...shoOOonya...

In the novelette ‘Profession’, Asimov tells the story of a world where education is 'fed' into the minds of kinds/teenagers electronically in a matter of seconds after analyzing their brain patterns to ascertain the best 'education' to give them. So what happens when the results of seemingly smart guys tell that he cannot be educated ???  What follows this finding is the boy's journey of discovering himself and the true nature of his 'problem'. The genius of Asimov is highlighted in the climax when you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A superb piece of work by Asimov – I give it a 5 star rating As I read story after story by Asimov, I am surprised and almost startled at Asimov's thought process and his ability to raise fundamental questions (and make us, in fact force us - to THINK) under the disguise of sci-fi short stories. Super Awesome !!

  Book: Desert Son Author: Glenn Maynard No. of Pages: 185 Genre: Fiction - Paranormal, Out-of-Body experiences, reincarnation   Publisher: Black Rose Writing   The author wrote to me with a book review request via LinkedIn introducing his yet to be released book. It was a rare opportunity for me to read an ARC … reading a book before anyone else, before it came out in the market for sale. Desert Son turned out to be a very interesting ‘out-of-body reading’ experience :)   The book starts out with an out-of-body experience and ends with the revelations of reincarnation of people revealing the past and present connections. The build-up of suspense is interesting. The book begins with an accident which kills the protagonist and his parents resulting in an out-of-body experience of our protagonist. He goes through the mythical ‘tunnel of light’ to meet long deceased people. The ...

  Book: SeaBean (Book 1 of the SeaBean Trilogy) Author: Sarah Holding No. of Pages: 158 Genre: Fiction, Fantasy and Sci-Fi    Publisher: Medina Publishing Ltd.   The publisher wrote to me with a book review request via LinkedIn and it sounded interesting. So here I am … reading a book written for children. And I enjoyed it actually. SeaBean is an interesting sci-fi story that also educated young readers (kids) about environment and nature and the damage some of us are causing to it and what can be done about it. The book starts out in an interesting manner and builds some sci-fi suspense as the background. It then changes gears, and you find reading the ‘blog’ of a young school-going girl who is innocently writing about her life on an island. And then the story proceeds with a large cube arriving on the island which our little girl gets access to. The cube turns out to be a new hi-...

You might have come across those 55 word stories. A couple of days back, I was waiting for my flight at Kuwait International airport. There was an old man sitting next to me and he did something that inspired this 55 word story. Although actual chain of events was slightly different but the gist is the same.  So here is my first creation ... --------------------- Tunnel Vision An old man painfully hobbled to the dustbin that was 25 meters from his seat in the airport lobby. I wondered at his persistence and my eyes moved to his seat which still held his luggage, phone and the book he was reading. And then I noticed something right behind his seat ... a dustbin.  

  Book: Spellweaver (Book 1 of the Spellweaver Chronicles) Author: Claire J Bridgeman No. of Pages: 147 Genre: Fantasy and Magic J   Publisher: Self Published   The author wrote to me with a book review request and her long email kind of piqued my interest in the book. Glad I accepted the review request. One is tempted to think of 'yet another harry potter types' story but the Spellweaver definitely has its own charm. When you are reading the Book 1 of the Spellweaver Chronicle, you begin to draw parallels with Harry Potter's first episode in which he discovers his lineage and finds 2 friends (a girl and a boy) and then ultimately performs some magic too. Apart from such very basic parallels, the Spellweaver is not only different but I actually found it interesting to read. The characters develop in front of you and some of them remain mysterious with the protagonist as well as the reader guessing their true character an...

  Book: Adhuri Prem Kahaniya Author: Santosh Avvannavar No. of Pages: 95 Genre: Short Love stories Publisher: Power Publishers The author wrote to me with a book review request and when I saw that it was a collection of short stories about love … I thought, why not. The author sent me a signed copy which is always a nice touch. After reading 2 short story collections in horror genre, I was thinking why not romance and love? I had thought … this should be a good change. Boy, was I wrong? The book blurb reads "Adhuri Prem Kahaniya has evolved over years of 12 people. The book covers light moments of these people in these 25 short stories. This book may prove to be a good travel read or ice breaker". Well… I can't seem to agree. This ain't no ice breaker.   The language of the book is not just simple but not really book-worthy (unless intentional keeping in mind the first-person profile and setting of the story). I...

  Book: Life Mantras By a Life Coach Author: Preeti Subberwal No. of Pages: 124 Genre: Self Development Publisher: Power Publishers Blogger Nimi Vashi from The Readers Cosmos, wrote to me with a book review request for this one. I had read a lot of self-help books in 2001-2002 and then kind of moved away from them except for occasional picks. In 2013, I had read 'F@#K Knows' which was entertaining and eye-opening in a very different and weird way (but effective nonetheless, as long as you could sustain the language and its tone). The book in question this time around was 'Life Mantras by a Life Coach' and although I would have shunned such a book (somehow I have never found them convincing), I thought this might be a good opportunity to check out some self-help book by an Indian Author and a Life Coach at that. So that's how I came upon this book by an Indian Author which ironically, I read completely outside India (in K...

  Book: The Treasure of Kafur Author: Aroon Raman No. of Pages: 405 Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Pan MacMillain I had reviewed the first novel by Aroon, The Shadow Throne, earlier last year and was delighted to hear from him when he sent me a review request for his second book. I had enjoyed the first book and liked the book blurb of the second. The second book is very unlike the first one and it almost surprises you that both these books with such a diverse theme have come from the same author. The Treasure of Kafur has been 'lost' for centuries and certain individuals protect its secret. A tyrannical man with ruthless ambitions to rule the country needs the 'funds' to put his plans to action and a kid (who knows the secret of the treasure's hiding place) gets the responsibility of reaching out to Akbar for protection as well as damage-repair. This is the basic premise and plot of the novel … but this is not what m...

Books, Novellas, Short Stories that I read in December ... This month included both Fiction and non-fiction (in fact the only months where there are 2 non-fiction books)   1           Non-Fiction: Aisle Be Damned by Rishi Piparaiya 2           Novelette: Stickman by Dennis Yates 3           Novel: BANKERUPT by Ravi Subramanian 4           Novella: Roger Ascham and the Kings Lost Girl by Matthew Reilly 5           Novel: Ajaya - Roll of the Dice, Epic of the Kaurava clan (Book I) by Anand Neelakantan 6           Hitchcock – Shrouds & Pockets: Self-Protection   by James Michael Ullman 7           Hitchcock – Shrouds & Pockets: Slay the Wicked by Frank Sisk 8           Non-Fiction: The World's Stupidest Instructions by Michael O'Mara Books 9           Hitchcock – Shrouds & Pockets: I by Edward Wellen 10         Hitchcock – Shrouds & Pockets: Trial Tactics by Joe L. Hensley 11         Hitchcock – Shro...