Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

To The Lighthouse [1927] By Virginia Woolfe  (188 pages from the Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 4/5  Genres : classics, human relationships  This book is termed the 15th among the 100 best novels of the 20th century. This plot showcases the complexities of human relationships through interactions among the members of a Ramsay family and guests at their home. Father and mother, Mr and Mrs Ramsay, have their own quirks and marital problems which are laid bare to the reader through someone making an observation but the irregularities are smoothed out through compromise and a burst of love, duty and responsibility.  Mr. Ramsay is a tyrannical and authoritative parent who is needy and desirous of appreciation to his work which he fears doesn't amount to much in the world. He demands sympathy from his wife and others and he usually gets what he wants. He is a rambunctious person whom his children James and Cam (among others) hate the most and they dislike his m...

The Lady in the Lake [1943] By Raymond Chandler 233 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating  4/5  Genres : Mystery, Fiction, Hardboiled, Noir. A rich man engages Philip Marlowe to figure the whereabouts of his missing wife. She had gone missing a month ago and had sent a wire saying that she was getting married to someone. The man denies any such arrangement and this has the husband worried about the welfare of his wife. After Marlowe takes up the case, he uncovers another case linked to this in which a neighbor's wife has also gone missing the same day as the rich man's wife. A dead body is recovered from the lake near the cabin and the very next day, more dead bodies turn up. Key people linked with the case start getting murdered and who has the most to gain from this? Or is this all linked to covering up some past history? A game being played by two ex lovers endangering many lives?  I love whodunit and hardboiled noir fiction very much. Though there are witt...

Laughter in the Dark [1932] By Vladimir Nabokov  184 pages [Kindle Digital Edition] Rating: 5/5  Genres: Tragedy, Classics, Fiction  A happy family unit. A rich man interested in making art and theater, his homely wife and lovely daughter. All this torn up by a sulky, self centered and frivolous young mistress and her lover. Nabokov is a master at creating scary scenes tinged with intrigue. I kept turning pages towards the end to get the bottom of what might happen ... and it ended up as a laughter in the dark...who is laughing and at whom? For what purpose?  Albinus is a rich man who have been married long time to a woman he loved and with a lovely daughter. One day he sees a young girl and falls deep in trance about her. He courts her, gives her little gifts and makes her his mistress. She is a frivolous little thing. Not serious about life but wanting him to divorce his wife and marry her...into this picture enters her former lover who once cheated her...

The Three Body Problem [2008] By Cixin Liu  Winner of Hugo Award 2008  399 PAGES (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 5/5👍 GENRES: Fiction, Hard core, Aliens, Dystopian. Not the usual kind of scifi novel. There are plenty of different elements thrown into the mix. I am at a loss of words on what and how to describe what I just read. Aliens are invited to invade planet Earth by a notable scientist who thinks their invasion would solve the crisises humans have been unable to solve for themselves. There cannot be a more naive assumption. As it is proved in the book, the intentions of the aliens for invasion turn out to be purely malignant and selfish in nature. Anyways, as mentioned, though that is the crux of the plot, it is also just one aspect of it.  The Three Body game which introduces the world of aliens called the Trisolaris is just amazing. . .no other words. Though it is a game that is played wearing a V suit and head helmet to experience the world and its c...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [1962] By Ken Kesey  Rating 5/5  321 pages [Kindle Digital Edition] Genres : classics, mental health, psych ward. The ending is an absolute gut punch. I didn't see it coming. I didn't expect this to cause such an emotional stir within. I guess somewhere along the line, like all the acutes on the ward, we fall in love with McMurphy. He has become One of my absolute all time favorites!! 💗 Totally, totally love the character of McMurphy!  He has taught me something valuable by his way of being himself even in face of adversity. Being tough meaning to be able to see funny side of things .. even in those that are painful and unbearable.  But sadly, I don't see nothing funny in the ending to this book. It is too unfair and traumatic. Did the author intend to make the reader have an painful reading experience? Leaving them in tatters and tears?  Every page from the start till the end was filled with fear and curiosity ....

 Elektra by Jennifer Saint   Rating: 5/5 👩  Genres: Ancient Greece, Retelling, Mythology, Trojan War, Historical Fiction.  The endless obsession with the events preceding, happening during and following the great Trojan War .. another jewel added to the trove .. many great writers like Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood etc already espousing the causes of women of the Trojan story .. here,  Jennifer Saint gives voice to not one but three women and shows us the war and its aftermath from the angle of womem associated with Agamemnon. One of them is his wife Clytemnestra who is bent on avenging her daughter's death, the second is his daughter who is bent on avenging her father's murder and the third is mad Trojan princess Cassandra whom he takes for his war spoil.   Agamemnon rallies every fighting age and capable youth from the lands of Greece to fight against Troy when Helen eloped with Paris causing intense disrepute to her husband and Agame...

The Lathe of Heaven (1971) By Ursula le Guin  Hugo and Nebula Awards W inner  Rating : 5/5 🎉 196 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Science Fiction,  Fantasy, Classics, 2022-read. Wow. What did I just read? This is a close your eyes and give it the best rating there is kind of a read. I haven't found myself so engrossed in a while. I couldn't put the book down. Found myself getting up early in the morning and reading to find out what comes next. Great stuff! 🥂 This also brought to mind another book I read recently which is along the lines of altering reality .. Recursion by Blake Crouch .. though in Recursion, where technology is used to navigate between different lines of reality of existence .. in this book, it is the fantasy of a man's dreaming that gets the state of reality altered between different lines. And someone even tries to apply that through technology and it backfires big time!  I liked Recursion but I just love The Lathe ...

The Testaments [2019] By Margaret Atwood  Winner of Booker Prize 2019 🎉🎯 Rating : 5/5 🤓 350 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Hypothetical Fiction, Dystopian future, Booker Prize, Fiction, 2022-read  This book is a sequel to Atwood's The Handmaids Tale [1985] written 35 years ago and it was/is one of the best dystopian books ever written. It is also one of her best books till date. It has made huge splash waves as a TV series too. 🤘  For crying out loud, this book is too damn good! Like a trickle of never ending water, Atwood keeps throwing humorous witticisms and mind blowing philosophical insights at the reader .. while wondering if there will ever be a reader .. lol, her books not having an audience?! In what world, pray tell me?  😝 Hmm .. Atwood has become my newest favorite author. No one and no incident escapes her critical eye. I was shaking with laughter at her silent, biting remarks through out the book .. which never missed...

Carmilla  By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu  Rating 5/5 🔮 80 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Horror,  Gothic, Mystery, Vampire.🎉🎯 Have to read this book with the era and time it was published in mind. I had to go back to that period in question and see the impact it has made. Or else it will wither in comparison to the Bram Stoker's Dracula .. which is along the very same lines and probably sheds more light on the subject in terms of story depth, horror content and description on vampires.  A young girl is taken under the care of a old man and his daughter when her mother has to go on a expedition on which her tenuous and fragile daughter cannot accompany. In the castle, the daughter and the new girl Carmilla become quick friends. Even though the daughter notices many discrepancies with the new girl, she keeps them to herself. Strange disease which kills people a few days after onset starts making rounds in this are round about that same time. M...