Review #716: The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”

----Antoine François Prévost

Michael David Lukas, an American bestselling author, has penned a compelling historical fiction called, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo that revolves around an American part-Jewish-part-Muslim student exploring the roots of his father's side family in Cairo where his father's forefathers used to be the watchman of an ancient synagogue, protecting its secrets and faith with their courage and sacrifices. The author has spun this tale around three shifting timelines about a young Muslim boy, two twin sisters from Cambridge on a mission to Cairo and a young American student picking the clues his father left for him after his death.

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Review #713: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning.”

----Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami, the international bestselling Japanese writer, has penned a heartbreaking coming-of-age young love story in his book called, Norwegian Wood that reads like listening to a sad, sad song about two young hearts beating for one another, yet separated by hopelessness and pain and where the readers know that they are never destined to be together, yet grasps on to that torturing pain of their longing for another till the very end, until an unpredictable tragic climax will shatter the millions of hearts reading or listening to this tale along with the protagonist. Yet the readers will keep reading/listening to this sorrowful yet enlightening tale of love on repeat till the end of time.

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Review #706: Shambuka Rama: Three Tales Retold by Mukunda Rao

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”

----Dōgen

Mukunda Rao, an Indian writer, has penned a compelling mythological book of short stories called, Shambuka Rama: Three Tales Retold, inspired and taken straight out of the great Indian epics namely, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The stories are about Bhima who chances upon the female rakhshas (monster), Hidimba and decides to stay back in the forest of Maya, Duryodhan who ponders on the Great War and the pain that it brought upon the world and about Rama who during his exile meets Valmiki and Shambuka Rama, forcing him to quench for the truth.

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Review #704: Flamingo Boy by Michael Morpurgo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Close friends are truly life's treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.”

----Vincent van Gogh

Michael Morpurgo, a bestselling English writer, has penned a delightful children's historical fiction called, Flamingo Boy that revolves around a young teenage boy, who after finding the real artists behind the painting in his room, journeys to the north of France, where he stumbles upon a family of an old woman and a strange old man living in a farm, and gradually the old lady narrates the story of that strange old man, who was once known as the Flamingo Boy, a story that involves the German invasion, the playful song of a carousel, friendship, laughter, even grief, a boy with healing powers and lots and lots of flamingos.

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Review #703: Keepers of the Kalachakra by Ashwin Sanghi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”

----Carl Sagan

Ashwin Sanghi, the country's bestselling mythological author, has penned a compelling part sci-fi and part mythological thriller called, Keepers of the Kalachakra that revolves around the murder mystery of the world's prominent leaders under strange circumstances while an Indian scientist along side with his colleague is trying to figure out the real purpose behind his research at his new employer's lab, located somewhere deep within the forests.

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Review #683: Demi-Gods by Eliza K. Robertson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“People say teenagers think they're immortal, and I agree with that. But I think there's a difference between thinking you're immortal and knowing you can survive. Thinking you're immortal leads to arrogance, thinking you deserve the best. Surviving means having the worst thrown at you and being able to continue on despite that. It means striving for what you want most, even when it seems our of your reach, even when everything is working against you.”

----Francesca Zappia

Eliza Robertson, a Canadian award winning author, has penned a subtly compelling historical fiction called, Demi-Gods that revolves around two teenage sisters who find themselves caught in the charms of two blue-eyed, slim and terribly handsome teenage brothers who are the sons of their mother's new beau. Together the four patrons discover sexuality, first love, summertime adventures, life and themselves through mistakes and sun-kissed beach side drama. The exploration of teenage-hood is well captured through this sunny story set in the 1950s British Columbia and California.

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Review #682: Empress Orchid (Empress Orchid, #1) by Anchee Min

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“A man who does not like power will suffer from its cruelty.”

----Shan Sa

Anchee Min, a Chinese author, has penned an enlightening tale about the last empress of China in her book called, Empress Orchid that revolves around a young concubine of the last emperor of the forbidden city where the young lady is caught in the race against an heir to the king in order to rise above her mistress status, but once she becomes the empress, she gets tangled up in the war of jealously, rage, ugly politics, scandals against the kingdom which she wants to desperately save it from the English invaders but the problem is the kingdom doesn't want to be saved, thereby becoming the sole reason for the downfall of the forbidden city.

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Review #679: The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“I have now come to know that what one believes often becomes permanent, and what become permanent can be indestructible.”

----Chigozie Obioma

Chigozie Obioma, an ward winning Nigerian writer, has penned a captivating and a spellbinding tale called, The Fishermen that revolves around four brothers living in a small town in Nigeria, who in the absence of their strict father, decide one day to go for fishing in the river that is supposed-to-be-cursed, later to sell their catch for good money, but when their mother comes to know about it, they could not avoid their father's harsh beatings and later the older brothers gets cursed by a local madman that he would be killed by one of his fishermen brothers, leading to a chain of disastrous events in the lives of the four brothers.

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Review #646: Victoria & Abdul by Shrabani Basu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.”

----Alfred Tennyson

Shrabani Basu, an Indian author has penned an honest memoir about a forgotten man who mattered the most in the life of Queen Victoria in her book called, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant. Abdul Karim was just a young man when he first met the British monarch, Queen Victoria and since that day, till the day, the queen died, their friendship stayed invaluable and that reached beyond the walls of Osborne House to Buckingham Palace to India thereby creating an uproar amongst the royals and the British Empire. Very predictably, after the death of the Queen, her family erased every single proof of the Queen and her munshi's friendship, yet somehow and mostly through hard work, dedication and by miracle, author, Shrabani Basu, has successfully resurrected the forgotten Indian Muslim man who became an integral part of Queen Victoria's life through this memoir.

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Review #645: Red Maize by Danesh Rana

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Terrorism has nothing to do with religion, Islam or otherwise. Terrorism is born of fundamentalism not of religion.”

----Abhijit Naskar

Danesh Rana, an Indian Police Service officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, has penned a vividly compelling tale about Jammu and not Kashmir, the metaphor of this heavenly paradise and its ever growing militants, which we rarely hear of from the hills of Jammu, in his debut book called, Red Maize. This book narrates the tale of three Muslim brothers and their headstrong and brave mother set across the idyllic mountainous landscape of Jammu, where the middle brother joins his hands with the militants to free his land from the Indian Armed Forces, caught between the crossfires of the jihads and the Indian Armed Forces are the innocent people of the land.

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Review #640: An Almond for a Parrot by Wray Delaney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The gods made our bodies as well as our souls, is it not so? They give us voices, so we might worship them with song. They give us hands, so we might build them temples. And they give us desire, so we might mate and worship them in that way.”

----George R.R. Martin

Wray Delaney, pen name for Sally Gardner, an award-winning British children's author, has penned an intriguing and a very sizzling historical fiction called, An Almond for a Parrot that revolves around a young woman in London locked up in a prison as she is accused of killing her husband, whom she got married to at the age of 12 by her father to pay off his neck-deep debts, and from the prison cell, the woman narrates the story of her life, of how she discovered her sexuality at a tender age, of how she became a prostitute, of her godly gifts of seeing dead people's ghosts from parrots in a cage, of falling in love, of her other talents of pleasing men, and mostly of her erotic exploration through ages.

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Review #633: The Rome Affair by Karen Swan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.”

----Giotto di Bondone

Karen Swan, an English author, has penned a compelling, stirring and riveting contemporary romance novel, The Rome Affair that revolves around a former British barrister who after escaping a not-so-sweet-past into the Rome and works as a tour guide besides writing a blog, but one day she chances upon a stolen handbag in a dust bin that belongs to an Italian socialite and aristocrat old lady living in a grand mansion, with her own past demons and when these two women's paths are crossed, history is bound to get unraveled amidst of lies and secrets, and taking the tour guide to places, where she could never imagine to be, until she comes across the mystery of the old lady's not so grand life.

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Review #627: Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

----Søren Kierkegaard

Alix Rickloff, a critically acclaimed author of historical and paranormal romance, has penned a heart touching historical fiction called, Secrets of Nanreath Hall that revolves around two women, in two different timelines, searching for their own identities, one is looking for her biological mother's family and her forgotten background, while the other leaves everything behind for love. Both the stories, narrated in alternative chapters, are not only endearing but are also intriguing enough to keep the readers on their edges.

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Review #626: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting. ”

----Christian Dior

Patrick Süskind, a late German writer and screenwriter's internationally, critically acclaimed and an award-winning novel Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders translated into English with the title, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer The German novel set in the backdrop of 18th century France that rocked the whole world with its intensity, level of fantasy and surrealism, historical realism, sensuality and scents surrounding around a young man, with a god-gifted talented to identify the subtle and underlying scents of worldly things as well as of human beings.

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Review #610: The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”

----F. Scott Fitzgerald

Doris Lessing's, the Nobel Prize winning debut book, The Grass is Singing revolves around a youngish woman who after marrying a South African white farmer, and within a few years, looses herself and becomes a victim to immense loneliness as she realizes her husband's constant failure both in his farm as well as in their shared marital life, and that's how her remorse grabs her soul and makes her extremely critical towards her black servants treating them with distaste and hatred, ultimately paying a heavy price for her racial discrimination towards her servants.

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Review #585: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“If you are cold, tea will warm you;
if you are too heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you.”

----William Ewart Gladstone

Lisa See, a Chinese-American NY Times Bestselling author, crafts an unique and heart-touching story, called The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane in which the author introduces her readers yet with another ethnic minority group of China, called the Akha, whose religion lies in their beliefs, taboos and superstitions chalked out by old shamans and ancient relics, and among this group of people, there lies a particular tea-growing family, the youngest daughter of that family, break frees from those old beliefs and maps her own future as a tea seller, but pain always manages to find a way to hurt her.

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Review #584: Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart. I cannot now imagine a life without her.”

----Kristin Hannah

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, the best selling, award-winning author, has penned a terrific and heart rending grandmother-mother-daughter relationship drama in her new book, Before We Visit the Goddess that revolves around three woman bound together by blood yet separated by generation gaps. The author has narrated a longing tale of mistakes, misunderstandings spanning through three generations from Indian to USA reflecting how one mistake of one ambitious woman, who wanted to make a name for her family, cost her only daughter's choices that finally impacted her granddaughter's course of life.

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Review #577: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

----Pablo Picasso

Sarah Dunant, the British bestselling novelist, has penned a delectable and extremely tempting historical fiction, The Birth of Venus that is set against the backdrop of the Renaissance Florence and that which revolves around a young 14 year old girl who is not beautiful or skilled like her elder sister, yet her talent and eye for art and mind for translating languages is extraordinary but with the changing times, she is forced into matrimony at a tender age, and little did she knew what fight she is put up for, in the name of honor, respect and womanhood during the Dominican rule in the 15th century Florence.

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Review #575: Lost in Terror by Nayeema Mahjoor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

----Anne Bradstreet

Nayeema Mahjoor, an Indian writer, pens a terrific and gripping tale of one woman and an Indian state fighting against injustice of the government and the so-called society's norms that oppressed the freedom of both, in her new book, Lost in Terror. Here the author weaves a sad and heart breaking story of a daughter of the valley disrupted by war and this woman gets caught up between the crossfires from both ends, one fighting for freedom and the other oppressing the rebellions.

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Review #570: Sultan of Delhi: Ascension by Arnab Ray

Welcome my fellow readers,
This is the blog tour for the book, Sultan of Delhi: Ascension, by the popular Indian writer, Arnab Ray. So guys get your seat belts on and enjoy this super-exciting roller coaster ride that awaits you at the next turn!

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