Book Reviews

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…

When Death Comes To Pemberley was released, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. A promising fiction crossover from one of my favorite modern mystery writers wading into popular period literature. I saw it was curious to see how PD James spun off a murder mystery from the most popular romantic classic of the 19th century – Pride & Prejudice. It’s said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Still, I am…

Every once in a while, I like to immerse myself in a proper British mystery novel. And where else to turn to but to the Queen of Crime and her favorite detective, Hercule Poirot. The Mystery of the Blue Train begins with the introduction of distantly related characters, each with their own nuances, dark secrets, and ambitions. The tone for murder is set early. Also, if you have read enough of Agatha Christie, at least…

I am not the first reviewer to compare Rules of Civility to The Great Gatsby. Both are period dramas set in the glamorous worlds of high society of New York with a doomed romance at their center. It’s probably literary blasphemy to say so, but I found Rules of Civility infinitely preferable. I never did have any patience for the story of the purposeless life of the bored rich and their poor life choices. Maybe…

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is one of those books that does really well on the book blogger circuit. It’s literary enough to catch a more discerning reader and sufficiently romantic to appeal to a more casual purveyor of books. The Plot Based in post-war Britain, this is a story of the friendship of three twenty-somethings – Penelope, Charlotte, and Henry. And that is just one layer of the story. Eva Rice transports the…

This July, I fell in love with Hong Kong. It was quick and unexpected and on short three- day stopover trip en route to Los Angeles. With temperatures in the 90s and typhoon season humidity, those few days are a sweaty blur in my mind. But I remember the feeling of being in a giant mass of humanity, of a place of some importance. As I boarded my flight back home, I carried specific images…