Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 The Mayor of Casterbridge  By Thomas Hardy  Published Year: 1886 Page Count: 385 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Classics, Drama, Romance,Mortality, morality, 2025-read.  Rating : 4/5  Though this book was written in the late 19th century, reading it didn't feel unsettling or displaced in time for me. Most of the sentiments and fears that prevailed during that time, apparently, still remain. Someone feeling unspeakable guilt at their rash action, someone fearing the release of secret love letters to their husband, someone feeling unworthy of life when left alone in this world.. I can connect with all these sentiments. The world of Thomas Hardy's books welcomes me like bee to a honey pot.  I like the simple innocence of the characters and the bucolic nature of the surroundings. The writing is medium paced and prose felt a bit boring at times, with many extraneous descriptions, I felt, but there were no digressions. The character development...

 Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds  By Brandon Sanderson  Published Year: 2018 Page Count: 340 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Science Fiction, Mental Illness, Schizophrenia, Hallucinations, Adventure, Virtual Reality, 2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Very compelling till the end. This book comprises the three Legion novellas of Brandon Sanderson. While the first two deal with cases that Stephen Leeds handles as an expert detective, the last one deals in how he becomes free of his hallucinations and gets to that point. And what does it mean to be free of hallucinations ? Does it mean putting them in a container and not looking ? Or setting them free and trying not to control them, so whatever happens to them,remaining at peace and thereby, not becoming dependant on them?  Stephen Leeds is a super smart guy and one of the best known living detectives. But he is a schizoprenic. He hears voices in his head  and sees people who are not...

 The Shadow of the Gods  By John Gwynne  (The BloodSworn Saga #1)  Published Year: 2021 Page Count: 478 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : High Fantasy, Magic, Gods, Mythology, Gore, Adventure, 2025-read.  Rating : 4/5  (The cover pic is a bit misleading. In that there is no battle or challenge between a brave warrior and a giant snake or dragon in this part of the series) Very moving. Highly absorbing. I liked how despite being set in a fantasy world, this book could be related to a modern day society in our world. There is a lot of fighting and killing. There is a lot of blood letting and flesh eating. But despite it all, a fierce human element is emphasized and I loved it.  The narrative is set around three important characters - Varg, Elvar and Orka. Orka is on a hunt to find out her stolen son and avenge her husband's murder. Elvar is running away from her father who wants her wed to the Queen's son and keep her locked in a boring an...

 Tales of Troy and Greece  By Andrew Lang  Published Year: 1995 Page Count: 256 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Historical Fiction, Ancient Greece, Mythology, Pagan Gods, 2025-read. Rating : 5/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 All the tales are wonderfully recounted. In so vivid descriptions and medium paced narration. I never tire of reading about the stories of Ancient Greece or Ancient Egypt or those of great Mythological significance. These are all stories where bad is killed and won over by brave, courage and good. These are all stories of great adventure and inspire hope in the hearts of readers. Though not all what the gods do (the ancient pagan gods of Greece land) is just and right, at the end ,always good wins.   In this book, we read through the journey of Ulysses from his birth to the time he returns home to his wife and her numerous wooers thereby getting rid of them. I felt that the author didn't go too deep into the details and also didn't skip import...

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage  By Haruki Murakami  Published Year: 2013 Page Count: 310 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Contemporary Fiction, Coming of Age, Mental Trauma, Relationships, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.95/5 🙂 😎 😀 🙂 💫 Murakami brilliantly portrays how shocking and traumatic experiences can get carried over, for many years afterward, if they are not resolved. These have a devastating impact on the relationships and expectations of the person who suffered. The writing is simple and flowing. The pace of the novel is medium and hooks the reader right from the start. I have come to care for each of the characters in the story and not just the protagonist, Tsukuru Tazaki. He also shows what can happen once the person confronts his trauma, talks it out with the perpetrators and realizes that he is better off because of this. Loved the book. Highly recommend.  Tsukuru Tazaki is an introverted, well balanced student who drea...

Vicious  By V E Schwab  Published Year: 2013 Page Count : 340 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Science Fiction, Supernatural, 2024-read. Rating : 3.5/5   Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are pre-med students and roommates,friends. As part of their seminar, they have to choose a thesis topic. While Victor chooses adrenaline and its effects/causes, Eli chooses EOs (ExtraOrdinary people) startling the professor and other students alike. After studying several cases, he concludes that under specific circumstances, a person can become an EO. And those circumstances are near death experiences. The person must be in a near death situation but must also want to live desperately. So upon Victor's suggesting and monitoring, Eli makes a near death attempt. He becomes an EO. His special skill is self healing and regeneration. Because Eli has become an EO, Victor takes it as a challenge to become himself one. So he also becomes an EO - his skill, controlling pain. Aft...

 Gideon the Ninth  By Tamsin Muir  Published Year: 2019 Page Count: 448 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Action, Fantasy, Magic, Necromancers, Adventure, Murder Mystery, Suspense, Lesbian, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.75/5 🙂🙂🙂🙂🌟 Wow. The twists!! And wow wow wow .. the lies!! The deceptions ! Its exotic and steamy! Unputdownable. Highly Addictive. Been wanting to read this for a while now! The paperbacks being so expensive, I settled in for a Kindle experience. I am not disappointed. The lack of smut - which I expected/anticipated when I heard its lesbian fantasy - is such a relief. The tone of the narrator is serious throughout. I had some laugh out loud moments once or twice but that's it. One of the best fantasy book series ever!  I think it is the prose and writing style that I had to read this book real slow so as not to miss anything out. There is action in this book , necromancer magic, fantastic games and there are murders to solve and lyc...

 Tuesdays with Morrie  By Mitch Albom  Published Year: 1997 [ Doubleday Publishers ]  Page Count: 192 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Spirituality, Religion, Self Help, Death, Philosophy, 2024-read.  Rating: 5/5 🌟  Some authors write hundreds or thousands of pages to gain the same amount of traction this small book has achieved. It proves that content and writing style are much more important than the page count or adding senseless twists and turns.  This book, surprisingly, doesn't sound preachy. A young man and his dying, decaying teacher from youth, their enlightening and inspiring discussions over many topics like death, aging, love, meaning of life. I think more than the teaching points - which I mentioned below - the teacher's life story and his final days were more impactful.  Mitch finds out that his most favorite and much cherished professor from college is afflicted with ALS disease and is terminally ill. So he starts p...

 Americanah  By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  Published Year: 2013  Page Count: 477 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Identity, Race, Immigration, Nigeria, Blogger, Coming-of-age, Black People, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🌟 Everyone who regrets not having gone or not able to go to USA or Uk - for education or employment  -  should read this. Brilliant. Loved this book. An eye opener on multiple levels. Americanah refers to a person of Nigerian origin who having spent multiple years in USA, returns to their native country, changed in many ways. Having imbibed the American culture and thinking, they are no longer the same. The way they look at the buildings,political scenario, people change. Their perspectives, interests and habits change. They become more posh and snobbish even without really noticing it in themselves. My opinion is this happens not just to Nigerians or Indians, but to everyone who has traveled and experienced things ...

 The Body Scout  By Lincoln Michael  Published Year: 2021 Page Count: 291 pages  Medium Used : Kindle PW  Genre : Science Fiction, Cybernetics, Transgenic Creatures, Baseball, Dystopian Future, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.5/5 😀😀😀😀😇 I enjoyed reading this very much. I read it word for word and it felt extremely satisfying. I spent a week reading this under 300 pages book but it is good. The world building is awesome. Transported me into a world where near immortality through technology is achieved. Damaged and diseased organs, body parts are replaced with Cybernetics and laboratory constructed parts. Neanderthals are restored to life though their survival rate in a sapien's womb is very low. Transgenic creatures populate the world along with humans. Mind and pain killing, numbing drugs are available for peanuts in the market. It's a probable future universe where human clone and Astral system research is given heavy weightage, high priority, big money. ...

 The Passengers  By John Marrs  Published Year : 2019 Page Count: 400 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Scifi, Driverless Cars, Science and Technology, Thriller, Murder, Romance, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5 😀😀😀😀 Reading this is like watching an episode of Black Mirror TV series🤑. Overall, it's a regular revenge story with some interesting twists. The writing is good and kept me hooked. I slept light last night and whenever I woke up, I picked up this book to send me back to sleep😴. It's an easy read that also managed to put a technology scare in me. Especially about self driving cars of level 5 .. where the complete control goes to AI😨 🙀!!  This story is also an eye opener 🤔 to how much diligence is needed before governments can release and mandate the use of a certain technology for public use🤨. I have always maintained that there should be corporate or government regulating bodies for verification and validation of the claims of tech comp...