Everything You and I could have been if we weren't you and I

About the book:

Title:  Everything You and I could have been if we weren't you and I

Published Kindle Edition
Published July 2nd 2015 by Penguin Random House Group Editorial (first published 2010)

Pages: 203 pages

Genre: 

Rating: 3.5/5

Blurb: Can you imagine a future where everyone has given up sleeping?

From the creator of the television series Red Band Society and author of the international bestseller The Yellow World comes this uniquely special novel.

What if I could reveal your secrets with just a glance? And what if I could feel with your heart just by looking at you? And what if --in a single moment-- I could know that we were made for each other? Marcos has just lost his mother, a famous dancer who taught him everything, and he decides that his world can never be the same without her. Just as he is about to make a radical change, a phone call turns his world upside down.

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My Review:

At the very outset of the review, it is essential that I tell you I still have confused feelings for this book.
It had a lot of elements of fantasy- diverse elements.
So, when it starts with the narrator having lost his mother and wishing to lose his sleep for ever, the reader is deceived into thinking that sleep (or the decision not to) would form a major crux of the plot. Only, it doesn't.  In comes an alien character (pun intended). The good part is that for most of the novel, we never know what all secrets about the character there are yet to be discovered. and that lends it the status of a gripping mystery. Add a pinch of sci-fi to the bizarre fantastical plot, and you have a concoction that even the narrator can't make sense of.

Every page has the narrator contemplating to himself. These monologues are really insightful and especially adorn the book. Because the characters might not endear you, the quotable words do, as if to compensate.

The book will shake you at times, and you'd be forced to re-think your concepts of dreams, sleeping, life, death and whatnot. I wouldn't complain because, "It's horrible and creepy to miss something you never had."

Judgement: One reading of the book might not suffice for you to comprehend what is actually going on- but you might not think of re-reading it for anything other than some debatable, scandalous quotes.

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Source of the review copy: Netgalley

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Book review: Palm's foster home for peculiar stories

About the book:

Title: Palm's foster home for peculiar stories

Published :Paperback, First Edition
Published April 2nd 2015 by Jellyfish Publications

Pages:  264 

Rating: 3.5/5

Blurb: NIGEL THE LAST BRIT IN INDIA

There is chaos and pandemonium in the streets of Madras, and it is up to Nigel (an officer of the Imperial Police) to restore order to the city... only he hasn't quite learned about India's Independence. Yet.


GAYATRI AND THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY VEGETABLES

When the newest and most successful religion (Cabbagism) threatens to bring about the destruction of the world, it is up to a melancholic zombie and a collection of rowdy farm animals to save the earth.


ALIENS, DINOSAURS, PORCUPINES

A porcupine, after setting out on a journey away from home, falls in love with an armadillo. 

About the author

Short Biography:

C. G Salamander is a fiction writer and a story teller, his short stories and comics have been published in various short story anthologies and journals. 

Palms Foster Home for Peculiar Stories is his first book.


Biography: 

It was exactly fifteen years ago that C G Salamander realized he was different from all the other Chinese Giant Salamanders. As a child C G Salamander hated living in the muddy crevices along the river banks, and so he decided to leave the Yangtze river and set out on a quest to find himself.

He spent days travelling across the vast terrains of china and finally reached the foothills of the Himalayas. With nowhere to go, and equipped with a childlike sense of wonder for a compass, C G Salamander began scaling the Himalayas where he would later enroll himself in a monastery. During his time in the mountains, he was taught how to read and write by foreigners who’d come to partake in the mountain’s rich culture and cheap herbage.

He spent most of his time in meditation, and eventually learned how to move objects with his mind.After spending a decade in the Himalayas, C.G Salamander traveled south to the city of Chennai, and has remained there ever since. He now spends his time telekinetically moving pens and pencils across paper.

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My Review:

There are some books that tickle your funny bone, and make less and less sense as you read them more and more. Such books fall under the genre of fantasy and when the imagination and quirks become inexplicable, you know the ticklish feeling is here to remain for a long, long time!

There's a Brit who doesn't know that India has been granted independence. A brother in law who doesn't Luke to be told what he should do. A religion called cabbagism. A porcupine in love with an armadillo.
It only gets weirder and quirkier.

When you are looking to escape in lala land, you'd love these tales. They know no boundaries imagination, it is pure fiction and the most uncanny characters. The tales knit together are hard to take for real.

The best way to read this book would be in intervals because I don't see how one can take in so much fantasy and imagination all at once. While my head still reels from snapping back to reality, I recommend you at least read the book once.

Of the three novella-sized tales, I liked the first one the best. Titles Nigel: The last Brit in India, it has humor at all the right places.

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Source of the review copy: Author

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Book Review: The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi

About the book:

Title: The color of Our Sky

Published by: BloomHill Books

Published on: June 30th, 2015

Pages: 318

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 5/5

Blurb: A sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends—one struggling to survive the human slave trade and the other on a mission to save her—two girls whose lives converge only to change one fateful night in 1993.

India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old girl from the lower caste Yellamma cult of temple prostitutes has come of age to fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute. In an attempt to escape this legacy that binds her, Mukta is transported to a foster family in Bombay. There she discovers a friend in the high spirited eight-year-old Tara, the tomboyish daughter of the family, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to a different world—ice cream and sweets, poems and stories, and a friendship the likes of which she has never experienced before.As time goes by, their bond grows to be as strong as that between sisters. In 1993, Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s room.

Eleven years later, Tara who blames herself for what happened, embarks on an emotional journey to search for the kidnapped Mukta only to uncover long buried secrets in her own family.
Moving from a remote village in India to the bustling metropolis of Bombay, to Los Angeles and back again, amidst the brutal world of human trafficking, this is a heartbreaking and beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship—a story of love, betrayal, and redemption—which ultimately withstands the true test of time.

About the author

Amita Trasi was born and raised in Mumbai, India. She has an MBA in Human Resource Management, and currently lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and two cats. This is her first novel. Visit her website at www.amitatrasi.com

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My Review:

Some stories are meant to shake you to the core by their very intent- with their haunting projection of the reality and inexplicable charm!

Welcome to Tara's and Mukta's life, as they recount the moments of childhood, the social order of the society and most importantly being together.
Tara blames herself for Mukta's kidnapping years ago. She has now returned from the US to India, with the determination to find Mukta.
Mukta is born to a temple prostitute, the product of a sick tradition that continues unabated till date, and forms a major part of the novel. Tara is our regular school-going kid who is fortunate enough to be able to attend school, and spend time in the lap of her father, who is clearly a role model to her.
A poignant angle has been set- India in all its dichotomy is the backdrop to the brutalities inflicted by fate, the indifference in flesh trade and the compassion that can save lives.

Tara's father is the ideal altruist, volunteering actively to rescue kids from the murk they'd otherwise end up in, and bringing kids home to provide them temporary shelter. All is well until he brings Mukta, this time for ever. While the permanence of her stay is a  major bother to the mother, who is ready to forgive her husband for everything, Mukta has issues of her own. She has seen her mother die in front of her. She is in a foreign land, with no one ready to accept her as her own. It is an identity crisis, but it is a lot more than just that. She is trying to convince herself that she deserves to live after all.

The narration alternates between our two protagonists and it is reminiscent in its element. It is clear that the author is concerned with deeper discussions - some soul-searching, and contemplation of the atrocities of fate, and so beautifully manages to capture this throughout the story.

It is a commentary, of the superlative degree, on the frailities and fallibility of human nature. Interspersed with quotes like,"The only way we can rectify our mistakes is to try and undo the wrong we have done", it is undoubtedly some epic food for thought. Truths are revealed, and it is so heart-warming and gut-wrenching at the same time to see how everyone copes with the lies they had been living. It is the story of not giving up, forgiving, moving on, finding a better purpose to life, being the better person, learning courage and fortitude.

The appeal of the plot is not just this message and the moral debate: it is as much in the thrill, the suspense, the flawed yet sympathetic characters, the persistent sense of loss, which is sprinkled throughout the plot. It is an intense, emotional and meticulous account- be sure you are ready for the emotional roller-coaster which will challenge your principles as you peep into the characters.

An increasingly poignant assault on the heart strings, with unprecedented lessons in family, love, redemption, forgiveness, and life, this one comes highly recommended.

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Source of the review copy: BloomHill Books

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