Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

Absalom, Absalom!  By William Faulkner  Rating 4/5 Genres: Drama, classics, 2021-read, non linear story telling  This is the first book I have read by William Faulkner and its non linear story telling kept me hooked through out its rather simple  plot. He gives a gist of what had happened in the past and slowly unravels the whys, the whens and the where's by going back from the present into the past opening a window there, closing a window here and so forth. It got a bit tricky to keep track of what point in time he is referring to and who the characters in the context are. To put it mildly, it is a bit challenging of a novel which required occasional back and forth in reading also. He says something and the details or explanation to it come later..so one has to hold on to reading and it all becomes clear eventually.  This book tells the story of the family  of a fictitious Thomas Sutpen narrated by a young man Quentin Compson who got it from multiple sources like his g

 The House of the Spirits By Isabel Allende  Rating 5/5  Genres : Magical Realism,  Drama, Romance, Politics, Fantasy  In some 400 odd pages, the author covers the life history and important events of three generations of the Trueba and Del Valle families. The plot is just awesome and the prose style is magical and very mesmerizing. I just got sucked into the surreal and eccentric world of Clara Esteban who is a dreamy character conversing with spirits and with her head lost in the clouds and wild imagination.  Esteban Trueba is a practical young man who falls head over heels in love with an angelic looking woman Rosa del valle. But before they could get married, Rosa dies in a tragic accident. This breaks Esteban's heart  and he devotes himself completely to the task of repairing his land and setting it up into a successful business center. To quench his sexual appetites, he occasionally turns into a monster ravaging the worker and peasant girls on his farm and when th

House of Leaves  By Mark Z. Danielezski  Rating 5/5  Genres : Horror, Mystery, Gothic, Drama  The structure of the book is very different. At times I had to remind myself that this is only a work of fiction. It tells a scientific expedition by a group of people along side with foot notes taken from journals, research papers and puts forth different sets of arguments for and against the events and the participants' reactions to them.  Some readers said this is a horror story while some felt it is a love story. I guess I will lean more towards the horror and mystery side than love although their is some deep realization and self sacrifice in the name of true love in the story.  It is very engrossing and I couldn't put it down trying to make out what it all amounts to in the end. I guess the end is a mystery to me although there are some opinions and theories put forth in the unraveling of the plot.  An old man Zampano who leads the life of a recluse dies and leaves be

The Memoirs of Cleopatra By Margaret George Rating 5/5 Genres : Historical fiction, ancient egypt, Cleopatra, Julius Ceasar,  Marc Antony, Octavianus Caesar It is little secret that I am obsessed with famous personages from Egypt. Starting with the notorious Akhenaten, Nefertiti and to Cleopatra, I never tire of reading different versions of their histories by different interpreters. Like all historical fiction based on actual living person from the past, this book is part fiction and part factual. But on the whole, it is very engrossing and gripping.  I took much longer to finish this than other books but I was savoring every part of its sweetness and mystique of Egypt it contained. Julius Ceasar and Marc Antony are two roman generals and leaders who fall completely and desperately in love with the mighty queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.  She was very young when her mother died and her father is not strong in character - being depicted as a dionysian with exuberant and unbr