Book Reviews

The latest novel by Ann Patchett is an intimate character study of a brother and sister, abandoned by their parents and their fate often tested by life. One day the Conroy siblings find themselves motherless, as Elena Conroy leaves them for a higher calling without ever bothering to say goodbye. This abandonment by their mother, and her picking the needs of strangers over her own kids, leaves a permanent bruise. And it all started with…

Rebecca is Daphne Du Maurier’s most remembered and revered legacy. Melancholy yet haunting, forever immortalized in Hitchcock’s famous adaptation. The House on the Strand is not even close to her other famous works and is one of her later novels. If you ever want to read anything by Maurier, then Rebecca it must be. However, a great second novel to dive into by De Maurier would The House on the Stand especially if you are…

The Underground Railroad is not the kind of book you want to read when you are sheltering-at-home, avoiding the rest of the human race and a pandemic. But then again, is there ever a right time to read about the horrors of slavery? As a 21st century immigrant American, I feel somewhat of a personal responsibility to understand the history of the nation I have adopted, no matter how dark or uncomfortable it is. Now is…

Note: This is an honest spoiler-free review for ARC provided by Netgalley & Harper Voyager. The Empire of Gold will be released on June 30th 2020 and is available for pre-order here. The review does have spoilers for The City of Brass and The Empire of Copper, so don’t read ahead if you plan to get to those books. Instead read this to know why these books are so awesome. The Empire of Gold is…

In the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy, Pamela Aidan attempts to provide insight into the thoughts and feelings of this enigmatic romantic lead of English literature. During the many rereads of Pride & Prejudice, as much as I enjoyed the goings on of the Bennet household, I often felt shortchanged in my understanding of Mr. Darcy. His reclusiveness adds both to his arrogance and enigma. We only hear of his good deeds from his friends and employees, but…

Before Bram Stoker made love (or hate) for Vampires mainstream, a 100-page story by Sheridan Le Fanu, written in 1872, laid the foundation for Dracula. Carmilla is a gripping gothic tale steeped in darkness, cold, and death. It begins innocently enough, but even then, the sense of anticipation of something about to go wrong is palpable. The opening lines that describe the estate and its location set the tone for horrors that will unfold. Nothing can be…

Thanks to Orca Publishers and NetGalley for sending me an ARC.  Being from India, I have been consciously exploring children’s literature that I can expose to my American-born son. The beautiful cover of this book caught my eye – and this book was exactly what I was looking for. About Grandmother School Grandmother School is written by Rina Singh, a Canadian writer famous for other children’s books on Indian culture. As the name suggests, this…

What’s Palace of Illusions about? In the Palace of Illusions, Banerjee takes on Indian epic Mahabharata, and weaves an imaginative novel around it’s most maligned & suffering female character, Draupadi. A story so powerful that it has transcended thousands of years, the Mahabharata is a timeless epic. Relevant and revered, every Indian is as familiar with its broad construct as the western world is with the Bible. It takes courage to mess around with something…