Review: Wildwood

I bought this book because of the hype..."Narnia without God"....well, with or without, it's nothing like Narnia. A storyline that would make you left bleh. I won't recommend this to anyone...specially not to children.

The only good thing about this book is the illustrations by Carson Ellis.

by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Quote of the Month)

On Screen: The Great Gatsby

A love story, a cautionary tale, a historical fiction, a classic!
I loved the movie equally!                                                          

 

  

Review: The Luminaries

This novel by Eleanor Catton is a massive historical murder mystery set in 1800s New Zealand...with 800+ pages. Having said this, I don't get intimidated by the size of a book. So, seeing that it won the 2013 Booker-Prize, and reading the blurb on Goodreads I decided to buy and read it but what a total disappointment!
A total bore! A total waste of my time and money! Although, I read only first 135 pages I got so frustrated with it that I had to give up reading it.
And then I read the reviews on Goodreads and saw that I wasn't the only one who found this book frustrating. Some reviews suggested that if you can't get into it after the first 100 pages, then most likely you won't like it because the beginning is actually better than the rest.
Some reviews blamed the failure on 20+ characters, but I have read The Ice and Fire series with 100+ character and still didn't lose the thread.
Most of the times, while reading this novel, you don't even know where is the story heading to! Very disengaging and confusing style of writing I must say!

Review: A Study in Scarlet

This is the first Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...first published in 1887. A murder mystery as well as a  historical fiction novel portraying Mormons as the "baddies"...I don't know how true is the portrayal to the actual historical facts though. This book also introduces the amazing detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson.
The Novel is divided into two parts. The Reminiscences of Watson and The Country of the Saints.
Blurb: 
"In the debut of literature's most famous sleuth, a dead man is discovered in a bloodstained room in Brixton. The only clues are a wedding ring, a gold watch, a pocket edition of Boccaccio's Decameron, and a word scrawled in blood on the wall. With this investigation begins the partnership of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Their search for the murderer uncovers a story of love and revenge-and heralds a franchise of detective mysteries starring the formidable Holmes."
My Rating:
I must say I loved the part II in which the author takes us back to the past and depicts the landscape of  Utah...I enjoyed the story throughout but it didn't amaze me. So out of these categories:
1) I hated it.
2) I liked it.
3) I enjoyed it.
4) I loved it.
5) It was mind-blowingly-awesome.

I would say 3) I enjoyed it.

My favourite quote:
“A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon. There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.
Fun Facts:
A Study in Scarlet was the first work of detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.

^{[3] (Wikipedia)}

January Book Releases

So many new arrivals in books this month....here are some I will be adding to my reading list.

Thriller+Murder Mystery

YA+Mental Health

Historical Fiction

Chick-Lit+Magical Realism

Middle-Graders

Best Books I read in 2014

1) The Shadow of The Wind                                   2) The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon                                                                                                   by Neil Gaiman

                                     
                           
3) The Great Gatsby                                                           4) The Night Circus
by F. Scott Fitzgerald                                                                                                                           by Erin Morgenstern

                                                 

5) The Witches                                                                      6) The Enchanted Castle
by Roald Dahl                                                                                                                                      by Edith Nesbit

                                           


7) The Secret Adversary                                                     8) The Book of Tomorrow
by Agatha Christie                                                                                                                                       by Cecelia Ahern

                                                        

9) Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death                                 10) House of Secrets
by M. C. Beaton                                                                                                                                                  by Chris Columbus

                                                             

Book of the Month

Heft
                                                                                        by Liz Moore

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Setting: New York 

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career—if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene’s unexpected phone call to Arthur—a plea for help—that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives.

Review: A scandal in Bohemia

This is the first short story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . This is one of my favourites because it's such an amusing and entertaining adventure, and also this is the only story in which Sherlock Holmes gets beaten...by a woman.
These are the opening lines of the story:
“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.”

I love how the plot starts with the arrival of the King of Bohemia in the most mysterious manner to 221B Baker Street to assign a relatively simple task to Sherlock Holmes. And during this task, how Holmes is beaten and tricked by "the woman" several times.

This is about the scandalous picture of Irene and the King of Bohemia that Holmes is assigned to look for and return it to the king. I highly recommend this story to anyone who loves mystery and Sherlock Holmes.

The ending lines:

“And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman’s wit. He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of "the woman".”

New Year Reading Resolution

Read more books!