Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

 The Ten Thousand Doors of January  By Alex E. Harrow  Hugo Award Nominated book, Debut Novel   Published Year: 2019 Page Count: 347 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Multiverse, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic, Fiction, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.5/5 😀😀😀😀 This is a well written story. It is filled with endless adventures and lots of surprises. The main character is a young girl, January, who has lost her mother in an escapade when she was a child. She doesn't know, until much later, what has happened to her. Her father is a never present entity that works for a rich man as a rare artifact finder. She is raised, isolated and alone with her books and pet dog, Sindbad, in the house of her father's employer. This is what looks on the surface. But underneath, her father has unsuccessfully been searching, for seventeen years, for 'Doors' which would trace his path back to her mother.  There are Ten Thousand  Doors in this world where the resonance with other worlds is w

 My Name is Red  By Orhan Pamuk ( Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature) Published Year: 2001 Page Count: 415 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul, Paintings, Ottoman Empire, 16th Century, Drama, Murder Mystery, Romance, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 Something made me take reading this book way longer than my usual time. Its been over 10 days. But I have no regrets. I have savored every drop of this gorgeous nectar. The writing is simply superb. The prose is mesmerizing. This story comprises of a love story and a murder mystery. The writing transported me back to the time of ruling ottoman empire in Turkey. The story is narrated in first person point of view of various characters .. some of them living, some dead and some non living objects even.  Orhan pamuk is the second author from Turkey I have encountered in my reading.. the first being Elif Shafak whom I have come to adore. This writing is much superior and consists of thorough investigation of the ti

 Eclipse  (The Twilight Saga #3) By Stephenie Meyer  Published Year: 2007 Page Count : 560 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Teen Drama, Young Adult, Contemporary Fiction, Vampires, Werewolves, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🤣🤣🤣🤣 This is the second time I am reading this book. It must have been almost a half decade since my first reading. The last time, I gave this book only a 2 point rating. I definitely liked it more now. I consider myself more evolved and discerning, compared to 5 years ago.  The most notable and my favorite aspect about Stephenie Meyer's writing is how inclusive she is with all the characters. None of them are left out. She pulls all of them into the context and it gives a warm, big family feeling. I simply love this.  In this book, many things are happening in Bella's life. She is nearing graduation. Her time to applying for colleges is nearing and she gets accepted for a university in Alaska. She has mentally set a date for her transformation into a v

 Tell Me Everything  (AMGASH #5)  By Elizabeth Strout Published Year: 10 September 2024 Page Count: 300 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Contemporary Fiction, Drama, Murder Mystery, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5 The prose is so good and comforting. I couldn't put this book away for long. I picked the book because it is a recent release and the title felt immersive. Few pages into the book, I realized, that most of the characters have long histories and this is a book (5th!!) in a series. But I read it anyway and it could be read as a standalone as well.. only we will not have a complete picture of all the people and their interrelationships.  The three main characters are Olive Kittredge, Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess. There are multiple books each with these as the main characters, drawing up to this one. (I should check them out. I love the author already!) So, in this book, Bob Burgess and Lucy Barton are close friends and Bob nurses a secret crush on Lucy - despite being married

 The Devourers  By Indra Das  Published Year: 2015 [debut novel] Page Count: 327 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Supernatural, Werewolves, Shape-shifting, 2024-read.  Rating : 2/5  I wanted to read some good books by Indian authors, having just wrapped Tomb of Sand by Geethanjali Shree . This one really made me excited till a certain point. After about 40%, it just became obnoxiously nauseating. I mean .. I just wanted to fling my kindle to the wall and DNf. Yet,I persisted. I dont think I have gained anything from reading this book.  A total waste of time. Such rakshasas or half werewolves (with two halves of a split soul) who are immortal and can shape shift into their were wolf bodies cannot exist in reality right?  Some scenes are just so yuck and eww for me. Like exchanging half gorged, half chewed animal fat. Like the homosexual smut scenes between the human and the shape-shifting rakshasa. And the practice of their masters having sex with a newly born shape shifter so that

 Tomb of Sand  By Geethanjali Shree  Translated by Daisy Rockwell  Winner of English Pen Award, Winner of International Booker Prize 2022 . Published Year : 2021 Page Count: 735 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Drama, Historical fiction, India-Pakistan Partition, Humor, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5  Must read for all Indian bibliophiles. This book is a  celebration to what means being an Indian and unapologetic about it. Its really a heavy weight book .. not just in the number of pages but also the topics touched .. but it is delivered with such light hearted humor that felt is very impactful. It also sings an ode to the way things have turned out and are turning about every single day. Divisions between people. Loss of touch with ancient roots and customs. Modern generation and technology. No more joint family systems and even if there, the constant competition they are put into.  Loved the book thoroughly. The main character in the book is Ma. This is the story with most of the mai