I picked up this book solely because it was a Virago Modern classics cause one can typically trust their curation. However, I am not sure if this was a win. I am not entirely sure whether The Play Room qualifies to be a modern classic. But I guess, 50 years down the line, it may be considered a reflection of teenage youth in England during the Swinging 60s. The Play Room is centered on Laura,…
Culture
Twilight is a book for the young adult segment, a demographic I am not hence probably not qualified to review it. However, I have read it, I have an opinion and I want to say it out loud. Twilight is one of those rare books appearing to be much better than they actually are. The plot, in short, is the love story of Isabella, a young teenage girl, and Edward, a vegetarian vampire. Quite enticing,…
What’s it about? I am a big sucker for those ‘coming of age-breaking free-follow your dreams’ kinds of movie. That’s precisely the reason why I enjoyed ‘Rock On’ so much. And of course, the great music helped. The story of four twenty-somethings’ tryst with their own ambitions is inspiring and heart-warming. The movie starts off in an abandoned basement with Rob (Luke Kenny), Aditya (Farhan Akhtar), KD ( Purab Kohli) and Joe (Arjun Rampal) setting…
I have mixed feelings about this book having just finished it yesterday. I had expectations from this book. I expected it to be the story of the American dream, like in the movies – the hero will rise above himself to be a bigger and better person. Clearly, I was obviously mistaken. This is about real life and real life is not the like the movies. Read More…
Guest post by Kapil Sood, Writer-at-large, Shades of Words Often in our lives, we commit mistakes that leave us in overwhelming guilt. In the absence of a suiting redemption, we end up living our lives under the burden of this guilt. Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel The Kite Runner is about how this guilt and later a desperate attempt at redemption drives the life of Amir. With Afghanistan in turmoil as the background, it is a…
Assorted tales of comic fiction – edited by Peter Haining I always appreciate an entertaining or thought-provoking story-line and I got plenty of those as I read the ‘The Flying Sorcerers’. A motley collection of humorous fantasy fiction tales with a mix of both science fiction and the supernatural. What makes the book really special is: A) It has the earlier works of some of the best names in the business – Terry Pratchett, Arthur…
It is always interesting to observe how a character from a book comes to life on the silver screen. One of my all-time favorite detectives Hercule Poirot is a complex character with his own peculiar habits. A man most brilliant but also multi-dimensional. I am more than impressed than David Suchet’s interpretation of Poirot. He brings Poirot to life. David’s Poirot is just what Agatha Christie would have imagined – the short bald Belgian, with…
The Blind Assassin book is my pick for Canada for Around the World! I always have very high expectations from award-winning books and I am usually not disappointed. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood was an exception. The novel traces the story of Iris & Laura Chase, two sisters born into a rich but fading household in a small industrial town in Canada. Our narrator is Iris Chase, the elder sister who unravels her life…
