Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

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Book Review : Tomb Of Sand by Geethanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell

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

Book Review : Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman By Haruki Murakami (A Collection of Short Stories) Published Year: 2007(by Vintage) Page Count: 435 pages Medium Used: Paperback Genre: Mixed, Short Stories, 2024-read. Rating : 4/5 This book took me longer to read than expected .. perhaps because I was juggling it with other books as well. I wanted to read something by Murakami and went for this one because it only recently arrived in my mail box. Some of these stories .. which are magical, containing supernatural .. made me think and ponder a lot. For instance, a woman suddenly starts forgetting her name and how is it resolved without the help of western, omnipresent meds. A woman can't stop shoping for new clothes and what happens when her husband puts a stop to her unnatural addiction? And so on.. This book is a collection of selected short stories by Murakami. Some of them are small, some are big. Some have a twist .. in the form of an unexpected monkey or they are just explained away with a

Book Review : Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

Amsterdam by Ian McEwan Winner of Booker Prize 1998 Published Year: 1997 Page Count: 178 pages Medium Used: Paperback Genre: Drama, Domestic Fiction, Euthanasia, Booker Prize, 2024-read. Rating: 3/5 Some Spoilers ahead!! I don't know what it is - either the prose or the story itself - I found my mind wandering into a thousand different places, into a thousand different concepts while reading this book. I had to backtrack and re-read some sections. I can't comment on whether this book deserves a booker or not - it is different from the other books I read which have won the Booker. This book seems more moral based and nuanced. Two men - who both dated the same woman that is now dead from a mental deprivation - who also make a mutual pact to euthanize the other should a mental deprivation set in within themselves - actually go through it at the end!! I think they both harbored mutual hatred towards the end and killed each other in cold blood. They justified to each other tha

Book Review : Queen of Dreams by Chitra Divakaruni

Queen of Dreams By Chitra Divakaruni Published Year : 2004 Page Count: 307 pages Medium Used: Paperback Genre : Contemporary Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystical, Fiction, Drama, 2024-read. Rating : 4/5 👍👍👍👍 The main character, Rakhi, runs a confectionery store in California in 2001. She is also a vocational painter and sells her art at galleries. Since her childhood, she has tried to decipher her mother's enigmatic secrets and become more like her. Her mother has a talent of dream telling. She has the gift of dreaming on the behalf of others and helping them in the process. She tells them what steps to take and how to avoid mishaps in their way. Rakhi has coveted this gift but clearly she doesn't have it. Her father has always been a reclusive drinker who kept his distance and spent his time singing old hindi songs. Rakhi is divorced and has a very young daughter to care. Her friend, Belle, is sweet and very considerate of her needs. Belle is also her business partner

Book Review : The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K.Jemisin

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (INHERITANCE TRIOLOGY #1) by N.K.Jemisin Published Year: 2010 Page Count: 329 pages Medium Used: Kindle PW Genre: High Fantasy, Gods, Adventure, Drama, 2024-read. Rating : 4/5 🌟 😎 😀 🥰 I absolutely loved this. The writing is clear. I am drawn into her story like a moth to a flame. I start reading and find myself unable to stop. I think it will be easy to put it down but it won't. Jemisin writes like magic! And there is so much embedded within the lines .. a hallmark of her writing style i feel .. that I would read for a while and back it all up in memory before moving further. In my first reading, I didn't understand certain aspects of the story. I had many questions and I felt it is riddled with many holes. I thought the answers might be there in a Wikipedia summary section .. but I was only let down there. I spent much time in introspection and rehashing the different tidbits from memory. At last, most is clear to me .. almost 95 percent

Book Review : Children Of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Children of Memory (Children of Time #3) By Adrian Tchaikovsky Published Year: 2022 Page Count : 364 pages Medium Used : Kindle PW Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Evolution, Multicultural Species, Adventure, Drama, 2024-read. Rating : 5/5 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 With this read, I complete all the published books in the series, Children of Time . I adore the writing and the content put out by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I have turned one of his staunch supporters after reading this series. I like the way his mind works. This book like the former two have a common history to build upon. There is a stunning and shocking twist towards the climax which added a lot of sense in retrospect. Who are these children of memory? How can there be children from memory? Was that memory even real in the first place? Human beings haven't found intelligent life anywhere in their centuries spanning search. They decide to find and identify Earth like planets and then terraform them to make life feasible. Severa