...shoOOonya...

  I have been reading voraciously as much as I can utilizing all my travel time in reading. And while I am at that, I have been posting book reviews on my blog which has attracted readers, authors as well as publishers. So increasingly I get requests for review from Authors and Publishers too. As of date, I have books lined up till July for reviews. Now, when I agree to review a book, all I have in terms of decision making info are the book title, cover and book blurb. Sometimes the author bio helps and also the reviews/ratings on goodreads. Once in a while, I get a book which does not have the 'reviews' on goodreads or much of info outside. This kind of increases the 'risk' of reading for reviewing a bad book !! It has been a couple of times that I have come across books which I would give a zero or 1 rating out of 5. If these are book reviews done on request from author or publisher, I send the review to them asking them if they want me t...

  Book: The Tournament Author: Matthew Reilly No. of Pages: 432 Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller Publisher: Orion   I have loved all the books by Matthew Reilly - they are all high-octane super-crazy-fast-paced action thriller. Uncharacteristically, MR turns out a 'fictional' medieval historical mystery this time around with a sprinkling of 'real' historical figures like Michelangelo, Queen Elizabeth, Ivan (the Terrible) and many others that the average reader will readily recognize. MR also chose a subject that is sensitive instead of his usual mad-cap crash bang chase stories. Can't say I did not like an MR novel ... but it was disconcerting at times to read a thrilling tale with a backdrop of a sensitive subject like Child Sexual Abuse. The narrative is like any other thriller of MR ... minus the mind-numbing action. No gadgetery and modern weaponry since the tale is set a couple of hundred years back ...

  Book: The Temple of Avinasi (The Legend of Kalki) Author: Ayush Pathak No. of Pages: 389 Genre: Mythological Fantasy, Fiction Publisher: Frog Books from Leadstart Publishing   The Temple of Avinasi is something of the sort where the 'Shiva Trilogy' from the East meets 'Harry Potter' from the West; where a magical world has been created to support an Epic tale with characters pulled out from our Indian / Hindu Mythology. I am impressed by the storyline - the suspense, the path the story is taking, the characters and their relationships. It has all the bells and whistles of the making of a grand epic tale. This could be India's answer to Harry Potter ... only more magnificent and magical. Something that made the story difficult to frame in the mind while reading was also how the author presents the mythical characters in a different alternative universe where they play slightly different roles. The same ...

  1         Novel: The Prophecy of Trivine by Srivatsan Sridharan, Pulkit Gupta & Tnahsin Garg 2         PKD Short: Service Call by Philip K Dick 3         PKD Short: Captive Market by Philip K Dick 4         PKD Short: The Mold Of Yancy by Philip K Dick 5         Non-Fiction: White House Wit, Wisdom and Wisecracks by Phil Dampier & Ashley Walton 6         PKD Short: Recall Mechanism by Philip K Dick 7         PKD Short: The Unreconstructed M by Philip K Dick 8         Short Story : Button Button by Richard Matheson 9         Novel: The Hunt for Kohinoor by Manreet Sodhi Someshwar 10     Short ...