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Saturday 30 January 2016

Never judge the book by its cover!

So it was like this. I went to the book shop (the kind of things I love doing in my limited free time). Although we hardly get English novels here, I feel better when I go there. So, I was just wandering around, minding my own business and suddenly.......suddenly, one book caught my eyes. The cover was really beautiful. I could say if there is love at first sight then I experienced right there in that spot, at that moment but I was well aware about the famous quote 'Don't judge the book by its cover'. I looked at the book and to my surprise, the book also looked at me. Then our eyes met. We both were mesmerized, both of us completely engrossed at each other. I smiled and the book smiled too :O. 

After few minutes or atleast I thought it was few minutes, I approached to that book. 
'Hi'- I said 
'Hi, nice dress'- the book replied. 
'Really?'- I checked myself and said -'You know book, you have a beautiful face. Are you this beautiful inside too?'. 
'Of course! I am newly released and I am going to be in the chart of best selling soon. You love adventure?' the book asked. 
'Yes!' Now I was jumping with excitement. 
'Then I am the best book for you. Buy me, buy me!' 

I quickly picked it up and turned at its back to read what it is about. Read few reviews. It looked very promising and I was already looking forward to it. 

After few days:
'You told me you are good and I will like you'- I screamed.
'No book in the world will say I am bad and you shouldn't buy me'- the book screamed.
'And your language? omg, it is so annoying. You are one of the worse books I have ever read. The writing sucks, the characters suck, the plot sucks, almost everything about you sucks. I am not going to complete you.'
'Well you bought me'- the book was jumping with rage too.
'Just because you promised me you are good. Now, I am going to sell you'- I screamed back.
'Too bad, my reputation is already bad enough. No body will buy me.'- the book was giving me a weird smile. 
'I don't care. Then I will give you to the charity'. 
I was still thinking 'my god that face' while having those arguments. 
'Just don't trust all the books based on reviews. They all say they are good but only few ones are good. Read the prologue and see if that book is the right one for you and more than anything, trust your intuition. Just because you want to read a book doesn't mean you jump into any book. If you do, you have no right to complain.'- the book was calm but firm now.
'Exactly!' I said
'Now, you know I am bad, just find another book, will you?' Book was smiling now. 
'But you wasted my time and money' I was almost crying now.
'Did you forget the famous quote from ''To kill a mockingbird?, You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.''.  

Sunday 24 January 2016

A song for Julia by Charles Sheehan-Miles

My Review: 4/5

It all starts with a kiss…….

He- I have a broken past and I don’t believe in relationship. I play in a band and I am a high-school drop-out. What sort of guys do you hang out with?

She- I am a final year student at Harvard. I don't hang out with guys. But I guess the times I do, it's guys with ambition. Guys who wear suit. Guys who will end up in the Senate or as a CEO. Umm... guys who my father would approve of. My father and I don't get along, but don't ever mistake that for me not having perfect for him. He's a hero- he's my hero. But I have never quite been able to live up to him, so at some point, I just stopped trying and went my own way. 

He- Must have been fascinating, travelling bunch of different countries?

She- I don't know about all that. It's not a normal life, moving to a new country every few years. Kind of lonely sometimes. You leave behind everyone you know and start over. I don't know if I'll ever get married, but if I do.... not sure if my husband will understand my ambition and not sure it's the right life for kids. 

He- Would you like to have a dinner with me?

She- Just once because I don’t believe in love anymore. I was very young when I fell in love but I still remember what it was like to have my heart torn out, to have my dreams smashed. To have scandal nearly tear my family apart. I cried and cried. I was so scared, but no one would help. And all I could think was- I wanted my mother. Yes, she told me that guy was not right for me. She saw right through him from the beginning. I wanted to find her, and hug her, and make all of this fear and pain go away. I wanted to go back to being her little girl, and having her protect me and make everything better. No matter how much I might have wanted that guy: I couldn't go back there. Not now. Not ever. 

Then he and she both go to their own lives. He never gets over her so decides to write a song for her.

She- I sat back in the chair and sipped my coffee, crossing one arm across my chest. My head was still hurting, and thinking about him made it hurt worse. For the first time in a long time, I found myself having really mixed feelings about a guy. He was fun to be around, but he was confusing as hell. And not exactly welcoming. Was I just lonely? It had been so long since I'd allowed myself to really care about anyone. Sometimes you go looking and don't find anything, and sometimes it slaps you upside the head like a good Irish Catholic mother. 

He- I never wanted a relationship but lately, I'd started to realize that even though I was around people all the time, I just felt so damn alone. 

She- You are not an easy guy to figure out and I am not interested enough to try. It’s just last night you were all, stay the hell away, and in morning you were friendly.

He- Sometimes losing control can be wicked awesome. And sometimes it’s a disaster. Sometimes it can take your whole life and rip it to pieces.

She- I don't know why this bothered me. It's not like we were a thing. It's not like we were anything. But you'd switched moods so quickly, from anger and hostility last night, to open and laughing this morning, and now you were cold. I didn't get it, I didn't like it, and I was starting to not like you.

He- I love you

She- I don’t love you. I don’t even like you. I am a little different and isolated. But also a hero. And even though I start out very isolated, I come out of my shell. Which is something I learnt to do long ago.

He- This is going to sound like a cliché. And it sucks like nothing else in the world. But if I love you….I have to give you what you need. Even if that means letting you go. Yes, truth sucks.

He then sings of his longing, of her refusal, and of his precious hope that if he let her go, if he kissed her goodbye and watched her go, that she’s eventually come home.

She- It almost hurt to watch the awkward painful interchange between us. This was too much. Too much emotions, too much pain, just too much. I needed to get back to my room, get a good book to read, and escape. Get grounded again; get back in control of feelings that were twisted through me like a storm, tearing down leaves and building and leaving me directionless and confused. No matter how much my heart yearned for him, no matter how much my body wanted him, my mind knew that he was a mistake.

He- I don’t want to lose her. No one has ever meant this much to me. Then I have to do the thing she needs. And maybe she’ll come to me. If she doesn't…….well….it wasn't meant to be. But I wasn't going to let her go without telling her exactly how I felt.

She- It reminded me that being dependent on people you love is nothing but a crutch. It reminded me that the inevitable result of love is heartbreak. It reminded me that the other side of those overwhelming emotions was death. And I wasn't willing to go there. I wasn't willing to do that harm to myself ever again. Never again would I watch my own lifeblood pouring out of me into a bathtub because I needed people in my life. It was bitter, like dust, a bare moonscape inside my heart instead of flowers or bunnies or hearts or whatever the hell other people wanted to feel like. And it was mine.

He- I love you, and I want you to be happy, I want you to have the life you deserve. And if that means … if that means I have to stand here and watch you walk away, then I’ll do it. I won’t be happy about it. It’ll break my heart. But … if that’s what you really need, then we’re done. Before you go, you need to know- I’d do anything for you. Even kiss you goodbye and watch you go.

She- Can you put up with me? I am crazy half the time. You know I’ll pull away and get angry when things are tough. I make my own home, wherever that is and home’s where the people I love are. It’s the things that matter to me, and holding on to them and taking care of them. And remember- I will love you, pamper you, care for you and give you everything I can. I will make you feel on cloud nine with my love. I will make you feel like the best man on this planet but the moment I feel avoided, unwanted, ignored, sidelined, I will be gone and I will never feel the same again. I will quietly move on.’

He- I don't want to screw this up. I don't ever want to be the person who hurts you. Because you make me better. You make me feel like I matter. Like my life matters. I feel like, with you, I can do anything in the world. That we can do anything in the world. And we will.

Saturday 16 January 2016

Sidney Sheldon's The Tides of Memory by Tilly Bagshawe

'And somewhere far, far away from here, there is a man. A good man. A beautiful man in his own way. But she must not think about that man. Not now. Not today. She had found his presence comforting and pleasant. She wished she could bottle that feeling somehow, keep it to savor when she was alone, when the stresses of the present and horrors of the past became too much for her. But she feared, there are doors that, once closed, can't be opened again.'

Long time ago, I asked my friend to get me all the books by Sidney Sheldon. He bought me Frau Bagshawe's books too. Now since I have all her books, I can't ignore them even though I know they are not the ones I am looking for. 

Although I was very disappointed with her previous book, I decided to read her next book (just because I had finished all other books and I was still deciding what other books to buy from Amazon). So you can say this was my transition time while I make up my mind. Part of me told me I wanted to stop reading her in good term. I seriously hoped this book of her is better than the last one and would give me a 'permanent patch up' kind of feeling. 

Anyway, I didn't have a big hope from this book. It was one of those weekends when you just want to stay up whole night reading a book not having urge to wake up early next day. After hard weekdays, I want to forget everything else, be alone and dive into the world of books, which takes me to the different world I love. This time, I was more looking forward to spend quite weekend reading a book that actually makes sense. 

I am here to write a review, right? Well, let's get to the business then.

The way she writes, plots, characters, and all those phrases, the heartbeat racing faster than usual thinking what is coming next, the lost appetite thinking about the characters, the way they behave- everything is what I would expect to find in Sidney Sheldon's book. But there is something missing and I don't know what it is. It is like you go to see a girl for arranged marriage and she has everything you want but you don't find 'she is the one' kind of feeling. You don't marry her, right? This is how I feel to be honest although in this case, I won't say she has everything. 

Sidney also has some crappy books himself but let's not name those here. It would be unfair to compare her books with only the best of Sidney's. You know what? I totally get her. There are times when I felt 'Shit! I could have done better job putting everything together' and sometimes 'you know I could have done exactly same'. Reading a book gives me a satisfaction. I get angry if I don't read at least a single chapter a day no matter how busy I am. You cannot be with me and complain I am reading too much. God, am I out of track again? Ok, Ok, let's go back to book review.

Today, I was summarising this story to my friend. It was funny to summarise all the turns and twists and at some point I felt it was impossible to make people read this book from my point of view and I know I didn't give justice to this story and more than anything I am pretty sure he got confused too. God, what happened to my story telling ability? I am having exactly same difficulty here. I sat down to write a review but I don't know how to start. You know what, this review can wait. I will write it some other day. Time to start a new book :).

Monday 11 January 2016

Sidney Sheldon's Angel of the Dark by Tilly Bagshawe

My Review:1/5

Please don't let me hate her, Please don't let me hate her! I was saying this throughout the book and you know what, I do hate her now. 

Four men in different countries are murdered within 10 years time. The only common things about those men are, they are all billionaires, are murdered in the same way and they all have a beautiful wife who is lot younger than them. Determined to find out about the mystery death of his biological father, a son (Matt Daley) of one of the victims gets obsessed about the case that has remained unsolved by the detectives. 

Now Ladies and Gentlemen, get ready for some spoilers:

I have lots of questions to this author. Before that, to everyone (including me) who is complaining why she has written Sidney Sheldon's name on the cover, I read it somewhere that she wrote this book out of Mr. Sheldon's scrap notes after he died. Oh , well! This book should never have been written. I feel really bad to give 1 star here but dude, you and I have some business to sort out first-

1. So the whole point of killing was because those old men ignored their wives and children but for God's sake, David Ishag was not even married. He was the most illegible bachelor of India. 

2. And what happened to all the jewelry stolen from Andrew Jakes' place? 

3. And why are all the money going to Children charity? That is not clear and still why only Lisa didn't give money to charity?

4. And the biggest mystery of all, who killed Carlos Hernandez and why? :O

5. So it turned out that even after Francis is dead, there is a killing going on (Carlos). Is that mean Sophia is the murderer? Ok, I get it that she may have killed him just in case he spill out to police about her escape but that doesn't really prove anything about the previous murders. So, please tell me who is the murderer here?

Only if I hadn't read epilogue then I would have given at least 3 stars. Only if my kindle was lost before I had read epilogue or only if the writer had decided to stop writing just before epilogue began. Seriously, it was like one of those times when you go for beer party all the way up to the hill just to know you have forgotten to take the beer with you. That climax was not necessary by the way and it ruined the whole story, not even ruined, it made me hate the writer. There were just too many killings that I think in the middle, the writer herself lost the track of what she needs to focus on. There were too many characters that sometimes I had to re-read to know who I am reading about. I think she should have had less characters and have sorted them out better. It was really all over the place. God, Sidney, I know you are in heaven now but someone is making a mess down here in your name. 

And that stupid Matt, so smitten by lady's fake beauty abandons his pregnant wife. I mean isn't that the whole reason of killing those poor men? Does author want to show men never learn? Only if..... only if I hadn't read that last few pages. If the rumour is true about her writing this story out of Sidney's note, I would say she didn't really understand his handwriting. 

This is really annoying that you have more questions than satisfaction after finishing a book. It was a huge torture that after finishing it, I became really moody. Now, when I think about it, I am more angry thinking that my first book in New Year turned out like this. My God, I need some ice on my head now!