Thursday, May 7, 2009

Keep off the grass, You are here & Thanks for the memories

Its the book review day!!!! Ho hum.... its been quite a while since i posted about books. Have read these 3 books in the meanwhile. And its important i write about these - important so that you know what to pick and what definitely not to pick.. more important for the latter reason actually!!! lol

Keep off the grass (karan bajaj)
I really liked this one. I picked this book up with trepidation thinking this is going to be like another Chetan Bhagat. And i did not like either of his books too much. I picked it still, remembered that Scarlett had given it Thumbs up. And i really liked it!!! Its a racy novel.. you wont feel like putting it down. Its about this boy who is working at Wall Street and decides to quite his job to come down to India and study at IIMB , ostensibly to find himself! He has a couple of friends - a totally doped guy.. who whiles away his entire time, does not study.. yet tops everytime. Another one from the army. He is forever under pressure to top... since he has come from wall street.. there are many expectations!!! But he figures after a couple of classes he will be somewhere in the middle.. as in if 200 students, he will be ranked around 100 and there's no escaping that!!! I love one of the initial few scenes where during his first class.. which is economics the prof asks some questions... he answers the first one.. and then by the time he thinks of answers for the next few questions, he just hears "great answer" coming from the prof... you just cannot help but think about your own MBA class... i was an eco students and hence expected to know some answers.. felt as cocky as i could.. thought.. huh this is my baaye haath ka khel.. and lo and behold it was the same situation!!! lol... i think everyone faces this in an B school! Anyway, coming back to the story, once he accepts that his rank will not change no matter what he does, he just goes with the flow. So he dopes, goes to jail.. and also goes off for Vipasna.. he does every random stuff.. which is what makes it a good read!!!

A thumbs up from me too!!!


You are here (meenakshi reddy madhavan)
Did not like it. A wannabe book with wannabe people who i cannot identify with.. not even remotely. It is about this girl Arshi who works in a PR agency and stays with a friend in Delhi. The rest of the book is all about her and some guys.. roomie and friends.. yet other friends...moping.. parties.. drinking... some working.. if you ask me whats the story... i do not have any idea. It does not have any story actually. Its some random events of a person's life.. at no point in time does the plot interest you!!! A lackadaisical account of some chick.. who is frustrated.. and uses the F word liberally.. you know you do not need to do that in the book to make it interesting!!! Very sad. Not worth spending too much time on it!


Thanks for the memories (cecelia ahern)
She wrote the book PS I love you. But i did not pick it up because it seemed depressing. So i picked this one up. And what do you know. Its kind of cute... a cute romantic book.. a little weird but cute nevertheless.. makes you feel nice and romantic..
So its about this girl who meets with an accident and loses her baby. She receives a blood transfusion. A random lecturer donates his blood to the blood bank and his blood finds its way to this woman's body!! And they are connected... rather she feels connected to him.. she shares the memories he has.. of his daughter growing.. of his wife leaving him.. she suddenly starts eating meat (she a veg)... and she knows all about architecture (historical) i.e. .. and she doesnt know why she knows all these things. They bump into each other a couple of times in the book but end up not meeting. So the books follows this woman and her life - her dad and 2 friends.. and it follows the guy and his life - his university, brother and family. What is incredibly cute is the relationship that these 2 people share with others. Like the woman and her dad.. her father is a bumbling, loud creature who has never even flown anywhere and has always stayed in Dublin. And like the guy with his brother his sister in law.... their corny but cute relationship. Like when this guy has to meet this girl who he has not met... his brother offers to come along and tells him that you can tell her I am gay and introduce me as your boyfriend in case you need an escape route!!!!! Oh well...you have to read it to understand what i am saying! So its cute and quite funny in places!!! Worth a read.
Also read Sudha Murty's short stories called "The old man and his god". Its quite nice .. very similar to "how i taught my grandmother to read".... leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling.
I am stopping now. Basically moral of the story is - i need to post as i read the books. Sorry for the looooooooooonng post. Phew!!

2 comments:

Scarlett said...

I enjoyed your post! You haven't been posting regularly off late :(

'You Are Here' is by far THE WORST book I have read in my entire life. There's no semblance of a story whatsoever. The author writes a blog called 'The Compulsive Confessor'. It's as bakwaas as the book!!!!

Moonshine said...

Thanks Scarlett!!!!! Regular postings have gone for a toss because of work!!!!!!

You are here is really bad. I will check out the blog too. Not done so yet!!!