The Fault In Our Stars - Book Review

This book is for the 2016 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge  @ My Soul Called Life. There are 6 keywords to choose from each month which should be in the title of the book.

For February, the key words were - Veil, Kiss, Her, Break, Love, Stars. I chose stars and hence this book...


I got this book because I wanted to see what the hype was behind this book.When I posted the pic on Instagram yesterday, I got comments that this book would make me cry for sure!!

First of all let me tell you that this is just my view and it is not my intention to hurt anyone's feeling!

Why this disclaimer ,you ask? Well, by far, I have only seen rave reviews of this book and everyone was sort of went gaga over it.But did I feel that way??

The story is about two teenage kids who are affected by cancer. It is all about their lives, the support group they attend, life of friends from the support group,their romance and dreams and so on.

I knew this would be a quick read and yes, it was!

And yes, it is filled with tragedy and is a sad story. And this is to be expected when the book is about cancer especially when it involve kids.

Hazel, through whose voice the story is narrated, has cancer and is on an experimental drug that prolongs her days on earth.She meets Augustus,nicknamed Gus,at the Support group.It is love at first site for Gus.

Gus is in remission but Hazel knows her time might come anytime soon.She refuses to accept that she loves Gus as she does not want to push him into depression after she is gone.Yet Gus persistently follows her.

The two end up going to Amsterdam to meet an author who Hazel adores and is eager to find out the ending to her favorite book but is disappointed to find the author in an incoherent state but Gus,in hopes of cheering her up, promises to finish the book for her.While in Amsterdam,Hazel accepts his love.

After the trip, which was actually the fulfillment of Gus's make-a-wish,Gus confesses that his cancer has flared up and he has very less time to live.He also  tells her that this was known before they left for Amsterdam and that both their parents knew it.


Hazel is shocked and she realizes how much Gus loves her.He had hidden all the facts about his illness , its seriousness and even rebelling against his parents to go on the trip just to make her happy and to see that she gets her dream of meeting the author fulfilled.

Hazel spends the days with Gus.Gus asks Hazel and their friend Issac to write an Eulogy and wants to hear it before he dies.

Finally he dies and Hazel finds out that he has sent an eulogy to the author in Amsterdam. The story ends with her reading the eulogy.

Yes, this story is sad and tragic. We thought Hazel was going through a bad phase and going to die and Gus will live coz he is healthy.But finally the story turned out to be the other way round.

For me the book was ok. Surely I did not cry. It was sad but it didn't make me shed tears. Now, I am not cold-hearted and stuff.I have cried over characters in other books that have touched my heart.But I did not feel that way when I read this book. I liked the story and it was sad that Gus died and the young romance was broken by fate, cancer, death.Maybe if I was a teenager, I would have cried.I was slightly disappointed with this book..

Well,this is just my thought. I am sure to read John Green's other works and see how they go....

Until next post....

Second Spring - Book Review

Second Spring is Sandhya Jane's debut novel.It is a contemporary love story set in Mumbai and then shifts to the US.

This book was sent by BlogAdda for review.I had some free time today and sat down to  read this book.

It is a modern love story that has hints of traditionalism within it.The story revolves around Avantika and Rohan.

Avantika is a smart and successful single mom.She is in the banking profession and is held in admiration and awe by her peers. Life spins around her work and her little boy. She is content or makes it look like she is content with the things as it is in her life.

In walks Mr. Handsome aka Rohan.He is a part of her clients team and later shifts base to her office. He is six years her junior and also a smart and intelligent guy because of which Avantika feels with a little mentoring he will be her successor.

Right from day 1 both feel drawn towards each other. Avantika and Rohan are not sure if it is love or the care for each other that is mistaken by the other as love.

Rohan admires her for professionalism and charisma and also how she efficiently juggles the roles of being a single mom and also successful in her career.

Avantika falls for his charming smile and feels that she has to see him every day, be with him everyday and yet something holds her back.

The two often go out of town to meet clients and on one such occasion Rohan is not able to hold back the passion and confesses his love for her. Spending the night with Rohan looks like life is bliss until he receives a message from his sister that their parents have a girl ready for him and the engagement is to take place very soon.

Unable to spell this out to the sleeping beauty nearby and scared to confront his traditionalist parents ,he packs his bags and leaves the room.Avantika sees his letter and the impact of his actions creates a huge crater in her mind.

What happens next?

Read the full review and my thoughts on the book here

This books is for the Full House Challenge, where I can strike off  the box with 'Debut Novel'

Until the next post....

Treasures from the attic....

It all started when Lil Angel asked me to get buy her a copy of Black Beauty.Apparently she had seen it in her library and before she could finish the book she was reading and pick it up , the library period got over and she had to leave the book on the shelf.

I remembered having a copy of the book and I promised to get it for her when we went to mom's place for the weekend. And when we went there, I was sure to remove the box of books from the attic. I still have a lot of my stuff at mom's place but I brought back a lot of books to my place. Still there are random boxes of my stuffs that have a couple of books in it.

These are the treasures that I found in a couple of boxes in the attic...

The Prophet was the book that I picked up,or rather,got it picked up by Dad's colleague,when our French Language Professor introduced us to a whole lot of books from this genre.I was so smitten by the way he read out the verses that I had to buy this book.And since it was out of stock in the bookstores here, Dad,unable to put up with my pestering requested his colleague to get a copy from a place he was visiting! Ah!! This books makes me so nostalgic.

And I thought I lost the 11th commandment!! I remember reading it just a couple of times and then I don't even remember seeing it, until yesterday! So glad that I found it.

Cancer ward is from a friend's collection .She asked me to keep it .Frankly, I have not even read a single line from that book! It goes straight to my TBR.

The prophesies of Nostradamus was picked up by dad and at that time I couldn't understand most of it. Let me try again...

A few of these books like win at work,How to read a person like a book and Essential facts came as a free gift with something / as a free against a magazine subscription. I'm ok you're ok and the power of positive thinking is from dad's collection.I really don;t know why I got the Palmistry book. I went to a used book store and saw this sitting on top of a pile and I just picked it up!!!

This is one of my favorite book from the box I recovered from the attic. It is a book of short stories. Sambu is proclaimed [by others] to be a detective but he finds out stuffs by coincidence. The tales are really humorous. I sort of developed my second language Tamil by reading such books!!

Ah...!!Here comes yet another favorite of mine!!This book was my non detail book in 6th standard! The brown cover is still intact! And that shows how much I loved books even back then. I even remember coloring those letters red using a pilot pen during class and then regretting defaming the book!

These books were those I got when I went into high school. I wonder where the rest of the stack is. 

I enjoyed writing this post, recollecting the happenings around each book .I would love to dig up some more of the boxes in mom's attic sometime and see what else I can find...

Until next post....

January 2016 - Book Haul

I love writing this post!! The new books that adorn my shelves are something I look forward to each month...

I got the books on 3 installments this month.Let's take a look.

These books cost 501.My spending limit on books is 1000 bucks so I had to really wait and order since these arrived on the first week of Jan. The waiting period was truly cruel!

I had pre ordered this book on an online store but that site couldn't dispatch the book .So when I saw it on another site, that too on a discount, I ordered it without a second thought.

 But then my budget just shot to the stars when there was an online mega sales. I just wished someone would hide away my laptop so that I won't look at the books on sale. And the best worst part was there were hourly deals with new books being offered at a discount of 6o to 85 %.OMG! What a cruel[in a good way,of course] time!!!!

And this is the book that came in for review...

Total books - 16

Total amount spent this month  -1944/- And with it goes my budget for Feb as well.So probably you won't see a Feb Book haul post :(

But there is one consolation this month. Yesterday I picked up a box full of books from mom's attic. It has some interesting books and opening those books made me so nostalgic..More about it tomorrow...

Happy Browsing....

Chai for Beginners - Book Review

Yesterday we had the monthly power shut down.So with it went anything that had to do with electricity including washing and grinding and mainly blogging and browsing.

Lil Dude and I are down with a bad cough and we decided to day the day easy. I kept the lil one at home and he slept in late to take advantage of the leave.

After packing off Lil Angel to school , the both of us were in no mood for the regular activities. Lil Dude watched TV for a while[it ran on UPS] and I , though in no mood to do so, finished up the chores.

We still had more than a couple of hours to kill before Lil Angel got back from school.I wondered aloud if Lil Dude would sleep but he made it clear that he was content playing with his box-full of cars.

So while he was busy racing cars and making them fly, I sat down with a book and read my dose for the reading challenges.

Apart from the reading challenges that I have signed up for,I have also committed myself to read 100 books this year and this book marks the 5th one .You can take a look at the 5 books that I have read so far in the goodreads 2016 reading challenge widget on the side bar.

I did a small calculation and it looks like I have to read around  8.5 books a month to get to my 100 book commitment. OK, let me round it up to an 8.That means 2 books per week! Now, I wonder how I will be able to do it!! Maybe I can.We all have to wait till the end of the year to see if I finished off what I started..

Now, coming back to the book I read yesterday....

Jane Ainslie is the author of this 194 paged book. It was published in 2011 and costs INR 150/-

The story starts with Sita Sinclair ,aged 27,a resident of Sydney, getting ready to join a new firm. She is scared of the new place and job and how it will treat her,but more than that she is still depressed and recovering from her break up,or rather, been dumped by her boyfriend- Mark.

She likes her new office and more so Gerome who also works there. His personality are and attitude is one of the reasons. He takes her out to the staffs favorite weekend joint for drinks and introduces his partner Lawrence.

They suggest she rent their friends place as he looking for a tenant for 18 months and while he is away he needs someone reliable to look after his house.

Sita checks out the place and  Paul suggests a very low rent and Sita immediately vacates her apartment eager to leave behind all the stuffs that reminds her of her ex.

As soon as she moves, a neighbor,an elderly Indian Mrs. Sharma invites her over for tea. Out of courtesy,Sita goes over .Mrs. Sharma offers tea and they get talking.Mrs. Sharma explains the meaning of her name and all about Sita and why Goddess Sita is her favorite Deity.

In spite of Sita knowing that her mom named her thus was to infuriate her Christian mother,Sita Sinclair listens awestruck to the mythological story. Slowly the two become friends with the tow having tea and dinner at each others place quite often.

Meanwhile at work, a new art director walks in namely Callum and he is smitten by Sita. But Sita is still not sure if she wants to get into a relationship especially since she fells she has not recovered from the heartbreak.

One day out of the blue, Mrs. Sharma invites her to travel with her to India to see the places where she was born and married off to.Sita is not sure if she liked the idea but slowly realizes it would be a good thing to do to clear her mind from the breakup.Plans are made only to be interrupted by Mrs. Sharma's children, Ramesh and Meena who argue that it would not be proper for their mother to travel to India with a foreigner and it also be a waste of money.

Mrs. Sharma is heart broken but Sita consoles her telling that Mrs. Sharma need not beg her kids for money.They have no right to deny her of her wishes as they have since left her to live alone in the apartment years ago.

So Mrs. Sharma gives her dowry jewels to Sita to sell so that she can use it for the travel.But a heated argument with her daughter gives her an actual heart attack.At the hospital, Mrs. Sharma makes Sita promise that she would take her ashes and dissolve it in the Ganges. Sita agrees and after a few hours Mrs. Sharma passes away!!

Her children refuse to abide by their mother's wishes but after Sita reasons out why their mother chose her to do it, they agree.

She sets off to India for 2 weeks and fulfills Mrs. Sharma's wishes. She also visits the other places where they had earlier planned to go.

All through her journey in India, Sita is on the lookout for any sign that might lift her spirits up and give her a sign to move on.

Now, does she find one? Does Sita want to get back to Callum? She she over her ex?To find out,all you have to do is read the book...

This is a very light read, ideal for a weekend or when you have a couple of hours to kill...

Chai for Beginners is for the 2016 Alphabet soup reading challenge


Happy Browsing....

Bhendi Bazaar - Book Review

I got this book only because it was on a promotional sale! But now I am glad I got it!!

Of late, my trend in buying books is sort of buy books when they are on a sale. Though I have a wishlist of books, I buy those that are not on the list if I get them for a  discounted price.This was in the category of  50-70% discount!And that is exactly how I ended buying this book. 

Then I posted my monthly book haul on Instagram and a few of my friends said it was a great crime novel.That’s when I got interested in reading it.

This books also happens to fit in for theFull House Challenge, where I can strike off  the box with – story that is set in a place starting with B, because this story revolves around Bhendi Bazaar and also to 2016 Alphabet soup reading challenge.

Take a look at the reading challenges I have signed up this year and here are the books that I have read and reviewed so far.

This 365 paged book is authored by Vish Dhamija.

The book starts with three Russian girls –Magdalena,Dunya and Varnika coming to India to take part in the 1982 Asian games. What the others in their troupe are not aware is that these girls are planning never to return to Russia but settle down in India.

Magdalena is sort of the team leader and she arranges for fake passports for the three and also makes contacts in India for their travel to Mumbai

The story fast forwards to 2007,where DCP Rita Ferriera is woken up in the early hours of the day. There has been a murder of Adit Lele.Vikram and Jatin her aides try solving the case.

Soon they realize there is a serial killer on the loose. More men are killed in the same pattern as the first one and there are hardly any evidences left behind and no leads at all. But the whiff of perfume, a lipstick and a lady’s inner garment that are found at the crime scenes don’t provide any help and the team soon realizes that a man is trying to throw off the scent by making the police assume that the killer is a lady.

The story goes back and forth between the murders and the three girls.The girls who assume that life will be a bed of roses after they escape from Russia do not realize that life would become a living hell when they are tricked into prostitution and live a life of pain and sorrow.

In between these there is Anita Raizada,a journalist who comes into the team when the killer sends her publisher evidence of the first murder. Jatin sort of falls for her .

There is the womanizer, Narang who is a political big-wig and also runs the newspaper that Anita works in.

Then there is Dr. Ashwin Mittal aka Ash Mattel who is a criminal profiler and also gives a lot of tips and hints about the the way a criminal would think and act.He is actually Rita’s college mate and the two meet when Rita’s boss suggest they take a consult with Ash because he is a famous criminal profiler in  UK

Until the last couple of chapters, I assumed that one of the three girls grow up and took revenge on the men but then two of them die .So I was clueless.

The killer contacts her and even leaves a small gift wrapped parcel inside her vehicle!All this stumps Rita.

Finally,Rita manages to find the killer and I was as shocked as she was on the discovery! 

I am sure you are dying to know if the killer was a male or female and I am sure you will be even more eager when I tell you that the killer was in touch with Rita all through without Rita ever realizing it!! 

The story shows the dark shades of Mumbai where innocent girls and women are forced into prostitution, their lives and the hurdles they face in their trade. It is indeed heart wrenching!

The ending has a huge twist which I am not going to give away!!

This is one of those books which you will find hard to put down . The narration is set in a such a pace that one minute you guess something and the next minute you are proved wrong!!

It is worth a buy and I am sure you will enjoy reading this book.

So here is where I stand in the full house challenge..

Happy Browsing....

Half Girlfriend - Book Review

This book is for the 2016 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge  @ My Soul Called Life. There are 6 keywords to choose from each month which should be in the title of the book.

For January, the key words were - Crowd, Girl, The, Bad, Soul, Soft

The chose 'Girl' and read Chetan Bhagat's Half Girlfriend.

For the past couple of days, I have been down with a bad cough and sniffles. I took advantage of this time to relax and read a book for the challenges I signed up.

It was a very quick read and I finished it within a few hours...

The back of the book says-

Once upon a time there was a Bihari Boy called Madhav.He fell in love with a girl called Riya from Delhi.Madhav didn't speak English well. Riya did.Madhav wanted a relationship.Riya didn't.Riya just wanted friendship.Madhav didn't.Riya suggested is a compromise.She agreed to be half girlfriend.

These lines were what prompted me to buy this book!

It starts with a typical boy meets girl and it was love at first sight for the boy. Being a little shy Madhav tries to be content with the friendship but his residence mates on campus urge him to have a relationship. Riya refuses and cuts off the friendship,well,almost.

She quits college and agrees to marry the son of their family friend. Madhav finishes college, refuses a job at HDFC and returns to his hometown to work with his mother in their family school.

A few years later he meets Riya in Patna and learns that she is now a divorcee and since she is still his half girlfriend, he wants to renew the friendship.

What happens in the end is where the real twist lies!!

The story starts with Madhav meeting the author Chetan Bhagat and asking him to read his girlfriends journal .He says the memories are too painful as his half girl frind is dead. The author refuses at first but is intrigued so he starts reading. The pages are old, yellow and crumpling.He asks Madhav to narrate their love story or why Riya was his half girlfriend.

So Madhav starts narrating the story which is Act 1 which takes place in Delhi.MAdhav and Riya joining the college on sports quota,the college fun, the duo practicing basketball ,his inability to mingle due to the lack of spoken English.Falling in love with the most beautiful girl on earth aka Riya and then the breakup ,the lonely years Madhav spent in college after Riya left the college to get married and travel.

Act 2 takes place in Bihar where Madhav works @ his family school after finishing his dies and takes care of the administrative side as well as helps with the classes.It is in this part that he meets Riya again in Patna and also takes her to his hometown, Bill Gates visiting his school and Madhav preparing a speech with Riya's help and getting a huge grant money for the school.Once the function is over a student hands over a letter from Riya which states that dying from lung cancer and she does not want him to see her suffer.

After Madhav's narration ends,Chetan Bhagat hands him her journal.Madhav is asked to read a few legible paragraphs from Riya's journal that Chetan Bhagat has marked .He is surprised to read that Riya is still alive and has left him since his mother did not approve their friendship and she did not want her son to get hurt again.

Act 3 is in New York. Madhav recollects her passion to perform at a New York music bar and goes there searching across 1000's of music bars.

Does he find her? Well, that is for you to read and find out!!!

This 260 paged book published in 2014 costs INR 176.

Happy Browsing....