Venkata Subramaniam Adisankara Tanikaburla (call me Venkat or VSAT) is your cliche kind of a next door guy with his own way of catchy-humour.

His friends are a ‘character’ of their own; Raj Malhotra, a typical Punjabi hot-shot who cares only about the female assets. And Aditya like Venkat belongs to Andhra Pradesh.

Life goes on as usual at the NIT, Kozhikode till Venkat falls in love with the college heartthrob, the good looking daughter of a retired Coorgi Colonel, Anjali. Eventually time passes and college gets over. All of them graduate and are thrown into a same company TCS (Tatas take care of you, Venkat’s father says).

In between the fight with the HRs of the company intensifies as the friends start calling nicknames of the executives when they are not given credit for a certain project. There are also some gay encounters thrown in as a boy named Swamy comes along to the scene; The son of a priest he fears his father and knows that his preferences would never be given ‘preference’. In the middle he dies in a freak drowning incident while a picnic and the writer does wants to make you care for him but the feelings doesn’t arise.

Being serious about their relation Venkat now has to face Anjali’s parents, a father who fancies B-school quizzers and the same old mother. They are won over easily; Glenfiddich for the father and a telephonic conversation for the mother. Anjali’s sister was all along with them and doesn’t require and coaxing. After a few heated encounters among the families they marry and live happily ever after.

The book is spread with numerous quotes from the Godfather which both the hero and his grandfather like very much. Laced with humour and funny incidents it’s quite a read (Raj calls up 911 in US when he wants to call his family back in India and the troopers give a visit). Anything more than 300 pages is a decent attempt for an Indian writer and it shows pretty much in the pages.

But churning out love-stories after love-stories (mostly based on campus) will always decry the fact that we have good authors in our kitty. Other the effort is quite good even the characters are a bit clichéd; the humour and Godfather saves the book.

I give ***1/2 to this effort.

The novel written by Kanika Dhillon’s writing style is part satire, part drama, part humour and part realism.The author weaves a story of Neki Brar, one among the millions who wants to make it big by being a filmmaker in Bollywood. Coming from a small town she falls prey to the dark creatures of the town. She falls in love with a second-lead while her co-workers steal her work and present them as their own. Months move on and she works hard but sometimes credit is given to her which she loses the next day. She gets pregnant and the some more ghosts are revealed until a time comes when she is standing on the roof of her apartment contemplating suicide!

Kanika tries to give us an inside look of the industry but not succeeds in the whole. The stories of Guru Dutt, Meena Kumari, Divya Bharati and now Silk Smitha are well known. Mixing pleasure with loss has been the forte of new-age writers and this one also carries that forward. In between the story you start feeling cheated as the synopsis and the cover are better than the storyline.

I recommend this book to only Bollywood aspirants. Others can give it a miss!

I give this one **1/2 for shattering my dreams.

George Washington Carver was a very interesting man who was born a slave, worked very hard to earn an education, was the first African-American graduate of Iowa State, and was a pioneer in the field of agricultural research at the Tuskegee Institute in the early 1900′s. Carver is mostly known for developing many uses for the peanut, but he was so much more than that. He helped develop many agricultural innovations all the while dedicating himself to the education and furtherance of his race.

It tells the story of a man who always had the urge for studying and worked very hard to make himself learned. It gives us inspiration and tells us about the PEANUT MAN. Not only the man found uses of peanut but also knew other things very well.

He was a devout Christian and blended the nature with religion and lived the result, his whole life. John Perry only gives an inside look of the man so well known. His life had its own highs and lows and it was tragic to hear about his death (He died after falling from the stairs). But his legacy continues even today.

The book is very well researched and written in accordance with the readers. I recommend this book to all book-lovers to be inspired by his humane persona.

I give the book **** for the inspiration that it provides.

A good horror novel, in my opinion, should also have a one-point agenda…it should scare you out of your wits. If it can’t, then its not worth the paper its printed on. By that yardstick, The Shining is worth its weight in gold.

From the very first page, the horror is magnified as we are seeing it from the eyes of a child. Without giving the plot away, lets just say that the slow agonising descent into one’s private hell and the climb back has never been better documented (save again in King’s Misery). The isolation, dread & suspense is leveraged beautifully and the book doesn’t believe in cheap thrills either…there are no jack-out-of-the-box shock moments..its just a growing horror that takes your heart in a vice-like grip and refuses to let go long after the final page has been turned.

Though the book is excellent, it is the ending that makes this a classic. King keeps dangling the answer in front of the readers in almost every 10 pages, but somehow, and all kudos to King for this piece of literary manipulation, u hit upon the twist just when the principal character does. Writing successful climaxes to horror stories is no mean task, its a place where authors like Graham Masterton, Dean Koontz & Peter Straub have all faltered, but King takes all the ends and ties them up in a splendid knot and with a flourish! This is the path that King was supposed to take…be the best horror story author…and nothing else. And the epitome of perfection on that path, is ‘The Shining’.

P.S. If your only acquaintance with The Shining is the overrated Kubrick flick, well then read the book to find out why even the greatest auteur should maintain a respectful distance from King’s best.

I will say thebook is a must read and in my view most appealing litreature from relating WWII.

This happened to be my first encounter with book, written by the authors – Stephen King & Peter Straub! Yes, it’s collaboration between two expert story tellers or masters of the craft…as they usually say! I went ahead, even though I belonged to the 2nd category of the readers.

The story begins with a long description of the setting where the whole story takes place – Coulee County, Wisconsin! The narration of the authors, scoot us through the minutest details of the back drop. A moment ago, we would be on a plain road with abandoned buildings…few minutes later, we would be flying along, with the birds…through the meadows! Lets your imagination fly high. The main plot starts to unfold after 60-70 pages.

People of the Coulee County are tormented by a psychopathic serial killer, a cannibal who likes to eat children. A reporter of the La Riviere Herald, a local newspaper, Wendell Green names the killer ‘Fisherman’. I think its analogous to Albert Fish (Do Google it!!). Local police are baffled by his operations and try their best to nab him, but all in vain! The protagonist, Jack Sawyer, is an ex-cop who quits the job due to his complex character. To escape from his past he buys a house in the Coulee County and tries to put his past behind. Owing to his intelligence and skill, Dale Gilbertson, the chief of police, asks Jack to assist them in the case. The rest of story is how Jack solves the case with the help of others.

Black House is continuation of a novel, The Talisman. The narration is slow and steady in the first few pages, picks up pace and fizzes down like a shaken bicarbonate of soda. For the people who have zero knowledge of the plot, it might seem interesting! So, I end the review here…to keep the details under wraps!!

Do look out for Henry Leyden – blind man and close friend of Jack Sawyer, Motorcycle gang (Thunder Five) & Gorg!

With a touch of supernatural element it could have been better. Black House is not on par with its genre – Horror/Thriller! Though it has some surprises in store, and keeps readers riveted. I rate it 7/10.

Hpshello

It’s a beautiful story of 5 charming Bennet sisters, whose lives are woven by the glamorous social society and class differences. The classic element of the book is how Austen has deeply depicted the characters of the book. The main protagonists are the headstrong, intelligent Elizabeth Bennet and the proud, arrogant Mr. Darcy.

I read this book first when I was in high school, and from then on it has been my favorite. It’s a must-read classic work of literature. From my point of view, it’s truly a masterpiece.

It is an Indian love story about a couple coming from two different states facing there conservative parents to get themselves married.

The basic concept of the book is ‘Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl. Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family. Girl and Boy still love each other. ‘