Alienman

Book reviews

It’s not just a book review, but an alternative interpretation…

  • Book Review : A Salesman’s Lesson by C.R. Jena

    A Salesman’s Lessons by C.R. Jena My rating: 3 of 5 stars When I was asked to review this particular book, I thought, ‘Why?’ Because I happened to be far removed from the subject matter. I initially thought what is the relevance of this book for a chemical engineering student, then again what is the Read more

  • ‘Arjuna- Saga of a Pandava Warrior-Prince’ : Book Review

    ‘Arjuna – Saga of a Pandava Warrior-Prince’ by Anuja Chandramouli is a healthy if temporary respite from the slew of over-dramatized, barely-researched, ‘so-called’ modern renderings of the Indian classics which have become run-of-the-mill, cash cows for the publishers. Book Stores/ Libraries are inundated with these books and their shelve life, as such is pretty low. Read more

  • Marry Go Round : Book Review

      Warm though the morning was, he shivered, as only a confirmed bachelor gazing into the naked face of matrimony can shiver.                                                                   Read more

  • The Difficulty of Being Good / Book Review

    The Difficulty of Being Good / Book Review

    This knowledge I have taught is more arcane than any mystery- consider it completely then act as you choose. Towards the end of the Gita, this is what Krishna told Arjuna. That defines Krishna for me.  And to see Gurcharan Das, grudgingly admire him in ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’ (of course he is not Read more

  • The Golden Gate / Book Review

    For a book in Verse, here’s the review in verse!! Read more

  • The Casual Vacancy / Book Review

    The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling My rating: 3 of 5 stars That’s the truth. Maybe we don’t like it, maybe we brush it under the carpet to delude ourselves that the world is full of good people and good always triumphs over evil. But the world has its fare share of Dursleys. Maybe not Read more

  • The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency / Book Review

    To paraphrase an old adage, the first impression lingers on. I hated this book for its colonial undertones (not against the Africans as much against the Indians)and I still do. But, yet I find it a delightful and engrossing book to read. More so, as the world sketched in this book was totally alien to Read more

  • Fooled by Randomness / Book Review

      Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. – Ralph Waldo Emerson I am very much interested to know what Mr. Taleb has to say about that! Because I don’t think he is at all shallow……….. The other day, I was watching ‘Luck‘, an utterly conventional Bollywood movie – it Read more

  • Bookless in Baghdad / Book Review

    To, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, 97 Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-03 Tel: 24644035 Fax: 24654158   Subject: – A letter asking for apology   Respected Sir, Like a scale firmly settled on a pipe, refusing to budge, the image that I have conjured up of your alleged persona from the various newspaper co-eds and news channels, preceded Read more

  • Sense and Sensibility / Book Review

    To say that I am pleased with myself would indeed be an understatement. I am extremely pleased with myself! Yup, I have completed Sense and Sensibility! It was a great, difficult journey with a treacherous winding path (long sentences!), never did I feel I am reading a sugary slop which what these YA writers pass Read more

  • Chanakya’s Chant / Book Review

    All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth. -Friedrich Nietzsche Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. It is up for grabs for anyone to take, if he is willing enough to be wily enough! In Chanakya’s Chant, Ashwin Sanghi has championed utter deviation Read more

  • Honour Among Thieves / Book Review

    Honor Among Thieves by Jeffrey Archer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Who exactly was Saddam Hussein? That was the first question that popped up in my mind after completing this novel. This is what the Guardian has to write about this tyrannical ruler who controlled Iraq for over a period of 24 years with Read more

  • Sethji / Book Review

    Sethji by Shobhaa Dé My rating: 1 of 5 stars You wouldn’t have expected a book that plastic-y from a “veteran” author such as Shobhaa De. Maybe once upon a time in a distant, ancient, rural and rustic India, such indecency would have shocked the people of this country and indeed would have made her Read more

  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid – The Third Wheel /Book Review

      The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney My rating: 4 of 5 stars   I just hacked a book in 2 hours at Crossword. And, this was my first Wimpy Kid book, and boy, I loved it!! And do I feel guilty reading a kid’s book? Not at all. After all the way I behave, Read more

  • Deception Point / Book Review

    That’s why they call him a master of spine-chillers. He indeed knows how to rev up the book with the speedometer always pointing above 100 kilometers per hour.  What the jacket of the book promises, Dan Brown delivers. ‘Deception Point’ has been the only book by Dan Brown that I had not previously read, better Read more

  • Who Let The Dork Out / Book Review

    Who Let The Dork Out? by Sidin Vadukut My rating: 4 of 5 stars Dear Diary, Today, I completed a wonderful book! As you know Diary, ‘Who let the Dork out?’ is the third Book in the Dork Series by the Mint editor and Twitter chirping Peacock Sidin Vadukut. But of course, this is his Read more

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray / Book Review

    The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde My rating: 3 of 5 stars To create a self-delusional character takes a genius. And indeed ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ is a literary masterpiece by the genius playwright Oscar Wilde. Well, there happens to be a lot many books that I ventured out in my nascent Read more

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in general!!!!!!

    The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nobody can ever match the lively and sprightly good old fun that the Hitchhiker’s trilogy in four parts exudes. Mr. Adams has a knack of making us laugh through his quick witted one-liners and comic situations. I am Read more

  • Summer Moonshine by P.G. Wodehouse

    Not quate (sic) as the sand in the Civilization’s Spinach, Not quate (sic) like the lunatic furies of the Royal Baronets, But rather like words slipping from a tongue lubricated by unaccustomed Bollinger, Pours out the words from a Master Storyteller. What Ho! The one author whose works I immensely love is that of P.G. Read more

  • Star Trek (The Next Generation) – Chains of Command

      I admit that I completed it in bits and pieces. Not only my laxity, but the utter “clichéd-ness” of ‘Star Trek (Next Generation) – Chains of Command’, was at play. Having read countless of such Star Trek books with similar premises, I must say it was quite boring. Even the fight sequences were few Read more

  • ‘Airman’ by Eoin Colfer

    Might this be the most old-fashioned way to tell a story, but a tale of a young, strapping genius as a hero wooing a beautiful princess, who is made to suffer a terrible fate due to the act of an unconscionable and dastardly villain, who after spending few dark and painful years in prison bounces Read more

  • First Among Equals- Jeffrey Archer

    It happened for a first time indeed that I read a book again that I had left half way through in my tumultuous teens. ‘First Among Equals’ by Jeffrey Archer is not an easy book to read, at least for me.  Revolving solely around British politics, I found it a wee bit hard to comprehend Read more

  • In High Places

    Finally, it happens not only in India!!!!! With ‘In High Places’, Arthur Hailey describes the power struggle that takes place between warring political parties of Canada with each day bringing in new skirmishes and political maneuvers to haggle over. Though the Indian Lok Sabha maybe the epitome of ruckus with verbal blusters, sher-o-shayeris to woo Read more

  • Wild Justice- Wilbur Smith

    When you get swashbuckling, nonstop action, what more can you want?!!!!! Wilbur Smith’s ‘Wild Justice’ is everything that a hard core action buff would slaver on! I might have mentioned once or twice that I tread cautiously while reading one of the authors whom I haven’t come across. But Wilbur Smith emerges as a good Read more

  • Hotel- Arthur Hailey

      What Arthur Hailey’s ‘Hotel’ achieves is far beyond its gripping plot and a hooked reader. It reminds me of a time (vicariously, of course) when readers were treated with rich prose, and I of course grasp in wonder at the sheer volubility of Mr. Hailey. Maybe I cannot possibly emulate him in his writing Read more

  • The Sins of the Father- Jeffrey Archer

    Long after, a time would come when I would be heard telling my grandchildren that there was a writer whose name was Jeffrey Archer, and why his each book was a best seller. I have but read a few of his books, ‘Kane and Abel’, ‘Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less’, ‘Shall We Read more

  • The Money-Changers

    You know, even I am impressionable. I admit that it has been (and will be) my long standing attitude to never ever consider anyone superior to myself. Of course I have been proven wrong a million times over, and in the process I discovered that I am no good; it’s just sheer audacity and tendency Read more

  • The Lost Witness

    It has been a long time indeed, since I last completed a novel. It’s just that I couldn’t get enough time to do so. Anyways I was seriously missing out the fun of critiquing a book for you, imaginary reader, so that I can impose my viewpoints down your gut and make you dance to Read more

  • Star Wars :The Truce at Bakura

    Of light sabers and X-Wing Fighters, of super powerful Jedis to entenchment droids, Star Wars: the Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers indeed packs a powerful punch when it comes to space adventures. No doubt indeed that Star Wars beats Star Trek every time they pitch against each other. Not only does Star Wars boast Read more

  • Differentiate or Die

    Life was getting pretty boring, as such. The pile-up of books to be read was getting pretty thin, it was time for me to cough up some good book from my father’s overhead storage. In that process, I came across a book ‘Differentiate or Die’ by Jack Trout (along with Steve Rivkin). After reading the Read more

  • The Terminal Man

    He is the Frission-Master, the Techno Thriller, the Tao of Tantalizing Twists and Turns and the Ultimate Grip you by your Lapels writer. He is of course Michael Crichton (rhymes with frighten!!!). Yesterday, I came across ‘The Terminal Man’ at a book sale. It takes me at least half an hour in deciding which book Read more

  • Business Leaders & Success

    I recently read the ‘Business Leaders & Success’- it was actually a compilation of the IBD’s popular ‘Leaders & Success’ section of Investor’s Business Daily wherein they give a short biography cum inspirational article about some of the greatest go-getters ofAmerica. I don’t normally deviate from course and mostly stay focused on Crazy Fiction where Read more

  • Last Man In The Tower

    The recently released Arvind Adiga book ‘Last Man In Tower’ is the ultimate dark novel. Sharp, cruel and and gloomy- this book ain’t for the faint-hearted… Read more

  • I have a Dream

    Here I reviewed the recently read ‘I have a Dream’ by Rashmi Bansal…… Hope you find it useful… Read more

  • Two to a Tango…

    It has been ages and I haven’t grabbed my hands on any of the recent fiction releases. Exams were hovering over my mind and I had postponed writing reviews of the four space adventures which I have read prior to it. Though, the public fascination (and the publishers who reject my stories!!) with impractical space Read more

  • Star Trek- Next Generation- Exiles

    Being a late entrant in the Book Worm’s Club- I am discovering pleasure in the writings that had inspired a generation. It’s a small consolation that I have been born in one of those where we live and breathe Harry Potter (though the best!). But this is a different generation I am speaking about- it Read more

  • Dreams of A Final Theory

    At last, respite! Finally there comes a writer who does not evoke God when writing a book on physics for general public, finally I get to read someone who brings out his point with little or no historical bullshit or brings in no orientalism or mysticism when dealing with the interference pattern!!      Maybe if Read more

  • Christopher Paolini- Inheritance Cycle

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  • Angels and Demons- a relook

    The first time I read the book, I could be no means understand it’s content. Afterall I was in eighth grade. I was just beginning to get sucked in the vortex of happy reading, when I pounced upon this book and obstinately determined, if my dad could read it, so could I, I decided to Read more