Born a Crime

I’m usually skeptical about picking up biographies of tv/ movie celebrities, weary of a “dramatized” version of a rather simple rag to riches story topped with some celebrity scoops. I’m a big fan of Trevor Noah on tv though, so picked this book up on a whim, and quite loved it. Growing up in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, the book revolves around a really tender mom-son relationship (that could be why I loved it too). I read it  in Trevor Noah’s voice, and it turned out to be like his comedy acts: hilarious but also insightful/ intelligent; and a bewildered but empathetic  outsider’s view of someone who doesn’t fit into any of the  traditional categories. A great read!

"The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Undoubtedly my new favorite book, this one! I realise I'm late to the party here, and besides, I'm too spent by discussing this one with H, so I'm just going to stop by saying this: my new favourite book.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The title of the book is completely (and I suppose purposefully) misguiding. My personal associations with vegetarianism are non-violence, cruelty-free living, and a denial of the carnivorous human instincts. And the narrative of this book is quite the opposite on all those counts. It's a very, very strange plot, headed by a most unfathomable main character and the most explicit moments one could come across in a book written by an Asian writer. It's so beyond the boundaries of what's considered normal, it became plausible in some weird dimension, and did actually move me to tears at a couple of points. A book that leaves you with a heavy heart...

The Expatriates by Janice Y K Lee

What a lovely book! Set among the American expats in Hong Kong, this was a backdrop which felt very familiar, so it was fun reading about it. Highly recommend it!

The Dressmaker

I got into this book because of a book club I recently joined. I didn't eventually make it to the book club meeting, so as usual, here I am blogging about it.

The book is a good peek into rural Australia from the '50s, but it's a little simplistic, even caricaturish, in its lead characters. The heroine is extremely good. At everything. The village folks are extremely narrow-minded and cruel. With everything. There is no grey (which usually make for fascinating characters, for me).

Not the best book I've read, but it was my first book set in Australia, so it gets points for expanding my literary horizons! Besides, Rosalie Ham is a gifted story teller, she keeps the pace going even though it's a slow story in a rural village-life kind of setting. 

What I'm reading...

Some beautiful and hard hitting poetry in there. And some great short stories too.

Roald Dahl Crazy

While we were in India, K picked up something unexpected from his older cousin: he is now obsessed with Roald Dahl books! Thought he would enjoy them a couple of years later, but he is loving them already (expect for The Witches, which fascinated him immensely but also gave him nightmares). Started with Fantastic Mr. Fox, and let's just say, he kept digging ;)

I'm so excited, we finally have a favourite author in common!!!

And another adventure....

Everyone needs a hobby & this is the hobby that has chosen me: writing children’s books. I have started a series of illustrated travel books for children & I’m super excited to announce that the first book of this series “The Adventures of Pugs in Japan” is now published. Please support me in this new adventure of mine by buying my book, by writing reviews for it on Amazon.com & by reading it to your kids!

For all my friends in the US, its available on Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble. For those in India, its available on Flipkart & Amazon India. For those in Singapore & in other places, I have a copy for you, just drop me a note! Hope you all enjoy reading it!

All The Sad Young Men by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Well it's F. Scott Fitzgerald, so what can you say. Every one of these short stories is a peek into a world of outwardly ordinary people, either found in extraordinary circumstances or wrapped up in extraordinary feelings. Every other line is quotable, and every word is delectable. Loved it!

Where The Heart Is by Billie Letts

What a great story-teller! I loved this unpredictable roller coaster journey of a formidable Oklahoma  teenager who finds herself pregnant, penniless & homeless at 17. A great social commentary on the lower-income life in America-between-the-two-glamorous-coasts; on feminism in the modern world; on home & on family in all unconventional ways.

The Burmese Days by George Orwell

This is a book set in 1934's colonial Burma (then part of greater India) and is really ahead of its time because it tackles issues like racism & the injustice of the social hierarchy of colonial India, at a time when these things sadly, were simply acceptable. It's not a book of misery & torture though, its a rather engaging read. It pre-dates "The Animal Farm" and its said that this book is partly autobiographical (because Orwell did live in Burma for a few years as a gora-sahib); so it lends a window into how Orwell was shaped in his initial years into the socialist thinker he eventually became famous as. A good read.

The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan

After Mo Yan won the Nobel prize, his books started getting displayed prominently in bookstores in Singapore & I almost picked up a copy. But then my friend S had one too & I borrowed it from her roughly 3 months ago. And I finally finished it last night. 

It's meant to be a hard-hitting, covered-in-reality-poverty-&-brutality sorta depiction of China in the 80s. Having said that how many pages can one read of poor peasants getting tortured by authorities or a young girl in love getting hammered by her family? There was a complete lack of humor or respite from the constant pitiful reality & I can't say the book made me feel much other than disgust beyond a point. I come from India & I get the psyche of honor killings. I also get the day to day callousness towards human life for those who live in abject poverty. I also understand the author's need to strip naked the ugly face of the Chinese political & social truth. But for me, it didn't make for a good read. The story needed some shreds of happiness or normalcy in the lives of its characters for the reader to feel something for them.  

"The Explosion of the Radiator Hose" by Jean Rolin

I thought this was an interesting part-fiction/ part-factual English translation of a French book written by journalist Jean Rolin. Its a travelogue by Rolin about transporting a used Audi car from Paris to Kinshasa (Congo) for use as a taxi and everything he sees, experiences & hears on the way.

I knew very little about the Republic of Congo (hell, I didn't even know that Zaire has been renamed as Congo!) except that it was a French colony once & has a horrifying political history stained by coups, blood-curdling assasinations & brutal rebels. This is your typical 'white man in Africa' account - its mainly about the author's unease & sense of danger/ adventure - starting in the immigrant-ghettos of Paris and ending in "the heart of darkness" (a reference to a novel written by Conrad in the previous century).

Perhaps Jean Rolin rambles a bit every now & then but he has a habit of jotting down quirky details of the places & people he sees; and that's what makes this travelogue interesting.

An Equal Music

I picked up Vikram Seth's "An Equal Music" almost a month ago & read through it rather slowly. I know nothing about music & about classical music I know lesser still. So I'm afraid, this book was a little wasted on me. All the references to Schubert, The Trout quintet & fugues had to be googled before I could proceed with the book. I don't think Vikram Seth intended that for his readers. I do wish I knew more about music & I wonder if its too late to start now.

The book is not just about music though. Its about people, personalities, passions. It's written very much like a musical composition; its lyrical, poetic even, full of allegories. The dymanics of a quartet who exist only in unison, their relationship with their instruments, their pursuit of excellence, and a love story of two exquisite musicians who are imperfect people with faults & warts. The book doesn't even attempt to make the protagonist likeable; does make you respect as well as pity him for the music and passion he deeply feels. I have a feeling I would've been very engaged in this book had I known or loved music slightly more than I do.

"Shame" By Salman Rushdie

The book has been on my bookshelf for a long time, but hadn't been picked up. It's an old book as well; written a while ago. When I did finally read it though, I absolutely loved it & I am glad I read it when I did. If I had read it 30 years ago (roughly when it was written), it may have seemed excessively pessimistic. But reading it in retrospect, in light of where Pakistan is today, it reads like a crystal ball of a book. A country (and a world) which chose to ignore every warning that the book hoped to give it.

As far as Rushdie & political novels go, I'm not sure I liked it as much as 'Midnight's Children' simply because I'm not sure whether he's got the essence & texture of Pakistan right (I know very little of the Pakistani society), but it is every bit as powerful, hard-hitting, frank and possibly more opionated than 'Midnights Children' was. Rushdie makes an appearance in the book many times as the narrator with his sometimes-strong, sometimes-equivocal views on politics, religion & religious zealots, women, rootlessness, freedom of speech, and the partition, among others. It's such a multi-layered book where the story of two families seeks to explain the story of Pakistan & the story of Pakistan seeks to explain the story of two families.

"After Dark" by Haruki Murakami

Oh. My. God. This is the awesomest book I've ever read! Everything about it - the narrative style, the plot, the characters, loved it all. What I loved the most were the details though. The details of every character in the book, of every place in the book, of every scene in the book. Wow.

Every Second Counts

I don't usually pick up biographies, and I've never been a follower of bicycle racing (my only exposure so far had been Aamir Khan's cycle race in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander which I watched from the edge of my seat in Gaiety-Galaxy a long time ago) but for some strange reason I picked this book by Lance Armstrong. I won't say it's a great book, but while I was reading it, I got really fascinated by the sport of cycling & by the Tour de France; I read up a lot about the race itself, about its little traditions, about the various stages (its very interesting) & have decided that I must make a visit to France & drive along the Tour track; its my latest addition to my "Must-do-before-I-die" list.

Competing in the Tour de France is an incredible feat I think - the bikers cycle around France for 3 weeks or so, through the mountains & crowds, at average speeds like 40 miles an hour & in the end the difference between winning & not is a few minutes. Its an absolutely physically abusive race & to win it 6 times is beyond incredible. I loved every detail described in the book about how the winner goes about this awesome-but-ridiculous feat. As Armstrong mentioned, there's a lot of attention to detail, even small details like how your hand moves on the handle-bar of your bike could shave off a few seconds of time; there's a lot of strategy; a lot of technique to it. Its also a team-sport; who would've guessed that?

By the end of the book, I'm totally sucked into the world of TDF & I'm so going to follow the Tour next year.

PS: After a very long time, I read a book which didn't begin with the words "what to expect..."; its refreshing :)

Six-Word Memoirs

Another one of those Facebook exercises - - There's this book "Not Quite What I Was Planning"; its a compilation of memoirs written by people; each one lasts only 6 words. I haven't read the book yet; but a friend on Facebook prompted me to try writing my own 6-word-autobiography.

Ordinarily, I never have a problem being concise; but describing my whole life in 6 words took a lot of attempts (besides, am I not way too young to be writing an autobiography?)
"An epic drama. Tears & laughter."
"Turned 30. Don't feel it yet."
"My optimism made me like this."
"Wish I could sing or paint."
"Been in love. Been loved. Yippie!"
I finally settled for this:
"Ordinary things happened between extra-ordinary moments."

I know its pretty lame (too generalised?); but somehow it was the only 6-worded sentence that could sum up my life so far. Give it a shot; not as easy as it looks! :)

"Waiting" by Ha Jin

I read a good book after a very long time. This is a story set in mainland China during Mao's Cultural Revolution; about a sincere, studious doctor, who is trapped in a loveless marriage & waits for 18 long years for his divorce to be granted, so that he could finally be with the woman he loves. It sounds like a simple plot, but is quite nicely written; sort of a political parellel to the entire generation of Chinese youth of the time who were raised to be too patient to speak up for what was right; too rules-bound to know how to live without them; too passive to create change for themselves; while an opportunistic few prospered at their expense.

A friend of mine (she was my Mandarin tutor actually, but since I've discontinued my lessons she's just a friend now); lived in Beijing through the Cultural Revolution in the 70s; & told me a lot of stories & personal accounts from those times. At the time, I thought it incredible; I still do; the stories of how all religious buildings were destroyed, how capitalist books were confiscated, how school children grew up parroting Mao's poetry & writings, how ancient Chinese festivals & customs & knowledge were lost forever in mainland China after they were banned during the Cultural Revolution. That was my first introduction to the bizzare events that happened in China.

Then I came across this book, which makes a beautifully told argument for individualism (as against the collective society) layered beneath a painful love story. And how it takes a certain kind of people to make a society, like the communist China in the 60s & 70s, work.

"The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan

This is a book written by an economist who argues that democracy = bad economic policies.

I guess it confirms what we all knew all along: democracies elect their respresentatives irrationally. Voters most often (and inspite of having adequate information to make a rational choice), make choices emotionally rather than rationally. Especially when it comes to economic policies we tend to choose policies that are not in our best interests. The author cites many examples like say the voters' bias for employment as against productivity.

It struck me that India probably has more examples to prove this hypothesis than any other democracy in the world; even with an economist as the prime minister. Loan waivers for farmers, oil subsidies, inflation, the whole "Maharashtra for Maharashtrians" debate, nuclear energy deal -- all issues that the voters saw emotionally, rather than rationally.

An interesting read. A short article by the author here.