Nobody who loves thrillers can afford to miss this one. This is a kind of book which you would want to finish off at one go. Some books are made to be movies and some books are just a narration of truth, under the guise of fiction. The Day of The Jackal is the hallmark of the latter.

Its not fair to categorise The Day of The Jackal as a thriller or any such classification. It can be a thriller, an assasin’s handbook, a political journal, a diary of a hitman and many more.

In my schooldays, I was hooked to the Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton stuff. Right after I completed school, I found this book on sale at a street-side stall  The day I started reading it, I Grew Up ! Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton flew out of the window ! I have never had such an experience, in my life, before. I was glued to the pages for a day and half, without food and just a few breaks for water and the toilet. When I finished reading the last page, I woke up to a new world around me. Life was no longer as happy-go-lucky as teenage-fiction shows it to be and nor was it as climatic.

I know its futile to compare it with predictable plots of conspiracy and espionage with descriptions of the common good-guy-kills-bad-guy-and-his-ladylove-turns-out-to-be-a-spy content. Anyone who has read The Day of The Jackal, will know that there has never been a better-researched and better-explained description of a simple plot of a blood-contract.

Frederick Forsyth is known for research that he puts for his books. This is reflected in this one also. The meticulous planning done by ’The Jackal’ and the effort by the Police to stop him gets you riveted to the book.

The story goes like this- Charles D’Gualle was the post war president of France. During his presidency, Algeria which was a French Colony was given freedom. This was not liked by many in France. Some of them wanted to eliminate D’Gualle from the scene. But many of the assignation attempts failed. It was at this point that they decided to hire a professional killer called ’The Jackal’to do the job.

The description of how the Jackal obtains a false-passport on British soil, was actually demonstrated in real, by Frederick Forsythe, much to the dismay of the stiff-lipped.

The OAS actually recruited not one but three consecutive hits to dispose Gen. DeGaulle, all of which failed and were exposed, causing the dissilusionment of its supporters and consequent downfall of the organisation itself. These are some related significant facts.

In a nutshell, I always refer to this book as ’’The Book’’. I have recommended this book to many people and I got good results everywhere. Read it and I don’t think you will feel that it is a fiction.

I saw the book on the shelves at a local bookstore, and I immediately knew that I wanted it. Certainly it was The Kite Runner hangover. There were chances that Hosseini had written his best already, and everything to follow could have been a disappointment. But then one has to read his latest.
To me this book hit on an emotional level. I am not a very emotional person. However, it seems this one's a winner. I have finally found a book which takes the position of common and ordinary people and, in the process, exploits the horrid possibilities of an unfortunate life. The character who affected me the most was Mariam. She never found a glimpse of happiness in her whole life. She was born illegitimately, married unwillingly, and severely abused in all ways afterwards, up until her death. To me this book was a ground breaking revelation. Instead of talking about those who died in battle, the soldiers, the commanders, presidents and what not, this book turns to the shunned civilians.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them - in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul - they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

I have to admit that for the first two parts of the book I was in agreement with them, though I once again found myself spell bound by Hosseini’s storytelling prowess I felt the stories of Mariam and Laila somehow lacked the raw and powerful emotions triggered by The Kite Runner. Then I hit part three where the two stories come together and suddenly I’m on a roller coster; caught up in the relationship that develops between these two characters and shocked and angered by the ‘real world’ that is happening around them. In 1996 the Taliban take over Kabul and women who were once treated as equals find themselves ordered to remain indoors, to not show their faces or risk a beating. Girls are forbidden from going to school and women can no longer work. At a time when I was enjoying the freedom of a university education, women in a county not too many miles away were being beaten in the street for laughing or speaking out of turn. When Laila is taken to a dirty ‘women’s’ hospital and subjected to a caesarean without anesthetic I felt sick to my stomach at the brutality

I’m proud that someone has taken those subtitles on the news, of people getting injured and killed in bomb raids and turned them into a sensible story. A story so strong it demands an open eye with enough power to see through the smoke and mirrors that is our media. That power is truth and logic, and the illusions by the smoke and mirrors are our ignorance. This story is more than just a story. It is a message from the unheard, the disregarded, and the underestimated. They are the people of the world being wrong for little or no reason.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini is not just more assured, although this feels like the work of a much more accomplished writer. If he cut his teeth by writing about his countrymen, it is the plight of Afghanistan’s women that has brought him to realise his full powers as a novelist.The author has chosen to put in clear view what we, easy living people, have chosen to turn a blind eye upon, which is cruel TRUTH.

if you haven’t read A Thousand Splendid Suns yet then buy yourself a copy as soon as you can.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal is the story of 25 graduates of IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A), who chose to become entrepreneurs, shunning the more conventional and comfortable option of high-paying corporate jobs.

Bansal comes from IIM-A too -- which explains her fluency with the business world and her remarkable portrayal of life out there.One noticeable thing about the book, irrelevant to its quality to most extent, is its clear familiarity with the Chetan Bhagat brand. At some level you are reminded of his works. As a matter of fact, Bhagat too is an IIM-A alumni. In fact I could not help checking the list to see if he was their in one of her 25 names!

The book, a first attempt, does not manage to impress you. It falls flat at places and one wonders the motive behind writing it. And another annoying thing in the book is the endless array of college acronyms and punch words for which I guess you have to be an IIM alumni to figure out. Most of the stories of the book sound the same and run on parallel lines. Though the book gives a fairly surprising look at the lives of some brilliant IIM-A alumni members; about how they initiated an idea and then gave up their shiny backgrounds and bright promising futures and comfortable lives to chase their dreams; the read could have been more engaging had the stories been more versatile.

Besides the lives of the protagonists have only been spared a blurry research. They do not include much input from friends, family or colleagues -- something that would have made the book more interesting, perhaps.

Also the language gives the book a more rustic, desi, local feel --something one might not really associate with a read about 25 entrepreneurs. All in all the book has a feel more of a diary or a slambook with a singular perspective than of a well-researched documentation on 25 interesting lives.

So the end word on the book is a thumbs-down. If you have not read it, you have definitely not missed anything.


 

Margaret Mascarenhas’s Skin is a work of high imagination. The writing style, the sentences, the words are meticulously crafted which is the highlight of the book.  The writer narrates through her story that life isn’t a mere coincidence and there are powers beyond a mortal man’s understanding. Skin was published in the year 2001 and has been translated in French and Portuguese languages.

Pagan’s life has a lot of odd episodes which makes her curious and anxious about her roots. She travels to India from California to see her old grandmother who is lying on the deathbed. Once she lands in Goa, the place she spent some part of her childhood at; stories unveil, and secrets unfold. It is then with every story pagan is confronted with new realities.

As a reader, one would hardly find events of the plot dull or tasteless. However, the book isn’t consuming either. There is a plot, there are fine words, there are intriguing characters, and there is wickedness; nevertheless the book as a whole fails to leave a lasting impact on the reader.

Well, I do not mean that Skin doesn’t deserve reading. It might not have after-effects, but Skin surely can keep the readers hooked to its plot of quick and curious twists and turns.

Overall, Skin is a good read.

Do you remember your first day at school? You were all excited about the prospect. But, there was a nagging in your gut, a nervousness that you couldn't overcome. And, the moment your parents left you in the class and waved at you, the nagging grew. It was almost like you could hear your heart beating.

New places and new people always intimidate people. Imagine the position of a girl who marries a widower and enter his household. This is the tale of Mrs. de Winter, a young girl who marries a rich man, Maxim de Winter, with a huge estate called Manderley.

The moment she enters Manderley, she feels the hostility around her. She gets so insecure when people start juxtaposing her tactlessness to the perfection of Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter.

Rebecca is believed to have died in a boat that was drowned. Whenever the new Mrs. de Winter asks about Rebecca, Maxim gets irritated and angry.

One of the most intimidating characters of the book is Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper in Manderley. She adores Rebecca and cannot bear to see another woman in her place in Manderley. She constantly keeps comparing the new Mrs. de Winter to Rebecca when she attempts to make any changes. In fact, Mrs. Danvers is one of the most infamous female villains in English literature.

Added to this, Maxim de Winter has incessant mood swings which compel the young lady to believe that she is not living up to the standards expected of her. She is distressed by this belief and feels very frustrated.

How the lady gets over these hostilities and frustrations and how she develops the bond with Maxim is the crux of the story.

The story of this medium-paced book is very common-place. But, what sets this book apart is the portrayal of Mrs. de Winters emotions and agony. It is so vividly described that you practically live through those situations.

This book was written by Daphne du Maurier in 1938 and won the Pulitzer Prize. It was adapted several times, both on the stage and in movies. It also inspired more books like Mrs. de Winter, The Other Rebecca and Rebecca's tale.

It is a heart-warming book and a must-read for the lucid portrayal of scenes.

We take the things around us for granted : the fresh air we breathe, the food we eat, the house we live in. What if you are denied all of these? Would you survive long? Can you think of staying hidden from people for a couple of days without food, air, water and a house?

Well, here’s the story of a Jewish family in Nazi occupied Holland. It is the diary of an adolescent girl, Anne Frank, who had every thing given to her until the Nazi invasion. The family goes into hiding and are forced to live in isolation, in constant fear of being caught for two long years.

The innocent and pure emotions of a young girl are evident from the book. Anne Frank finds a companion in her diary in the time of crisis. She record various events that happen in her day-to-day life in hiding for two years, until her family gets betrayed and caught.

More than a historical document, I see it as a work of emotion with which each one of us can identify. Her relations with her family and another family that stays with them are portrayed excellently. It contains her vivid impressions during the lengthy isolation. The way she experiences things and learns patience, tolerance, forbearance and most importantly, acceptance, is fascinating.

It is a first-hand account of the difficulties faced by Jews in Nazi occupied areas in that period of time. It is the tale of humanity and kindness as displayed by their friends who help them with supplies.

The book is an amazing read and takes you through a tender journey of the mind of a young girl. It has been extensively adopted for various plays and movies. Today, even after sixty-five years, it seems as appropriate and appreciable as it might have at that time.