Books 2014 Vol. 6 – “Perfume : The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Suskind

Published on September 7, 2014 by Swati Leave a Comment

After a long time, it was a decent read. I have been a subscriber to just books for almost a year now and have hardly made use of it. But, then, I got bored and was sifting through their catalog when I found this book. The novel has been pretty successful and has been adapted in movie, plays and songs.

The Plot

The story is about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille right from his day of birth to how he dies. Since he was a kid, he brings misfortune to almost everyone he comes in contact with. His mother dies of the crime of abandoning him right after his birth, the wet nurses who feed him are driven to give him away because he used to drink a lot more milk than the other babies, the tanner and the perfumer he used to work for.

These misfortunes can be a co-incidence but the way they have been tied up with Grenouille leaves a very chilling feeling for the reader. Grenouille is a survivor and he has never known any feeling except hate. Love or passion is something he comes to know at a very later stage in life. In the early years, everyone who used to come in contact with him would be vary of him without knowing the exact reason.

Grenouille has a very keen sense of smell and he used to use this sensory organ of his to do every work, even to find his way in the dark. He used to store all the scents in his memory and never forgot one. Once he helped find money for his landlady, the one who ran the orphanage, when she forgot where she kept it, just though his olfactory senses. This was enough to make the lady turn him out of her house and she sold him to a tanner. And, his life progresses on.

While working for the tanner, Grenouille has a taste of freedom one day when he wanders into Paris. He started visiting and exploring Paris thereafter to find the new smells. He was used to create a library of the smells and to concoct and create new smells.

On one such exploration, he comes across a very fine and fresh scent of a virgin girl. He follows the scent keenly and once he reaches to the source, without knowing what his actions would yield, he kills the girl and strips her and starts devouring her scent till it fades away from her body. That was the moment when he actually feels passion. And, that was the moment when he decides he would want to create the scent of that girl which was unlike anything he had come across.

Once when Grenouille was on his last round of delivery, he comes to the once most famous perfumer of Paris, Giuseppe Baldini, from whom he learns the secrets of perfume making. And, then, goes on to Grasse to learn more about it. On the way, he takes a seven year detour to remain away from the human world. Once he reaches Grasse, he is enthralled by the scent of a girl named Laure and he knows that the essence of his greatest perfume should be that of this girl’s.

Grenouille is a man who was born without odor and was treated as a cast away even though no one around him including him realized the exact reason why. Whenever he came in contact with anyone, they were repelled by him. May be the lack of any kind of odor was the reason. Thus, it is the journey to find his identity and acceptance. When he succeeds, the tragedy or the irony is that he realizes no one will ever love him like a normal human.

My Verdict

Absolute Must!! I loved every part of the book. Yes it can be a stretched at times for the lack of thrill, if that is what you are seeking. But, these moments are crucial because they explain what is Grenouille going through and why is he the way he is, a cunning cold-blooded individual. Yes for all who love intense reads!

Have you read the book? Or, has this gone on your to-read list after reading the review?

Books 2014 Vol. 5 – “It Started with a Friend Request” by Sudeep Nagarkar

Published on March 8, 2014 by Swati 7 Comments

Source

Well, P likes a lot of Indian authors! And, for good reason, sometimes. He prefers to read something totally non-brainy and fun and something which have a close resemblance to real life and a book which gets finished in a jiffy! I put all the desi college love stories by the budding authors into that category.

I generally tend to ignore such books coz they are too tame for me and they do not give me the adrenalin rush which I crave after a book is over. Thriller is my genre and romance is his! Anyways, let me come back to this book. I read the book coz I was getting bored and I did not get a good book for myself since quite long and also thi book is good.

Aleesha moves to Bombay from Kolkatta right when the novel starts and she lands up living with Tamannah, daughter of a family friend, until they are forced to shift on a short notice by the landlord. Aleesha meets Akash in a night club on one of the nights she goes out with Tamannah. And, they end up exchanging their BBM pins and start talking.

It is a typical love story of Aleesha, a bong beauty cum brains, and Akash, a poor and hard-working guy who lost his father too early and is responsible for his mother and sister, who are aptly supported by their respective friends, Kritika and Aditya. And, there is another track of Tamannah’s obsessive love with her colleague, Deep.

The writing is simple and story moves quickly without dragging at any place. The story resonates very closely with the couples we see in real life. The intent of the author is glorify the protagonists love. Indeed every love story is special but I failed to connect with it. Yes, I enjoyed reading it but it never gripped me that I was desperate to find out what happened. But then, I think I was not the right audience for this book.

My Verdict

The book is simple and good for a train journey or a bus ride. Its a well-written book. But, if you are looking for a thought provoking or a nail-biting page turner, this one did not turn out one for me. But, please remember, I love thrillers instead. I would recommend it to people who like love stories and enjoy romance at its best.

Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it?

Books 2014 Vol. 3 – On the List : “The Body Book” by Cameron Diaz

Books 2014 Vol. 1 – “A Treacherous Likeness” by Lynn Shephard

Books 2014 Vol. 4 – “The Cuckoo’s Calling” by Robert Galbraith aka J.K.Rowling

Published on February 16, 2014 by Swati Leave a Comment

Finally, I finished the book. As far as I remember, I had mentioned this in the first week of January or soon after. Yup, a crime thriller which took me almost one month of reading. And thereafter, I gave myself a few days to internalize the book to know how I feel about it.

So, lets begin to talk about the book. The story begins with Robin lost in thought of her recent engagement and hunting for the office where she is supposed to be acting as a temporary secretary for a week. Cameron Strike, the detective and an ex-army guy who lost his leg in Afganistan, is her employer.

Strike has recently broken up with his ex-fiancée and has been living in his dumpy office. He is completely broke, receives murder threats from his previous client, and in huge debt. Robin’s arrival to his office changes his fortune in one way!! He is visited by John Bristow, a lawyer, to ask Strike investigate the death of his sister, the very famous model Lula Landry, which had taken place three months back.

And, then, begins a very disconnected process of investigation which picks up pace in the last few pages of the book. The entire plot seems to like have been churned out in bits and parts from all the other detective novels. That is also one of the reason I could not bring myself to stick to the book.

Accepting that book is good in bits and parts, I think it could have been easily edited to a novella if we leave out the personal lives of the detective and, though less described, his assistant. They stand out in the entire process. One tends to lose interest about their personal lives and ends up wondering why they picked the book!!

My Verdict

It is not an amazing book and you are not losing out on anything by missing it out.

Have you read the book?

Books 2014 Vol. 1 – “A Treacherous Likeness” by Lynn Shephard

Published on January 4, 2014 by Swati Leave a Comment

I used to write the book reviews on my other blog but I am not able to post on it even occasionally so I thought I would rather record my books on this blog only. Don’t worry. I am not making it a regular feature. I am just gonna post this on weekends and weekdays I will talk beauty. Yeah, I know I have hardly been talking since the last month!!

Anyways, I had been dying to read a good book since a long time. And, then I found this in one of the airports but I hardly got time to open it till last 15 days. But, once opened, I was totally hooked to it. Now, what is the book about?

Well, this is one of the books which tries to create a fictional plot based on the life of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly and his wife, Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein. It tries to unravel the mysteries of the poet’s childhood traumas, the suicides surrounding the figure, his marriages, his love affaires and the death of his kids.

Fanny Imlay, elder step-sister of Mary Shelly, commits suicide. Harriet Westbrook, first wife of Shelly, is abandoned by Shelly and later gets pregnant, though it is debatable by whom, is also found drowned in Serpentine in Hyde Park, London. Soon after the first wife’s death, Shelly gets married to Mary and leaves London along-with his newly wed wife and her step-sister, Claire.

It has been indicated that Claire and Shelly have intimate relations but it was never really made clear. But, the tragedy of Mary and Shelly’s marriage also lies in the fact that none of their first three children and one adopted daughter survive. It is believed that Shelly’s life was haunted with his own past and was prone to bouts of melancholy and depression. He was also highly delusional.

Thus, this books creates a fictional thriller piece using all the associated characters and real-life incidents. It definitely is an amazing book for all crime and thriller lovers. It is supposed to be a sequel to Tom-All-Alone’s but the book can be read independently as well.

Have you read the book? Share your thoughts!

Books 2013 Vol. 9 – “The Guardian Angels” by Rohit Gore

Published on September 30, 2013 by Swati Leave a Comment

When ever I sit to write down a book review, it really scares me. It is so difficult to review someone else’s work which is something they have believed in. If you hate it, their entire work goes down the drain and the hope is just extinguished. That does not mean I rave all the books I have read till date but I do try to be very objective when I am reading the book. It is no longer about whether you have enjoyed it or not but it is about telling everyone what they can find for themselves in the book. But, yes, ultimately the review is biased because not everyone looks at the book holistically, not even the author.

Well, I think that was a nice introduction, right? Anyways, I would rather start talking about the book now. The premise of the book is a story of two people spanning from the moment they meet to the end. Well, the end is something you have to figure out for yourself. It is their story which sometimes becomes too larger than life, too cliched, too bollywood-y but remnants of which does tug at your heart strings.

Aditya is a billionaire who was born for cricket but the family business was his purpose. Radha is an extremely pragmatic person who believes in her principles and ideologies so much that she fails to understand the world is gray and not just black and white. And, what happens is their life of ups and downs and what each other really mean in their lives.

I have not read the author’s previous works but I will say that he has tried to put down an epic love story when he was writing this. The novel is divided into four parts – the story starts with their teens when they meet, their late teens, their late twenties and the thirties. The language is clean and decent when I compare with the amount of usage of Indian slangs.

Regarding the plot, the story moves very slowly in the first part. The author spends too much time in describing the emotions which Adi and Radha go through. It would have been better if he had inspired those emotions in the reader instead of just explaining them. Somehow probably a reader who does not belong to the social class of Adi would never really connect with those happenings in his life because its something you get to see in the movies than in real life.

The second part is a little detached where both Adi and Radha are struggling to maintain their long-distance friendship and balance their lives minus each other. This is where other significant people enter their respective lives and they start drifting apart. The twenties are more of a haze when Adi returns into Radha’s life after two years of complete absence. All this while, most part of the story is narrated by Radha through her diary entries.

But, the most significant and maturely handled part was the last one in which both are in their thirties and it is sort of a climax to their lives. They are together and still they can never get together. It is sort of a paradox. The epic which Rohit aimed at was not completely successful in my opinion because I felt the story did drag a bit in parts but yes few other parts of the story will definitely move you. All in all, it ends as a good read.

Have you read the book? How did you like it?

Related Posts:
Books 2013 Vol. 8 – “Toke” by Jugal Mody
Books 2013 Vol. 7 – “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier
Books 2013 Vol. 6 – “F?@K Knows” by Shailendra Singh

“The Seeds of War” by Ashok K. Banker

Published on February 8, 2013 by Swati 1 Comment

love the illustration

Note: I was traveling for the past two weeks and came back only on Monday so I started reading the book only on that day. I am supposed to put up the review within a week after receiving the book but I am not sure when I received it. Thus, I am publishing it today and hoping that it would considered valid. Also, I have not yet been able to finish the book because it is very involved. Thus, my review is based on the part I have read.

Ashok K. Banker is a famed author of the Ramayana series. All of his previous novels have been quite a hit, apparently! Ok, I have to admit that I did not hear about the author before I got this novel for review.

But now, I can say that I would definitely want to check out all his previous books. His previous work includes modern interpretation of Ramayana among others and now he has started on Mahabharata.

I have to say this that among the two great epics, Mahabharata appeals more to me because of the cacophony of emotions. There is love, jealousy, anger, hatred, passion, pride, virtue, misery, loyalty and what not? Each character in the epic is worth a study. And, every book I have read on the subject opens a new perspective.

The Seeds of War is the second book in the Mahabharata series being written by the author. Since I have not yet read the first one, I can’t comment on the flow of the story but I think you can read the books independently.

click on the pic to read

The author clearly states in the introduction section that he has stuck to the original story and simply narrated it in his own style. This particular book narrates the story of people living way before Bharata who started the line of Pandavas and Kauravas.

The book is divided into 9 pakshas or parts. I have read only 3 parts yet and am going to start the fourth. This book is about Bhishma and his vow of celibacy and to be a protector of the throne. And, how it leads to Mahabharata.

The goal of the book is to show how did the earlier events culminate into the ultimate war. It depicts The Butterfly Effect – a single event can cause a reaction in the chain of consequent events. When some great event is going to happen, things start falling in place much before the immediate people who affect or get affected by the event are even born.

As I said I have not yet read the entire book, I can only say that I have liked the book so far. The author has an easy way of writing and he mentions the philosophy involved in the dialogs very clearly. But, yes, you would need time to read the book. It is not one of the light and easy reads.

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Sexy @ Sixty {Book Review}

Published on August 19, 2012 by Swati 6 Comments

Overview of the Book

Sexy at Sixty. Is that possible? Namita Jain, the prestigious wellness expert, shows you how in Sexy @ Sixty, which is a celebration of this wondrous phase in your life. She aims to make it even more wonderful by giving you enough ammunition, in the form of many helpful tips on lifestyle, food, exercise and staying positive, to slay the bugbears that threaten to rain on your parade. Aimed at the modern not so young man or woman, the book is full of practical, easy to understand information:

Tables showing you the exact calorie count of your meals.
Illustrations for safe ways to exercise, whether by gentle stretches or strength training.
Chapters on how to tackle everything from skin care and weight gain to stress, arthritis and diabetes.
Easy to follow explanations for menopause or prostate issues.

My Review of the Book
To start off, I would like to say this is a book which will urgently make you go and exercise!! Yes, it really gives that feeling of urgency, written in a fun and very compelling way. I have never read any health books prior to this one and I beg ignorance about the author, Namita Jain, but apparently she is very famous and has authored quite a few books before this.

The book as the title suggests is aimed at middle-aged people. BUT, why am I suggesting this book is because an early start would only do you good. Namita talks about exercise and diet throughout the book and she outlines how the combination of two can protect your body from the numerous health risks which attack people above 30-35.

chapters covered

She covers all topics from menopause and prostrate to diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart issues, osteoperosis, arthritis, stress and also about Postures. I would have definitely loved if she had taken some of the topics in more detail but I think she meant the book to only be an introduction. The starting chapter of the book deals with the question that whether you are a couch potato or not?

which activity burns how many calories!

Can you climb up three flight of steps without gasping for breath? Do you sleep well? Do you wake up most mornings looking forward to the day? Do you go for a walk, visit the gym, play a sport or engage in some other energetic activity at least thrice a week? Do you eat wholesome, nutritious food? Do you relax and take time out without feeling stressed?

If you answered a ‘yes’ to most questions, it means you lead a fit life. And, if no, you need this book. Oh, I also forgot to mention that she provides some substitute recipes for high-calorie foods. Yes, the book did make me count the calories whenever I ate anything 🙁 But, the author is very practical and realizes that today’s lifestyle is different and mentions various things in a way which will sit well with our routine. For example,

If you are going for a party, take a light healthy snack before leaving. If you are dining out, order a clear soup and some salads to fill you up and prevent binging. If going for shopping, never go on empty-stomach. That makes you pick up cookies and indulgences which you would otherwise avoid.

calorie count of foods

And, that’s really true!! Happens with me. She gives a lot of exercise tips and also illustrates various yogasanas which are easy for people of 35-50 to do. She also mentions what shouldn’t be done. And, finally finishes off with chapters dealing with a well-balanced diet and colors on the plate and talks about surgeries like liposuction and tummy tucks and whether they are worth pursuing or not. The best part of the book is that it talks about weight loss being essential for health and not just looks. Many examples have also been given throughout the course of the book which makes it more relate-able.

Availability
You can buy the book here on Flipkart.com
Price – Rs 164 (18% Off)

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