Past Aghast

I got this book as a free copy in Amazon and the cover was not so eye catching hence I was not expecting much from this story. But, now I deeply regret for having any doubt on this story, for it turned out to be one of the best crime fiction I ever read!

However, the prologue again was not that provocative to me. It appeared just normal and a common war mishap. Soon after I was in the midway of the first chapter, my eyes were kind of glued to the book. Though it’s quite a thick book and much bigger than the novels I read normally, I read this in one go. Many times I tried to put down the book and tend to my other daily chores but failed miserably.

The murders in the very first few pages were horrible to come across, yet the suspense and the curiosity was well nurtured by each paragraph of the book. Being involved in laboratories as my job, I could picture the scene and the surrounding easily and was scared to death the same time relating it to my own self.

The first thought occurred to me about Mark was “poor chap”. Still I couldn’t help appreciating his each move that followed. Even after witnessing a cruel murder all of a sudden and being trapped to even get caught for such action he acted as brave and intelligent as he could.

I like the way each scene and the characters are blend in the story. The character development was brilliant and the plot twists were well included. The date and time at the beginning of each chapter supports the reader to have a good mental picture in a timely manner.

All in all it’s a good book. Especially for someone who likes to read about doctors and suspense related to such scenario, this would certainly be a great read. The book assures you quite an extended exposure with doctors and all other related professions in the medical industry. 

Marry me, Stranger

Breaking another long silence Chubby Cheeks is back to the blog with a fresh piece of writing on a book by one of her favourite Indian authors, Novoneel Chakraborty. So, the review on his latest book Marry me, Stranger would be the first post here after a very long time.

So far I have read only his debut novel, A Thing Beyond Forever and I loved it so much that I started reading this book with high expectations. The title made me expect a story about strangers falling in love or get into a marriage which might lead to an everlasting love, but how silly of me to jump into such conclusions! The book was as unpredictable as one could ever expect a book to be!

The protagonist, Rivanah Bannerjee is a 22 year old college fresh-out who moves to the big city of Mumbai, to face her life all alone for the first time without her parents around to help her in this and that. She is smart enough to secure a job in a high profile IT company, confident enough to take the challenge and move out to Mumbai, focused enough to what to do with her life and strong enough to stand upon her ideas about her personal choice and marriage. All in to that she was even soft enough to fall in love with Ekansh, her college friend and loyal enough to be such a faithful girlfriend for him all the past four years. But life is not a bed of roses, she soon finds out. Each day of her life becomes challenging than she could even dream of and she had to go through her own share of happiness and sorrows.

The prologue gives a superb screen opening to the readers. It starts with the expectation of a sweet encounter of love and halts, leaving us with a bunch of questions in the mind which make us run through page by page searching for the answers. I should say it has the potential to get you glued to the story from its very first page. As I mentioned earlier, the story is quite unpredictable hence the journey through the pages would be quite adventurous. You would never get bored, rather be quite excited to reach the end.

Writing style is excellent as I expected. Of course the writer excels in penning down another great story which is quite above in quality from the average Indian novels we come across nowadays. Flow of the story is smooth and very gripping, and its written with a rich and appropriate vocabulary.The best thing about the book is that it relates to the young people scattered every nook and corner of the world. We experience love, heartbreaks, friendship and quite a lot of expeditions one could go through in their young life so the story well connects with every reader at some point or the other. The protagonist and the other characters would come up with the same questions as the ones which might have popped in our minds when we got stuck at these type of situations and the author has smart answers, wise phrases and different point of views for us to think upon and stimulate the self realization.

The only thing I’m unhappy about the book is its climax. I personally believe that it was a very incomplete situation to pause the story to be continued in the next book. Its of course a great cliff hanger but to lead to the next chapter rather than to a whole new book. The book ends with a clear cut hint about the stranger but comparing with the rest of the past episodes, the clue at the end itself might not be the correct path for the actual back-story. I feel there's too many things unresolved to stop the story right there to be continued with the next book. Holding our breath until the truth reveals is the real entertainment and adventure in a book but that is when we only have to start with the very next chapter that instance not wait for many months until the next book launches! And at times I felt that the title is not that relevant to the content of the story although it really is woven around a stranger.

But all in all the book is a great hit. Totally intriguing and a real page turnover. I believe that it is rich in every aspect. A story that is sweetened with love, salted with suspicion, spiced with horror and garnished with romance, it certainly is a delicious read one could never miss!

Ending my note with a short and sweet phrase I came across in the story. there are many I would love to quote here, but this was a fresh idea which particularly amused me to great heights.

“A sucessful marriage depends on ignorance”

“I chose to ignore my own desires otherwise it would have been difficult to stay with him and raise you. And I’m sure he must have also ignored a lot of my things.”

I'm My Own Grandpa - Just for a laugh! :D

To celebrate the 2nd birthday of Chubby Cheek's Column, I decided to share a funny poem with you all which I found quite some time back over the internet. Hope the year ahead will be filled with laughter and joy to all of you!

Happy New Year!!!

I'M MY OWN GRANDPA
(Moe Jaffe, Dwight Latham)

Now many many years ago when I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be.
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red.
My father fell in love with her and soon they too were wed.

Oh, I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
Oh, I'm my own grandpa.

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life.
My daughter was my mother, 'cause she was my father's wife.
To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy,
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.
My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad,
And so became my uncle though it was very sad.
For if he was my uncle then that also made him brother
Of the widow's grown-up daughter who of course was my step-mother.

Father's wife then had a son who kept him on the run,
And he became my grandchild for he was my daughter's son.
My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue,
Because although she is my wife she's my grandmother, too.

Now if my wife is my grandmother then I'm her grandchild,
And every time I think of it it nearly drives me wild,
For now I have become the strangest case I ever saw.
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa.

Cappuccino Dusk

The Most Amazing And Creative Bookshelves

Most Amazing And Creative Bookshelves All Over The World

1. "Has Been Read & Will Be Read" Bookshelf

2. "Two and Half Dimension" Bookshelf

3. "Never Ending" Bookshelf

4. Infinite Bookshelf

5. The Staircase Bookshelf

6. The "Circular Sitting" Bookshelf

 7. The "READ" Bookshelf

8. The "Maze" Bookshelf

9. In-Wall Bookshelf

10. The Pulse Bookshelf

11. The "Hug The Books" Bookshelf

12. The "Almost Invisible" Bookshelf

13. The Invisible Bookshelf

14. The Inverted Bookshelf

15. The Inception Bookshelf

16. The Hanging Bookshelf

17. The Equilibrium Bookshelf

18. The Equation Bookshelf

19. The Elastic Bookshelf

20. The "Thinking Cloud" Bookshelf

21. The "States of America" Bookshelf

22. The Piano Bookshelf

23. The "Treble Clef" Bookshelf

24. The Pyramid Bookshelf

25. The Cave Bookshelf

26. The Console Bookshelf

27. The "Book Seat" Bookshelf

28. The Checked Bookshelf

29. The Tree Bookshelf

30. The "Bookworm" Bookshelf

31. The Curvy Bookshelf

32. The Corner Industrial Bookshelf

33. The Circular Bookshelf

34. The Photo Reel Bookshelf

35. The "Circular Walking" Bookshelf

36. The "Bookman" Bookshelf

37. The Designer Bookshelves

The First Teacher (Duishen)

First of all I would like to declare that the following review is based on the book “The First Teacher” written by a famous Soviet author Chingiz Aitmatov. The original work "Der erste Lehrer" has been written in Russian and I first happened to read the translation of it in my native language and then the English one. Here, I take the opportunity to bestow the credits to my native translator for his excellent work which didn’t tamper the richness of the original copy.

True that I have read hundreds of novels till date, but I seldom come across stories like this which touch my heart deeply. Despite being a very short novel it was very interesting and moving. I was even quite amazed to find out that this wasn’t noted has one of the most renowned works of the author in the Wikipedia. I dare say that those few pages of the book contained a lot more feelings and life than volumes of great literature we often read.  The words were powerful and expressive and the flow of the story had a good force in moving the reader along with it.

The story is set upon the village Kurkureu which lies in a plateau at the foot of mountains. A young artist who was brought up in the village and now have become a townsman and a middle aged Academician who too has born and brought up there but have left to the town at very early age in her life take chance to reveal quite a remarkable tale of a great personality, Duishen. In 1924, the young Duishen arrives at the village Kurkureu with a determination of a noble duty to fulfill. That is to open the first school in the village and educate the kids. The work was not an easy task; rather say it was an extremely difficult task to encourage the people to send their kids to a school. The young man was never ready to accept defeat and go back to join some other profession in order to earn his bread and butter. On the contrary, with great efforts the first teacher of the village achieves his dream that is educating the children.

Throughout the story we are exposed to the mindset of the people then, who were quite uneducated and narrow minded. Specially, the Aunt and Uncle of Altynai portrayed a couple of great evil who would be hated by every reader. Meanwhile, the character Duishen stands out of the crowd for all the courage and perseverance he had. His action of kindness and the ability to hope and work for a better future is appreciative. Being honest and passionate about his duty is a great quality every reader could add to their life by following his steps.

Altynai, who was then a mere teenage with a great passion to be educated is another inspiration for all of us. The author depicts the cruelty of the system and uneducated behavior of the people then while describing the life of Altynai. The poplar trees also have a significant role in the story. In my opinion, it was the main source to connect everything in the story, the past and the present, Altynai, Duishen and the young artist, the hopes and all the memories down the lane.

“Ah my poplars, my beautiful poplars! So much water has flowed under the bridges since you were  young slender saplings! All that the man who planted and tended you dreamed of, all he predicted has come true! Then why do you murmur so sadly, so mournfully? Are you lamenting the passage of summer, are you complaining because the cold winds are tearing off your leaves? Or are your trunks moaning with the pain and grief of our people?”

There were many incidents in the book which struck a chord in my heart. However, the parting scene of the teacher and the student at the train station was the best of all.

“There was such urgency in his shout as if he suddenly realized he had not told me something terribly important he had wanted to tell me all along, but now it was too late, and he knew it. Till this day I can hear that shout, rising from the very heart, the very depths of his soul.”

“Good-bye, teacher, good-bye, my first school, my childhood, good-bye, my first love...”

As the English Translation says in the beginning, “If there is one single book on education which will make you weep, this is it”. Yes, this is a must read for all ages and would certainly be an inspiring read for the teenagers. Also, I’m sure it would be a good read to everyone regardless you are a bookworm or not.

Ending my note with a quote from the book which I found inspiring and appropriate for all of us in our lives.

“Yes, there will be winter, there will be cold, there will be snowstorms, but then there will be spring again...”

Under His Protection

I was gifted a free promotional copy of this book to be reviewed. With just a look at the cover and the title I expected this to be yet another love story with a boring and unrealistic plot and wasn’t much excited about reading it. After seeing that the story is dated to 1838 (which makes the things even worse), I started reading it with a groan, as i’m not much into the tales of old times! But pardon me, for all the silly reasons I had to underestimate this great work, the book had real charms to entice me by its very first pages and held me tightly to it until the very end.

story takes me off guard, with the presence of the Lady Kingston. I expected the leading female character to be a beautiful and conventional woman of those days. Quite the contrary, apart from being strikingly beautiful and talented she was also liberal and audacious which is unlikely to be seen among the women in her society. I almost forgot that the story was dated back to 19th century, for it was much of a light read and very interesting one. Especially, Greyland was such a jaw-dropping character. Ah, how much I love her! I’m grateful to the author for carving out such an incredible and impressing character of a woman which is alive and unbearably exquisite. her presence at each event and the care free and straightforward demeanor was refreshing the story all the time. And, what should I say about the handsome Duke Ravenswood! He was no less a perfect personality himself. His sharp and bold attitudes were finely matched with the “firecracker”, creating an unmistakable chemistry between them.

The narration of the story and the character build-up was excellent. Stacy has taken time in describing each person for us to get a clear cut idea about them. the surroundings were also given importance, by describing with every minute detail that every reader could easily develop the mental picture of the events and where they take place. Loving and caring brothers, the understanding best friends, the well responsible fathers, the not-so-easy-to-be-controlled sister and loathsome gentleman all had their fair share in the story. each of those character had a uniqueness which made their appearance stand out in the right time with the right dialogues. Also it gave a good variety to the story when they all were connected with each other well.

A midst the stacks of great books, there would be stories in which the readers would love to take time and get absorbed to every fine detail wishing not to go further, or some stories which readers would be restless until they finish and get to know the ultimate truth. I’m glad to say that this piece of fiction is a brilliant mix of both. The curiosity was well awaken within me to read fast and reach the climax, but the same time I was spellbound by each event to not to leave those pages so soon. I held my breath many a times when the plot twisted and took unexpected turns and story never ran out of excitement and surprises while it unfold. 

The language and dialogues resembles the old days well. However, its not one of the typical boring lot. The author is ever so talented in putting the words in wonderful phrases which makes her an excellent story teller. I’m just copying some of the lines I noted. Of course they were few out of many.

“Alexander could no more stop the smile from erupting on his face than he could stop the moon from shining.”

“He was as shocked as if a prancing unicorn carrying a woodland nymph had charged into the room singing Christmas carols.”

“His manners were polished like the finest of silver, and his pedigree was better than one of the Queen’s Spaniel bitches.”

“His eyes were so sharp she thought they might be able to cut glass.”

My favorite scene in the book was the proposal of Alex to Grey. The words had me feel the intensity of the blossoming love and the honesty of the Lord Ravenswood. Its a dialogue I was attracted at once and could never forget no matter how many good reads I come across.

I should be an illiterate stupid woman with no taste (or call me what not) to rate this any less than 5 stars! This is a book which I enjoyed immensely after a long time and a one which I could re-read happily again. For her debut novel, Stacy really nailed it!