The Girl on the Train

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You know that realization when you read the first few pages of a book and you feel the protagonist is just like you? Every characteristic of them reminds you of a trait you have. That's how I felt when I started reading Rachel Watson's story. But the feeling soon changed. Her character progressed to be more muddled, raw and messed up.

The Girl on the Train is a smooth, easy read. Racy and engrossing. The climax grips you. Makes your heart beat faster. Just like a thriller should be.

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Remember...

That man whom you see in the same lift as you every time you take the lift to your office floor?
That girl in the metro whom you notice standing at the same spot near the window every morning?
That old lady whom you always find singing to herself when you are out for a run in the park?

Those familiar strangers. We all have a list of them. They all take up some space in our mind, in our thoughts, even if it's just for a couple of minutes a day. We try to imagine their lives. We construe their stories. We cook up their quirks. We relate to their mannerisms.

Rachel Watson did the same. She was just like you and me. Her only mistake - she stretched this seemingly innocuous habit into a frustrating, annoying obsession. Conceiving stories around strangers. Imagining herself in their stories. Fighting hard to be a part of their stories. In the end, it messes up her life even more.

Moral of the story? Sometimes, it's better to be strangers. We are meant to stay strangers in certain stories.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - A Review

Though it's been a while since I finished the book. The feeling that you get after having just read the book has faded, but before it gets completely wiped out, I want to put down what I felt about the book.

You know as a kid, the secrets that you shared just with yourself, the stories that were just for your mind, the dreams that only you could see, this book reminds you of that. The feeling of safety and security, that your dreams give you, that the voices in your head give you, how it is sometimes greater than that given by the people around you.

Simply written, this book gets over before you know it. You know, when you like a book so much, that you find it ending sooner than you wanted it to. The book gifts you illusions. You swim in fantasy. You live with the boy. You run along with the boy, away from the demons, towards that safety. You wish that darkness would end. You shiver in the rain, shudder with the thunder. And then you wake up. The world's bright and clean again. You are safe. You are content. You know you are being looked after.

Neil Gaiman has this wonderful flair. A way with words that makes them utterly beautiful to read. And then ponder. One of my favourites by him:

And the Mountains Echoed

Something was amiss. Like one of the characters in the book, Pari who feels something was missing in life... I felt something was amiss in the story.

Khaled Housseini is a brilliant writer. He has a way of describing relationships, depicting people so vividly... with all their varied nuances. It makes you feel like you know the characters personally, it makes you feel what the characters feel. I had picked up the book, "And the Mountains Echoed" with as much conviction.

It had a lovely beginning, but somewhere along the middle, it got all got disarrayed. At times it made me feel like I was watching a poorly edited film, where it gets confusing to know which is the past and which is the present. In the book, there were certain characters who were not talked about in detail, while certain characters who weren't a actual part of the story were discussed at length, making me wonder why. But then again it's just my perspective that I share here.

As I finish this book, I miss that feeling of warmth, friendship and family that had enveloped me after his last two books. I was waiting for an echo, but even after the turning the last page, there was a lull.


Images from here and here.

The clock ticks.. the water drips.. the Earth rotates..

 

Ever wondered what would it be like if we never had to worry about the time of the hour? No clock or watch to measure the time. No fixed working hours. No one hurrying to reach on time. No one counting days. No one praying for more time. No one begging for time to pass. Everyone living in the moment, instead of planning the next.

There was indeed one such time... When the Earth was still a wonder and not one of the 8 planets. When the movement of the Sun and the Moon was a wonder and not Science. When people didn't have to take out time for their loved ones, because time didn't exist. 

Only people did. Life did. 

 

The Time Keeper is a revelation about how man started measuring time. It's a story of a sick man who wants more time. It's a story of a lovesick girl who wishes time would pass quickly. It's a story that teaches us that there is more to life than glancing at the clock every hour. There is more to life than counting days and counting age. There is more to learn, give, receive, accept, do and teach than we think there is.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom is no less than his other books. It's a warm hug. It's a cool breeze. It makes you think. It makes you pause and experience life... Life which is beyond time. The life which was created even before the concept of time was established. 

Images taken from: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

 

Of book fairs and book reviews

The Delhi Book Fair was almost two months ago and I didn't think I'd actually blog about it. Until now. When I'm done with all the books I'd bought there. Well they weren't many actually. Just four. I went with a friend who's equally or more mad about books, so I had the best company as I browsed the stalls, the books and the knick-knacks. From book marks to book mugs to book bags to book badges. It had everything to cheer up a book lover. A second friend met us there and who seeing me bursting from excitement quoted, ''You look as happy as a kid in a candy shop!''

And I was :)

Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

I love Jodi Picoult. The story lines. The characters. The plots. The research behind every book. The emotions depicted. The relationships portrayed. Her way of putting it all into words is absolutely beautiful. Picture Perfect was no exception.

It starts off smoothly and it is difficult not to fall in love when the two characters fall for each other. There is a third guy actually. But no it is not a stereotypical love triangle. It is not a stereotypical love story. No overflow of mush. Like the girl, you won't be able to stop loving even in the end. The story travels through two worlds. The glamour of Hollywood and the humbleness of the Indian reservations. It'll tug your heart, it'll make you keep reading, it'll make you dream a picture perfect dream. And in the end, it'll wake you up.

The Way We Were by Elizabeth Noble

The review on the cover says, Impossible to finish without tears running down your face.

Ahem. Well yes, it was impossible to finish. About the tears, they would've eventually come if the book hadn't ended when it did. And thank God it ended when it did.

This one was a big disappointment. Biggest I have experienced in months. The story is so jumbled up. It's like the author couldn't decide what to keep and what to delete and in the end keeps everything. Even if it's not in a flow. The story revolves around the life of Susannah who if I may put it frankly, was a loser at forty. She has a good job. A loving family. The perfect best friend. But an unsteady life, an unsteady mind and an unsteady love life. She's weak, confused, pathetic and at times unbearable. It's like keep things going wrong her entire life but she doesn't take heed. It's not just the miserable plot it is more so the way the story rolls. Weird and abrupt sentences. Makes me wonder if the book was actually writer by a ghost writer suffering from attention deficiency syndrome. 

P. S. Here's the goodreads link to the book.

The Other Side Of The Story

We all have a story. A story that is interlinked to many other stories, stories of our friends, our family, our teachers, our colleagues, our neighbors or even strangers. And we all have a different way of narrating our story, don't we?

That is what this book is about. About three girls, about how their life is linked to each other, yet separate. The reviews that are on the book are indeed true. It makes you laugh. Out loud. I used to read it on my daily commute to work and some parts would just make me giggle out loud. (No, I did not pay attention to how the fellow commuters reacted to that). Another thing that made me love the book was the way it talks about writers, authors, publishers and their world. Not that I am any one of them yet, the book kept me glued till the last word. When I did reach the last word, I turned the last couple of pages to confirm whether it has actually ended or not. It was that good. 

The book is quite a fat one though, (528 pages) which I recently discovered could be a deciding factor for readers when buying a new book. As for me, the fatter the better!

P.S. Click here to head to the book's page on the author's website.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I'm clearly a person who judges a book by it's cover. And I do not hide it :)

The Memory Keeper's Daughter starts off beautifully. Kim Edwards has this way of describing things so delicately and intricately, that it gets easy to flow with the story, turn one page after another. The story holds you so strongly right from the first page. But alas, as the story neared the end, I got a bit disappointed. 

Usually when I finish a book I like to carry something from it, a memory, a thought, a quote, an idea, something that stays with me long after I have forgotten the story. Something that makes me feel sad that the story has ended but something that also makes me feel good about the ending. 

Personally I believe that 'something' was missing in The Memory Keeper's Daughter. It was a beautiful story, but it ended. And it just did that, a blank stop without any lingering memory.