For All Things Bookish

[theshadesofwords]

What Did I Just Read?

Must be without doubt one of the worst books by Christie – almost unbelievable she wrote it or that it was allowed to be published. Incoherent, plotless, and trying too hard to be Le Carré-level espionage, but failing miserably. There is no underlying mystery, just a lot of repetition of what sounds like AC’s own political theory, all vaguely tied to the danger of the rise of a new Nazi party. All of this is wrapped up without any sense in a whole lot of paranoia about anarchists, evil communists in Russia & China, and the world order crumbling due to nuclear threat in the hands of students (don’t even ask).

Sigh.

Pretty sure if Ms. Christie were alive today, she would have voted for Brexit.

This book was a pure dumpster fire...do not recommend. Even if you are a completist.

[theshadesofwords]

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

Picked this up on a whim from the library; its major selling points were the writer and the large font size. I assumed that this was going to be a funny, mildly satirical collection of fables. And that’s how it starts, with the first few stories featuring cats, baboons, warblers, chipmunks, etc., all facing very human social situations. There is commentary on class, migration, even love and friendship.

And then we move on to a very dark, Black Mirror-esque land of storytelling—of hubris, violence, and cruelty. Through these extremely short stories, Sedaris lifts the veil over human nature to show its dark and twisted potential: cautionary tales on how friends turn fanatics or how neighbors turn predators. There is a rhythm in the stories as we go from slightly satirical, to morbid, to cruel, and back to comedy, because the last story about a grieving owl is as close to a happy ending as you will ever find in these pages.

Just because it has animals on its cover, this should not be something to read to children. I literally got the chills. But it’s a great book to pick up at random and choose a story for some food for thought.

[theshadesofwords]

The dead man talks. A lot. In this wonderfully self-aware walk down memory lane, Brás Cubas recounts his life from his birth to his death. And he does this from the leisurely confines of his coffin. Born into one of the richer families in Brazil, Brás Cubas is no hero. Spoilt, a wicked child from a family of slave owners, his memories are full of scandalous family dramas about love, ambition, and money. Brás Cubas doesn’t win any fans with his posthumous autobiography, but he does provide a very tongue-in-cheek and often laugh-out-loud commentary on the Brazilian aristocratic society of the 19th century.

Machado de Assis is considered one of the greatest Brazilian writers, and this work is particularly considered one of the earliest modern novels from Latin America.

“A ridiculous old age is perhaps the saddest and ultimate surprise human nature may have in store.” ― Machado de Assis, The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

[theshadesofwords]

Highly recommend the Noir Series by @Akashicbooks . Discovered the series while browsing a bookshop at an airport bookstore)....and just loved it...the concept is a collection of short noir stories from a city cutting through different neighbourhoods....my first pick was Hong Kong!

[theshadesofwords]

“Languoreth, the earth is very old. Tragedies will occur on nearly every patch of land, given enough time.” –Signe Pike

[theshadesofwords]

“It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.” ― Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

[theshadesofwords]

A charming story about English village life as the war clouds the horizon.

“Life was like that, thought Liz. You drifted on for years and years—then, suddenly, everything happened at once and all the things that had seemed so stable dissolved and disintegrated before your eyes…and life was new.” ― D.E. Stevenson, The Four Graces

[theshadesofwords]

Setterfield writes a deeply engaging novel about troubled families, the love of books, and the origin of stories.

“Human lives are not pieces of string that can be separated out from a knot of others and laid out straight. Families are webs. Impossible to touch one part of it without setting the rest vibrating. Impossible to understand one part without having a sense of the whole.” — Diane Setterfield

[theshadesofwords]

Deftly written, deeply relevant, this is a brave new novel that captures the realities of contemporary India.

“Nothing is simple for a person like me…My chest is a man’s chest, and my breasts are made of rags. So what? Find me another woman in this whole city as truly woman as me.” — Lovely, A Burning, Megha Majumdar

[theshadesofwords]

This John Le Carrè classic is an essential read for fans of cold war espionage dramas.

“Intelligence work has one moral law — it is justified by results.” ― John le Carré, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

[theshadesofwords]

‘The Empire of Gold’ brings the Daevabad Trilogy to a Satisfying End

The Empire of Gold is the final installment of the Daevabad Trilogy, a middle-eastern fantasy fiction series set in the late 1700s. In the first two books, Nahri, a con artist from Egypt, discovers her magical roots by accidentally summoning a jinn, Daeva. She is swept (literally on a flying carpet) to the magical world of Daevabad. But this is no fairy tale version of Aladdin. Daevabad is a land of bloodied history steeped in tribal bloodshed and politics with magic thrown into make things interesting......

[theshadesofwords]

Discover new fiction....

‘Grandmother School’ by Rina Singh and Ellen Rooney

Inspired by a true story, this beautifully illustrated children’s book is an uplifting story about women’s education and empowerment.

[theshadesofwords]

“A situation in itself,” he said, “is neither happy nor unhappy. It’s only your response to it that causes your sorrow.” ― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Palace of Illusions

One of my all time favorite reads - if you haven't read it, I highly recommend this retelling of Draupadi's story - one of the most famous characters from the Indian Epic Mahabharata

[theshadesofwords]

“Death Comes to Pemberley” by P. D. James

Mystery and intrigue in Jane Austen’s world

“People should make up their minds whether to live or to die and do one or the other with the least inconvenience to others.” ― P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley

This Pride & Prejudice fan fiction is probably my least favorite work by PD James.

[theshadesofwords]

“You tell your lies and you think nobody knows. But there are two people who know. Yes- two people. One is le bon Dieu - and the other is Hercule Poirot” ― Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train

The premise is simple: Mrs. Kettering, an heiress, is murdered for priceless rubies as she travels on a train to meet her lover in France. Several people would have wanted her dead. Her husband stands to inherit her millions upon her death. Or could it be her lover who is famous for swindling women in high society? Or what about the French man who is interested in her jewels? Maybe it was just a robber who knew that the gems were aboard. Who could it be?

The famous detective Hercule Poirot is also on the train, and graciously offers his services to the French Police to help with the case, which he ultimately does. To find out more, read the book!

[theshadesofwords]

A Novel On Love, life, and London in the 1950s

“Men, I thought, were more trouble than they were worth. Really, one should stick to books where one sees the hero coming a mile off.” ― Eva Rice, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets

[theshadesofwords]

“If we only fell in love with people who were perfect for us…then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about love in the first place.” - Amor Towles, Rules of Civility