Inane Murtaza

A few years back Dreamworks brought out a beautiful animated movie 'How To Train Your Dragon' and mesmerised us with the story of Toothless and showed us how dragons can even be adorable. I did know that the movie was based on a Children's book but for some reason I just did not ponder further for the books. Recently, I came across 'The Wizard of Once' by the same author and the beautiful cover and the illustration attracted me towards the book and here is my take on it. Blurb: This is the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison; and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide. Once there was Magic and the Magic lived in the dark forests. Until the Warriors came.  Xar is a Wizard boy who has no Magic and will do anything to get it. Wish is a Warrior girl, but she owns a banned Magical Object and she will do anything to conceal it.  In this whirlwind adventure, Xar ...

Tom Hanks. A name that has always been synonymous with Brilliant Hollywood Movies. Who can forget his brilliant portrayal as Forrest Gump or the mystery solving symbologist Robert Langdon, Tom Hanks has done it all quite brilliantly. So, when I finally came across the book on Amazon, I decided to pre-order it even without reading the review and carried it on my trip to Lucknow. Was it good, was it bad or was it simply passable. Read further to know about it. Short Blurb: A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. Known for his honesty and sensitivity as an actor, Mr Hanks brings both those characteristics to his writing. Alternatingly whimsical, moving and occasionally melancholy, Uncommon Type is a book that will delight as well as surprise his millions of fans. It also establishes him as a welcome and wonderful new voice in contemporary fiction, a voice that perceptively delves beneath...

So, John Grisham has been one of those authors whom I absolutely adore. There has always been a cold war between the fans of John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer and ultimately we all know who is the winner, the readers ofcourse. Off late, John Grisham has started writing two books releasing them back to back. One adheres to his usual adult audience and the other talks about Theodore Boone, the child lawyer. Rooster Bar adheres more to his adult audience and this is my take on the book. Blurb: Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three ...

So basically, I was provided this book to give a honest feedback on this. Though my experiences with Indian authors have always been an average one, this book promised me that it is different from the regular off-the-mill romance drama that most new Indian Authors churn up with these days. After I finished reading the book, I tried to look up a bit on the author (which I generally do before I buy a book) and it turned out his previous book was quite interesting as well. The book was beyond what I had expected and has certain uniqueness to it. Blurb: Sapna Vaid has lived with a unique power for a decade; a power that turned her from a timid, wide-eyed, college-going girl into the most influential and powerful Goddess on Earth. Sapna can see the future and saves thousands of people around the world every year through her record-breaking, popular show ‘Lucky People’. The show had given Sapna’s life a meaning and gives her the courage to sleep every night, where death and blood await ...

So basically, I was provided this book to give a honest feedback on this. The reason I picked up this book was quite a few of my friends from bookstagram community were giving out interesting reviews on this and I decided to go ahead with it. The book which revolves around two major characters Vedant and Misha has its own ups and downs throughout and took me hardly 2 days to finish. Blurb: How far would you go to protect your loved one? Would you even condone murder? Eight years ago Vedant Birajdar fled Tamara, a small nondescript village on the banks of the river Kaveri, after a wild night out with his best friend Jay Varma, turned disastrous. Now he is back and Jay is dead, Misha, the love of his life is engaged to another man and his older brother, Tarun, is missing. All he is left with is a strange message Jay leaves on his answering machine, before his death. Misha does not believe her brother, Jay, committed suicide. Yet, she has no reason to believe otherwise. Not until ...

Let's get straight to the point. According to Wikipedia, The term demigod or demi-god can refer to a minor deity, a mortal or immortal who is the offspring of a god and a human being, or a figure who has attained divine status after death. To be honest, I still have no idea how is the title related to the book in any way. Though I do should commend on the beautiful cover of the book which takes us back to the era of 80s and 90s. Blurb: A bold debut novel reminiscent of Emma Cline's The Girls; a story of love, lust and the spaces in between, from a 'captivating' (New York Times) new voice in fiction It is 1950, and Willa's mother has a new beau. The arrival of his blue-eyed, sun-kissed sons at Willa's summer home signals the end of her safe childhood. As her entrancing older sister Joan pairs off with Kenneth, nine-year-old Willa is drawn to his strange and solitary younger brother, Patrick. Left to their own devices, Willa is swept up in Patrick's wicked...

We buy books for quite a few reasons. We might have heard a lot about a book and we get our hands on it. A movie adaptation is on its way and we love to see how the book has changed from pages to reel. We want to own the entire collection of our favourite author. Finally, we buy books just because we found the cover beautiful and/or interesting. Guilty as charged, this book comes under the category of beautiful cover. I must say that the cover isn't just the only thing interesting about the book. The basic premise of the book deals with three central characters supported by a few more. Jojo is a 14 year old kid who is born from a white father, Michael, convicted for a felony and Leonie, a black mother addicted to drugs. He was brought by his maternal grandparents lovingly called by him as Pop and Mam along with his sister Michaela alias Kayla. Leonie, Jojo, Kayla and their friend Misty are on a road trip to Parchman as Michael is being released from jail and the adventures that ...

If I ever had to chose between reading about the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata, I would always prefer to select the latter as Mahabharata had characters of various shades and hence, the story from the perspective of different characters brings out different shades of the entire story. I still remember "The Palace of Illusions" which was reenactment of Mahabharata with Draupadi as the central character. Karna, the illegitimate son of Kunti was one of my favourite character and reading his story was something I looked forward to. Coming to the book, Karna's Celestial Armor is not a book based on Mahabharata but is a current day plot of an Army man named Vasu who was on a mission to find Karna's Kavach - Kundalam. His adventures while searching for the same is quite aptly described in the book. Vasu travels from Himalayas to Rameshwaram in search of the Celestial Armor. The story is filled with betrayal, suspense, kidnapping, car chases above all others. What...

Almost 5 years back, when I was in Delhi, I was finally able to visit the Delhi Book Fair and the trip just could not get any better. I finally had the privilege to meet Mr. Bond (Not James) who was signing books at that time. A lot of my friends tell me that it is not a big privilege to get a signed book of his as he is quite easily available in a cafe in Dehradun but coming from a small town where you hardly get to see any authors, this was quite special to me. Though I should inform that it was my very first Ruskin Bond book that I had ever purchased and I never looked back. Coming back to the book, this will be quite a short review as the book is of hardly 105 pages along with illustrations. The book was published on the occasion of Mr. Bond's 89th birthday and it talks about his relationship with his father 2 years before his death. The book takes the readers to Delhi in first half of the book where Ruskin starts developing a bond with his father when he takes a break...

So, I must confess, the first time I ever heard the name of John Green was during all the hullabaloo when the movie 'The Fault in the Stars' released. As we all know, 'The Fault in the Stars' dealt with two adolescents surviving Cancer. The book did bring tears to my eyes the way it was written and it helped me pick up one of his other books, 'Let it Snow' written in collaboration with two more authors. Though honestly, the book was quite a drag but the plot written by John Green was quite interesting. So with all the hype surrounding the book, I had to pre-order the book and see what John Green has brought to the table this time. The first thing that catches one's eye is the interesting title which has no reference anywhere across Google and we get the reference only when we reach almost three-forth of the book. No, I'm not planning to spoil the reference for anyone unless one wants to know about it specifically. Apart from the title, the book cover ...

'A Horse Walks into a Bar', I finally picked this book up after reading a lot about the accolades the book had received including 'The International Man Booker Prize'. I did mention about my apprehensions of Booker Prize Winning books in one of my previous posts and had also mentioned about how I finally overcame it with 'The White Tiger'. So, when I came across this book, what caught my sight was its minimalistic and beautiful cover and it's weird title. A bit of a research on Google helped me uncover the mystery behind the title. Coming back to the book, the book revolves around two protagonists Avishai Lazar and Dovaleh Greenstein. Avishai, a retired judge recieves a phone call from Greenstein who asks him to attend one of his stand-up shows and judge him. Avishai keeps wondering, why he has been called to the show as they haven't been in touch with each other since childhood. They had known each other for quite a brief period which intrigued Avi...

I always loved Imtiaz Ali and his movies as he used to bring the best out of his actors working for him. Though as his career moved forward, one thing was quite redundant in his movies. The main protagonists meet each other at an unexpected location, they travel and find a change in their character when they fall in love with each other. So, why am I discussing Imtiaz Ali instead of Dan Brown's book here? The main reason is Dan Brown's books so resemble Imtiaz Ali's movies. The same plot where we are introduced with the character who is apparently a friend of Robert Langdon, the murder of the character followed by Langdon being framed for it, Langdon assisted by a female character, an assassinator involved who will most certainly die when we reach the final quarter of the book and a cult/group who will be framed. Also, one should not forget a character apart from Robert Langdon who will be portrayed as a villain but eventually does not turn out to be. So, let me explain ...

It's 10th October and a short Google Search tells me, its World Mental Health Day today. Interestingly, it's a day where my Facebook feed will be filled with dozens of posts on Depression, Mental Illness etc and I would love to put my bit on the same as well. A few months back there was an interesting trend on Facebook where people were posting statuses asking people who have depression to come forward and talk to them. Most of these statuses were filled with such genuine emotions that would move you but the reality can sometimes be quite different. This is my personal experience with a few of my friends who have been undergoing/ have underwent depression and how it has affected them personally and professionally. There is literally no single cause for depression and this could vary from lack of interest in studies to terminal illness to personal relationships and can have different effects. In extreme cases, a person could even take away his life as he/she could see no f...

I still remember the movie 'Dor' by Nagesh Kukunoor and the tears it brought to my eyes when the movie ended. The basic premise of the movie revolved around 3 characters - a widow whose husband was killed by his friend, The friend's wife who has come down to meet the widow for mercy appeal and a thief. If you haven't watched the movie, I would surely recommend you guys to watch it for the brilliance that Nagesh Kukunoor has brought on screen. Faiqa Mansab's 'This House Under Clay and Water' also revolves around 3 protagonist, 2 of whom are women and the third - a transgender / Hijra as the book says. This was one of the main reason that made me pick this book. The basic premise did kind of remind me of the movie Dor and I was quite intrigued on how the book was different. I was so wrong. Nida, wife of a politician who is unhappy with her life after she lost her baby befriends Sasha, who fulfills her materialistic desires by sleeping outside her mar...

Years back, when Indian Mythology was still a highly unexplored topic, a lot of authors came up with their own different versions bringing out a variety of perspectives that one would love to enjoy. Among these authors, there rose a relatively unknown author Amish who came up with the book 'The Immortals of Meluha' which took the Indian readers by storm. The Shiva Trilogy was written solely based on the theory that Mahadev was a human and even he was faced with various complex decisions. After the trilogy was released, Amish brought out a new book 'The Skion of Ishkvaku' which I believe is a prequel to Shiva trilogy (as there were a lot of mentions of Ramchandra in the Shiva Trilogy). The new book which was the first in the series of many books to come was a different adaptation to Ramayana from the perspective of Ram. The book was followed by 'Sita : The Warrior of Mithila' which brings out the story of Sita to the same point as the previous book and it w...

"Damn! It's late again. I have to take a vacation soon, else I'll go mad", she murmured to herself swiping her card. Slinging her bag on her shoulders, she took the elevator down from her office and started moving towards the nearest cafe which she was used to visit regularly. Taking in the familiar aroma of the coffee, she glanced around the busy cafe playing the song Heartbeat by Enrique, her favorite. With a wave of nostalgia spreading over her she proceeded towards the cashier. "One Hazelnut Latte please", she ordered. "And one Cappuccino", echoed a second voice. "With no sugar, takeaway", she spoke in unison along with the other voice with a slight faltering smile on her face. She turned around feigning a smile that he was just too familiar with. "It's your turn today", he said as the bill was produced. She paid up the cash still looking at him not believing her eyes for quite some time until she was distracted by ...

I was quite hesitant to pick up a Booker Prize Winning Book after the terrible experience that was 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy. I know I'm gonna receive a lot of flak for terming it as a terrible book but I just couldn't grasp that book and the only good thing that the book did to me was cure my insomnia. As years passed by, I tried challenging myself on having a goal on the number of books I read per year based on certain topics and that's how I came across 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga which came under the topic 'A book narrated through Letters/Mails'. I did try to procrastinate the book but the inevitable had to happen. Lo and Behold! The book turned out to be a surprisingly interesting read and honestly I didn't regret reading it even a bit. This prompted me to go for another book of his 'The Selection Day'. Though I must admit, I had bought the book on kindle for the sole reason that it was available at a very ...

Remember Jon Snow or for the more Indian audience, remember Mihir Virani; how these characters were revived in their show due to their popularity. Yes, I still doubt that Jon Snow would be revived by George RR Martin the way it was so dramatically shown in the TV Show but sometimes a revival is needed so that someone or something gets their character or identity shaped better. So, with this motto in mind, I'm planning to revive my blog which went dead after a few articles, primarily due to my laziness. After contemplating a lot on how to write new post for my blog, I tried to put up various options, depending on what I like. A Travel Blog - Na, I don't have enough experience on travel and plus I'm bad at photography. A Book Review Blog - For this, I had to increase the number of books I read which turned out to be a lot difficult in this digital age. A Film Review Blog - Hmmm, not a bad idea, but this will only turn out fruitful if I finish the review within a day or ...