I picked up The Old Man and the Sea because I am participating in an Instagram readathon in which the prompt was to read a book that is a part of a “100 books to read in a lifetime” list. Needless to state, The Old Man and the Sea frequently graces many such lists and was therefore a good option.Read More

Hate in the Time of Malaria is a collection of five screenplays that stands for the idea of inversion and apposition. Comedy is the basic strain that flows through these tales. The stories are built up to multiple climaxes and several twists in the narrative structure.Read More

Unlike many other poetry books that I read, If I am Born Again Lord Please does not include a lot of poems. It does have a couple of them but all the poems in this collection are connected. What makes this book stand out from other poetry books is that in this book, the poet uses 7 different poems (and a few illustrations) to tell us a story.Read More

Isles of Mambo comes with a social message in each story like a moral that can be taken away from each of them. It is a collection of 12 short stories beginning with the story Twelve. While a reader may mistakenly think that the stories begin in a rather predictable fashion, they move into broader dimensions and cannot be easily guessed.Read More

Forget Not to Laugh is an odd collection of 260 jokes mostly on Sardarjis all under 158 pages. Despite all the fun, Mallick comes with a noble cause. The book closely explains the scientific needs behind laughing on a daily basis. The author’s intention behind writing this collection is to make people aware of the scientific benefits of laughing.Read More

I Wish I Could Rewind is a collection of 31 poems which cover a wide variety of topics, subjects, themes, and emotions. To give you a little idea, there is a poem on section 377 of the IPC and there is also a poem on betrayal in love. A reader will come across poems that cover a wide variety of subjects.Read More

Elephants in the Room by Suraj Laxminarayanan is about a naïve bunch of ragtag men and their amateurly planned bank robbery gone wrong. The book is massive. It is just short of 600 pages and that’s a lot to overwhelm any reader but let that not deter you from giving this book a chance.Read More

Buddhist Banker is an easy-breezy read which doesn’t have much to boast of. But even then, what it lacks in terms of the storyline, plot, characters, climax and writing style is compensated by the simple life-lessons that it teaches its readers. Expect a simple story that will introduce to the many dilemmas that face the modern generation.Read More

Confession of a Wife is the story of an unhappy marriage and an unhappy wife. It is written in a rather simple and plain fashion. Expect a good amount of family drama and some offbeat noncliché kind of romance. Also, expect some hands-on exposure to the trials and tribulations of a modern day working woman.Read More

And Then the Light Turned Green is a collection of 5 ultra-short stories that together make a rather short read. This book cannot be called a book in the literal sense as it is just 23 pages long. Expect some short and quirky tales that give you a taste of modern city life.Read More

Mystical Warfare of Schools: The Dark Rises is a book that is meant for children. It is a fantasy but a fantasy meant just for children. This is mainly because it is written in such a way that will only appeal to children.Read More

3/3: A Trio-Ship by Mahidharnath Sesetti is the story of three friends and their struggles at college with exam pressure as a central theme. Other themes include striving for a stable job, aspiring for a government job, job security and gender bias and discrimination at the workplace.Read More

Vyom and the Royal Weapon is a fascinating tale about a global organisation that promotes international cooperation and strives to establish world peace. It is an unputdownable and exciting read about fierce combats resting on Indian tradition and myth that can be read from cover to cover.Read More

Secret Diary of an Incurable Romantic is the story of Madhubala Ray, a thirty-year-old newly widowed woman who teaches social sciences to the students of a posh Chennai school. She lives with her seventy-year-old mother-in-law who, much to her chagrin, isn’t the chatty sorts.Read More

The 2002 book A Corner of a Foreign Field by prominent Indian historian Ramachandra Guha is likely categorized as a “sports novel.” It is, after all, an extensive look back at the sport of cricket, arguably the most popular sport in the country. It is an illuminating look at Indian history, a juxtaposition of a country and a sport.Read More