The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The one thing you've got to do when everything else you're reading is extreeeeeeeeemely slow paced, is pick up a Ruiz Zafón!

When smart phones prohibit reading, when work exhausts you and reading feels like a chore, here is a writer, who will make you rediscover the comfort one exhausted brain finds in books by making words so lucid your eyes dance from one line to the second. And of course there will be a blood curling, spine chilling something in it that will make it impossible for you to keep the book away!

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Chocolat by Joanne Harris
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't often say this but the movie was better than the book! Or, perhaps it was a wrong decision to have watched the movie first and then buy it.

Don't get me wrong though. I didn't hate the book, nor do I advocate against it. Just there's not enough magic, nor poetry in here as was in the movie.

Yes, Chocolat is that rare good book, whose movie steals all its thunder. The story is a gorgeous magical tale of love, death, wanderlust, standing up for your choices, dreams and passions but why would you read it when you can get it all much more beautifully by the movie? Yes, go blame Juliette Binoche for making a more wonderful Vianne Rocher than Joanna Harris herself!

I'm sorry, Joanna, I love your story, just you shouldn't have allowed that movie adaptation. It's waayyyyyyyyyyyy more expressive than all the words you put so carefully in those 360 pages!

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sometimes I feel like going all Maria von Trapp and singing, "In my early youth or childhood, I must've done something good!"
Why? Because not only do I have relatives and friends who bring me such WONDERFUL books but also because unlike many who don't touch even a piece of paper with writing on it, I LOVE to read! It's a blessing indeed, but I will go Italo Calvino some other time and talk about importance and the sheer joy of reading later! This one's about Hugo Cabret: a story where you can NEVER decide whether the film was better than the book or the other way around. In fact, the whole book is actually a movie in itself! You fall irrevocably in love with it the moment you read the first sentence of the first page! You're hooked on to it and the phantasmagorical sketches that flip past your eyes as your read/watch/absorb all its beauty and its sheer genius!

I started my year with watching the movie and now that I have read the book, I ca officially say it is THE BEST STORY I'VE COME ACROSS ALL YEAR.
Do I still need to tell you whether I recommend it or not?

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Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is probably one of the most unusual books I have ever read and it left me with mixed feelings of satisfaction, that one gets after having read a good book, and disgust, that one experiences after reading something totally indigestible! I loved and hated this book at the same time. For one, I could really relate to Grenouille in the really powerful nose thing. Since childhood, the extremely keen sense of smell has caused me a lot of discomfort and even though I cannot magically smell people across the city, I do rely on my sense of smell for a lot of things, including walking in the dark. Consequently, the book was a treat as far as it was limited to the amazing descriptions of various smells, something I have never ever come across in any other book. I could almost smell the things described myself!

What disappointed me was the abrupt ending! It was way too abrupt. Right in the middle of all the commotion, the book just...ends! It leaves you dissatisfied and it simply does not go with everything. In fact, it almost feels like the author did not know what to do with this character who was as inhuman as a tick! So, he had to end this novel.

What can I say? You might love it. You might hate it. However, I can assure you, it will keep you engrossed for many nights even after you are done with it. Worth a read at least once!

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Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Good Morning, Midnight is a difficult novel with lots of beautiful poetry in it. Unlike the usual stream of consciousness novels, which go about from one thought to another without warning and with the apparent lack of beauty in conclusion and ceremony in commencement, Good Morning, Midnight gracefully melts from one scene into another. In fact, it has been written in such a way that the protagonist's thoughts seem to become a part of the reader's thoughts and change their course just when you expect them to! The language is poetic, slightly humorous but in a dark way and very much similar to that of Margaret Atwood's style of writing. In fact, much like Atwood's works, the language in Good Morning, Midnight seems to make no sense at all at times!
Now coming to the Story:
Good Morning, Midnight talks about the immense grief and misery of Sophia Jansen, who has suffered much, lost much but has no one to share it with. In fact grief, self-pity and misery are so deeply rooted in her character that she hardly realises when she is feeling any different from what she usually does. The story starts with a dull, cheerless and dark note but ends with what seems like a spark of hope. However, what is commendable is, Good Morning, Midnight is perhaps one of the few sad and lonely stories which have the power to be deeply moving without being extremely depressing. The reader finds himself sympathisizing with Sophia's pain without experiencing it himself. Also, perhaps because the story is set in Paris, it has its own bunch of crazy artists, dirty streets and smelly bars and poor 'gigolos' in search of rich and pretty girls. Jean Rhys seems to be a voracious fan of descriptions and describes the sights, smells and odours so powerfully that a reader's imagination becomes as clear as if (s)he is watching a typical French movie, full of typically French characters and a bunch of French dialogues.

Of course it's not a book for everyone and maybe I wouldn't have liked it so much had I not admired movies like 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain' and books like 'The Catcher in the Rye' and 'The Tent' because the ending is abrupt, the language is incomprehensible and vague, even crazy at times. But overall, Good Morning, Midnight is one of those rare stories, which despite your craving for something more sane and sensible, are good enough to be remembered and cherished because the very feel of them is pleasant, despite their mood or tone!

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Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolaño
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I must admit, to read Bolaño, you have to have a Cole's Notes or something along because for first timers, like me, his books will take time and sometimes, will envelope you in a feeling of, "What the hell is going on here?"

However, looking back at this book, I find that it was immensely gripping, rather scary and dark and also, extremely comic in the sense that the lead character, Monsieur Pain, believes everything and anything day-to-day to be a part of something deeper, darker and much more macabre. When refused to treat a dying poet, the mesmerist assumes that all this is some kind of an assassination plot and what you get is a blend of Allan Poe and 'A Beautiful Mind.' One hell-of-a-crazy read!

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All Our Worldly Goods by Irène Némirovsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Totally worth the £2 I spent on this book! I have read a lot of stories but very few have been this powerful. It is like Upstairs Downstairs (both the 1970's series and the new ones) combined with Romeo and Juliet' 'A Tale of Two Cities' and 'The Diary of a Young Girl.'

Set between the two wars, All Our Worldly Goods is the story of love, tyranny, jealous mothers, quarrelsome mothers-in-law, of how history repeats itself and how children inevitably become more and more like their own parents. Not a typical World War story and not a conventional family novel either, it is a beautifully paced tale of the resilience of human spirit.

Irène Némirovsky doesn't waste much time on lengthy explanations of her characters and her way of familiarising you to the plot of the story is also pretty unusual. Years pass by, characters grow, nothing is romanticised or embellished. It is simple, everyday and in your face. The narrative of the story captures you and transports you to a whole new world of possibility and impossibility where nothing is predictable and you're always at the edge of your seat.

As I said before, the story can't be classified as a a typical tragedy, a romance or a war/family novel. Written with inventive wit and a unique, bittersweet poetic tone, All Our Worldly Goods is a story of how life is-sharp, full of surprises and as unpredictable as weather. DEFINITELY A GOOD READ!

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Eugenie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very, very realistic! Balzac doesn't romanticise it and for me, the real hero of this book is Katherine Prescott Wormeley who translated it SO beautifully that I fell in love with it!

I just couldn't read this book without a pencil in my hand! It had so many beautiful and poetic things that I HAD TO underline and make notes on the margins and I rarely do that to a book! Also, I couldn't help imagining how beautiful the original version would've been considering it's French--the most poetic language in the world--if the English version was full of poetry!

Don't get carried away by my excessively lavish review! If you're expecting a romantic story, with a happy ending, DO NOT READ EUGENIE GRANDET! It's not a book for romantics! It's a book for those who seek romance in realism.

A lot of people who have already read it might wonder why I call this book "fiercely feminist" because Eugenie is far from feminism and Balzac defines her as the perfect Christian soul who, stays a virgin because she doesn't marry a man she loved and is still devoted to him, and she is honourable and has a noble soul just like an ideal Christian woman should be. To those people, my suggestion is, go and read the letter she writes to Charles and then go through the part where she promises to marry de Bonfons. If you still don't get it,get back to me!

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