Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (Book).

Book: 9/52
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë.
My Rating: 5/5

I had to read this one very fast because I wanted to watch the much-awaited adaptation on the big screen, which came out last weekend. And what a treat this one turns out to be for me. Now the latest adaptation has Jacob Elrodi playing Mr Heathcliff, and I totally loved Jacob in his last outing on the big screen as Frankenstein’s Monster, yet again with a totally new take which touched my heart big time, as the Monster always does, as many times I end up reading the Mary Shelley book. This one was no different, as I am sure you will agree if you have read Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is no less than a monster when it comes to this harrowing story of what he does to the family who adopts him in the first place as a good deed. How he rips apart the family in its entirety was totally shocking to me, as I guess I had forgotten it after I read it for the first time when I was in school. How shrued and cunning the man turns out was beyond me, the way he falls in love with Catherine and she for him, making me think this will be a rebellious love story of sorts but the way Cathy takes a stand to get married to someone else (why? you need to read the book) and then Heathcliff vanishes for a few years but as soon as he comes back the revenge drama of sorts starts. The entire story takes place between two mansions a few miles apart from each other, with the majority of it taking place in the family owned Wutheing Heights, the haunted mansion to say the least. I loved the way Emily carves out the house as a solid character in itself. The whole story is narrated as a flashback to one Mr Lockwood, who becomes the latest tenant in the second house and visits Wuthering Heights to meet and greet his landlord. A very simple yet totally intriguing story kept me hooked to the very end whereas the ending is dislosed right in the first chapter itself, but it works beautifully to know how and what all happens in the first place.


Do let me know if you have read and loved Wuthering Heights or if you have liked any of its earlier adaptations, as the current movie is getting a lot of negative reviews as of now. I am certainly going to watch it as soon as I get back to my town after a short vacation.  

The Rosie Effect - Graeme Simsion (Book).

Book: 8/52

The Rosie Effect - Graeme Simsion

My Rating: 4/5

After I finished “The Rosie Project”, I had to read this one at the earliest to know how life goes forward for Prof Don Tillman (PhD in Genetics) when he tries to win over his love Rosie by doing a proper research project on her. Now, this one takes the story ahead as they get married and move to NY from Melbourne, as Rosie has to finish her thesis while he finishes his study of drunken rats' liver :). This is all about how he makes himself a better husband and a perfect father. But Don being Don, he has to help so many other lesser mortals’ problems too, like his ex-rock star drummer who is having a tough time solving his Beer stock problem in a sealed room, with another friend Dave’s refrigerator business going downhill, with his wife not being too happy with him and all that. Much to Rosie’s annoyment his philanderer friend and mentor Gene also makes an entry into their household in the USA. In between, Don gets arrested too for a reason that was not only hilarious, but the way he solves his problem makes it even better. As I said earlier Graeme Simsion will show up somewhere between PGW and Frederik Backman in my reading ratings and this second book from the series was no exception, totally hilarious affair and egaging till the very end where Don almost becomes a terrorist of sorts and gets on the verge of getting arrested again, you’ve got to read this one for his histrionics which never come to an end whatever situation life may take him on. Having said all that, I must say this one, in comparison to its earlier coutnerpart wasn’t that great or maybe it didn't work for me the way Rosie Project worked, but even then it made a fantastically quick read without any doubts. And I loved the Indian connection, especially the way he makes a mantra to calm himself in tough situations. Now that I have finished this one, I am eagerly looking forward to the third and last from Don Tillman series to see how it all will end for him once he becomes a father. 

Since I started the first book and now that I am done with the sequel too, the character of Din Tillman keeps on reminding me of my own favourite, much-loved Forrest Gump for some reason. I keep on drawing parallels between them two, don't you think Don Tillman is almost as good or maybe even better because of his PhD than Gump, but is almost equally fantastic in everything he does with aplomb, finesse and to the perfect result. Have you read this one or any other by Graeme Simsion? Do let me know, as I am sure to check out a little more from him once I am done with this series. 

 

Better than the Movies - Lynn Painter (Book).

Book: 7/52

Better than the Movies - Lynn Painter

My Rating: 2/5

My daughter was surprised when I raided her room for this book, as I had run out of my own books and couldn’t go to the library last week. I had no expectations from this one, as going by the title, it did look like a teenage love story, and I wasn’t wrong. Turns out to be a teenage girl's story of finding a happy ending with her forever crush, how she gets to him after dreaming about him all his life is the gist of the story. Then comes along her handsome hunk of a neighbour with whom she has a permanent tiff because of a single parking spot in the neighbourhood where both of them try to park their car, much to the other's annoyance. Things take a good turn when this next door good looking neighbour starts helping her land her crush. What happens next was a pretty predictable teenage love triangle with loads of referneces of love stories (movies) and a plethora of love songs. Later, things fall into the right place with the ending confirming a sequel :). It wasn’t a bad read at all, thanks to the side characters, her dead mother, loving stepmom and a cool best friend, they all make it a good time-pass read. I would have definitely given it an extra star as the girl works in a bookstore (part-time) and the author somehow rated Julia Quinn (Bridgerton fame) at par with Jane Austen (like really??), thereby losing one star from me. Although I finished it in three sittings, and yes, it did make my to-be-seen movie list a bit longer and gave me 30-odd love songs, which made it to my Spotify list. 

So far, there is no movie based on the book, but it will definitely make up for a good TV series whenever it may come. Do let me know if you have read Better than the Movies and liked it too. 

 

The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion (Book).

Book: 6/52
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion
My Rating: 5/5

So I continue to read 5/5 books this year, and this one was no exception on that front :). I landed on this book in our little library in Pune, as I had read quite a few glowing reviews on the same in the past. I must say that I loved this book big time, and the story was so amazing that I wished it never ended. I am definitely going to put Graeme somewhere between my love for PG Wodehouse and Frederik Backman, his main character Don Tillman, an Aussie, is no less than Jeeves, Wooster and much-loved and adored Ove for that matter. Don is 40ish, PhD in Genetics and is not only a scientist but also a Prof of repute in a notable university, and on top of all that, he is an Aspie, as he calls all Asperger’s syndrome people with love. So that makes him a superhuman of sorts with a very set and organised life, but the way Graeme has written the story and character, it is not only hilarious but also made me emotional too. Now that's another thing that Don doesn’t feel emotional at all, and how? I can’t explain, but one has to read to know. So the story goes forward when one fine day he decides that he needs to get a life partner, and he starts “The Wife Project” with his best friend Gene, who is not only his colleague but a father figure too, with his much-loved wife Claudia, who is a Psychologist, so you get the hang of the people he goes around with. Unfortunately, his wife's project doesn’t do much help, but Gene finds a woman called Rosie, who is a total misfit, but then with Rosie, Don starts another project called “The Father Project” with her to find her biological father. And with many twists and turns, after intercontinental travel in search of her father, will they get him, or will they cook up their own story? is the rest of the novel. 

The book is hardly 300+ pages, and I found it completely compulsively readable, totally unputdownable, thrilling, intruiguing and so mushy, so romantic. I wish and pray they never make a movie on this one, as Tom Hanks is too old and Jacob Elordi is too tall to play Don’s character and won't look like a PhD guy, either, and I could not imagine any other actor playing that amazing character as of now. I am amazed by the way Graeme has written such a beautiful story around Science and technical terms, yet it works wonders with the readers who do not know the field, especially the way it revolves around the University Campus with 50-odd doctors (PhDs included) being examined for the father project, most hilariously. And the way Don, who is an accomplished cocktail bartender and a licensed server of alcohol, goes through his days alone with such finesse is to die for. I am so much in love with him that it will be very hard for me not to get the rest of the two books in the series at the earliest, hoping and praying that our library has all the parts :). I loved the bookcover too, with a lobster in prime focus, I wish I could eat a lobster every Tuesday just like Don did all his life till he met Rosie. 

Do let me know if you have read the Rosie Project and loved it too. Also, let me know who you would love to see as Don and Rosie in the movie, if one ever gets made. I will pick Emily Blunt for sure as Rosie. 

 

Yellowface - Rebecca F Kuang (Book).

Book: 5/52
Yellowface - Rebecca F Kuang
My Rating: 2/5

I thought this year I was going to break my own record by picking books that I won’t be able to rate below 5/5. So far, it was going great till I landed on this highly reviewed book on Goodreads, Fable and our own reading group, and it derailed my plan in the very first month of the year, how sad it is. Surprisingly, it is written by a Chinese writer from the perspective of a white American woman whose motto in life is to prove that “White Lives Matter” too. And it shouldn’t always be the minority or downtrodden who should get all the privileges, as they so much deserve it. But the way it's all done through her story is so jumbled up and unreadable to an extent, but somehow kept ploughing on to finish it to a very predictable ending and not exciting at all. So the story goes like two college friends (Yale graduates), Athena, a Chinese-origin super successful writer, and Juniper, whose (American) first book bombs. Ofcourse Athena has a terrific life, super rich with another upcoming book in the very near future based on the Chinese Labour Corps who fought in the First World War in Europe, and Juniper has no clue what she will be writing next. One fine day, while eating pancakes at Athena’s place for the very first time, she chokes and dies right in front of June. Although she tries to save her and calls emergency services and all, while they come and take away her body, she does steal the draft copy of the book that Athena was writing. What happens next was totally predictable: she edits the story and makes it her own, and gets it published under her name with super success; even a movie deal was on the horizon when horror strikes in the form of a Twitter account to uncover the real story behind the book. 

I expected it to get better once the reality starts coming out, but then it becomes a story of justification from June about how she wasn’t wrong in doing what she did, so on, so forth. It wasn’t even gripping post 100 odd pages as she keeps on fighting with her own ghosts and how she tries to make it worth it to a very predictable finale, as I mentioned, rather I found it to be pretty hilarious. If this is the reality of the publishing world as of today, we would rather stick back to our good old classics, I must say. One thing I totally disliked in this novel is that RFK herself is a Chinese born Author, but the way she presents a white female’s perspective of Chinese people, their writing or for that matter, even their food, was totally in bad taste. I seriously couldn’t believe it to be true in today’s time, especially. I guess it's her own views that she has portrayed through her characters of their own insecurities by being in a country they can’t call it Home or where they feel they are being sidelined or betrayed, or face racism. I found it to be a totally one-sided account and was totally shocked by the treatment of it all. Another thing which didn’t work for me at all in this one is the use of Instagram, Twitter and too much of the internet in the story. I felt like I was watching the real life of aspiring authors rather than actually reading a novel by one of them. The last 50 pages were pretty challenging, and very easily this would have gone on to become my first DNF of the last 5 odd years, I must say. On other thoughts, I believe it's a rant from a Chinese author on the world being full of Chinese products so much that we cannot live without them, yet we still hate China and its people for no reason. 

Do let me know if you have read Yellowface and liked it somehow. I am for sure staying away from her other works in the future.