...shoOOonya...

    Book: The Great Mogul Author: Rajeev Jacob No. of Pages: 222 Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Lancer Book   The author wrote to me with the book review request and the setting of the story – 2 young scholars from UK (in current times) searching for the biggest diamond of the world, last heard of in eighteenth century India – seemed like an interesting one. I accepted. Before accepting, I tried looking at the GoodReads page but there was none. So i created it when I finally started reading the book. My reaction to the first chapter of the book was: “Did I make a mistake in accepting the review request. Will I be subjected to crude writing and unmentionables in this book?” My biggest fear was that I would be forced to abandon the book if the writing style of the first chapter (hardly a few pages) continued through the rest of the book. Thankfully it did not. (Although, I still don...

This was the book cover in 2015. A new book cover was released in 2015 so here is the update.     Book: Sirens Spell Danger Author: Suresh Chandrasekaran, Karthik L and Radha Sawana No. of Pages: 211 Genre: Fiction - Thriller Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc   One of the 3 author’s wrote to me with a book review request and I took it up instantly drawn partly by the genre, partly by the title and the book cover and partly by the fact that he was a fellow blogger who was getting his book published. So the 3 bloggers - Suresh Chandrasekaran, Karthik L & Radha Sawana – come together and write 3 very different novellas with some common elements like sirens (gorgeous girls) and of course,  a lot of danger (though of different kinds) and suspense with ever twisting plots.   All the 3 Novellas ... are complete, independent and different in their own ways. Each of the 3 no...

  Book: The Girl with No Name   Author: Iscah No. of Pages: 125 Genre: Fiction, Fantasy Publisher: Amoeba Ink     The author had posted about this novella on the linked-in forum and I volunteered. This one turned out to be a very interesting one indeed ... The story is about a girl whose parents were unable to name her (both died before naming her) and hence she remains without a name. She lives with an old man who takes care of her and protects her from the 'normal' world. She is after all a shape-shifter by birth and can transform into any living or non-living thing … that is to say she can take the shape and form of any person .. or simply convert into a pot or a pan. That makes her different and a subject of ridicule by the other 'normal' people.   The novella is about her journey - in search for her father, her roots and herself. Through the story, Iscah gives a worldl...

  Started off the month with 2 short stories by Normal Lippert (who has written the novel series on James Potter, son of Harry Potter) followed by another sci-fi short collection by Asimov and finishing off the month with short stories from Hitchcock series books. With these stories, I completed the book “Shadow of Silence”.   I read 2 novels, 2 short novels, 1 short-story collection and 1 non-fiction for the month.   1.          Short: Merlin’s Gift – A Founders Christmas Story by Norman Lippert 2.          Short: Harry’s First Christmas by Norman Lippert 3.          Non-Fiction: LifeMantras by a Life Coach by Preeti Subberwal 4.          Asimov Shorts: I Just Make Them Up, See? by Isaac Asimov 5.       ...