My TBR pile is growing and I must get to it

I have three books to review in the next few days.

Two of them were sent to me by authors and I've been asked to review the third by an author on KindleUnlimited. Apart from that, I have my own To Be Read pile of books and it's growing by the minute!

Just now, I saw a book that I've added to that pile. It's called 'An atlas of impossible longing', by Anuradha Roy.

What immediately drew me to the book was its comparison to 'Sophie's choice', by The Washington Post. I don't have the slightest clue what the plot is about but I'm sure it's the kind of stuff that great literature is made of, going by the review.

This is an assumption I've made. Let me see if I'm right or wrong when I read the book. Of course, on a side note most great literature is depressing, so one has to be prepared for that.

That's one of the reasons I don't read too much great literature. There's only so much of miserable stuff you can take.

I've listed Sophie's Choice as my favourite modern classic for William Styron's use of language, his narrative style and his ability to suck you into his world. It is a disturbing book, no doubt, but it leaves a mark on you.

But I haven't re-read it, although I bought an e-copy recently. And I haven't read any of his other work.

Comments

Review of 'Magical Women'

I bought Magical Women by Hachette India on Kindle a few days back. It had been on my TBR for a long time. However, I hadn’t read up on what kind of a collection of stories the book would contain. People who like weird stories, horror, dystopia and sci-fi might enjoy this collection, which has been edited by Sukanya Venkatraghavan. It was published in 2019. The editor’s note states, “Each story in this collection is unique in its representation of what it means to be magical.” It may not be everyone’s cup of tea. The book is well written, but some of the themes are a bit disturbing. The first story “ Gul” by Shreya Ila Anasuya has themes of lesbianism. The second story “ Gandaberunda” by S.V. Sujatha is violent and macabre. When I read the third story, ‘Rulebook for Creating a Universe’ by Tashan Mehta, I felt that although I was reading English, I was seeing Greek and Latin. It went totally above my head. I really enjoyed the fourth story ‘The Demon Hunter’s Dilemm...

All the light we cannot see

This was the book of the month in one of the book clubs I belong to. Although slow in the beginning, it picked up pace after about 25% of the book was over. There was tension in the story, so as a reader I wanted to know what happened next although I could not connect to the characters very well. I found the minor character Frederick interesting and somewhat of a true leader. The part about the cursed gem 'The Sea of Flames' was interesting. The 'love story' between Verner and Marie Laure seemed very one-sided ( from his side only). The book highlights how war changes the lives of everyone caught in its grip and how powerless they are over their own fate

Normal People

I must say I loved this book from the very beginning. I liked the sparse writing style and how the author minimizes the use of quoted speech. I cared about the characters and wanted to know what would happen to them. Marianne shows us how an intelligent girl can go down a strange path due to family problems, which by the way, remains a shadowy backstory. Only her troubled relationship with her brother and mom is outlined. The relationship she had with her dad is up for conjecture, but the reader understands it was rather abnormal. Some readers might be put off by the kinky sex scenes in the book, but I looked upon it as a part of the story of a troubled character with self-esteem issues. It also highlights the lengths to which a person would go for love. Even as Marianne degrades herself in her own eyes, the reader doesn't judge her but only wants her to redeem herself and do better. Connor comes across as a decent human being after he finds himself. On the whole,...

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