10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak (Book).

Book 52/52.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Elif Shafak. 

My Rating: 4/5

Last book of the year, as per my target, had to be a special one, and after reading my first from Elif Shafak (40 Rules of Love), I was totally in love with her writing. So this one was no exception, loved it, but not the way I liked the first one. I am sure this one lost a lot of its originality in translation, as it is a little disjointed and contradictory at times but that nothing takes away from a beautiful story of an innocent girl who becomes a prostitute in the city of Istanbul and then faces the ill fate of being killed and dumped in a trash bin right in the first chapter of the book. What follows is the ten minutes and 38 seconds of what she goes through once she is dead and her spirit leaves her body, her life flashes back to her in those 10 minutes and 38 seconds, and we, the reader, go through the lives of 5 of her favourite people and with her own life story till the very end. Starting from her birth to her death, the way those ten minutes and 38 seconds cover everything was totally amazing, the way that she has captured the entire story of Tequila Leila as she was named, her parents, life in the city of Van before she is forced to move to Istanbul and her five friends, part of which is fiction but so much of it was real too. What touched my heart was the ending of the story in the first chapter itself, yet my heart kept expecting a better life or a change of events for her, which, in the first place, was impossible to expect, if you know what I mean. Incredible story covered in mere 300-odd pages, but I am sure this will remain with me for a very long time to come. On top of that, this was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2019, a much-deserved accolade, I must say. 

Have you read 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World? If not, you’ve got to read at the earliest, and I am looking forward to reading the other 15 books that she has written so far. 

 

Upsanhar (Hindi) - Kashinath Singh (Book).

Book 51/52.

Upsanhar (Hindi) - Kashinath Singh. 

My Rating: 5/5 

I got this book after reading an amazing review on the same in our book readers group, and another reason to get this is our upcoming trip to Dwarka (Gujarat) around mid-December. I am super happy to read this gem of a book, especially because it was originally in Hindi, and every time I read a Hindi book, it improves my depleting vocabulary. I had read somewhere that even after being only 120 pages, it is no less than an epic, and it was so rightly said. The way it covers the last 4 decades of Lord Krishna’s life after the great war of the Mahabharata, it also covers almost the entire Mahabharata episode in small glimpses, but makes up for a terrific review of the entire epic war, which lasted 18 days but sounds like a lifetime. The painful movement of the Yadav clan from Mathura to Dwarka, and after the inevitable debacle of beautiful Dwarka, how they disperse is so amazingly captured. It was an eye-opener to see Krishna in a totally new light, especially his regrets when he accepts what he had done in the so-called Dharmayudh. Was he even righteous, as he himself questions his ways of helping Padava win the ultimate war and reclaim their right? I must say I haven’t read a better life story of much much-loved character from Hindu Mythology. This will certainly go on top of my recommendation list if anyone ever asks me which is my favourite Krishna retelling, this will be it for sure. 

Have you read Upsanhar? Do let me know if you loved it. I am looking forward to reading so much more from Kashinath Singh, as I have loved two of his books back to back (Kashi Ka Assi being the other one). 

 

Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig (Book).

Book 50/52.

Beware of Pity - Stefan Zweig

My Rating: 5/5 

I got this book as a gift from a friend returning from Vienna (Austria), I rather forced him to get me one. Now all my friends know that the moment they ask me what to get from the country they are returning, it will never be something from Duty Free, but from the airport book stall, but the only condition is that it has to be a local author book and in English. I neither offer them a writer's name nor a book, so it always comes as a surprise. This was a totally surprise read with so much human psychology in play that it shocked, surprised and kept me engaged to the very last page with such an intriguing story, yet it took me close to two weeks to finish, but no complaints. The story is very straightforward and told from the perspective of a highly decorated army officer who had personally shot down three fighter aircraft in the Second World War and had kept an enemy army at bay with his histrionics of machine guns and all that. How his little act of pity lands him in a soup is the story all about when he mistakenly asks a crippled girl to dance with him just because he was invited to a high-end party, where, in the first place, he was in awe of one of her close friends. What leads is an amazing story where we, the readers, feel his pain and angst as he goes through and how it all technically gets forced on him with no way out for him. At times, I myself was confused as to who was rooting for? the crippled girl falling for the officer, or her father blackmailing him with his power or our hero’s pure heart making him do something his brain tells him all the way not to do. But what shocked and broke my heart was the ending, hats off to Stefan Zweig for that ending that I simply couldn’t predict, yet he leaves me with a few questions, which are food for my thoughts on the gem of a story. The title is so apt that mid-way ways I just couldn’t think of a better alternate option. 

Have you read Beware of Pity or any other Stefan Zweig book? I am looking forward to a few more from him as they are much more acclaimed than this one. Also, my next foreign gift book is going to be from Shakespeare, guess where my friend is coming back from?

 

The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman (Book).

Book 49/52.

The Man Who Died Twice - Richard Osman

My Rating: 3/5 

I will say this was the lukewarm second book from the much-loved Thursday Murder Club series, which I totally loved for thrill, action and insanely loving characters. Now, the sequel, on the other hand, didn’t work the way the original worked in the first place. I believe that was because four unique characters are introduced amazingly in the first part. All four retired from different backgrounds, living together in a posh old-age home in a secluded village. One of them is a retired MI5/6 agent, another one was a union leader, one psychiatrist and the last but not the least (one of my favourite) retired nurse. They make an amazing Thursday Murder Club and help their cop friends Donna and Chris solve the murder mysteries. This time around, the murder is related to one of them (an ex-husband who died long back), who is killed again after stealing 20 million pounds worth of diamonds from a mafia member, hence the title. What started (was supposed to be a cat and mouse chase game) was a wild goose chase to first know if the ex-husband was actually dead or he was playing dead, and where are the diamonds gone? On top of that, one of the oldies gets beaten black and blue by a rogue kid trying to snatch his mobile phone. What he goes through after the accident and how he still helps from his hospital bed was a good story, but it felt too long for my imagination and liking. Exciting was the way his friends tracked and punished the kid in question, but what I expected from this part was to show me some glimpses from their past, which it only does very partially and not to the full extent. And that is why it was an average time pass read, which I was able to finish in 4-5 working days, nothing exceptional, but not bad at all. 

Do let me know if you have read The Man Who Died Twice and loved it the way its prequel was admired, or if it didn’t work for you either. I will certainly look forward to its TV adaptation for a few of my favourite actors enacting these lovely characters on screen. 

 

Mrs Funnybones - Twinkle Khanna (Book).

Book 48/52.

Mrs Funnybones - Twinkle Khanna

My Rating: 1/5 

Why I picked up this one is because I had finished two of the fattest books for the year back to back (Dan Brown and Robert Galbraith’s latest), which added to some 1700+ pages. Hence needed a light-hearted feel-good book to break the suspense and thrill momentum and landed on this one in our library. On top of that, I was curious to read at least one from the celebrity writer to get the hang of her writing, and if she is any good. I know one gentleman who knows one gentleman who claimed that this was ghostwritten by him. Now, I am totally sure he was lying because if he had written this one, it would have been funny to say the least. It turns out to be random ramblings of a privileged Bollywood wife going on and on about her daily life, followed by some Googled anecdotes and tidbits we now read in reel world. It has a lot of Bollywood references, as they for sure won’t mind being part of a celebrity author’s published work in the name of fun. But it was not funny at all, let alone making me laugh, it didn’t even made me smile one bit on top of that she claims she had her own set of struggle in life, that was a little hard to digest coming from someone whose father was a superstar, so was/is her mother and husband happens to be one of the richest actors of his own era. I hated the potty references in the name of comedy, even when they were related to her toddler; too much of it was a big turn-off for me. Ironically, no mention of her Dad or Sister in the book, whereas she has taken solid digs at her other side of the family, of course, for fun (even that wasn’t funny) and loads of her superstar husband, almost in all the chapters (which was a respite). I can bet that Random House didn’t even proofread her work, let alone edit its mistakes or correct grammar. The only thing that made me actually laugh was the use of five “Blimeys” that she did in the first five chapters. 

I believe I should have stuck to my favourite PGW for fun; this wasn’t even worth the 50/- that I paid for my copy. Do let me know if you have read this one and liked it. I will stay away from her other works for now.