Review #714: I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“These terrorists are the antithesis of Islam. They’re not Muslim. Violence has no place in religion, and the terrorists are responsible for their own crimes, not the religion and not us.”

----Samira Ahmed

Muhammad Khan, a British author, has penned a very intriguing debut YA novel called, I Am Thunder that revolves around a teenage Muslim girl living with her parents in Britain where everyday she wakes up to find a new challenge or bully to overcome with, but her life drastically changes when her family moves to different part of the city and she is admitted to a posh school, and there she meets a charming Muslim boy. Little did she knew that behind that charming smile, a sinister motive is awaiting for her and that would not only ruin her life but would ruin the lives of millions of souls, if not taken care of.

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Review #687: Hell! No Saints in Paradise by A.K. Asif

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“It’s all Within. The Whole Cosmos.”

----A.K. Asif

A.K. Asif, a Pakistani author, has penned a heart gripping and thoroughly absorbing debut urban fantasy novel set in the futuristic world, Hell! No Saints in Paradise that revolves around a Muslim atheist who embarks upon a spiritual mission to discover the Islamic fundamentals of life and the real meaning of Hell and Paradise through his new found friends and a leader and a preacher of Islam, but the mission is not an easy one, from getting nearly slaughtered to exploring erotica to discovering oneself, this young man's journey is thoroughly refreshing and enlightening.

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Review #638: The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad, Ingrid Christophersen (Translator)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“She couldn't survey the wreck of the world with an air of casual unconcern.”

----Margaret Mitchell

Åsne Seierstad, an Award winning journalist-turned-Norwegian-author, has penned a delectable and slightly captivating account of her stay with an Afghan family, who owned a bookshop in a terror-stricken and on-the-verge-of-a-civil-war type Kabul in the year 2002, in the book called, The Bookseller of Kabul. This is the personal story of almost every human being, mainly women of the household, from the bookseller family, with two wives and tons of children and an equally great number of siblings, the bookseller is a subtly liberal man of his times, that only demanded women of each and every household to stay indoors and keep giving birth until their last dying breath.

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Review #621: Release by Patrick Ness

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“It might be possible that the world itself is without meaning.”

----Virginia Woolf

Patrick Ness, an award-winning novelist, pens a touching yet enlightening young adult contemporary novel, Release with a touch of magical realism. This book is about a regular gay teenage boy having a very, very bad day one can possibly imagine, from confronting his sexuality to heart breaks to realization to losing someone , whereas on the other hand, it is also about the recent death of a drug addict from the very same town as that of the gay teenager, who has become a ghost and wants revenge on her killer.

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Review #595: South Haven by Hirsh Sawhney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”

----Jalaluddin Rumi

Hirsh Sawhney, an Indian-American author, has penned a heart touching family drama in his debut contemporary fiction, South Haven that revolves around a fictional town about an Indian-American young boy trying to cope with the loss of his mother in a household that is going to hit the rock bottom pretty soon, if he doesn't take up the responsibilities, all the while keeping his feelings about growing up, religious extremism, teenage angst, friendships, peer pressure and relationships under control.

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Review #511: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”

----Salman Rushdie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an award winning Nigerian author, has penned an immensely absorbing family drama in her literary fiction novel, Purple Hibiscus where the author weaves the tale of a young Nigerian girl who belongs from a very rich and affluent family where the father of the family is a religious fanatic and used to torture his wife, his daughter and his son in the name of Christ if they commit a slight mistake, but when the young girl goes to live with her aunt during the military coup invasion, she learns ugly secrets about her not so perfectly religious family.

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Review #500: Heart of Stone (Ellie Stone Mysteries #4) by James W. Ziskin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

----Albert Einstein

James W. Ziskin, an American author, has penned a riveting thriller in his new book, Heart of Stone which marks as the fourth book in the Ellie Stone Mysteries series. The book opens with the protagonist poking her nosy nose or rather say, investigate the death of a man and a teenage boy, who died apparently from diving off the cliff in Adirondack lake, as per the local sheriff's initial observations, but this investigation also makes the protagonist fall in a passionate summer romance with one of her childhood friends.

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Review #492: The Good Muslim (Bangla Desh #2) by Tahmima Anam

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Suffering is a gift. In it is hidden mercy.”

----Rumi

Tahmima Anam, an award-wining Bangladeshi author, has penned a soul touching and a highly poignant historical fiction surrounding a family torn between the after-effects of war, politics and family love in her book, The Good Muslim which is the second book in her Bangladesh series. This story opens with the daughter who goes into exile for seven long years to study medicine and to open up her own practice as a doctor, returning back to her hometown where her old mother is still waiting for her and her ex-soldier brother is vouching towards the narrow philosophy of his religion's preaching, thereby creating a gap stronger than their years of distance between the brother and the sister.

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Review #483: Jihadi Jane by Tabish Khair

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



"Terrorism has no nationality or religion."

----Vladimir Putin

Tabish Khair, an India author, pens an extraordinary and brutally honest story about terrorism and Islam religion in his new book, Jihadi Jane that unfolds the story of a British Muslim woman who follows her best friend to the unknown and terrorism-gripped lands in Syria as this friend wants to get married to a jihadi man, in order to honor herself in the name of her religion and her holy god, Allah.

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Review #167: The Book of Stone by Jonathan Papernick

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The Jewish people and their fate are the living witness for the absence of redemption. This, one could say, is the meaning of the chosen people; the Jews are chosen to prove the absence of redemption.”
---- Leo Strauss, a German-American philosopher and philologist of ancient Greek text

Jonathan Papernick, a Canadian author, penned his debut novel called, The Book of Stone after so many successful short stories, that revolves around a man whose fate drastically changes after his father's death leading to religious as well as social extremism not only in his country but also within himself.

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