Suicide Notes and Rekha's biography

Finished reading Rekha: the untold story by Yasser Usman. She has apparently played a courtesan in over 30 films! So methinks her entire allusion to Amitabh Bacchan as the important 'him' in her life and her earlier insinuations of an affair with him were self- serving to her carefully built image, cemented by 'Silsila'. Affair or not, she has learnt to finally deny it to the press now and move on beyond her doomed marriage to Mukesh the businessman, for whose suicide she was blamed. Now she is the quintessential diva and more reams of newsprint should be devoted to how she has financially supported her rather large family of sisters with not much help from anyone else. Well-written biography.

Plot spoilers ahead: Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford. When I read the sample I didn't know what the book would be about except that it was about a teen who'd tried to kill himself, who had a good sense of humour about it and was admitted in the psych ward by his parents. He called his shrink 'cat poop' and the story was to be about 45 days of his stay in rehab. I read it though and found out that he had fallen in love with his best friend( a girl) 's boyfriend - meaning - he was gay. And was shunned by both of them for it. This led to him slitting his wrists. At the rehab center, he realises he is gay, and another girl he gets close to as a friend commits suicide. Although it was all written in a humorous voice, the subject matter was very serious and it's not everyone who can read this book and enjoy it. It came up on my reading suggestions on Google play because I'd bought '13 reasons why' which by the way, I'm yet to finish.

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,...

Ash Talks Books

Search This Blog