The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman (Book & Movie).

Book 39/52.

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman. 

My Rating: 4/5. 

My daughter ordered this book a few months ago, to my pleasant surprise, as she knows how to make me happy by reading a few books a month. And I never say no to books, even after having a huge collection of 500+ at my place, new additions are always welcome. Later, I came to know that this was picked up for a movie adaptation with Pierce Brosnan (Ron), Helen Mirren (Elizabeth) and Ben Kingsley (Ibrahim) & and Jonathan Percy (Stephen Elisabeth’s husband)  in the lead, playing the retired folks staying in a plush old age home peacefully. As a hobby, they start a Thursday Murder Club where they discuss and try to solve a few unsolved murders. What was so interesting about this whole book and story is the way it is written, first from the perspective of a Murder Club member, Joyce, who is writing her diary and second from a third-party angle, where we read the goings on of the cat and mouse chase game with the police angle too. I actually didn’t expect it to be this good, being the debut book of the Author, but now I am sure that he is one to be watched out for, as there are two more that he has written after this one. All four members of Murder Club are above 70 or 80 as they claim, but the way they work and especially the way the author discloses their background in bits and pieces, is terrific. Like the way, at one point he discloses that Elisabeth still holds a valid license as a Tank driver, go figure what is she going to do in the story. The story takes a twisty turn as the Owner of the old age home decides to expand his footprint by taking over a cemetery next to his property, by transferring it to some other place. His partner gets killed in the meantime, and all the doubts fall on him as he is the one who would gain more by his death. One murder follows another, and before we know it, dead bodies start cropping up from the past, too. Murder club works in tandem with the cops; you’ve got to read the book to know how they persuade or blackmail each other to help. It was hilarious. The entire book (380+ pages) is so intriguing and unputdownable that I believe I finished it in flat 3 sittings, and now I need to catch the movie at the earliest to see if they have done any justice to the lovely book. 

Do let me know if you have read this one or any other works of Richard. I am going to read all his other books now for sure. 

Movie: I had to watch the movie as soon as I finished the book, of course, for the amazing casting and especially when it is directed by Chris Columbus, aka Harry Potter fame. If a movie can put a smile on my face, it is worth it, I would say, and this was no exception. Although they did change it a little bit here and there, as 2 hours cannot do justice to a 380-page book, I am super happy that they didn’t take away much from it, and the end product is pretty charming, just like the book and a treat to watch. Although they did change the murderer on the grounds of so much detailing that they couldn’t do, unlike the book, where the writer had all the time in the world to twist and turn. But one good reason to still like it is that we get to watch some of my favourite people in one movie, which was totally amazing, especially the four leads, they were simply terrific, and they were a perfect fit for the characters they were playing. If the book was a four-star for me, the movie is definitely a 3/5, and I am planning to watch it again with wifey tonight, as she loves murder mysteries, so I need to check if she can catch the killer before the movie ends. And now I will have to wait for its sequel to come as and when that happens, and have to order books number two and three at the earliest. 

 

The Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Book).

Book 38/52.

The Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

My Rating: 3/5 (Being Generous).

1982 Nobel Prize for literature winner GGM is one of my all-time favourite Authors and I try to read at least one book a year from him and not more because he has hardly written 15 (Novels and Novellas included) and I haven’t picked up a single one of his non-fictions so far, so I have no idea how good they must be. All his works are originally in Spanish, later translated into various languages, but the way they have turned out to be amazing, surreal beauties, it is hard to say they lose anything during translations. This was no exception on that ground, the whole background, the unnamed country and the kingdom of the patriarch is so amazingly detailed that I was totally hooked to it. What didn’t work for me this time was the prose without a sentence break, or paragraph break or even chapter break. The whole 230 odd pages are written without break, non stop at breakneck pace, even while the whole story of the patriarch’s mysterios death in the very first page is narrated six times with different perspectives by different people to a General who is enquiring about the happenings in company with an Archbishop, it is done in first person order with no quotes as who is saying what. That was very tiring to read as I had to go back again and again to check where the first person stopped and where the other parties started talking :). And the story of the cunning patriarch is totally unbelievable (of course it's fiction) as he lives to an age of 232 years and has witnessed the Hailey’s comet some 3 odd times, he himself loses count of how many times. He had fathered some 5000 children, and please don’t ask about how many concubines he must have; one of them was his so-called wife and the heir she gave him. I just can’t explain. For that matter, how he comes down to become a king when his mother (a bird woman) doesn’t even know who his father was, just that he was born with no lines in his hands and he was destined to be a king right from his birth, and oh! Before I forget, his mother birthed him in a standing position. I wonder why we need all those details. It is beyond my imagination, and now that Mr. GGM is no more, no one can answer our questions. 

Beautifule is the way he has captured the entire sequence of Patriach’s mother’s death, right when I was about to question his age vis-a-vis his mothers age, he decides to kill her and then follows it with one heck of an amazing burial ceremony, One has to read the book to go through the entire amazing sequence and the beautiful way it all is captured and explained, I could imagine those visuals right in front of my eyes while reading his amazing prose (again without break). On top of all that above, there are so many instances that were very hard for me to digest in the GGM book; one case was of a courtier from the King’s court who gets drunk and starts pissing right in the centre of the entire court. And then there is this General that the Patriarch doesn’t like for some reason, so he gets him cooked in his full attire and serves his guests in one fine dinner. People do make faces, but I assume they all enjoy the feast. And then there is this third gentleman who had fathered a son with his own mother. I believe I have read the majority of his works; they have their own kind of grimness and gruesomeness, but this one takes the cake from all of them. I still remember the guy from one of his books, “Chronicles of a Death Foretold”, where he kills someone and moves with his machete still dripping blood in one hand while the other holds the head of the dead person. I couldn’t take that image out of my mind for the last decade or more that I have been reading the story. I still haven’t forgotten the surreal beauty that he had described in the beautiful (yet challenging) “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, where one loses count of characters and the family tree of the protagonist. Or the melancholy love story in “Love in the Time of Cholera” and its heartbreaking ending. But this one is totally different from them all. I am sure Mr. GGM must be smoking some fine Colombian hash while writing this, but still, it was a challenging yet very intriguing read. 

I love his on your face, give a damn stories and the choice of words that he uses to describe his characters or even the way they talk, totally out of this world stuff yet very engaging to read. I wish he had written a lot more, but then we won't be reading his books on repeat, won't we? Do let me know if you have read this one and liked it, or if you have a personal favourite from Gabo. Mine will always be a tie before Chronicles of Death and Love in the time of cholera for sure. 

Love and Hot Chicken - Mary Liza Hartong (Book).

Book 37/52.

Love and Hot Chicken - Mary Liza Hartong.

My Rating: 2/5.

I got this book from a friend who was returning to India from the USA for vacation, and we were supposed to catch up in Bangalore. Usually these days I ask my foreign friends to get me books from their respective countries, Authors of their choice and this was one of the cases where my friend's choice didn't work one bit for me. Although I love the way she has written on the first page of the book “From JFK to Pune” :) with a date stamp. I guess she picked it up, going by the title, as this turns out to be a Lesbian love story, the protagonist is going through a recent loss of her father, moves back to her hometown town and for no reason sticks back, leaving her PhD halfway. On top of that, she starts working in a local eatery, a chicken shack, as going by the title, and that's where she meets her partner. Coincidentally, her best friend is a gay guy, who is almost like a brother she never had. The Chicken Shack owner suddenly decides to have an Employee Beauty Pageant, and the final prize is supposed to be $1ML can you believe that? Unfortunately, the characters are so underdeveloped that I could feel nothing for no one in particular, and there is no solid reason for anyone to do what they were doing in their sleepy old town. Neither is there much talk of mouthwatering food nor any heart-touching story to tell of the people around. I was surprised to read that the lead was doing her PhD when the tragedy struck, but the way her story goes forward and backwards, I guess she never grows beyond a teenager and shockingly, her mother too finds a partner at the blink of an eye. On top of that, the ending was so predictable that I could guess it by the time the book reached the halfway mark. I was almost on the verge of DNFing this one as the first of the year so far, but since this was a gift, I kept going and finished it. I was looking forward to picking up a same sex story for quite a while, but this one turns out to be a turn-off on that aspect too. 

 If you haven’t come across this one, I suggest you stay away if it comes your way, but if you have read and loved it, forgive me, please.

 

Irrfan Khan - The Man, The Dreamer, The Star - Aseem Chhabra (Book).

Book 36/52.

Irrfan Khan - The Man, The Dreamer, The Star - Aseem Chhabra.

My Rating: 4/5.

Irrfan Khan will undoubtedly show up in my all-time favourite actors list from world over, and that too almost at the top of the list, if I may say so. His biography had been on my list for quite a while, even though he wasn’t sure when Aseem approached him for the same, saying “pata nahin kaisi kitab hogi yeh”, in typical Irrfan Khan style. I am super glad that I kept my faith in Aseem Chhabra and got the book; it was indeed a fantastic experience to live all those movies that I’ve seen and enjoyed just for the fact that Irrfan acted in them. Now, after knowing the background stories of almost all of them, I am craving to watch them all again with new perspectives. What a versatile actor he was, not only in Hindi movies, but his resume from the West too reads quite well and impressively. Going by the facts, because of his commitment to a few fantastic movies in India, he had to turn down Directors like Ridley Scott (Martian) and my favourite Christopher Nolan (Interstellar), can you believe that? Now I will watch them again, and especially will keep an eye on those actors who replaced him in those movies. So many Indian Directors confess that at times they gave him a free hand when it came to playing a character, as he was so devoted to his character that he would create his background to place the same to the best of his knowledge, and the result? We have all seen it on screen. Imagine when Irrfan Khan went to USA and came across Mark Ruffalo (hulk fame) sitting in a restaurant, he was too reluctant to say hello but keen to not to miss the opportunity, and then Mark gets up and says hey to him saying “I love the work you have done, man”, incredible isn't it. You’ve got to read what his idols (Naseeruddin Shah and others) have to say about the legend that he became in such a short time and left us way too early. 

The best part about the book is the way Author has captured Irrfan’s thoughts in his ways, so believable are those words that I felt as if he dicatated them to him, although Aseem confessed that he never got the opportunity to meet him in details to write the book but had to make do with a few phone calls that he could make while he was recovering from Cancer in London. As he expected that he would make a full recovery and would get enough time to support the book, which never happened. But it was fantastic to see so many people from the Industry, his friend circle, fellow students from the institutes that he attended coming forward to pour their hearts out for the man who was loved by all. This will be one very short Biography that I will never forget and will read again as and when I watch his movies again. A must-read for all, especially for those who admired Irrfan Khan and his works. 

 

The Forty Rules of Love - Elif Shafak (Book).

Book 35/52.

The Forty Rules of Love - Elif Shafak.

My Rating: 5/5.

When I picked up this little gem of a book from our “The Book Elf Library Pune”, I thought this would be a teenage love story where the lovey-dovey couple will set up some rules for their love and all that. How wrong I was, as this one turned out to my pleasant shock and surprise to be a book full of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz’s philosophy and their 40 Rules of “Religion of Love”, how beautiful that sounds :) So you can imagine how fantastic this book must have been. Confession: I am not at all into poetry and stuff, but the way Rumi narrates his little gems in this one, especially following all of them with one-paragraph stories, was simply terrific to read. I wish I could read Urdu to read his original works in his language, that would be fantastic, but for now, we will make do with translations only. This one is a love story of a middle-aged woman, married with 3 kids (one set of twins included). She has her differences with her teenage daughter when she suddenly decides to get married to her boyfriend, the one that her mother doesn't like much. In the meantime, she too is going through her struggles with her husband, who is cheating on her unashamedly. She starts looking for work and gets hired by an agency that wants her to proofread, edit and provide feedback on a debutante’s book based on Rumi’s philosophy called “Sweet Blasphemy”. How the book turns out and the story of Rumi and Shams not only touches her but the reader in me, too. I want to keep going, but I will leave it to your imagination till you pick up this one, read and love it big time. This is a must-read for all, as those 40 rules are so heartening that I couldn’t agree more with the writer. Incredible read. 

The most beautiful part of the entire book, and both the stories in parallel, is the way the author has captured various perspectives. She has written it from the point of view of not only Rumi and Shams as the main characters in what they were going through but even from some characters which are not directly related to either of them, i.e a Harlot that they both come across, a drunk guy, a security guard, both of Rumi’s sons who both have their own opinion on Rumi and Shams not only relationships but on teachings too. Making it a further engrossing read, the only regret is that the story is too short, hardly 350 pages. It was so good that I never wanted it to end. 

Have you read this one and loved it too? Also, which one is your favourite Elif Shafak book?  And I will be adding a few from Rumi too, short stories to start with :). 

 

The Tenant - Freida McFadden (Book).

Book 34/52.

The Tenant - Freida McFadden

My Rating: 2/5.

My first Freida McFadden, and I am not very happy about it, picked this one up after reading so many rave reviews on her thrillers/suspense novels. It started very well, kept me gripping for the initial 200 pages of its total length of 350+ pages, but post that, it just goes downhill to a never-ending ending. Blake and Krista are happy go lucky couple, engaged and about to be married, a recent promotion for him send him to the peak of his career (how and why he gets it is amazing), everything is going good till one fine day he gets fired due to none of his fault and life changes upside down for them both and so we think. The cat and mouse chase game starts when they decide to take a tenant for their spare room, so it could help with their mortgage till he goes back to his next job, which takes its own sweet time because of the way he gets fired and all that. The new tenant, as expected, is a gorgeous female who has her agenda, and how she screws their lives was even good to engaging, but the moment the author discloses the real culprit, the downhill journey starts. Although this should be considered a psycho killer who is on a serial killer spree, but looks so stupid by the way all the murders are done and the reasons behind them too. The second half, 150 pages, was a pain and just a drag, since this was my first FMF book, I didn’t want to DNF, hence I ploughed along to a pretty much expected ending, even the last para reveal didn’t even make me smile. The way it starts VS the way the big reveal comes, and the ending is a big letdown. 

Do let me know if you have read this one, especially if you liked it. I usually do not give up on an author after just one book, so I will be looking forward to reading at least one more from her. Which one do you recommend that I read?

 

Bridgerton 5 - To Sir Philip with Love - Julia Quinn (Book).

Book 33/52.

Bridgerton 5 - To Sir Philip with Love - Julia Quinn.

My Rating: 5/5

I guess I am in love with Julia Quinn and her storytelling for sure, five books back to back, and each one is turning out better than the last one. This has never happened with me in the past with any writer. Even Mr King couldn’t continue his magic as I left reading his books (19 on a trot) last year and haven’t picked up even one this year from him so far. Bridgerton, as going by the TV adaptation, is the story(s) of 8 Bridgerton kids, this one is based on one of my favourite Bridgerton daughters, Eloise :). How she falls in love with, especially the way she falls for Sir Philip, writing letters to each other, which lasts about a year before she decides to run away to him, much to his amazement, without informing him in time. On top of that, Sir Philip is not only a recently widowed man but has a set of 8-year-old twins, too. Now, imagine the scene when her four brothers locate her and gatecrash at Sir Philip’s house to find their sister with a black eye :O What they do to him, I will leave that to your imagination to read for yourself, and how it all ends is amazing. As all her earlier stories have gone, this one too made me swoon, go all mushy mush in love with the way she writes her characters, but I missed Mrs Whistledown big time in this one since her cover is blown, guess she won’t be making an entry in any upcoming stories as well. So far, this is the best from the series, as I am yet to get the balance three and one add-on, which she has written to end the series. I will certainly get back if those change my favourite from the series.

Do let me know if you have read this one and loved it. If not, which one is your favourite Bridgerton book? TV adaptation is total crap. 

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J K Rowling (Book).

Book 32/52.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J K Rowling.

My Rating: 5/5.

Wow! It has already ended, just can’t believe that the story of the Boy Who Lived and fought his entire teenage life with the man He Who Shall Not Be Named with that kind of ending. Hats off to J K Rowling for penning this amazing story, stretched over 7 books, yet it feels too short. I am just done with my second reading of the same, and the ending has seriously choked me beyond words. This is one heck of a book series that is getting better as I grow older, and I will definitely reread it a few years down the road, too. Harry Potter with two of his close friends since the first year of Hogwarts School of Magic - Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, with so many close confidantes who keep coming to his rescue in every part, and still stand tall with him when he takes Lord Voldemort one last time in a terrific finale to end it all. The books have everything: family drama, love, loss, learning, and the victory of good over evil, all happening at a breakneck pace. Still, after two helpings myself of the same, I maintain that The Half Blood Prince survives as my favourite of the seven. Incredible read. 

 

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling (Book).

Book 31/52

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling.

My Rating: 5/5.

The Half Blood Prince was my personal favourite from the series when I read it for the first time, and since this is my second reading, nothing much has changed, as it still remains the best amongst the seven books (as of now). I didn’t actually expect myself to become as emotional the second time as it made when I went through the chapters and the story this time around. As the penultimate book where Lord Voldemort finally gathers his army, and now we know who is on the right and the wrong side of it, with shocking twists in the ending, it was simply terrific (still unbelievable). Also, as I mentioned earlier, it actually makes a big difference in the story and detailing if you read the oldest version possible. Since this time (all thanks to my Pottered friend), who lent me her copies, which are the oldest edition of the books, it had so many new things which I didn’t read earlier, which were pleasantly surprising and superb to read. Harry Potter gets the Half Blood Prince’s book and makes himself a perfect potion master while Voldemort get near him and kills at the earliest thickens. As if killing one Dark Lord wasn’t enough, when the fantastic secret is revealed as how he had saved and guarded himself with dark arts, totally earth-shattering suspense and reveal, I must say. When I read a book which happens to be a part of a series, I always try to read a different book in between to break the pace, but after this one, I couldn’t help but pick up the last one immediately :) and just couldn’t read anything else in between. 

Looking forward to the big finale in Deathly Hallows, but before that, I will check out the movie adaptation to disappoint myself one second last time :). 

 

Bridgerton 4 - Romancing Mister Bridgerton - Julia Quinn (Book).

Book 30/52

Bridgerton 4 - Romancing Mister Bridgerton - Julia Quinn

My Rating: 5/5.

Since the day my favourite nephew put a gun to my head to force me to watch Queen Charlotte on Netflix, followed by Bridgerton, I haven’t yet stopped. The only good thing I did was that I picked up the books before I watched their TV adaptation. Now I crib with every book’s adaptation with him only and try to coax him to read, which he flatly refuses, even after I tell him they are so much better than their adaptations and that they have actually screwed the original book story big time. Now, after the 4th book finished, whose adaptation should come by year's end, I guess, I have actually found one more good Author whose books I can pick up with confidence. Going by the genre, I will call them my guilty pleasure read on the sides of so many heavy books I keep reading (going to pick up another from my favourite Gabriel Garcia Marquez soon), these work like an antidote of sorts for me. This one is based on the third Bridgerton son, Colin, his love story and marriage. As all her books end up getting one of the Bridgerton kids married, in total there are 8 (four sons and four girls), guess the series ends with the 9th book, summing up all their lives to call it a finale - I will get there shortly. If you have read the series so far, this turns out to be quite twisty as it ends with the disclosure of much loved and hated (in equal measure by the audience) Mrs Whistledown, which was a superb way to end it. Now, we need to read further to see what happens to her after she has come out in the open to claim that she was the one writing the anonymous gossip column, which was read by all throughout the last 12 odd years. Waiting for the next book to arrive so I can get on with it. 

Do let me know if you have read this one and liked it. Also, which one is your favourite Bridgerton? Mine, as of now, is the one with Benedict’s story (An offer from a Gentleman).