Title:

This book garnered a lot of attention after it was nominated as Notable Book for 2011 by New York Times. Not to say the cover art is so enchanting, I kept staring at before I would dig into the book.

The Leftovers refers to the people left behind on this earth when one fine day, all of a sudden, some people disappear in what is termed as ‘The Sudden Departure’. Amongst the leftovers, some believe this is an act of God where he chose the people who believed in him and took them to a better world, leaving the sinful souls behind to suffer and rot. Some dismiss it to say this was not about Christianity and try to find answers to the riddle.

There is a void, an unfilled gap in the lives of the leftovers and they struggle to accept the void and come to terms with their new life without their loved ones around. A middle aged woman loses her husband and her kids in the Sudden Departure and finds it difficult to move on in her life and finds herself hoping that they might turn up one day, just like how they disappeared.

The book starts with a bang and draws you in instantaneously. The basic concept of the Departure is so intriguing, you want to read on to see what the author does with this brilliant idea. The concept of G.R.  (a group of leftovers who give up speech and maintain silence in an attempt to say there is something wrong with the world and the people that are left behind) is another idea which makes you ponder. Sadly, the book fails to keep up the intriguing factor and loses momentum and after a point of time, it becomes yet another book of the dull lives of people, middle-age crisis and extra marital affairs. The characters who evoked sympathy and dread in you in the initial part, fail to touch your heart in the latter half. Laura’s character comes across as such a strong one as a woman who does not lose any immediate family member, but sees her friend lose her daughter, but the character is not used well in the second half.

The writing is beautiful and the characters are interesting, but this applies only to the first half of the book. Somewhere down the line, the author fumbles to make his point and tell his story.

If you are looking for an answer to the riddle of where the people went, then you will not find that in the book. That is not the point of this book anyway. It is a decent read overall, but I was disappointed with how the author treated his idea.

This challenge is hosted by Bookish Ardour and is just what I need. I have so many books on my shelf which I bought on a whim and never bothered to read. The point of this challenge is to read all those books which are gathering dust. I aim for the Tempted level -5 books.

Tea and Books Reading Challenge

This challenge has two things I love: books and tea. The idea is to read any book which has more than 700 pages. Oh, well. I am faint hearted, so I aim for Chamomile Lover – 2 books. I am thinking Seth’s A Suitable Boy will definitely be read as part of this challenge.

Outdo Yourself Challenge

The challenge is to read more books in 2012 than I did in 2011. I read a  meager 26 books in 2011. I am sure I can do way better than that. I aim for Out of Breath which requires me to read 6-10 books more than what I did in 2011, a total of 32-36 books.

Regional Books Challenge

This is a self imposed challenge in which I want to read atleast 2 Kannada books.

• Nordic Challenge
  Challenge: 3-5 books
  Read: 3 books

I took this challenge mainly because I was so ignorant of the books coming from this beautiful region. I discovered a beautiful book (Sophie’s World) and a wonderful author (Henning Mankell).

• Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge
  Challenge: 3
  Read: 3

I am so happy I took up this challenge. I discovered such a great author. I absolutely loved After Dark, but the other two books were a disappointment. I will definitely read more from this author.

• New Authors Reading Challenge
  Challenge: 15
  Read: 15

Read a few new authors, some were great, some were not.

• Seconds Challenge
  Challenge: 3
  Read: 3

I gave Gabriel García Márquez and Amitava Ghosh a second chance as part of this challenge. I could not read Márquez’s A Hundred Years of Solitude, but A News of a Kidnapping was a surprisingly good read. On the other hand, Ghosh disappointed me further with his A Circle of Reason.

• 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
  Challenge: 5
  Read: 1

Disappointing. Both the challenge and the book I read as part of this challenge.

• TBR Challenge
  Challenge: 12
  Read: 3

I finally read 3 books that I had wanted to read from a long time. An interesting thing to note is I did not like any of them. That should say something about my TBR list, huh?
I have decided what challenges I will be taking up in the coming year. Sign up post coming soon.

1. Best Book: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder and The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2. Worst  Book: Many contenders for this category, but I will settle with Truly, Madly, Deeply by Faraaz Kazi
   
3. Most Disappointing Book:Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami comes a close second.
4. Most Surprising (in a good way) Book: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
   
5. Book You Recommended the Most to People: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder 
6. Best Series You Discovered: Wallander Series  by Henning Mankell
   
7. Favourite New Authors Discovered:Haruki Murakami, Henning Mankell
8. Most Hilarious Read: I have not read a single humorous book in 2012. Shocking!
9. Most Thrilling Unputdownable Read: Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
   
10. Books You Most Anticipated: None
11. Favourite Cover of a Book You Read:Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik
12. Most Memorable Character: Inspector Wallander
13. Most Beautifully Written Book: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
14. Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
    
15. Book You Can’t Believe You Waited Until 2011 to Read: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Title: Disappear
Writers : Talitha Stevenson
Published: 2010
Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 2 on 5

The only reason I picked up this book is its attractive cover art. There is something about this hardbound book with its colorful tiny dots on a black background that made me grab it from the shelf. I had heard neither of the book nor the author, so I did not know what to expect.

Disappear is about Charlie and Leila who are recently  married, but Leila finds herself asking a divorce from her husband after revealing that she is pregnant. To salvage their marriage, Charlie takes Leila on a trip to his native land, Spain, where Leila catches him kissing another woman. Leila to decides to leave Charlie and ends up at her estranged sister, Kate. The rest of the book is about the sisters relationship and how Leila comes to term with her new life.

With books like these, characters play a very important role of pulling the reader in to become part of the story. The characters should tug at the reader’s heart or bring tears in the eyes or make the reader loathe them. Sadly, none of the characters are strong enough for the reader to grow an attachment with them. Leila is probably the weakest protagonist I have seen. She appears bland. I never got a hang of her personality, so I could not feel what she was feeling. Even Charlie’s intentions are not clear: does he want to live with her or does he want a divorce too? One character which has a bit of life is Kate’s but even that character is complicated enough.

I found the writing style not that engaging. The story moves in a smooth fashion, but the writing could have been better. And the same point applies to the characters too. The ending is intentionally kept inconclusive, which does work. If only Leila had a stronger personality so that I could feel what she was going through.

Next time I am lured by an attractive book cover, I should remind myself of the saying ‘Do not judge a book by its cover’.

Title: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Original Writer (Japanese) : Haruki Murakami
Translated to English by: Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel
Published in English: 2006
Genre: Fiction, short stories
My Rating: 2 on 5

I feel writing a short story is much harder than writing a full-fledged novel. The writer has to tell a story, etch his characters, convey his emotions and opinions in a limited number of words. I am in awe of writers who are great at short stories. I picked up Murakami’s short story collection with a lot of expectation, hoping that someone who can write about such a surreal atmosphere in After Dark, he can definitely write great short stories.

Most of the stories (if not all) have this element of being surreal, out of the world, some implausible element which adds to the mystery of the book. It could be the blind willows or the gigantic wave which gobbles up a boy, there is one such element which makes you wonder what this is all about. I really liked some of the short stories, but for the most part, I found the story either confusing or making me wonder ‘Is that it? That is the end?’ or simply disappointing.

I found the stories to be too short, for my taste. By the time the author sets a tone and you get to know the character, the story ends leaving you hanging in mid-air. I wish Murakami had aimed for slightly longer stories – in short encapsulating a whole novel in a short story. I find Archer’s earlier collections like A Twist in the Tale or Alice Munro’s Runaway to be perfect examples of what I am referring to. The stories are long enough for the writer to etch stronger characters and for the reader to get into the story and when it ends, it is a good ending with both the writer and the reader having complete satisfaction of doing something worthwhile.

Title: That Long Silence
Writers : Shashi Deshpande
Published: 2008
Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 2 on 5

I picked up this book as a way to allay my guilty feeling for not reading enough Indian authors. Shashi Deshpande ranks high in the list of top Indian authors, so it was natural to pick up one of her books.

That Long Silence is the story of Jaya, a housewife and mother to two teenaged children and is a writer in her free time. Jaya’s life resembles any typical Indian housewife, compromising for family needs, putting family before oneself, suffering silently, until she gets a jolt when her husband is fired from his work with charges of fraud. Her life turns upside down when her husband ‘the tree which gives shelter’ is no longer the bread earner of the family and they have to live with the shame of the charges and move on with their life. Jaya tells us stories about her cousins, parents, aunts and grandparents and we see how Jaya has evolved through her life.

The main problem I had with the book is its narration. The tone is sloppy, weak and not engaging and the writer jumps from past to present to future which makes you go dizzy. For someone who is left with ‘that long silence’, the conversation should have been deeper and more philosophical, but it sounds like Jaya is nervously reciting from a paper in front of a packed audience. The writer failed to evoke any emotions in me for the main protagonist, which was what the book needed the most. The rest was a downhill journey. The convoluted sentences and bad choice of words makes this book a difficult read. Do we Indians try hard to sound like foreign authors or are we so bad with English that we can’t write well? The characters are lifeless and do not deserve the readers’ time.

I am disappointed that my first attempt at reading more local authors was such a failure. I don’t want to be deterred by this, so I am going to read other authors or other recommended books of the same author. If you have read a good book by any Indian author, do suggest some.

I read my share of non-fiction and literary fiction, but what got me started as a serious book reader was murder mystery or thrillers. No matter how heavy a book I am reading, give me a thriller any day and I am happy. I can’t read them too many in a row, but they are great as fillers and act as brain bleach when you are done with a heavy read and don’t have the energy to pick another similar book. They go fast, you don’t need to think too much about them and they satisfy your curiosity of ‘what next’.

Just One Look is one such book. It is about Grace Lawson who finds a strange, old photograph of her husband along with her recently developed vacation photos. She is puzzled how such an old photo got into her pile and on confronting her husband, gets an extreme reaction from him which ends with her husband leaving the house in the middle of the night. When he does not return for some days, she suspects something is fishy and launches a full fledged search for her husband. What starts off as an innocent search turns messy and she discovers many buried secrets, some related to her husband, and some of her own.

Coben creates a very strong plot and the suspense is set in from the word go. He creates an interesting protagonist in Grace and creates a tale for her which becomes entangled with the main track and we readers know nothing is as innocent as it looks. Eric Wu comes across as a devil and just reading about him gave me shivers some times.

The best part about the book is it is a page-turner, what every mystery novel should be. You don’t want to put the book down until you know why things are they way they are. Easy language, not many distractions from the main plot and fast pace makes this book one quick read.

The plot gets thicker as we read and somewhere Coben loses the grip and the story appears muddled. The main motive behind the crime remains unjustified or not satisfactorily enough. When the built-up suspense is so high and many questions are raised, the climax needs to be dramatic, but the book ends somewhat abruptly and leaves you with a bitter taste, making you wish the author had tied the ends in a better way. It is a good read nevertheless. If you need a filler, this is a good one.

Title: India in Slow Motion
Writers : Mark Tully and Gillian Wright
Published: 2003
Genre: Non-Fiction
My Rating: 4 on 5

Mark Tully is a name that is often taken in my circle of readers. Considering how much I knew about the author, it was a shame I had never read his books. To set that right, I picked up the most easily available book and that turned out to be India in Slow Motion.

Tully is a British journalist who treats India his second home. This book is a collection of his essays and stories when he was in India and covers diverse topics like farmer suicides in Maharashtra to child labour in the north. The story I liked the most is the Tehelka scam that rocked the NDA government. Tully gives us detailed insight into the world of investigative journalism. It is easy for us audience to watch the Tehelka scam unfold and the recorded footage on TV. What goes on behind the scenes is an interesting story in itself. Tully interviews the key man behind the Tehelka scam and reveals us the background story behind the scam. I never realized journalists are risking their lives in earning a breaking news. The story on Indira Gandhi and the making of V.P. Singh was an engaging one for me. I had never known V.P. Singh this close! The story on child labour and farmer suicides tugged at my heart.  The theme that runs across the book is that India lacks good governance. Tully picks up many stories to bring across this issue.

It is interesting to see India through Tully’s eyes. What I love about this man is his unbiased view of the country. He is not prejudiced, unlike some foreigners I know, about the pathetic public transport system or the dirty toilets. It does not mean that Tully doesn’t complain. He does complain and rants about the conditions in India, but when he does that, he comes across as one of our own people. You don’t hear a foreigner’s tone, but an Indian’s, which makes all the difference.

Title:

Regular readers of this blog know that I have signed up for Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge and I read my first Murakami book After Dark as part of this challenge and also that I was thoroughly impressed with the book. Ever since I read that book, I have been itching to lay my hands on any of the other Murakami books and it was only natural that I chose one of his most popular books, Norwegian Wood.

Norwegian Wood is about Toru Watanabe and Naoko who are bound together by the death of a common friend, Kizuki. Toru learns to deal with the grief of his best friend whereas Naoko becomes emotionally unstable after her boyfriend’s death. Toru continues his study at the college and Naoko goes to a sanatorium to deal with her emotional instability. Toru has his group of friends and goes on with his life and continues to exchange letters with Naoko. Their relationship is uncertain and strange because they act like lovers but neither wants to admit it.

The trouble with reading a popular book is you would have built high expectations before you even read the first word. If the book turns out to be good, then all is well, but in my case, more often than not, a popular book fails to impress me. Sadly, Norwegian Wood falls under the second category. The book has this monotonous voice which is depressing, which is right considering this book is about dealing with death and grief, but what irritates me is how the characters behave sometimes. Toru and Naoko and the other characters are in their late teens or early twenties and they act as if they know the world and give out intellectual insights which make me cringe.

I am not sure if it’s the original text or the translation, but the writing is really poor and amateur. There are places where you want to tell the writer, forget what she is wearing and move on with the story already! Toru and Naoko are supposed to be having a very intimate conversation when Toru visits the sanatorium. He is seeing her for the first time after she vanished a couple of months back and he really wants to know how she is doing emotionally. When the scene has this emotional momentum going, does it really matter whether Naoko slid the clip off her hair or if she transferred it from the right hand to the left? The captivating, surreal tone which I liked the most about After Dark is non-existent in Norwegian Wood. Both the books are so different, it makes me wonder if they really have the same author. If I hadn’t known this was a Murakami book, I would have never guessed!

The ending is very predictable and left me wondering what the point of the book was. This vaguely reminds me of Catcher in the Rye, another over-hyped book which I just could not stand. There might be a message hidden for me underneath: do not read popular books! I plan to pick up The Hard-boiled Wonderland and End of the World next.