GJ

2 stars for mindless suspense. This book gave me anxiety, I didn't need right now. The author creates a very likable MC, who can memorize his patient's cell number, the phone number of the acquaintance in the apartment below his. He is politically correct, a doctor who works for Medicaid. Lost his wife and never had a serious relationship for 8 years. Perfect hero. When something unlikable is happening to him, however bad the writing is it gives me palpitations and I hated it.

Writing is subpar. I used to enjoy thrillers like this. But after reading books like the Millenium Series and Gone Girl, you can't help but compare every other thriller to these. Plot twists are very appealing. They are the most attractive part of any thriller. But at times it can be one too many. I never knew. Now I know. It's just tiring. Bigger fewer twists are better than numerous tiny twists. Once you start questioning the plausibility it is impossible to stop.

Quality of Writing in thrillers, adds so much to the book, than we assume. It becomes obvious only after we have read stories with different standards. I was in awe at every sentence written in “We need to talk about Kevin”. I kept wondering, so articulate, this lady is. A thriller that triggered emotions.
This book has short matter-of-fact sentences. That barely work to convey information and nothing else.
If you need an analogy, I'll compare the above novels with a sewing machine, and this book with a spade.

If you are beginner, trying to start reading, you may try it. If not, better let it stay on the shelf.

As a med student and as someone who watched the whole of Six Feet Under series in under 6 days, in the recent past, I would characterize the first three chapters of this book as mildly interesting and the rest of it as sleep inducing - not curious, definitely not. No one suggested this book to me. I picked it as a random read. It is my fault that this terrible thing has happened. You see, the first image that came to my mind as I read the catching title of the book was that of a middle-aged introverted bespectacled pathologist elbow deep in a cadaver's body cavity standing in a dimly lit morgue in the basement with flickering lights and a buzzing refrigerator, walls painted green. I imagined some good soul coaxed this recluse to share her knowledge and the secrets of the dead she gleaned over decades of dedicated work. I hadn't heard of Mary Roach before. And I didn't this media-like person butting in while science people doing science. You could call me elitist. But I have seen the other books she wrote, there is an image of her in zero gravity simulation on Google. I don't really mind her writing this book, I'm just envious that she gets do all that without even a degree in science.

Over 11 chapters the author narrates an account of her visits to experts in various fields that make use of cadavers for different purposes. I went into the book with only the idea of medical and academic uses of cadavers in mind. It is true that 80% of cadavers end up in anatomy labs, but there are few other intriguing final resting places too. Like the compost or someone else's stomach. The author gets into all this in a really detailed fashion (only detailed not deep) and at times veering off to obscure history.

Humor is an essential part of the book. It's what makes this palatable. Though at times I felt that it was a little overdone, I have no complaints in that regard. It is a funny book. You get to read stuff like:
“Compost should not be ugly,” she is saying. “It should be lively, it should be romantic.”“There are ten fetuses here, all aborted this morning,” the Express reporter claims she was told...“Normally we doctors take them home to eat, Since you don't look well, you can take them.”

I have a new found appreciation for modern medicine and the people who contributed to it (alive and dead). Humor in a book about dead bodies does not come out as disrespectful. In fact how people, who have to shoot at cadavers, put them in cars and simulate head on collisions, everyday as part of their jobs is discussed multiple times, throughout the book. There are also chapters on beating hard cadavers (brain dead people for organ transplant) and cannibalism and early experiments on brain transplant.

Someone who is not acquainted to the topic and is not too squeamish might find this interesting.
“Because all the bacteria in the mouth chew through the palate,” explains Arpad. And because brains are soft and easy to eat. “The brain liquefies very quickly. It just pours out the ears and bubbles out the mouth”
If you are okay with that sentence, you may try this book. Happy reading!

p.s : you may skip the shroud of turin chapter, some guy trying to prove the shroud was real after crucifying recently dead cadavers. It adds nothing to the book.

“Not before I draw more of your blood, husband” I promised him right back, meeting his eyes.

Do people talk like this irl?

As I read in someone else's review this is smut for smut's sake. Plotline is horribly boring, or maybe just not my thing.
Futuristic vampires - alpha male - submission type thingy. Steam 5/5.

Also.
Kyzaire - the king type person.
Kylaira - queen equivalent.
Kaazor - nearby enemy state
Kylorr - this huge alien-vampire species
Krynn - planet of the Kylorrs
Kyrana - bloodmate. A sexualised version of a soul mate.
Kythel - the MMC's brother.
Kaldur - MMC' other brother.
Kyriv - some enemy creature from Kaazor ig.
Killup- another less terrifying species.

Does all of them have to start with a K?

Consult your fantasy register to decide on this book.

It was only at the end of my Little Women book that I realized, that it was only the first part. I got this book only for closure. “Friends” had ruined it for me, still I am glad that I read it.

It is preachy. Very. But if you can get over that aspect, it is a quiet well written book. Funny and light-hearted. The characters and conversations are lovable, but only because of the time period it is set in. I wouldn't read this plot beyond 10 pages if it was a contemporary novel. Does that make me hypocrite? Maybe.

The novel starts off after Meg is engaged to John Brooke. Amid the advice by the author on how to support a working husband and that it is important that the wife involves the husband in the child's development, we get to see a realistic portrayal of a poor working husband and a wife who takes cares of the kids and do all the household work and waits for her loving husband to return. It is boring. I read this book only with an interest quite similar to people looking at ancient rocks from the stone age.

Jo is the only character you could actually like, her arc was well done and I appreciate the non-conformity of it.

Beth was boring.

Amy was the only character who changed (I guess the only character who needed a change). Although not particularly fond of the character, she certainly deserved the ending in the book, because she put in the effort to change her mind and habits. In my opinion that takes more effort than sacrifice and love.

On the whole it is a happy account of a family, powered by love that waded through their hardships and celebrated their happiness, set in the US a very long time ago.
It is an okay read.

4.5 stars. Only because the last 30% was tedious.

Why anyone with the slightest interest in science should read this?

1. It is a comprehensive yet simple account of everything DNA related. It is funny. The necessary concepts are explained in an easily understandable manner.
2. It is nothing like a textbook. It is fully made up of anecdotes and experiments and interesting pieces of history. There are no complicated terms used, no endless sentences. It speaks in layman language, yet it conveys so much.
3. People who once studied genetics as a part of your curriculum but later forgot about it, would love this. This would be only a revision, much better than your original source.
4. It's fascinating. Not the book. Genetics itself, and the book does a wonderful job of showing it to us.

I'll just mention a few random facts from the book here.
1. Toxoplasma can manipulate you into liking it.
2. Polar bear liver is lethal
3. Human genes make up 2 percent of our genome. Virus genes make up 8 percent of our genome. We are 4 times more virus than human.
4. “sonic hedgehog” is gene which determines left-right symmetry when you are an embryo.
5. Cells overwhelmed with DNA damage can sense trouble and will kill themselves rather than live with the malfunction.
6. Toba is - or was - before the top 650 cubic miles blew off - a mountain in Indonesia that erupted seventy odd thousand years ago.
7. Ancient Egyptians ashamed of inbreeding Tutankhamen family (for disregarding their gods), hid them so well and built buildings over the tomb. As a result Tut's treasures survived mostly intact over the centuries. Treasures that in time would grant his heretical incestuous family something like immortality again.
8. Genghis Khan is the ancestor of 16 million men today. One in 200 males on earth carries his testes determining chromosome.

Check out my highlights.

It's really good, if you are into it. Which is a completely useless statement for someone who hasn't read it, but I don't want to give away anything, except a trigger warning maybe. It's violent. There is death and cruelty.

Blackwood is a huge estate, owned by a handsome gruff recluse. Intent on doing a survey and for other personal reasons, Elise who is doing research in archeology, knocks on the owner's thick wooden door to ask for permission. As the door opens all see can she is his dirty black fingers, and unkempt beard as he yells at her to go away. She doesn't.

It's not safe out there in the woods. People hear women screaming at night. That could be a local myth, only Elise herself hears a scream one night.

Romance and suspense is decently mixed throughout the novel, making it a quick read. Although not entirely predictable, there's no mind blowing revelation at the end. The suspense only serves to flip the pages faster, not as the main skeleton of the story. There are enough creepy, squirrely and face less characters introduced in the beginning of the novel to raise our antennae in all directions. There is a confusion of who is good and bad throughout the novel.

There is not much story in the development of relationship between MMC and FMC. They have sex once, she finds out that she had a kink she didn't know she had, and she's all in love with him. The author could have tried a little to make it a little original. Good one time read.

For the first time in my life, I let loose. It's not a guilty pleasure. If you like it, you like it. What is there to be so embarrassed about?

The story follows the relationship between a high school graduate and her best friend's Mom.
Believable, sexy, feel-good. I deserve such breaks after breaking my head over Dostoevsky and Tolkien.

This as you know/would expect is not great work of literature. I don't presume the author intended it to be. It's refreshing to the read a healthy romance especially in a taboo setting - like everything is okay here, it's perfect; if you can ignore one tiny, small detail. This couple works so well, and the author created their interactions so in sync that nothing feels forced. It flows. And the steamy segments are well, very steamy... visceral. I don't have much to compare, but it was very hot.

Pansexual side character -✅
Genderqueer side character -✅
Bi main characters -✅
Black best friend -✅
Misogynistic ex -✅(named Adam)
All feminist propaganda requirements fulfilled. I have nothing against the feminist ideology, but at times I feel they push little too much. Like this.

I cringe when people use the term ‘best friend', especially people in their 20s. Grow up already; or maybe, I'm just lonely. I guess it will be hard to get around that if I'm considering reading more of this.
‘Hey, I'm your best friend. I love you, you know that, right?
I hate you
no you don't
yeah i dont.


Hate this.
Less talk. Do more.

There is not much of story in here, other than these two hotties navigating their relationship. I'm gonna go find similar books with a little more plot to it and a little less teenage drama.

This must be the only non-fiction book till now, that I finished in a day.

The book is about as it says everything about the brain. A combination of simple physiology, experiments, theories, hypotheses and philosophy. It never gets boring and the language is simple. Very often I felt that this book isn't telling me anything new, atleast in the beginning, but that changes as the book progresses. He only lays a foundation describing the magnificence of “This hunk of tissue in our cranium” in the first half of it's book, and I'm sure, for someone completely new to brain physiology this will be mind blowing. Even if you have put some thought and effort in to know about this stuff earlier, this book is comprehensive. It neatly scoops out everything (basic) we can know about the brain and arranges it beautifully in 6 chapters.The earlier chapters are about the intricacies in the development of our brains, how a child picks up new information, forms new memories, the fallibility of our memory. The questionable ‘realness' of reality. The huge underground don of our existence - the unconscious which rules everything, though we dont realize it. The later chapters focuses on how the brain decides, the constant battle between our basal instincts and our wiser decisions, and the social component of our neural system. It also touches upon the property of the brain that could assist the visually impaired or hearing impaired to actually see and hear, if our brain can be replaced by a computer?, How prosthetic limbs can listen to our thoughts, and so on. It is not an academic text. It's a fun as well as informative quick read.

“No one is having an experience of the objective reality that really exists; each creature perceives only what it has evolved to perceive. But presumably every creature assumes its slice of reality to be the entire objective world. Why would we ever stop to imagine there is something beyond what we can perceive”

Murder investigation | Totalitarian regime
I had to constantly remind myself that this is not a dystopian fiction. Inspired by a real-life investigation, it is set in the USSR under the rule of Stalin – Moscow, 1953.
The story follows Leo Demidov, a high-ranking State Security operative, a believer. The politics of that time is portrayed in the most not boring way possible in the first few chapters. As Leo is forced to investigate an officer's son's death on the railway track which has been reported as an accidental death, he notices something off. To disregard an official report is not an easy task for Leo. He is a believer. A believer in the party, a believer in the society the leaders have formed. In this society there is no crime. To believe that a murder has occurred is to have lost faith. That is blasphemy. “An elaborate charade that fools no one”
There is constant threat to life looming over every citizen's head, as soon as they are twelve years of age. Children are obedient, adults are law abiding, everyone is wary, like prey in a forest. There is no forgiveness, no trust. And it is imperative to catch one spy even if it costs innocent lives. There is a uniform love for the leader in all – children and adults, officials and housewives. It is an unusual combination of fear and pride. Or more likely it is just fear masquerading. It is an unforgiving story and pulls no punches. The reality must have been equally horrifying if not worse. A gripping story, each sentence pulling my eyes to the next.
As the story moves forward and when the façade unravels before Leo's eyes, the hunter becomes the hunted. On realizing that public opinion as well as law is not on the side of truth, but on the side of the Party, Leo is forced to embark on his mission to solve a string of child murders, with only his wife by his side; and even that relationship is hanging by a thread.
There is a calmness to the brutality in the story. It comes unexpected and makes the least noise. The act of violence is never elaborated. There are never descriptions of murder dragged out. All quick and efficient like any job well done, a routine – nothing to be made a fuss about. This further adds to the bleakness of the environment.
The colors in a book sets a mood. What are the colors in this book? There is bright red, excessively red, a little too much just to be safe. The is red on the white snow. There is grey in the sky and dark brown bark in the mouths of dead little children.

It would be a shame for you to miss this book.

Historical fiction|magical realism.
Set during the early 1900s with the backdrop of The Spanish Flu and The Agrarian Reform in Mexico. Revolves around the story of a boy with a cleft lip found abandoned who is taken in by a loving family. Weirdly enough, this boy was found covered with a swarm of bees on his body. These bees become a part of his existence as he become theirs. They named him Simonopio.
Murmur of bees is family saga, spanning over generations. In an age when bloodlines are revered and superstitions are abound, the generosity of one family accepts a cleftlipped orphan, swarmed with bees found lying on the road side as one of their own; when people told them it was the devil himself.

Simonopio's ability to communicate with the nature, his ability to foresee what might happen, is a result of his astute observation which he developed over the course of his life where nobody listened to him, but he listened to everything. Felt and saw everything. My attempt at writing this review has proven to be pathetic and never to be tried again. It's an emotional story, pulls at ur heartstrings. It will make you cry. A feel good book.

To be honest this book didn't produce the effect in me it could have if I had read it a decade or two earlier.
Also I don't understand horror in written form. The only horrifying thing I read here was, the lead's fingers scraping the wallpaper peeling off tiny bits of it. (That and stubbing little toe will be always horrifying depicted in any form - picture or prose)
I loved Jack Torrance. I loved how messed up he was. On edge. Ready to explode any time. I'm tired of perfect characters who act appropriately all the time. Unreasonable flawed idiots give stories many dimensions, making the reader jump sides throughout the novel.

I love established fantasy and realism, but I hate everything in between. So naturally, I hated the villain in the Shining for not setting down the rules. It's not fun when anything can happen.

A family saga as narrated by a woman in her 80s, a perfectly ordinary woman with no talent or ambitions. It is like a road trip, this book; and this sassy grandma with an overactive imagination is driving us around, really slowly, taking all the sinuous side roads and detours, stopping every now and then to describe with exceptional vividness what we would have passed by unnoticed. In other words, it is long. I had to slog through most of it, but I don't regret it in the least.

The first line of the book fixes the pivot around which the rest of the tale is spun.

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.

“Mother is with God,” Laura said. True, this was the official version, the import of all the prayers that had been offered up; but Laura had a way of believing such things, not in the double way everyone else believed them, but with a tranquil single-mindedness that made me want to shake her

“Laura, what are you doing?” I said, “That's the Bible.”
“I'm cutting out the parts I don't like.”

Iris

I kicked off my shoes, threw myself down on the endless cream-colored bed. It had a canopy, with muslin draped around as if on safari. This, then, was where I was to grin and bear it - the bed I hasn't quite made, but now must lie in. And this was the ceiling I would be staring up at from now on, through the muslin fog, while earthly matters went on below my throat

The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read...Otherwise you begin excusing yourself

"I look back over what I've written and I know it's wrong, not because of what I have set down, but because of what I have omitted"

This book has to be bit off in huge chunks and devoured.

Minnie, is job hunting which is yielding very little result, due to a series of unfortunate events. Surprisingly, she finds a job as a housekeeper, which seems too good to be true.

The story unravels over the course, like petals of a flower, it goes deeper every page. It is not much of a linear story.

If not for a few elements, this would be decent 3 star thriller.

1) The revelation in the epilogue, which gives a new meaning and new direction to the story.
2) The sweet revenge.
3) The novel idea of hired help for domestic issues.
4) For once, men are getting hit on and women are getting rejected.
5) Humor

There is a surprise around every corner in the story. It keeps you edge. A really good highly recommended one time read (albeit slightly predictable.)

MUST READ BOOK. If you have patience. It has long sentences.

The grey area between right and wrong has certainly been the subject of hundreds of books. Stories of starving thieves, retaliation, and retribution could all be justified in one way or another. The unpleasant side of the right-wrong dichotomy is where this book parks itself, and it moves in the direction of total and utter degeneration of everything, mental, physical, and spiritual.

Dorian Gray is blessed with wealth, class and good genes. Basil Hallward an artist and a good friend, finds in him a muse, and helps him create his best work of art of all time. Dorian is dumbstruck by his own portrait and makes a peculiar wish.
“How sad it is! I should grow old and horrible and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. If it were only the other way, If it were I who was to be always young and the picture that was to grow old! For that I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!”

In the above quote he wishes for an eternal life of untarnished youth in exchange for his soul. Would you take this deal?
If you see it appropriate to consider a human being as a sum of senses and soul, losing his soul, leaves a man, whose only goal in life is to please his senses to the maximum. Actions are driven by senses. Consequences of actions are borne by the soul. Guilt and empathy are functions of the soul. With his new super power, Dorian is driven by his senses alone, in constant search of beauty above all else. Morality and guilt become mere impediments. If you haven't read the book, this would give you an idea of someone who is wasting away their life, drinking and smoking and sleeping around.
But that's not who Dorian is. Dorian is enlightened, like Buddha, only in the wrong direction.

“ He sought to elaborate some new scheme of life that would have its reasoned philosophy and its ordered principles, and find in the spiritualizing of senses its highest realization.”
It's like a uno reverse on the Bhagavad Gita.

This is my favorite quote from the book.
“The worship of the senses has often and with much justice been decried, men feeling a natural instinct of terror about passions and sensations that seem stronger than themselves, and that they are conscious of sharing with the less highly organised forms of existences. But it appeared to Dorian Gray that the true nature of the senses had never been understood and that they had remained savage and animal merely because the world had sought to starve them into submission or to kill them by pain, instead of aiming at making them elements of a new spirituality of which a fine instinct of beauty was to be a dominant characteristic”
This is the statement he puts forward. It is enticing; for a moment I'm confused as to whether I agree to his philosophy or not. Dorian's words can confuse your moral compass. He is capable of this because, he has no restraints of a soul, and thus is capable of ignoring consequences. And beauty, though ephemeral, is enticing to everyone.

“There had been mad wilful rejections, monstrous forms of self torture and self denial, whose origin was fear and whose result was a degradation infinitely more terrible than that fancied degradation from which, in their ignorance, they had sought to escape.......There was to be as Lord Henry had prophesies a new Hedonism”

Dorian lived with no checks. “There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful” His knowledge of all things beautiful, is incredible. There is whole, very long, boring chapter dedicated to that; as a statement of his knowledge.

People loved Dorian; his beauty and manners. People looked up to him with awe and admiration, but looked back on him with hatred and disgust. The sensation destination train chugs on till something happens. For once Dorian deviates from his pursuit of beauty, when a need arises to cover up the origin of his new life. What if that hadn't happened? Would his hedonistic life have given him everything he wanted till the end of his life? Or was that an inevitable consequence of his deal with the portrait?
The last few chapters are better than many psychological thrillers. A point reaches where his own mind and the people around him turns against him. His past and acts of evil catches up with him when he's weak.

I would not call this a descent into degradation. I have too much respect for him, for that. He failed at life with class. I wouldn't go within a mile of him in real life, lest I be tempted. I would look at him from afar. He is a work of art.

I find it unfair, but certainly cannot hate when a book takes it to the next level, in the final chapter.

The Murder on the Orient Express is a locked room mystery. The best kind of whodunit. Nobody can complain if the clues in a mystery novel are too obscure or if the movements of the characters are deliberately confusing. But in this book chapters there are chapters dedicated to Poirot's ‘movement notes', list of clues and summary of whatever he' learnt.
I wish my textbooks wished so much as this book to really let me know what's going on. The ending is not really predictable. There are a few observations that H.P keeps to himself, that helps in keeping the final solution in the dark. There are leaps of theory that may not always make sense, but it does in the situation.
The book constantly keeps us thinking. I had a notebook with the movements and carriage position before I knew there were dedicated pages for them. There are foreseeable plot points. But it is a book, and for us this murder is in text. H.P can see, and we can't. And although a lot more eloquent than Sherlock, he doesn't always tell us what he sees.

I would not call this great literature. I don't want to be a snob, rating 5 only for great lit. The writing is ordinary. The plot is exceptional. This book had me hooked, kept me wondering till the end. The ending is beautiful. It's not just surprising. It's satisfying. Probably one of the most satisfying endings I've read.

Looking back on it, it's a whodunit with a heart.

I reached here from r/suggestmeabook for LF partners to lovers book. I usually stick to popular books, but thought I'll give this so-not-my-type-book a try.

An ordinary girl, with a mysterious man goes to hunt ghosts. And ofc the girl has a crush on him.
Slow burn. Thrilling build-up.
It's not great literature, but there are scary elements and a foundation for a cute romantic story.
I'll read the next book sometime soon. It's not very long after all.

A county prosecutor's complicated past is dug up, during a trial involving a loaded defendant.

Engaging writing as far as thrillers are concerned.
Humor✅️
Not too macho, lots of practical women ✅️
For some reason all women are hot. It felt a little unnecessary, to mention how his jaw dropped every time. Anyway feminine beauty is art for him. So, it's... fine. I guess.

You do see some of the twists coming earlier in the story, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

A good light read.

This was a random book I picked on impulse. All I remember from the movie I watched years ago was that there was Will Smith a dog and many zombies. And that's not much of a spoiler.

Imagine, that you are alone in your average sized home, sitting in your porch in broad daylight, drinking coffee. There's no sound at all, except for the birds crying far off and the faint Beethoven record playing from your bedroom. There are no vehicles, no electricity, no people. There are no plans for the day, nothing to look forward to, no one to love. You are alone, the only person alive that you know of, for the past three years. You speak out aloud and your voice sounds strange and unfamiliar. That loneliness is a darkness encompassing your soul.

I honestly did not understand what the author expected to convey through this book. As a sci-fi, it attempts explaining the irrational fears the vampires have. Looking at vampires through sciencey goggles. More than that, I loved the ‘lonely man's trials' part of the story. For either of them, I felt the book to be too short. A rushed work. And I can't stop comparing it to Salem's Lot which did a much better job with vampires in the modern world.

It's not scary, just sad.

I read the first few chapters and put away this book. Around a month later, when a friend shared a beautiful quote from the book, I willed myself into giving it another go. The book grows on you, like Ove.

The quote -
“‘Loving someone is like moving into a house,' Sonja used to say. ‘At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren't actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it's cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.'”

The language is quite simple and the concept so straightforward, that it can go on the Books for beginners list. Yet,(although slightly repetitive), it's captivating till the end.

Ove is man who likes things to be a certain way. This inflexible man might rub you the wrong way, in the initial few chapters, but on reading you'll travel through Ove's life in segments; you learn what made him the way he is, what he is capable of, and that he has a really big heart.
As a bonus, you have a severely(yet pleasantly) extroverted pregnant Iranian woman, who pokes Ove out of his hole every now and then, unintentionally saving his life.

————————————–

A misunderstood well-meaning man, and technically challenged loving neighbors, create a heartwarming story featuring love, routine, and Saab.

Must read.

I feel bad rating a holocaust book, 3 stars. How dare I. But I'd like to be honest.

The first half of the book is about the author's experiences in the concentration camp. If you have read at least 2 or 3 other holocaust literature, there is nothing new. It is short and to the point.

The second part focuses on Logotherapy. Which essentially is a psychiatric tool, which asks patients to find meaning in life for a more fulfilling existence - which could be by 1) doing something 2)experiencing something/ meeting someone 3)unavoidable suffering.
The third point seems like it was forced to be with the other two, and doesn't feel like it belongs there.

One other reason why I rated this 3, is because of the clash between this books ideas and my opinion. I don't think there's a meaning. The whole thing is random. And this meaning is only something we attribute. Can someone capable of thinking, actually fool themselves with this? I envy people who can find make meaning, where there isn't any. Of course in a concentration camp, one is only trying to survive the day, and prayers and meaning fulfilment would work. Is it same for the mundane life the majority of us lead though?

The best thing about the book is that, it is one of a kind. You don't find many Indian gay men writing autobiographies. Much of my appreciation for this book I have to attribute to this fact; maybe a little more than I'd like.

Over 200 odd pages, Sharif describes his life's ups and downs - the numerous relationships he's had (not being judgmental, but that part is a little exhausting), the support and hostility of the people around him, his feelings and choices.

It is a brave attempt. Though of course, he's been brave way before he started writing a book.
He certainly bagged the first, but not the best, I hope. At times it felt like an essay, than a coherent life story. And times TMI?(considering the genre) I mean do you really want to know what Sufal said, looking down the author's pants?

Saying it was repetitive is probably offensive, ‘cause it's a guy's life, but it does get a little tiring in the later half. I wish his writing style was a little more engaging. LGBTQ literature in India is sparse, compared to the scene in the West. So I have only respect the pioneer.

“Many of us spent a larger part of our lives gathering courage to be oursleves”
- somebody the author knows.

I read this out of curiosity, ‘cause the LGBTQ scene in India is all hushed up. Pick it up if you are curious; along with loads of uninteresting info about the author's family, you'll get to know it from a person who has gone through it all.

Imogen Weir - wonderwoman/cleaner lady is everyone's new favorite in town, after running away from a husband who is quite a character.

It's a like a soap opera, written down.
“Imogen stop acting stupid”
“Don't call Imogen stupid, she is a wonderful, intelligent person”
- 2 adults in an argument.

You don't learn anything new about the two lead characters after the first few chapters. So I'll tell, since it won't be spoiling.
Vince is super controlling with serious ocd issues. Imogen at a weak point in her life thought this horrible specimen would be the best choice for her. Realizing her mistake soon enough, she plans an escape.

This theme of the controlling husband bordering on gaslighting could have been better utilized in the plot, to provide a mystery element. This book is no mystery, just mildly thrilling. Very mildly.

Also works as an advertisement for perfumes, clothes, cookware, (and some other french brands of stuff I didn't bother to find out), and still more of France itself.

Don't read.

“If we were all on trial for our thoughts, we would all be hanged”Maids Dreams Asylum Religion SubconsciousWhile reading Austen, I have often wondered about the lives of those in the background. Those actually get any work done. It is strange that I came across this book only by chance.In the mid 1800s, Grace alias Mary Whitney (or maybe Mary Whitney is the real deal, and it's Mary Whitney alias Grace) a maid, is tried in court at the age of 16 for the murder of the house owner and housekeeper. The story unfolds with Grace walking us through her life as she talks with a psychologist, Dr. Jordan.Disclaimer:It is long, unbearably so. You know it is good; you can't stop reading, but you wish it would just hurry up and end. And if you are here for a murder mystery, bye-bye. Though there is murder and mystery in it, the appeal is not in its resolution. It is in the writing and the ideas.While reading the book, I imagined myself sitting behind a one-way mirror, listening to Dr. Jordan interview Grace. She's not supposed to know that someone else is watching her. But I think she knows. We came for clarity, but it's still a façade. Her guard is up all the time.There is a childlike innocence to this narrative of murder and madness.Grace is brought up religious and knows her Bible front-to-back. Yet, there is a ruthless practicality to her thoughts that quite frequently leaves her religious beliefs helpless. Many parts of the book reflect on the unfairness and impracticality of religion in real life, especially in the lives of people like Grace.“...because the only thing to do about God is to go on with what you were doing anyway, since you can't ever stop him or get any reasons out of him. There is a Do this or a Do that with God, but not any Because.”This is only my second book of Atwood's. Still, I'm pretty sure that the rest of them also feature badass women in crappy circumstances. There are few other authors who portray them so well. (Check out [b: Aarachar 33215688 ആരാച്ചാര്‍   Aarachar K.R.  Meera https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1480602706l/33215688.SY75.jpg 23575547], if you like Atwood.)“In his student days , he used to argue that if a woman has no other course open to her but starvation, prostitution or throwing herself from a bridge, then surely the prostitute, who has shown the most tenacious instinct for self-preservation, should be considered stronger and saner than her frailer and no longer living sisters. One couldn't have it both ways, he'd pointed out: if women are seduced and abandoned they're supposed to go mad, but if they survive and seduce in their turn, then they were mad to begin with.”It is striking that all men are viewed either with indifference or hatred by Grace, unlike most other women in the book. I think we are never meant to know what she really feels. She has lost everything; she left no trace. She shared her dreams with us, but not with Dr. Jordan. Her feelings are hers to keep; it's up to us to guess.” A prison does not only lock its inmates inside, it keeps all others out. Her strongest prison is of her own construction.

I am a total noob, only dipping my toes into sci-fi. I am 100% sure that my intelligence and knowledge is not equipped enough to give this book the analysis it deserves. I am only here to mention a few thoughts I had whike reading the book. I have nothing to compare it to. I haven't seriously read about capitalism, socialism or anarchy anywhere else before.

For those who haven't read the book, it takes place in a fictional world where of 4 planets. Urras, Anarres, Terra, Hain. Of these Urras and Anarres are twin planets, earths and moons of each other. On Anarres is a newly formed civilization by the Anarchists of Urras, who mass migrated generations back.
In Anarres, there is no hierarchy or property. People don't own, they share. Consider the consequences.

I have always associated anarchy with chaos and violence. The anarchists in this book are peaceful people, whose survival depends on their solidarity. There is no chaos, there is order.

This book does not deny that, the functioning of it's society is dependent on the limited population and adequate resources, that it will not survive a tipping of scales. It is utopia. A perfectly functioning society, given certain prerequisites are followed.
People who have a better grasp of sociology, might appreciate this better. Nevertheless the concept is thought provoking.

Personally I found it difficult to find a connection with the characters. The are cold and distant. That is the whole point within the story too. There is some sort of delineation happening between love and relationships, that I didn't quite understand. What kind of love is it, in a world where one can't say “You are mine.”?
It's not “your smile is beautiful”, it's “the smile is beautiful”, because possessive word don't exist/are not used.

I haven't read a utopian novel before, and have always wondered how it would be. This one I found is only a prettily dressed dystopian. It makes you realize thay the negative elements in our society exists for certain unavoidable reasons.

The book is easy enough to understand. Appropriate as a foray into sci-fi.

I was genuinely surprised, when I realized that I was breezing through this novel, as opposed to the uphill rocky climb that her other books are(looking at you, Mansfield Park.)
Either I have gotten used to her style of writing or this is unusually simple and would be a great first book for readers new to Austen. Also, it might have helped that the heroine herself is half the time clueless about whatever that's going on around her.

It's the early 19th century, there are no telephones, no internet. And our 18y/o heroine is naïve and has no idea about the ways of the world. She's a tomboy and has a penchant for ‘horrid' novels. She visits Bath with her friendly neighbors for 6 weeks, where she makes friends and finds love; only things get a little awkward, when she decides to incorporate a little of those novels into daily life; immersive experience you know. That plotline doesn't take much of space, though. It is a character driven, humor predominant novel leaving nothing much definitive in the way of a plot.

There is a general format that Austen follows, which I believe, the readers tend to expect, one they have read 3 or 4 of her books. All her novels depend heavily on characters. Once a character is introduced, there is a subconscious “ waiting” taking place, as we read through lines - waiting for the description of this character. She doesn't lightly introduce her characters, make them say/do things and leave. An elaborate description always follows, that sets the foundation. At the end of the book, there are no picturesque sceneries or incredible plot twists that remains in my mind. There are only people, talking.

There is a thin paste of humor, spread evenly throughout the novel. You know, the kind that's funny, but you aren't exactly rolling on the floor. Also the author chats with the reader. It's incredible if you think, it's actually communication transcending 2 centuries, and they are addressing you. Anyway, I think it makes the book more...loveable.

If you have read other Austen novels and haven't read this yet, please do. If you'd like to start reading Austen, this would be a good first book, on a par with PP. Although having read that a long time back, it demands a second reading for a just comparison. If you have read the book and came just to read my review, hello. If you don't even plan on reading, what are you doing here?

ps mandatory quotes in review:
“Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others , which a sensible person should always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything , should conceal it as well as she can““It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire...Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone.“” No man is offended by another man's admiration of the woman he loves; it is the woman only who can make it a torment”Just so that the list doesn't look like dating tips out of an 18th century magazine, I'll add one more, “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”