28 November 2016

Review #563: The High Priestess Never Marries by Sharanya Manivannan



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”

----Robert A. Heinlein



Sharanya Manivannan, an Indian author, pens a heart touching, extremely gratifying and thoroughly thought provoking book of short stories, The High Priestess Never Marries, about love and marriage, Sharanya Manivannan where the author weaves stories, ranging from half a page length to almost 50 pages long, of independent women of today's century and also those who are not fearless to break free from the rules, all the while letting the readers to give wings to their hearts' desires over the values of the society.

Review #562: Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

---- Charlotte Bronte



Cecelia Ahern, the #1 international bestselling author, pens her new contemporary fiction, Lyrebird which reads like a breathy timeless romantic fantasy of music and love and it centers around a young male documentary filmmaker and a lonely exotic and wild girl of the mountains with a rare talent to mimic whatever sound she hears and when these two meet, both of their worlds and lives change for the good. A heart warming tale that is surely going to touch millions of hearts around the world.



Review #561: Mr. Eternity by Aaron Thier



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”

----Virginia Woolf



Aaron Thier, an American author, has penned a terrific and gripping tale of evolving American history through thousands of ages in his new book, Mr. Eternity centered around an almost thousand years old ancient mariner who has survived through various civilizations in American history and has witnessed the sociological and environmental changes of the planet, who is actually on a quest to search his lady love.


23 November 2016

Review #560: The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The unnatural and the strange have a perfume of their own”

----Fernando Pessoa



Stacey Lee, a Chinese-American author, pens a charming tale of young love and perfume in her new young adult book, The Secret of a Heart Note that revolves around a teenage perfume maker, who has a nose for each individual's scent and can customize that perfume into love elixir to make people fall in love with one another, but her magic comes with a price of never falling in love with anyone, but the girl desires of a normal life with a high school, boyfriend and social reputation.



22 November 2016

Review #559: The Waiting Room by Leah Kaminsky



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“We think there are limits to the dimensions of fear. Until we encounter the unknown. Then we can all feel boundless amounts of terror.”

----Peter Høeg



Leah Kaminsky, an award winning Australian author, has penned a terrific and extremely soul touching story in her debut book, The Waiting Room that revolves around a Jewish woman who is also a doctor living with her husband and son in Israel whose ordeal through out a single day after the warning about a possible bomb threat is strikingly captured by the author, as the woman whose deceased mother's ghost keeps haunting her about the days that she underwent during the Holocaust, and as her mother's voice runs through her head, her fear grips her completely, making her question her life in such an unsafe place.

Review #558: Reliance, Illinois by Mary Volmer



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have. Regardless of what man’s attitude may be, that problem is hers — and before it can be his, it is hers alone. She goes through the vale of death alone, each time a babe is born. As it is the right neither of man nor the state to coerce her into this ordeal, so it is her right to decide whether she will endure it.”

----Margaret Sanger



Mary Volmer, an American author, pens a well crafted as well as an enthralling historical fiction, Reliance, Illinois that centers around the life of a young teenage girl and her young unwed mother, who shifted from Kentucky to Reliance in order to get married to a wealthy bachelor, all the while addressing the little daughter with a birthmark covering half of her face, as the woman's little sister, grief-stricken by her mother's actions and the coldness by her mother's new family, the little girl takes shelter in the mansion of the town founder's daughter, who teach her a great deal about life women's life in the post-Civil war period, but dark secrets threaten to destroy the safe coccoon of happiness that the little girl built around her.

20 November 2016

Review #557: The Spy by Paulo Coelho, Zoë Perry (Translator)



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Death is nothing, nor life either, for that matter. To die, to sleep, to pass into nothingness, what does it matter? Everything is an illusion.”

----Mata Hari



Paulo Coelho, the international bestselling author, pens a gripping and part fictional tale on the life of a legendary dancer cum falsely accused as a spy, Mata Hari in his new novel, The Spy that opens with the execution of this exotic and talented dancer by the French, but then the author spins a riveting autobiographical account of the dancer's life through a fictional letter penned by the dancer herself addressing to her lawyer. She is an epitome of grace, individuality, extravagant lifestyle, exquisite and unique fashion style, independence and her erotic dance moves in the early 20th century in Paris.


Review #556: Immortal by Krishna Udayasankar



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.”

----William H. Gass



Krishna Udayasankar, an Indian bestselling author, pens an enlightening and highly thrilling part fantasy and part mythology book, Immortal that revolves around a cynical history professor, who has been walking on the Earth since the beginning of the time and will be walking till the end of the time, and his quest to find a historical and supposed to be extinct as well as mythical object with the help of his patient assistant and a mysterious young and beautiful woman, traveling across the borders and the seas.