Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

The Lost Apothecary  By Sarah Penner  Rating: a solid 5/5 Genres: Historical fiction, 18th century England, magical realism, awesome read, 2021-read, reviewed  My God! What an amazing book. I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I started on this one but I just couldn't put it down.  I usually read multiple books together but after I picked this one - I could focus only on this till I finished it! Its just very gripping!  This is a story of uncovering some mystical events that happened during the late 18th century in England with a fictitious female apothecary, Nella. She inherited and learnt her trade from her late mother who wanted her shop to be a rescue from women's maladies. When Nella is young, she is betrayed by a man and later when chance presents, she dispenses her medicine in heavy dose leading to his death. This starts her journey in which not only helping and healing the physical ailments of women, she also becomes the dispenser of poisonous potions

 2010 : Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke Genres: Science Fiction, Space travel, Aliens, human intelligence, artificial intelligence,2021-read,reviewed. Rating: 5/5   Awesome Read!! More than reading like fiction, it felt like I was reading a history book. Without going too much into every intricate detail, he has covered a lot of material. One of the worst fears I have in life is getting hopelessly lost in space. Although all the science fiction space related stories(like this one and project hail mary etc) eventually end on a note of success and hope, the stakes couldn't be higher in those challenging and harrowing situations for the astronauts should they arise in reality. It might all depend on the success of a minute calibration, ship orientation and it invariably is life or death with no in between. This book is a gripping read - as most/all Clarke's books are - which made me forget both time and number of pages read/left to read etc. :D  This book is a continuation to 2001

Valis  By Philip k. Dick  Rating: 4.75/5 Genres: Science fiction, suspense, thriller, good vs evil, theology, mental illness, insanity, novel plot, 2021-read, reviewed. Just like living things have an 'aura'  around them with which some could guess their health/well being, books also seem to have a kind of aura around them. If it's a book written by Philip k Dick, one can be assured that it has some element of surprise, novelty, drugs, madness and a promise of a fun ride. Valis is a pleasure to read.I ran through the pages with my eyes glued to my kindle. I couldn't put this book down. Philip Dick is one of the very established authors in the genre of science fiction but for the first 20-30 percent of the book , I wondered if he diverged into a memoir. Yet, his writing is so hilarious that on the one hand I was telling myself  'what a poor fellow this Horselover Fat( an alter ego of Philip, the narrator) is' and on the other hand laughing my head off

 Big Little Lies [2014] By Liane Moriarty  Genre: Suspense, Fiction, Drama, Contemporary, 2021-read,female-oriented, murder, mystery, reviewed  Rating : 3/5 This book is perfect example of what makes for good TV but poor reading. It's a strange relationship I had with it. I wanted to put it away and pick something else so bad but I couldn't bring myself to do so. Having watched the very successful TV series with the same name starring Nicole Kidman didn't help either. It is boring for the most part and only got remotely interesting towards the end. I was asking myself why the heck do I care about the personal lives of some small town people and try wrapping my head around their petty skirmishes, illicit affairs and even poke into some damning domestic violence? Also what is this book trying to convey? That it's ok for women to put up with domestic violence? Or is it ok for the abusing husband to be murdered?  It's a small town called Pirriwee in Australi