Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, I know what's coming: This is so depressing! It made me want to jump off a cliff! So why did I like it?

Simply because it is beautifully heartbreaking? Why does a reader like books by Khaled Hosseni? What makes Hamlet such a beautiful tragedy?


Narration! And Arthur Miller is a master of the art of narration! Hate it, love it but you can't deny how powerful it is. Willy Loman, his madness, his imperfections:that's something you see all around you, even experience yourself sometimes.

I think the one thing that makes it so beautiful is the feelings, the emotions, the situations in the play are all pervasive. You've seen something like it inside your own house or around you. You come across people battling ambition, broken dreams, trying and giving up again. You meet people who lie to themselves everyday to evade the pain or to make it more bearable.


Linda, Biff, Happy, Willy and even Ben are everywhere. The world is full of them! What Miller does is he brings out the beauty in the monotony and the everyday life of these common, not so glamorous people and their lives.

Liking this play doesn't make me depressed because it's like being a fan of stream of consciousness: you may not relate to everything in it, but somewhere it strikes a bell of familiarity.

That, dear Reader, is Death of a Salesman for you!

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The Five Orange Pips by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Three stars to a Sherlock Holmes?" you ask me, incredulously. "That,too, on a day when you claim to be Sherlocked?"

Believe me, I tried! I wanted to give it more and would have and could have, if it had a more fascinating end! You will agree that a story that begins with five dried orange pips and a death should have had a more exciting, a more dramatic end than plain arrest of the culprit(s) once they reached America? Am I honestly unfair in asking for a more thrilling end? An elaborate story?

It almost felt like Sir Arthur got tired eventually or lost all imagination in the end and just decided to finish it.

I'm sorry, Sherlock! You had me at the edge of my seat (or rather, my bed) for the most agonising 20 minutes of my life only to have me slump down, defeated, in the end. You're Sherlock Holmes, after all!

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Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This review is more of a rant against all those who have been criticising this book so much! Please read this review if you hated the book! READ it especially, though, if you liked it!

Seriously, what is your problem? You did not like the book? Why?
- Because Jem's dead and there's no Dill, except for passing references?
- Because it was too political for you?
- Because Scout is now Jean-Louise?
- Because she has a fight with Atticus that eventually all of us have had with our parents at some point or the other?


Or is it because just like Scout, you too have married your expectations with Harper Lee's freedom to write whatever she chooses and to take her characters wherever she likes?

Or maybe, like Scout, your conscience is also linked with that of Atticus and once you saw that he ceased to be...how did some of you put it..."the paragon of justice"...at least for you, you just started screaming whatever came to your mouth like she did.

Maybe, then, you too need a slap on the face from an Uncle Jack.

Maybe, you, too, missed the point!

One, there is no dark side to Atticus in this book! (The previews got it so wrong!) If at all, there is only that side of him which developed with years of experience and because of what he had seen! Atticus isn't a racist or anti-democratic person. If at all, he is a Jeffersonian Democrat (a term you probably would have known if you had read about Jefferson at all or would have at least registered while reading the part where Attticus explains his thoughts!)

Democracy is a debatable form of government and those of us who hail from it can tell you from first hand experience that once it has been extended to all, especially to ones who neither understand it nor know of its implications, the whole country suffers. (I come from the largest one there is in the world and trust me, every second person on the street can tell you that just because you have a democratic set up, doesn't mean you deserved it or were ready for it!) That opinion alone does not make a person a racist or an immoral, undemocratic idiot! That is something almost every second or third person hailing from a democracy can back up...sometimes, you're given equal rights too soon. Maybe you've just overthrown dictatorship or stepped out of the shackles of slavery. Just because you've just attained freedom does not give you the right to automatically and immediately claim democracy. With freedom, first comes the acquaintance of as hitherto suppressed race with their rights and then their duties. Then and only then can people effectively adopt democracy for their own progress. This is what Atticus tries to say and this exactly what Scout, much like some of you, ignores, then screams and swears then carelessly goes on to pack her bags! There's absolutely no part of the book where Atticus claims the superiority of the whites over any other race! So if you can't read properly, stop jumping to conclusions and shut it!

Second, a lot of people talk about Scout being stupid, selfish and obnoxious. My question for them is: Have you never read 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?
Scout is popular only because she features in these books! Had she been a real person in your life, you'd have kicked her out the first opportunity (or the other way round) and either way, you would have been glad of it! Why I say so? Because I have, in my life, had the misfortune of meeting not one but two such people, who think their opinion is superior to everyone else's, who are a bigger pain to those who love them than they are to themselves, who constantly think that the world is just not good enough for them and who are quick to quarrel and are too rash too quickly!

So, if you have all that against Scout, let me remind you, that's exactly what she always was-rude, unfeeling and emotionally handicapped towards one and all! What's annoying about her is not why she is like this but the fact that she's like that still! That she neither grew up nor changed!

Simply put, To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a lesser work of fiction because Scout was such a pain of a character and Go Set a Watchman isn't either! Scout is the protagonist, there's no doubt about that, but she has as much of an influence on the merits of these books as those two mockingbirds (one dead and one alive) on their cover pages! She's just a medium for storytelling, not the essence of the books!


Also, this book DOES NOT RUIN To Kill a Mockingbird ! If at all, it only adds to it! Why? Because it is a book about growing up, about making your own choices, about learning to come to terms with the flaws of people you once deified, idealised and accepting that they are just as human, just as prone to mistakes and just as entitled to differences of political, ideological and moral opinions as you are!

Bottom-line: To each his own ( because I am entitled to my own opinion, too)!I LOVED this book, loved every bit of it! It made me laugh, it reminded me why exactly I loved its prequel so much and it added to my own knowledge of human characters.

You, meanwhile,may still sit around and mope about how you could have spent your money and time better!

For me, it was worth its price and a helluva good read!

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Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Charlotte's Web is a beautiful, beautiful book and it is a sin for any reader to not have read this as a child or even as a grown up! I read it when I was 19 and there isn't a moment that the story hasn't grown with me inside me!

A beautiful tale of love, kindness, friendship and loyalty, Charlotte's Web almost cured my arachnophobia because I'd love to have a spider like Charlotte! Who wouldn't?

What makes this story even more special for me is that years after someone nicked my copy(borrowed it to never return!) my friends chose to give it to me as a birthday gift! That kind of made me believe in the magic of good stories: they always have a way of returning back to you again and again!

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Mappings by Vikram Seth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dear Mr Seth,
How shall I review
This set of poems written by you?
While some of them talk of the ways,
You took (and so did I!) in the Oxford days,
There are others that talk of how you felt,
When you saw how people in Indian slums dwelt
With an empty stomach filled with empty hopes,
With their lives tied down by Poverty's ropes.
You talk of life in India after Inglistan
Of mangoes, marigolds, Panipat and paan,
Of experiences I eventually shared,
The feeling on staying away from all those who really cared!
And then there were some that talked of
Falling deeply, and irrevocably in love,
Sometimes with a person, at times with a place,
And at other times being caught somewhere between Straights and Gays,
Mr dear Mr Seth, please do allow me,
To tell you that it isn't your orientation but your poetry,
You words that carry such enormous weight
Truly define you as both Stray and Great!
Stray because your poems show how far you've travelled,
How many places you've been to, how many mysteries you've unravelled
Through the things you've seen, the people you've met.
You've written about the sights you have seen and things you have said.
Yes, these stray wanderings, unmapped or mapped,
Have created so many poems that have trapped
Me on and off and on again
While sunshine, thunder, wind and rain
Lit my windows and darkened them
While people around me muttered, "Ahem!
Don't you have work to do, missy?
Why does that little book keep you so busy,
When you're moving out and we need a hand
To safely transport your stuff across the land?"
And despite their chidings, I sat coiled like a cat
Oblivious to the bare walls of my empty new flat,
With your book in my hand, my dear Mr Seth,
Reading the words of a man who is truly Great!

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I'm still chewing this book in my head. The Color Purple is the kind of book you need to chew before you can say anything about it. It's heart breaking, emotionally wrenching and at the same time, it teaches you to never give up hoping. One might call it the story of Celie but it isn't hers without being that of Nettie, Sofia, Shug Avery, Mary Agnes and Tashi. In a small, subtle way, here's a complete book about racism, rape, homosexuality, apartheid, colonialism and economic exploitation, carefully mingled with human emotions of love, passion, pent up rage, angst, pain and a quest for self.

If I have to use one word to describe this book, it has to be 'fierce' because whether it addresses issues of feminine liberty or identity, or global issues of poverty and social inequality, whether it talks about being misfits as immigrants or misfits among natives, this little epistolary novel is as fierce as any book can be without sounding like a propaganda of some sort or without being completely depressing or appallingly boring.
While reading it, I was essentially in the book and could hear Celie's broken, defeated voice gaining weight as time passed, hear the tinkle in Shug's laughter and sense the hope in Nettie's words.

It isn't a book you're likely to forget or get out of your head. Call it the flawless imagery or the powerful characterisation, here's a book so fierce it is driven inside your skin before you realise.

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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There are good books, there are bad books, and then, there is The Secret Life of Bees. Yes, it's neither good nor bad. It's quite average actually and as much as I want to give this book 5 stars, I also want to give it a less than three rating.
The reason?

Well, the story, though quite good, is too far-fetched and is infested with a mood of perpetual gloom, which seeps into the reader slowly. Moreover, the story becomes a little drab at some places, insufferably preachy and Lily's pathetic attempt of winning reader's sympathy by annoying amount of mopping and self-pity makes her revolting rather than endearing.
I guess, I could say it's the beautiful, poetic language of the story that wins you over but that, too, isn't consolation enough. It could've been better but for me, it's only 3 stars.

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The Bridges Of Madison County by Robert James Waller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has waited pretty long to get a review so, it's about time I gave it one! 'The Bridges of the Madison County' is not a pleasant read, not for everyone at least, because one might wonder while reading it that: is carnality what love is all about? Is physical union essential if you've found a soul-mate? Can't friends belonging to the same gender be soul-mates? Does a soul-mate necessarily have to be someone whom you HAVE TO get intimate with? Also, one wonders, as I did even while I was reading 'Riot' by Shashi Tharoor that is adultery really essential to create a love-story when one of the characters concerned is married and eventually finds a soul-mate in someone else?

No doubt the book is beautifully well-written and forces the reader to believe that it is actually based on a true story. The language is poetic and almost haunting. Perhaps the most haunting thing about the book is Robert Kincaid, who is a magnetically deep and charming character. But when we come to the character of Francesca...well, that's exactly where the problems begin from.

The fact that she has the courage to have a brief affair with a photographer while her husband and kids are away shows that her marriage is merely a sham, a lie that she has been living and that she is desperate to try anyone who is only slightly sympathetic towards her. Not because her family is cruel or because her husband doesn't love her but just because she thinks her marriage has lost the charm it once possessed. That kind of portrays her as a weak, shallow woman for whom love is synonymous with carnal desires. That she married a man she now claims to have no romantic feelings for, shows she was led by desire into this marriage. That she would have eventually left Kincaid, had she moved in with him, wouldn't have been a news to the reader either! Also, the fact that she decides to stay back not for the sake of love for her children or husband but what people would say if she left makes her all the more pathetic. It's not affection for her family that makes her stay but the unease about the fact that she would become the talk of the town and probably the insecurity of leaving a comfortable home and hearth that makes her stay back.

However despite the fact that the book is pretty much flawed in several places and is not altogether digestible, it has a certain charm which makes it, well not exactly a cherished novel, but a good read. Overall, 'The Bridges of the Madison County' is basically a fast-paced, best-seller kind of read with more to it than confused emotions and sheer adultery!




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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sheer incompetence and nothing else makes it impossible for me to review this book! How can I even venture such a task? Words like "Amazing! Mind-Blowing! Fantastic!" sound like understatements and simply fail to describe the sheer genius of Mark Twain. All I can say is, if you fail to enjoy this book and cannot relate to a single incident/character it has or talks about, you were born old, my friend, and you have NEVER had a childhood!

MUST, MUST read!

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised how mistaken I was about this book because of one bad reviewer! However, what surprised me even more was how different this book was from what I had expected, especially, considering a Puritan wrote it in 1850s! Hawthorne was never really someone I enjoyed reading in college or even back in school and when the topic was adultery, I was pretty sure I would have to go through a LOT of anti-women sentiment, and sermons about what virtuous women ought to do and how Hell strikes down a woman who has sinned but surprise, surprise! A feminist in disguise!
For me, the book became brilliant in the very first few chapters where Hawthorne starts to question that if a sexual offence happens against a woman or a sexual 'sin' is committed by one, why is it that the woman alone is blamed? Has the man who has brought upon her such dishonour not sinned equally or even more? Why is it that a woman 'loses her honour' even when she sins and eve when she is sinned against and a man doesn't? Yes, there is an awful LOT of such arguments in this book which talk about how women are deliberately moved to ignominy and infamy in a patriarchal society and that in such societies, even the so-called privileged women lead a life of misery.
Why I docked off a star? Well, WAYYYY TOO MUCH superstition but you can't really blame Hawthorne! It's Salem in the 1600s that he's talking about. There's bound to be some of that, though another main reason is the books juggles between the Shakespearean English and the Regency period English: commendable that Hawthorne could juggle with ease between both but it makes reading the book a little hard because the language isn't that fluid because of frequent transitions.
Do I recommend it? Well, if you're ever-ready for classics and can handle anything, yes. The story is brilliant, sans doubt, but it isn't really everyone's cup of tea!

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh my! I had forgotten what American literature does to you! It's been at least two years since I read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Breakfast at Tiffany's,Franny and Zooey among others. Of Mice and Men is a reminder of what a delight the American Literature from the early decades of 1900s was like.

There's not much I have to say about this book except that very rarely do you find a book that is so beautiful and so heartbreaking! It reminds you, that sometimes, being a good friend doesn't just mean sticking around but also ending your friend's misery even if it breaks your heart.

A perfect read on a quiet, well-lit summer Sunday. I docked off one star because it totally broke my heart but other than that, this has to be one of those beautiful, I'll-remember-till-I-die kind of books that will always be on my favourites-shelf!

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Sabrina Fair by Samuel Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had my own set of qualms about reading Sabrina Fair because I loved the movie too much and didn't want a different story-line to ruin the charm for me! Bad News: it did! Good News: And for a good reason! Unlike the movie, where because it is a typical Cindrella Story, Sabrina is a love-struck idiot and David a Casanova, Sabrina Fair presents all the characters in a new light where our heroine is as much of a realist as she is romantic, our hero is gullible and naïve and more of an over-grown moron and our anti-hero is an imp and a hardcore feminist. The play is full of interesting characters like Julia, who wasn't even there in the movie and Linus Larrabee Sr., who enjoys going to funerals for fun! Because this story shatters the ideas of fairy-tale romance and then restores it only for the sake of practicality and because it is deeply feminist in nature, it deserves as much admiration as Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man and hence deserves the same rating!

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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is one book that I'm doubly ashamed of-I'm ashamed that I own it and ashamed that I read it! Why Ms. Meyer wasted so much of paper on writing four parts of this disastrous story, beats me! Had she been in India, someone like Menka Gandhi perhaps, would have definitely sued her for so much of wastage! But then again, in a land where Chetan Bhagat thrives...(sigh!)
Regarding the content of the story, I'm sure she read 'Tuck Everlasting' as a kid and hated it so much that she decided to give it her 'touch'. Then she consulted 'Harry Potter' to copy the style to some extent and probably read some pathetic books like '100 Tips on How to Write Effectively' or something and decided to trouble the celebrated Brontë sisters in their graves by saying that her worse than Dracula-ish character is a tribute to Rochester and Heathcliff.
This dedication not only stirred the remains of Charlotte and Emily but also made Bram Stoker turn in his grave.
Exactly why Meyer decided to antagonise so many dead and alive people is not clear! In fact,this reader hasn't the foggiest why she chose to pick up a pen at all! But what's more disturbing than the book itself is the million dollar question why so many seemingly rational people, especially females are mad about Edward Cullen?

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Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was just going through my read list on Goodreads and was shocked to see I hadn't reviewed Breakfast at Tiffany's ! How is that even possible? It's a crime not to have read it forget not to have reviewed it! So, I turned on Moon River, put it on repeat, and here I am typing the review.

The first question to be addressed before I move on with the review is: The book? Or the movie?

Wow! I never thought the opinion I held for three years would just change! The 3 years older Shriya will go for the book, thank you very much! Why? you ask. Why not the movie? Well, because Holly doesn't stay in the book! She goes on and does the very Holly thing to do-she moves on! That's the beauty of Holly Golightly! She's like the wind, you can't tame or control her! She is (taking a little help from the song How to Solve a problem like Maria? from The Sound of Music ) 'unpredictable as weather...flighty as a feather.' That is what makes her stop being Lulamae and become Holly. In the movie, she loses that vagabond quality that's so unique to her and decides to stay and be with Paul, becoming just any other girl, who falls in love and so, that's the end of eveything. In the book, however, she's one of those 'two drifters off to see the world' and continues to be that till the very end and so, excuse me if I sound like the unromantic, unconventional person here but the book for me any day because Holly stays Holly until the very end in it!

Some of you will try to tell me I am trying to find feminism in this, too, but well, isn't there a slight feminist tinge in a pretty little doll like Holly? Agreed, she's all about clothes and jewels and pretty things but think: she's not looking for a happy ending. She's just a normal girl looking for herself, trying to discover who she really is. Not a pretty little fool exactly, but a flighty little vagabond who is neither mellowed down nor tamed by the restrictions of society. She doesn't care what they think of her. She's charming, she's witty, she's pretty and though she's a little naïve at times, at the end of the day, she is who she wants to be. She has the liberty to be whoever she wants everyday and no matter what anyone says, she always has the last laugh because she isn't accountable to anybody for anything. Her actions, their consequences are hers alone to bear and not once in the novella did I see her complaining.

In the movie, Paul asks her to evaluate her life and she realises she has nothing to hold on to. But then, didn't she kick that sort of life, of being a good wife and mother just for that?


So, coming back to the point: the book, please! The book with the original,unafraid Holly shouting, "Carpe Diem!"


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Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Once in a lifetime, you come across a book that totally drives you crazy. It's like being hit by a comet or by a ball at the back of your head. Or rather, it's like the feeling when you don't know what exactly hit you!

Once in a lifetime, you'd take a book into bath with you and read it till all the bubbles disappear, till the water gets cold, till your teeth start chattering and still you won't get up, or dry yourself or move because you don't want it to end.

Once in a lifetime, you'd pick up a small book, a novella rather and wouldn't want it to end.

That 'Once in a lifetime' moment for me was when I picked up Franny and Zooey and YES, all the things I described above happened to me. I could list a million reasons why I would never forget this book but what tops my list is caught the worst cold of my life despite the excruciatingly hot Indian summer, thanks to this book. However, do I regret that? Of course I don't!

Don't be blown away by my review though. Just because it blew me away doesn't mean it would totally mesmerise you, too! Maybe it will, maybe it won't. J.D. Salinger isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea and I won't be surprised if you read it and came back shaking your fist at me, yelling, "What the hell was that?"

I admit, at first, I, too was wondering what the hell is this?, but something soon struck a chord with me. Maybe it was the smell of cigarette smoke, which you'd get plenty of in my house, courtesy my Dad, or the fact that I was using his bathroom for a change that day and on the ashtray by his tub, the cigarette butt was still smoldering as I twisted and turned in water, with a steaming cup of herbal tea in one hand and the book in the other, much like Zooey, who, too was surrounded by hot water, the smell of soap and cigarettes as he read his lines in bath. Maybe that's why, when I read this, I wasn't reading it but was in it-maybe I had become Zooey for sometime and so, his clear notions about life and prayer and religion were my notions, his irritation at the chaos in his house, was my irritation, and his love for his family, despite their quirks and craziness was not different from mine for my own crazy kinsfolk.

That's the true beauty of Salinger. You have to forget who you are. You just have to pick up one character, any character and become him, either voluntarily, if you're struggling with the book, that is; or involuntarily, like me! And then, it all makes sense, perfect sense while, at the same time, it ensnares all your senses and makes you oblivious to everything around you. Yes, I agree with
Diane Setterfield here: Reading IS dangerous but in a good way!

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

Perhaps for the first time after reading A Tale of Two Cities , I laid my hands on a novel which matches its intense romance and tragedy. The Great Gatsby is a book which defines the deterioration in human society and moral values with extreme precision and also shows the difference between romance and reality. It is a novel about characters, who are as real and just as easy to relate with as you are, who are vain, selfish and even pathetic at times. According to the blurb, 'it brilliantly captures the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status', which, it undoubtedly does.

Jay Gatsby, an under-the-hood rogue, is a character quite close to Rick of Casablanca and vaguely similar to Dickens' Sydney Carton. You don't appreciate him much at first but you learn to love him and gradually, sympathise with him. In this one phenomenal character that you love to hate and hate to love, an essential trait of humans comes out: our love of clinging to our dreams, imagination and the past, something, I am sure, everyone can relate to.

Written in the combined fashion of Salinger's vague philosophical tone and Truman Capote's frivolous lucidity, (though originally much before either of them learned writing) The Great Gatsby is perhaps the best American classic which keeps the reader engrossed throughout and the feeling that only a few things can evoke in you, like, the character of Heatchliff from Wuthering Heights and poems like The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes-the love for an anti-hero!

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Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DISCLAIMER: Review may contain spoilers and is too personal to be fit for anything else!

One of the things I remember VERY clearly about Good Wives, apart from the fact that it completely mesmerised me, is how much I cried when I finished reading it. Yes, I cried myself to sleep much and woke up with a burning fever! That's how much this book had touched me!

I was heart-broken because of what all happened in it: the death of a favourite character, the sacrifice of love and the shattering of hearts. To my fourteen year old mind, why Jo married a different man than the man she grew up knowing and loving was a complete mystery! It was only when I grew up and looked at my relationship with my best friend, I realised what Jo and Laurie were all about.

"We were a boy and girl then! We're a man and a woman, now..."

Yes, those words make more sense now than they did back then! I wondered back then, probably because I was influenced by too many romantic comedies, why Jo needed anyone when she had Laurie, who was perfect, who was amazing, and who was the best guy around. Looking back, I realise, a Jo always needs a Mr Bhaer. She has too much fire in her to deal with more fire. Her energy, her wit, her talents need channelising so that she can realise her true potential and become her best.

A Laurie, meanwhile, though he depends on Jo for little things like support and a push towards the right direction, always needs an Amy- that tender, dreamy, simple little girl with enough ambition but not too much fire.

Makes PERFECT sense now!

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Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How did I never write a review for Little Women till now?
If there's one book from my childhood (yes, I consider 14 childhood!)that left such a deep impression on me, it was this! I read both this and Good Wives in a night and no book has ever touched me the way this did. From the VERY first page, I could see I was Jo March. I was so much like her: a tomboy, a girl who had no patience with girly dresses, the art of flirtation that my older cousins seemed to practice and quite like Jo, I, too, had my Laurie living ten minutes away from my house. I loved to write and read, directed plays with my younger cousins over Christmas to perform in front of our friends and families, my fingers were always painted with ink stains and I was SO much like a boy in SO many ways.

No wonder, Little Women wasn't just a book for me then just like it isn't a book for me even now because to quite an extent, it is the story of my life, a story I can relate myself to VERY closely and sure enough, when the Amy of my life told me I am a LOT like Jo, I was delighted!

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Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A book I read, courtesy my sister,the Book Thief, who bought it off a book fair in her school. I must admit I approached the book gingerly at first! Afterall nineteen is not the age to read such frivolous work of fiction, I told myself. But on her insistence, I started reading it anyway. And boy! Was I glad I read it!
Unlike its predecessors, 'Daddy-Long-Legs' does not claim a perfect heroine and a perfect role model for girls in the form of Jerusha Abbot. No, Jerusha is far from perfect. She is but a human, who experiences pain, envy, jealousy like all of us and she is not blind to her faults. Like all others, she acts hastily on impusle, then sits down to analyse her actions and thoughts and if need be, she apologises, too. To add up to all this, she's receptive to ideas and to the social conditions around her.
Perhaps because it is an epistolary novel, as my sister has carefully remarked on the first page of her edition, 'Daddy-Long-Legs' is unidirectional in its focus. Its ending, according to me, is also abrupt and far too romantic to be believable. However, it is one of the books I am glad to have read even though I did so at the age of nineteen!

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Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first and one of the best recommendations my 'then' college acquaintance and 'now' best friend, Padfoot ever gave me at a time when I thought I had read enough! (Padfoot, I owe you BIG TIME for this one!)

The Golden Gate is well written, witty, poetic ( Come on, it's an entire novel in verse )and, I have no other word for it, COOL! Above all, it is a story that you'd carry within you forever!

I can hardly imagine being critical towards a genius like Vikram Seth because not only did he create a novel which I'd always love but also because this novel of his helped me get rid of my 'unjust' prejudice against Indian authors.

So, without further ado, I challenge you to give me one reason why you shouldn't read this book and I'll give you ten for why you should!

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