Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

This book is so bad, so bad, so bad that you can't even imagine. I will only recommend it to someone I really dislike. A heroine with the super-power of killing people by just thinking of them as dead? Seriously? I'm sure the Young Adult readers deserve a little better than this book! After the misfortune of buying and reading the first 100 pages of this book I don't think I'm ever going to read American YA books no matter how charming the book-cover is or how much the blurb is luring...:(

Review: The Invisible Library

A perfect blend of steampunk mystery adventure and humour eloquently authored by Genevieve Cogman in her fascinating debut novel ' The Invisible Library '. Can't wait to read the second book in the series....highly recommended to all readers.

Review: The Dream Snatcher

It was an okayish read...some parts felt really cozy and some parts were pretty graphic (for a children's book). There's second book come out but I won't be reading it because I know what's going to happen next. (lol)  My rating for this book: 2.5 out of 5.

Review: In Darkling Wood

I loved "The Girl Who Walked on Air" so much so that I decided to read this latest book by the same author as well, but it wasn't as good as the previous book. My rating would be 2 out of 5.

Review: The Seven Sisters

Blurb: 

Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings. ...

  My Thoughts:

I loved the whole idea of seven girls being adopted by a millionaire from different corners of the world...and then the mystery aspect about their biological parents. The idea was excellent but it was poorly executed. The characters were boring and there was no dimension to them....for the most part they were either eating, drinking, or sleeping. The conversations between characters had no depth...no emotions. The more I read, the more I hated the characters. By the end of it, I wanted to throw the book from top of a 39th high storey building.
This book had the potential to be amazing but the writing style killed it. 

Review: Violet and the Pearl of the Orient

Blurb:
When a new family move in next door, Violet is sure there's something strange about them. Then her eccentric, but lovely neighbour, Dee Dee Derota, has a precious jewel stolen. Could the new family be to blame? Violet is on the case to uncover the truth…




Violet and the Pearl of the Orient is the first book in the series written by Harriet Whitehorn. It's a charming middle-grader mystery with  characters and illustrations. The protagonist is Violet who is rich and kind-hearted girl...and pretty smart too.



The second book is out but I haven't read it yet...but
because I enjoyed the first book I'll be reading all the books in this series.

Review: The Invention of Wings

My first Sue Monk Kidd book...and what an amazing book! It was full of thrill and kept me glued till the last page. The novel is set in a historical American town Charleston in South Carolina with its slave-trade roots.
I'm so glad to find out Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films has bought the rights to the novel....can't wait for the movie.

Review: The Museum of Extraordinary Things

This is my first Alice Hoffman book. I must say it was awesome. A historical fiction that covered the tragic incidents of Triangle Shirtwaste Factory in 1911 and later on the fire in an amusement park called Dreamland...and amidst all this mayhem the beautiful story of Sardie and Eddie Cohen.
I love the way Alice depicts the scenery of Coney Island and other places throughout the novel...it's like you can feel and see things happening before your eyes.
I would recommend this to my friends....with mesmerizing writing style, extraordinary characters, and a murder mystery, you wouldn't wanna put the book down without finishing it.

Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

I just realized how difficult it is to express your feelings regarding a book you love. This beautifully strange and strangely beautiful book is definitely going to make it to my list of favourite books of 2015. I loved everything about this book...the writing, the plot, the characters....EVERYTHING! 

Review:The Girl with All the Gifts

                                                       
                                                                     
I read the excerpt and it sounded very interesting so I added it to my 2015 reading list. I must say that it didn't disappoint me at all. From the beginning till the end it is an engaging and mesmerizing story. Okay, the beginning felt like The WW Zombie, and then the middle part had loads of similarities with The Walking Dead but with way more action and thriller. But I guess all zombie stories are similar in a way...although, The Girl With All The Gifts is one of the best I've come across. I liked the ending and how each and every thing was explained and covered to give the reader satisfying feeling. It's definitely a page turner and wouldn't disappoint you.

Review: We Were Liars

This book won the Goodreads Choice Award 2014 for best YA fiction...I read the blurb and first few pages on Amazon and decided to add it my To Read list. I finished reading it few weeks ago. It was a quick and easy read but also quite thought provoking. And although, some readers have criticised the strangely structured writing style, I actually liked it because it was supposed to be thoughts of a teen who'd been through some traumatic experience so in a way the writing style fits the plot perfectly.

I think it's a type of book you either love it or hate it...just like The Catcher in the Rye. Generally speaking, it would make a good summer read for young adults and adults alike.

Oh and I loved the map and the brief introduction to the Sinclair family in the beginning.

Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

The front cover of this book caught my attention several times but I couldn't guess what this book was about. After it was recommended to me by few friends I decided to give it a go. On Wikipedia and Goodreads the genre of this book is categorized as Horror, Young Adult, and Dark Fantasy.
I started reading it and was purely engrossed in it...I loved the creepy and dark elements entwined around the vintage pictures. Jacob's grandfather's stories and pictures of the island and the peculiar children were very strange and fantastic. At that stage it reminded me of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
But then Jacob found the island and from that moment on the story lost its charm. It became from excellent to bad to worse. All of a sudden I felt I was at Enid Blyton's Kirrin Island reading a childish adventure story.
Although, this book has some creepy stuff in the start but I wouldn't call it a horror story at all except the part when Jacob was kissing his grandfather's girlfriend. Very disturbing.

I liked the unique idea of weaving the story around the vintage pictures but it could've been better. I can sum up the whole book in one sentence.

A book with a perfect beginning that met its poorly executed disastrous end.


There is no way I will be reading the sequel.

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.

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.

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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".”

Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This book of Roald Dahl was on my reading list for a long time. I have a habit of reading each book in a specific season. I associate this book with 'winter' and so decided to read it this year in the month of December. Although, the story takes place during the end of January and the month of February.
The story starts with the introduction to our hero Charlie Bucket who belongs to a very very poor family of six people....two pairs of grandparents and his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Bucket in a small wooden house on the edge of town.

Charlie Bucket, who's a goodhearted charitable boy, gets lucky and finds one of the five Golden Tickets that qualifies him for a tour to Willy Wonka's amazing and magical chocolate factory. The factory holds a special place in Charlie's life because of all the magical stories he's been told by his "grandpa Joe".



Willy Wonka is the owner of the chocolate factory, he wears a black top-hat, a purple tailcoat, and green stripy trousers. Although, Mr. Wonka has a sense of fairness but still I couldn't help but notice the sinister hue coming out of him.

Charlie chooses to take his grandpa Joe along with him while the other four kids are accompanied by their parents. The other four children are nasty, and get punished by Mr. Wonka in the most dark but humorous manner.

Augustus Gloop, a very greedy boy.
Violet Beauregarde, a silly, full of herself gum-chewer.
Veruca Salt, a spoiled brat always wanting and asking everything that catches her attention.
 Mike Teavee, obsessed with television and annoying.

It's a funny, magical, and full of adventure journey. All in all, a wonderful treat that would warm the cockles of your heart this winter. 

Review: Eats, Shoots, & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

Anyone who loves grammar and humour should read it.

My husband bought this book for me about 7 years ago. I read it and enjoyed every bit of it. I wouldn't call it a grammar book, although, it's about the importance of correct punctuation. It's light humour with a twist of pointing out the punctuational mistakes in everyday life which can totally change the intended meaning, and may lead to ridiculous disasters.

The book starts off with this famous joke.

"A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?", asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit.
The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoot, and leaves.
So, punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death."



There's a children's version of this book exists in form of a picture book by the same author.