaver use of indigenous technology and ever improving war strategies makes it an enthralling read. The their struggle started with myth and fallacy yet the deeds of cave dwellers advasi and villagers turned it into reality. The character that did really standout were Avni and Guru Ashwath. Guru’s conversation is enlightening. A good read 3.5/5

https://www.amazon.in/Jazeera-Legend-Island-Yash-Pawaskar-ebook/dp/B082H4LLWF/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YC6AWA3QNUI9&keywords=jazeera&qid=1577769567&sprefix=jazeera%2Caps%2C466&sr=8-1

The Web of Karma: Anurag Shrivastava

3.5/5

The web of karma is an ethos to The Bihar of 90’s and being brought up in Bihar during same era and reading Web of karma was nostalgic. The book bluntly recounters the lawless land of Bihar where crime and criminals thrived and the general people suffered. Anurag Shrivastava has spitefully convoluted the ordeal into a book without making dull and boring. His story telling is crisp and characterization is realistic and every character justifies his or her purpose. Though this book left me sad in pangs and aphorism. Sometime the story telling is convoluted and well contrived yet the fate of characters leaves us sad, probably this is what karma is.

              Web of karma is a pragmatic story dealing with Digambar babu’s family and people associated with him. The title justifies in the end when we get to see the fate of each and every character and their introspection. This story is about ego and how it can alter the life of people. The emotions depicted are vehement and painful and the book touches some taboo prevailing in our society such as adultery body shamming depression suicidal tendencies domestic violence and oppression of the poor. Though a few incidents left me sad yet I respect writers’ views and its necessity for the progress of story. The story is brutal and diligently penned and beautifully illustrates the evil prevailing in our society.

This is a good read and particularly amazed by characters of Digambar babu and Shyam. In particular Shyam is a character with great depth and practical understanding. He is philosophical and is also pragmatic, an ideal character who amazes readers.

A good read!!!

https://www.amazon.in/Web-Karma-Anurag-Shrivastava-ebook/dp/B07YZQJCK3/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1XPMQNR1I9SCJ&keywords=web+of+karma&qid=1576524528&sprefix=web+of+%2Caps%2C486&sr=8-2

Scribbled Thoughts

SCRIBBLED THOUGHTS: Sharad Raj C

Scribbled thoughts is a collection of poems penned by Sharad Raj C. this book vividly covers all the moods and phases of relationship beautifully with each poem. The language of the book is simple yet its content is deep rooted and each and every poem is profoundly moving. The cover of the book totally justifies the content of the book, if you look closely one can see shadowed words and these words individually are zest of one poem or another. Sharad’s expression of love is simple and realistic and reflects true nature of an individual. I have connected with a few of his poems as if they were narrating my own tale such as “I will love you until there is love left in me”.

He has divided his book in three section i.e. the phase of love.

1.       Loving: this section contains different aspects of one’s life when in love some beautiful poems gently describes love from different perspective. My favorite being “from a girl to her boyfriend”.

2.       Breaking: the second part of cycle of love where Sharad takes us on journey beyond love to all the miseries pain and anguish.  “every time I thought you left, you came back. Every time I thought you will stay you left.” and “ we go behind people who don’t want us and they go behind people who will leave them soon.” Sharad reminds us the repercussion of love with his poems.

3.       Healing: post love and breaking we definitely need some repair and writer does his job perfectly. I particularly liked this section as it was full of positivity and regaining self-importance and we go past venerability.

  “After days and days of breaking

    She finally found love

    She finally found the whole goddamn universe

    In no one but herself.”

Sharad Raj C’s book is likable and leaves a soothing effect

MEHRUN

Najia Rizvi’s book MEHRUN is not just a story of a small-town girl Mehrun who is quest of achieving quintessential in life. For me Mehrun beautifully describes the complete cycle of love’s various stages and one can easily corelate with his successful or failed love. From infatuation to denial to blooming love to acceptance to letting go and to give or revive love for a second chance. Mehrun is flamboyant and she lives in her utopia. The story begins from a first year in professional college with loads of characters and great vibe and some unbreakable bond creating life long friendship. The description of college life is persuasive and entertaining and characterization is realistic. New college and new faces and the brink of adulthood resulting in hormonal imbalance creating some romance. Admits all this chaos Mehrun was omniscient to all this hormonal imbalance. Her approach to all this was practical and she looks beyond all this misery. On the other hand, Aarush is jovial fun-loving and his explicit comic timing makes him popular among the lot. Mehrun and Aarush’s character traits are vivid yet the complement each other and they had natural attraction. With every passing year their bond grew stronger and evolved an inseparable friendship yet the denial continued and time played its own card. Najia has eloquently described the emotional and family quotient of Mehrun’s life. The depth in the characters of Mehrun and Aarush is remarkable and have grown multifold with evolving story. Najia Rizvi has woven the characters from heart and Mehrun’s calm and composed demeanor helps are alienate and rediscover herself in spite of relationship challenges.

The story is heart warming and an perfect ode to timeless love.

https://www.amazon.in/MEHRUN-Najia-Rizvi/dp/B07TCHFX7X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mehrun&qid=1563821678&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Quoting Scribblers:

This book is a perfect blend of emotion and wisdom. HBB it is really commendable for your part ad a publisher to get 30 different writers from completely different background and location to come up with something unusual and good. Quoting Scribblers is a perfect amalgamation of quotes and life lessons crafted beautifully. These vivid arrays of people have achieved one common goal of creating something to cherish and be proud of. While you go through some of the quotes and paraphrase’s they might resemble familiar to you yet their presentation here in this book is relevant and realistic. Some quotes resemble life lesson while some are sheer wisdom. The book is 112 pages long and requires an hour or two to completely go through it and yet the content is easily going to propagate into your mind for quite some time. This book is fresh as a cup of tea and refreshes one’s mind and soul. The language of the book is simple yet profoundly moving. I am reading this book more than ones and the highlighted quotes are to be written and read when in despair.

 My favorite quote-

Do you remember how you had to struggle

To come out of your mother’s womb to see this world?

You have been fighting and struggling since you were not even completely born

You are not merely a survivor

You are a warrior filled with storm.

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07RSMV67C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

GANESHA

Some books tend to leave an everlasting impression on a reader’s memory Ganesha is one such book. Few things that make this book memorable is beautiful elaborated timeline. It is a well-researched and diligently written book the writer has taken into account subtle details that goes well with history. The writing is not only persuasive but also profoundly moving. A book like Ganesha is well contrived one as it can easily derail from its intended storytelling. The books story line is weaved along changing times of modern world and its impact on worldly beings. Surreal narration of incidents left me in agape and awe. Some incidents narration is far to realistic and gore and brutal at times but from writer’s perspective it was essential to make us understand and relate to the situation. The story telling is supple and ethos the brutality of poaching and wild life hunting. Dr. SKD has researched and have taken care of minute details of the wild life and their ways to make his writing poignant and realistic. I am an die hard national geographic and discovery channel documentary fan and this book never let my attention snap. The book starts from African savanna with a elephant calf of mixed breed (half African and half Asian) peculiarity in looks and behavior and his existence in torrid condition. Writer takes us on an odyssey from Africa to Asia. The narration is acrid and cleverly engages the readers with weaving the story around ever changing geo political situation. Timeline goes from 2^nd world war to India’s independence to 1^st wild life conservation laws to rise of LTTE and sandal wood mafia.

Incidents that stand-out:

1.    African savanna’s description

2.    Carnage of elephants just for mere fun

3.    Sea voyage and storm

4.    Elephantine way of life and their memory and dedication

5.    Poaching menace in north east and south India and smuggling

Loveswept

Loveswept

Writer: Prasupta Roy

Publisher: Half Baked Beans

Loveswept is a story that kindles the idea of forever love and devotion. In spite of all the ordeal an individual face yet love perpetually continues. The main characters of the story is Anusha a librarian in a prestigious institute a bibliophile and she writes occasionally to vent out her emotions. Kaushik an English professor by profession an avid reader and an enthusiast. Anusha and Kaushik crossed path in library and what started with a book exchange to a coffee date, romance and falling in love was inevitable. The way prasupta has described the conversation among the bibliophile is realistic and relatable. The book describes life of lovers in small city and their dates and recreational means. Love poignantly prospers and takes the readers on a joy ride. The intimate moments are described beautifully and leave no awkward moments. The characters of Anusha and Kaushik’s family member are intricately woven and they serve a bigger purpose in taking the story forward. Raw emotions of Anusha and Kaushik’s character is persuasive and they touch your heart. The sudden change of circumstances enables us to see venerability yet composed stance of characters. Prasupta Roy has creatively managed to pen down a beautiful heart rendering love story comprising of pain agony loss pangs and ultimately love.

The story takes a leap yet Anusha and Kaushik’s love remains formidable and earnest. A story that has no antagonist yet the circumstances test the love.

Volcanic Moments

Writer: Mona Mohanty

Paperback: 144 pages

Publisher: Authorspress (2018)

Thankyou @hbb for the review copy, Mona’s book Volcanic Moments is a book comprising of 25 short stories. The stories vary in length but one thing remain common is persuasive story telling. Mona has weaved stories out of convoluted human relations and deals with ordeal the character faces. Her writing style is poignant and reflects the vitality. She has mooted some of evil menaces prevailing in our society and reflects on strange and complicated human mind and behavior. Her stories represent a mixed bag of emotions. Mona’s command on language make her readers aware of the scholar she is and her love of writing. She as a writer never leaves you wanting for more and each 25 stories have a perfect and beautiful end.

Book: Language-4/5, storytelling 4/5, cover 3/5

My 1^st perception of the book was not satisfactory, I thought the cover doesn’t add to the appeal. But as I progressed through the book my fallacy of judging the book by its cover went out of the window. The cover justifies beautifully the title and the stories. Each of the 25 stories are distinctly weaved. Different characters show acrid emotions and reflect how tyrant an individual can be. The stories typify the various abuse and demeanor prevailing in the society.

The Makeover :  one particular story that outshines, it deals with the life and challenges of acid attack victim.

https://www.amazon.in/Volcanic-Moments-Heart-Popping-Tales/dp/B07HJCCD93/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550849504&sr=8-1&keywords=volcanic+moments

Magic Square

Magic Square: Shlini Vineeth

Format: Kindle Edition

File Size: 4432 KB

Print Length: 62 pages

Sold by: Amazon Asia-Pacific Holdings Private Limited

Language: English

Magic Square is a fast gripping tale of discovering a mystery. The mystery that starts with a book and the puzzle intensifies and the pieces are difficult to fit in. Magic square is Shilini Vineeth’s debut novel and boy she did have command on plot and characters and had readers attention throughout. The story is well plotted and the characters are minimal yet realistic and pragmatic throughout the story and shows vitality as the story grows. Shalini’s internment approach of starting a novel from a shabby computer lab and taking us on a journey is an eloquent way of storytelling.

Amudha as a character shows persistent determination and her journey from interview session to research lab is humorous. Your stint with puzzles at placement interview and the super chilled central AC is what I encountered most of the time. Though Amudha is stuck in wrong job that requires arduous labor she yet somehow manages to be cheerful and resourceful in spite of all the pittance. Dheeraj is a research fellow and shares a lab with Amudha and they share a cool vibe. Dheeraj is a genius who gave up a high paying job to change the world by joining research and aspired to be a Phd. In spite of his hard work he somehow managed to irk Dr. Murty and can’t get his thesis done.

With Dr. Murty summoning Dheeraj to the office and assigning him with some set of difficult mathematical problem. In tumultuous effort to get this problem done and get his research done they tried everything. With failing miserably, the last resort was an old book shop in hope of finding some solution. They did stumble upon a book that did have all the solution but the owner was not known and a beautiful poem was scribbled at the back of the book. The uncertainty in finding the owner of the book added to the puzzle. The more Amudha tried the cobwebs surrounding the book intensifies. The book eluded Amudha from her priorities and she take a journey to solve the puzzle. The journey is well described and thrilling. This Novella is a perfect read.

https://www.amazon.in/Magic-Square-Salini-Vineeth-ebook/dp/B07KSHCVQL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546529500&sr=8-1&keywords=magic+square+by+salini+vineeth