BODHI'S

In a strange enchanting backdrop, the novel came with such issues which are easy to ignore but hard to discuss! REVIEWED BY BODHISATTYA PAL BOOK: THE MEMORY POLICE AUTHOR: YOKO OGAWA TRANSLATOR: STEPHEN SNYDER PUBLISHER: PANTHEON BOOKS BLURB:  GOODREADS GRAVITY: ' National  Book Award for Translated Literature 2019' 'International Booker Prize 2020' REVIEW: 👮A mysterious island with its own rules - things are vanishing fast along with the memories linked with it, snow is falling restlessly and they, the Memory Police, are roaming to ensure & enforce the annihilation! Quite a nebulous, eerie and enchanting premise. 🦅The Memory Police is a very strange novel. It keeps changing its mood & motive. It is very hard to specify its genre. The novel is partly dystopian, partly sci-fi, partly political and partly philosophical sometimes. 🖋️Yoko Ogawa started this novel with the disappearances as focal theme. The plot was expanding and ...

A BRUTAL YET BEAUTIFUL BRILLIANCE by BODHISATTYA PAL BOOK:  10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World AUTHOR: ELIF SHAFAK PUBLISHER: VIKING (PENGUIN BOOKS) PUBLISHING DATE: 6/6/2019 BLURB:  GOODREADS BLURB 🏆 BOOKER PRIZE 2019 SHORTLISTED 🏆 THE BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2019 REVIEW: 🧿Leila Tequila's body has been left in the dumpster after murder; her heart gave up but her mind was in transition from the day of her birth to the day of being murdered for another 10 minutes 38 seconds! Haven't come across such an original & intriguing premise for a long. 🌀Born into 'not a normal family', Leila's childhood was as normal as a Turkish muslim girl. An over fanatic father, an incoherent mother and an eerie aunt full of secret. Everything was quite fine untill her body & mind gained maturity. "Little did she yet understand that the end of childhood comes not when a child’s body changes with puberty, but whe...

NOT LETTERS ON PAPER, THIS IS SPARK OF FIRE!  BOOK: THERE'S GUNPOWDER IN THE AIR AUTHOR: MANORANJAN BYAPARI TRANSLATOR: ARUNAVA SINHA PUBLISHER: EKA (WESTLAND AMAZON) PUBLICATION: 2019 ABOUT: 'THE JCB PRIZE for literature SHORTLISTED 2019' 'THE DSC PRIZE LONGLISTED 2019' AMAZON:  ENGLISH   BENGALI REVIEW: Some stories are not really stories, they are testimonial of revolution, memorandum of unsung events. 'There's Gunpowder in the Air' is one of them. It's really hard to describe this rare book. Don't be fooled by guessing it as a jail break story, it's far from it, as I said earlier, it's fire, blazing fire! Manoranjan Byapari has an intensely tragic life story, you should know. It's unbelievable to think how he managed to write so much novels, with so much class! Or maybe his life events actually made him such a genius writer. He was the eye witness of the story he wrote. But still he manages to write a story wi...

A KILLER COMBO OF MULTIPLE GENRES! A UNIQUE ENTERTAINER. TITLE: KILLING TIME IN DELHI AUTHOR: RAVI SHANKAR ETTETH PUBLISHER: WESTLAND RELEASE DATE: 25/1/2019 BLURB:  AMAZON IN  Or  GODREADS REVIEW: Set in the capital Delhi, the novel zoomed into the lifestyle of crazy rich denizens. Charlie is one of them, who was 'playing' quite well untill the sudden series of hilarious events occurred! The event changes everything, the characters, colors, shadows & fate in the darker side of the city, where neon is only brightness! Seductive, psychedelic, cool, funky, handsome, sarcastic, funny, humorous - still I can't describe this book. All I can say it's different, really different! Don't expect a murder mystery thriller or a whodunit type of thing, this 197 pages long cracker is something unique. Firstly it's a really interesting subject. The author choose a completely different setting from his last year's brilliant 'The Brahmin'( REVIEW ...

A SARCASTIC TAKE ON INDIAN SOCIETY AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. DECENT DEBUT! BOOK: AN INDIAN LOSER AUTHOR: UZMA HAMEED GENRE: FICTION/INSPIRATIONAL RELEASE DATE: 11/12/2018 PUBLISHER: Self Published BLURB: In the other parts of the world when people fail, they gather themselves and try again; people around them encourage, motivate and inspire. However, in India if a person fails, he is considered incompetent, inadequate and unworthy. People around him disregard him as a loser and he is finished even before he could start. However, there are some ‘Indian Losers’ who refuse to give up. ‘An Indian Loser’ is the story of one such boy. Peeyush was the poster boy of the great Indian dream for his average middle class neighbourhood. His life was almost set - crack the IIT JEE, run away to a better city, find a great job and marry the girl of his dreams. However, by a strange stroke of bad luck he encounters an unexpected failure that turns his life upside down. As a result, ...

GET LOST IN THE VERSE OF THIS MAGNUM OPUS! A HIMALAYAN DEBUT! BOOK: Latitudes of Longing AUTHOR: Subhangi Swarup PUBLISHER: Harper Collins RELEASE DATE: 31/7/2018 Blurb: SHORTLISTED for 'The JCB PRIZE for Literature 2018' LONGLISTED for 'DSC PRIZE 2019' An astounding exploration of intense longings, Shubhangi Swarup's novel begins in the depths of the Andaman Sea, and follows geological and emotional faultlines through the Irrawaddy delta and the tourist-trap of Thamel, to end amidst the highest glaciers and passes of the Karakorams. The story sweeps through worlds and times that are inhabited by: a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who talks to them; Lord Goodenough who travels around the furthest reaches of the Raj, giving names to nameless places; a geologist working towards ending futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a superstitious dictator and a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released; a yeti who ...

"THE PAIN IN ANYOTHER'S STORY IS NO LESS THAN YOUR OWN" BOOK: Faith's Eternal Sunshine AUTHOR: Aashish Gupta RELEASE DATE: 9/11/2018 GENRE: Philosophical Psychological Fiction Blurb: *** HOW LONG CAN YOU KEEP YOUR FAITH IF YOU WERE TRAPPED FOREVER? *** Manjiri, a devout atheist, is meeting her friend Manu after 20 years. Their conversation soon turns into an argument over God's existence, and its nature. What seemed to be a harmless debate becomes Manjiri's worst nightmare when she is trapped by Manu in a cell. Are Manu's intentions malign or is this some weird test of faith? Take a seat, buckle your belt, as you set yourself on the world's most claustrophobic, yet enlightening, journey of Manjiri. Be prepared to see life in a radically different way with this bold, edge of the seat thriller. REVIEW: As the author wrote in the preface, the book is to find the answer of - " why we should believe in God?" , we can firstly d...

A Very Fact told in an Unusual, Mesmerizing & lyrical Way!  BOOK: The Water Cure AUTHOR: Sophie Mackintosh PUBLISHERS: Hamish Hamilton RELEASE DATE: 14/6/2018 GENRE: Feminine Dystopia BLURB: Imagine a world very close to our own: where women are not safe in their bodies, where desperate measures are required to raise a daughter. This is the story of Grace, Lia and Sky, kept apart from the world for their own good and taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love. And it is the story of the men who come to find them - three strangers washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent, trailing desire and destruction in their wake. The Water Cure is a fever dream, a blazing vision of suffering, sisterhood and transformation. REVIEW: I wanted to read the books from 'Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlist' & for it's astonishing blurb & unique concept, I picked it. It is book that will actually leave you stunned...

HIGHLY IMAGINATIVE & ENTERTAINING BOOK: Time Crawlers - Stories from Parallel Universes AUTHOR: Varun Sayal Genre: Sci-fi Publication Date: 13/6/2018 BUY IT:  Amazon Review: So the book is basically a collection of 6 short stories. Let's discuss the stories without spoil the storyline. 1. NarkAstra - The Hell Weapon : The book starts with a magnanimous war setting. This story is based on a hypothetical war where the author described it more scientifically than mythologically, that's unique. 2. Death by Crowd : An absolutely disturbing setting which is actually an interview of the owner of a brutal show. The description were really disturbing and the story was allegorical, the author showed how man can pay to enjoy one's brutal death. 3. Genie: A modern take on of the famous Lamp-Genie story. That was a light read, enjoyable and funny. 4. Time Crawlers: The author presented some hypothetical theories of light and time w...

LIFE IS MORE CINEMATIC THAN A CINEMA, THIS MEMOIR REMINDS ME THAT! Book: Chennai To Chicago Author: Sriram Ramakrishnan Genre: Memoir/Autobiography Release Date: 18th July, 2018 Blurb:  Is there anything permanent at all? Anything that I can lean on to in this world? What is life? What am I doing here? Growing up in the 90's in India, hearing people going to "States" as software engineers, I wondered why people were so crazy about America. Without the internet or the zillion TV channels we have today, I had my own fantasies on “States”. Thanks to a Doordarshan Tamil drama in the 90's, "Marriage in Washington", I remember as a teenager sitting in front of the Television religiously every week with a yearning in my throat, "I should go to America someday". I didn’t know how that would happen, I had not even traveled in an Air Conditioned compartment in a train. But I knew, someday, I will go to America. And that someday arrive...

A Soulful story of a daughter,wife,mother & then a queen! A Brilliant Retelling! BOOK: Mandodari: Queen of Lanka Author: Manini J. Anandani Publisher: Penguin Books Release Date: Genre: Mythological Fiction/Epic Blurb: Borrowing from Sanghadasa's Jaina version of the Ramayana, Mandodari-one of the least known characters of the Hindu epic-is finally given a voice. Considered to be one of the most beautiful apsaras, she was married off to the mighty Ravana, the legendary king of Lanka. In her story, she speaks about her struggles after her marriage, her insecurities and her pious nature that challenged her husband's growing aspirations. She narrates the rise of Ravana's power and the blunders he made that ultimately caused the downfall of Lanka. Despite her husband's faults, Mandodari loved him and advised him to follow the path of righteousness. Ravana's defeat in a thirteen-day war turned him into a villain. But what if he were the real hero on hi...

MAGICAL, MOVING & MESMERIZING  Book: The Blue Moon Day Author: Santosh Sivaraj Publisher: Invincible Publishers Publication date : 9 Jun 2018 Language: English Book length: 222 Blurb: Things were never the same for five ordinary individuals who got struck at cross roads and there was no way they can run back. They had no other choice but to take a plunge into their deepest fear and leave the rest to destiny. Their characters was tested out of their comfort zone and it witnessed abstruse results; a PhD scholar fights to win a pizza making contest and a tennis prodigy running for his life in a war torn, bloodied Island. Extreme circumstances and their consequences made these ordinary individuals extraordinary . Was the test imposed on them by someone? Or did they invite it on themselves. The Blue Moon Day is that Once in a Blue Moon day story which questions an individual's priorities, ridicules the worldly routines and finally red...

A Cosmic Play!  BOOK: EVOLV AUTHOR: RYAN SEQUEIRA PUBLISHER: THE WHITE PLACE PUBLICATION YEAR: 2017 BLURB: EL leaves his mundane life in search of the ultimate truth, where the kid is introduces to mantras, yantras, tantra and sacred herbs.  Meanwhile, a group of elite scientists have discovered how humans are being systematically dumbed down and manipulated to think only about hoarding material possessions and their desires.  As their fates confluence in an explosion of epic proportions, these individuals might just be decoding pre-Vedic secrets and a Tantric text that might help evolve humanity into the next cycle of beings.  Unable to make it in the Kali Yuga, Lord Krishna encrypts codes so that the humans can evoke one of the most ancient Gods. EVOLV, the first psycho-spiritual novel that uncovers complexities of the mind and decrypts complex Vedic codes that will distort your perception of reality and teleport you into a thrilling psychedel...