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Short notes on Books i read in 2008 (25 in total)

FICTION

Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Salman Rushdie
Entertaining read. But somehow I kept losing interest in the book, did not find it gripping enough. I am not much of a fairy tales guy.

Full Moon
PGW
Very good Blandings story.

Road
Cormac McCarthy
Pulitzer price winning book set up in a dsytopian landscape where the world has been destroyed due to some reason and people have resorted to cannibalism to survive. The story is of a father and his son's trek along the country to reach a safe place. I did not find it compelling enough, it would have been good as a short story of say 50-100 pages but nothing to keep the interest sustained for 250 pages.

Vengeance
George Jonas
Did not realise that Munich by Spielberg was based on a book. Just came across this in BCL. Started off well but gets a bit repetitive and the writer seemed to have lost interest in the later stages of the book just as Avner lost interest in killing.

Train to Pakistan
Khushwant Singh
A great book set during Partition. A must-read

Different Seasons
Stephen King
A collection of 4 of his famous novellas - The Body (made into a critically and commercially acclaimed movie - Stand by Me), Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (made into Shawshank Redemption), the Breathing Method and Apt Pupil (made into Apt Pupil). Though Apt Pupil was the weakest movie of the lot, the book was the best of the above 4, they messed up the movie towards the end.

Green Mile
Stephen King
A long but compelling book. Different from the usual Stephen Kings, mysterious and magical.

Q&A
Vikas Swarup
A very entertaining read. Thought it great for a movie as it has indeed turned out (Slumdog Millionaire)

Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
Loved the book. Very dark and brooding, thought the writing to be quite modern and seems to have dated well.

Unnatural Causes
PD James
Adam Dalgliesh investigates a murder in his aunt's country village. Though these PD James' seems more recent, somehow I found the investigation and unfolding of the suspense too sudden and not logical.

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
PD James
My first PD James. Good characterisation, a refreshing break from Agatha Christie

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler
A famous noir book and movie. Liked the dialogue and the style. However the actual uncovering of the suspense at the end seemed forced.

Moon and Sixpence
Somerset Maugham
Ideally one should read this wonderful book when one is in his early twenties, it is more relevant. The summary of the book is in this line from the book "a man is not what we wants to be, but what has to be"

A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Mohd. Hanif
A good satire of Pakistan politics. I don't think a similar book on Indian politics would have been possible.

Very good Jeeves
PGW
One of the earlier PGWs which are usually a notch better than the post-50s books

Never let me go
Kazuo Ishiguro
A charming but haunting, sci-fi/dystopian book on cloned babies, organ donation etc.

Motherhood, the second oldest profession
Erma Bombeck
Was running out of books to read in Hyderabad on holiday. Picked it up at my favourite used book store there. Meant more women actually. Some parts are good but gets trite after a point

Tell No One
Harlan Coben
Heard about the French movie which was a big critical and commerical success last year. It was actually based on this American thriller. Completed in a day, an absolute page-turner.

Blandings Castle
PGW
Short stories of important background events at Blandings Castle - how Freddie gets married, how Empress wins the Silver at Shropshire etc.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole 13 3/4
Sue Townsend
I don't like to give up books. I had dropped this once in IIM. I picked it up to finish it again. Again, to be read, when a teenager or just out it. But still a fun read.

NON-FICTION

The Art of Captaincy
Mike Brearley
Considered to be a classic. I thought it was an over-rated bore.

Conversations with Javed Akhtar
Nasreen Munni Kabir
Very interesting book structured like an interview.

Life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Bill Bryson
Easily one of my best books of the year, a really funny book after quite some time from Bryson.

The Mughal World
Abraham Eraly A guide to the lives of the kings and subjects during the Mughal times.

India after Gandhi
Ramachandra Guha
Detailed review on this blog below.

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