Review #113: Minty by Christina Banach

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other.”
----Carol Saline, a journalist, broadcaster, author and public speaker

Christina Banach, an Scottish author, who simply enthralled our minds and soul with her gripping and enduring debut novel, Minty , which is a dark as well as an intriguing story about two twin sisters, their loss, the importance of family and life beyond death.

Synopsis:
Fourteen-year old twins Minty and Jess are inseparable. Maybe they bicker now and then, even crave a bit of space once in a while. But they have a connection. Unbreakable. Steadfast. Nothing can tear them apart. Until a family trip to the coast puts their bond in jeopardy. As Minty tries to rescue her dog from drowning, she ends up fighting for her life. Will Minty survive? If she doesn't, how will Jess cope without her? Only the stormy sea has the answer.

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Review #110: The Trader of Saigon by Lucy Cruickshanks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug: the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliation of the old, the division of the family, the division of the country--it had all been done in our name. . . . The French city . . . had represented the opium stage of the addiction. With the Americans had begun the heroin phase.
----James Martin Fenton FRSL FRSA an English poet, journalist and literary critic


Lucy Cruickshanks, an English author, enthralled us with her debut novel, The Trader of Saigon set across the exotic yet victimized land of Vietnam. This is a story of three lives entwined together by a unfortunate knot, untwisting which might leave them paralyzed for the rest of their lives.


Synopsis:
As a US Army deserter, Alexander is a man without country; stuck in a life he no longer controls and embroiled in the dark business of trading women. His latest victim is Hanh, a poor rural girl living in Hanoi who dreams of escaping the inevitability of an impoverished future and for whom Alexander’s arrival seems like the answer to a prayer. Neither of them has ever met Phuc - a Vietnamese businessman who backed the wrong side in the war and is now unable to pay his financial and political debts to the Party. But his struggles are about to change both their lives.

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Review #104: Flesh Wounds by Chris Brookmyre

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Beware the fury of a patient man.”
----John Dryden, an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who became Poet Laureate in 1668.

Christopher Brookmyre, a Scottish best-selling novelist, spun an astounding tale portraying the deepest, darkest corners in the Glasgow crime world in his latest book, Flesh Wounds.

Synopsis:
Private investigator Jasmine Sharp's father was murdered before she was born, and her mother went to self-sacrificing lengths in order to shield her from the world in which he moved. Since her mother's death, all she has been able to learn is his first name - and that only through a strange bond she has forged with the man who killed him.

The biggest thug of Glasgow murdered in a car wash inside his own car and the CCTV footage reveals Glen Fallan as the killer. Soon Glen Fallan is behind the bars. So what is the mystery? Sounds like story ends over here. However, this is just the beginning. Jasmine Sharp, the PI of Glasgow, has a history with Glen Fallan and according to her Glen couldn't be the killer. Enter DC Catherine McLeod who investigates the mystery behind Fallan's motive, mostly the mysterious sign left on the dead man's head. So, as McLeod prepares to cover up her past, Jasmine soon plunges into the untold mysteries of her past, thereby venturing into the forbidden lands of Glasgow under world.

Well, this is the first time, I am reading any Brookmyre novel, so I had no idea that Flesh wounds is a part of a series based on Sharp/McLeod/Fallan. However, it was no trouble for me to read Flesh Wounds as a standalone. The author has skillfully bared the stories of Sharp and Fallan's past in flashes just at the right moments. The author tried to show us how past demons can claw us if they are not put to rest at the right times. Both Mc Leod and Sharp are the two strong characters of this book. As the story progressed, the more we get to know about Sharp and McLeod's characters with depth.

The narration is very strong, ultimately gripping! The moment I started reading, I found an inevitable attraction with the narrative style of the author. The author brought out the dark satire underlying in the plot quite brilliantly. The story unfolded in flashbacks. As the investigation progressed, we eventually see the underlying past behind each find. The author laid out the violence intricately and quite vividly.

Since the mystery is based on an untold past misdoings, so there was no mystery, the past itself being the mystery. Both McLeod and Sharp are flawed characters, trying to come to terms with their devastating past, thus unlocking the key behind this murder. Hence, Flesh Wounds is an engaging read that will arrest your mind and soul until its very end.

Verdict: Christopher Brookmyre is one of the best Scottish crime author, so do not give this book a miss.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Christopher Brookmyre, for giving me the opportunity to read and review his book. 
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Author Info:
Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish novelist whose novels mix politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author. His debut novel was Quite Ugly One Morning, and subsequent works have included One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, which he said "was just the sort of book he needed to write before he turned 30", and All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye (2005).
Visit him here 

Book Purchase Links:

• Amazon US 
• Amazon India 

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Review #102: Living Tresaures by Yang Huang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In China, women are pressured, and in some cases forced, to abort if they already have one child. Abortion is extremely common and widely accepted. Hence, the women in China say:

“It’s a rather common occurrence, [like eating] an ordinary kind of food. There’s nothing worth talking about.”

Yang Huang, a Chinese author, showed us how harsh the situation in the rural areas in China was when the one-child policy established by the government, in her debut book, Living Treasures . Living Treasures was a Bellwether Prize finalist, which is a strong historical novel set in China against the one-child policy.

Synopsis:
Set in China during the tumultuous Tiananmen Square protest in 1989, Living Treasures portrays the crusade of Gu Bao, a girl who grows up under the Chinese government’s one-child policy. The Chinese government has enforced strict controls to keep the country from environmental destitution and poverty ever since Mao’s ban on family planning left China a legacy of 1.1 billion people, 20% of the population on earth.

Bao searches for her inner strength while exploring the Sichuan mountain landscape. She befriends a panda mother caught in a poacher’s snare, and an expectant young mother hiding from villainous one-child policy enforcers bent on giving compulsory abortions. All struggle against society to preserve the treasure of their little ones. Bao devises a daring plan that changes the lives of everyone around her. Will Bao earn a second chance to save a family from destruction? What price will Bao pay to prevent a full-term abortion and save a panda cub?

18-year old Gu Bao's life, who is a first-year law student changes drastically on June 1989 when a student demonstration against the government in Tiananmen Square goes out of control. However, she herself was not present in the demonstration, but on that very day, Gu Bao falls pregnant with her young soldier lover. Following which Gu Boa's parents forced her to abort the child by brainwashing her. Gu Bao went to her grandparent’s village, where she grew up, to have the procedure. It is where Gu Bao realizes the harsh condition of expectant mothers, forced to abort their child by the one-child policy enforcers. Gu Bao jumps to rescue a young expecting mother who went into hiding in the woods, even if she has to sacrifice her own ability to become a mother.

Gu Bao is a brave and strong-willed character. I never came across a woman like who would jump into fire just to save another's. Moreover, Gu Bao's demeanor astounded me when her parents forced to abort her own child. She did not even utter a word for her defense. She simply obliged.

What is astonishing is that this story's backdrop is actually set on a poignant love story whose strings will pull you deeper into the core of this heart-touching story. Though the relationship was highly forbidden on the face of Bao's parents, teachers and law, still their blossoming, passionate chemistry will fill you up with warmth. Not only has that Huang skillfully interwoven various issues faced by a young unmarried woman back in 1989 in China. It seems Huang used the notion of China's national treasure- Giant Panda, metaphorically to contrast the stark in-differences faced by an expecting woman and the mother Panda trying to nourish her cub.

Yang Huang intricately detailed and delicately captured the bright landscapes, culture, superstitions, heritage, sights, and sounds of Pingwu County countryside and the city of Nanjing. Reading which will completely transport your mind and soul into the forbidden lands of China. From the very first page, I felt that very essence of China that drew my senses as well as my heart into the very core of the story.

The third-person narration is lyrical yet literary and flows like a free-flowing river. Living Treasures is a gripping and extraordinary historical and cultural novel that declares author Yang Huang as a talented, master storyteller.

Verdict: This historically as well as culturally-rich novel set in China will only swoon your heart and mind.

Courtesy: I would like to thank the author, Yang Huang, for giving me the opportunity to read and review her debut novel. 
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Author Info:
Yang Huang is a fiction writer, a computer engineer (working at U. C. Berkeley), and a mother of two boys. 
Her debut novel Living Treasures was published on Oct. 23, 2014.
She writes fiction about the “Grass People” in China. People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. Grass people have little voice or political power but live as best they can in an unjust society.
Visit her here


Book Purchase Links:

• Amazon US 
• Amazon India 

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Review #51: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“We weren’t ourselves when we fell in love, and when we became ourselves – surprise! – We were poison. We complete each other in the nastiest, ugliest possible way.”
                                          ----Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

I finally had the chance to read the "IT" book, Gone Girl. Gillian Flynn, who is an American author and television critic for Entertainment Weekly, has spun a horrific tale about marriage and its flaws and have brilliantly, re-staged marriage as a violent crime for both the husband and the wife.

Synopsis:
Flynn has centered her plot on a failed marriage of the beautiful, psychological quiz writer from New York, Amy Elliot, who happens to be the inspiration behind a children's series, Amazing Amy, authored by her parents, and Nick Dunne, a handsome with boyish features aspiring novelist from Missouri. They met at a party and fell for each other almost instantly, courtesy, Amy being the Cool girl and Nick being the hilarious guy when he comments, "Just one olive"! Soon they become the husband and wife and the first challenge in their conjugal happiness occurs when both Amy and Nick lost their jobs, sold their New York home and moved to Missouri, where Nick can tend to his dying mother. Once again they are hit by Nick's foul-mouth, Alzheimer-stricken father, who regularly slipped out from his institution and ran around the town screaming "bitch" to random women, even Amy wasn't spared. After Nick's mother's death, Nick used last of Amy's trust fund to open a bar, which he used to ran along with his twin sister, Go. But on the morning of their fifth anniversary, Amy gets disappeared, what looks like she was abducted from their home, and thus a man-hunt began to find America's dearest girl, "Amazing Amy".

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Review #36: A Changing Marriage by Susan Kietzman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After reading A Changing Marriage by Susan Kietzman, I can't stop myself from quoting Mignon McLaughlin's famous words about "marriage", who was an American journalist and author.

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person."

Hopefully if Karen Spears and Bob Parsons had followed this quote blindly, then their marriage wouldn't have been called A Changing Marriage in Susan Kietzman's new book.

Synopsis:
Karen Spears and Bob Parsons fell in love in the first time when they were in college and soon they become the most happening and most envious couple in the whole campus due to their honesty and true love for each other. Bob proposed on his very last year in the college and thus after Karen's graduation they get married in their hometown and began their new life together. However after the birth of their two children and Bob's constant urge to climb the corporate ladder made them drift apart from each other. And eventually they forgot about all the vows they had written down for each other on their marriage day, and finally they forgot to love each other at all. Read this book for sure to find out how they survive in their failing marriage or whether they survive it at all.

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Review #35: The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


We often catch ourselves day-dreaming of that idyllic life up in some quiet countryside, spending our days either by farming in the gardens or reading by the brook- an ideal getaway away from the bustling of the city life! An English author, named, Rosy Thornton, has once again allowed us to think about our guilty pleasure of getting away from our bustling life once and for all. The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton is a poignant combination of happy solitude away in some French countryside up in the mountains to sad, and monotonous life away in England. Also Thornton's magnificent tapestry of silk and love have managed to spin this tale into something rich and highly remarkable.

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Review #33: Incitement by David Graham

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The American Nobel Laureate economist, Milton Friedman, has quoted about Drug War as:

“See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.”

According to Wikipedia, A drug cartel is a criminal organization developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises.

David Graham, an English modern-day author, has brain-stormed his readers with his new thriller book, Incitement , which puts the spotlight on drug wars, drug cartels and illegal drug trading.

And reading this book, I come to this notion that I can easily agree with Milton Friedman's true words that basically it is the government who are trying to protect their drug cartels, and also to create panic among drug addicts by creating the tiff between the ruling drug lords, and to hike up the prices of drug by dethroning the drug lords.

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Review #15: Dear Thing by Julie Cohen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cheryl Rae Tiegs, an American model, actress, designer, author, and entrepreneur, has once said,
"But when I would see the surrogate, my first instinct, my first reaction would be jealousy, because she was doing what I wanted to do."

Dear Thing by Julie Cohen, is a tale about a mother who no longer wants to be a mother and another mother who is desperately trying to be a 'mother' for the first time. Their paths cross when one becomes the surrogate of the other, owing to the fact that, they both loved the same man.

An enticing tale about love, trust, motherhood, and the very less discussed topics of these times- surrogacy! When couples, who are trying to be parents for the first time, fail in IVF methods and they don't want to go through all those hectic and long procedures of adoption, then they opt the surrogacy option, i.e. taking the help of another women's womb to reproduce your own flesh and blood and with the help of artificial insemination, the sperms and eggs of the wanna-be parents couples, are planted on that other woman's womb.

Julie Cohen, the author, has given us a thorough insight into the world of surrogate mothers, and how they try to not to get attached with the baby and in order of not getting way too attached with the baby, they sometimes start addressing the baby as 'Thing' and how strongly they balance their own emotions with that of the baby's parents.

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