The Big Sleep

Author: Raymond Chandler

Genre: Detective, Thriller, Hardboiled, Classic

Source: Audiobook

Rated: 5/5

Read: Jan-March 2015

Chandler’s writing is like a slap of crisp, hot breeze on the face, late on a tiring summer’s day – clean, brutal, uncompromising, and unforgettable. Clean, more than anything else. Sparse. Hard. And enough.

You know that this is genre fiction. And while reading it (and I have read only one Chandler earlier), you know that this is literature that is defeating the genre it is part of. You know that this is a classic. You are mesmerized. You are pulled. You carry on. You are carried on.

Raymond Chandler is the writer I want to write like.

Ruaha

Author: Buddhadeb Guha
Genre: Thriller, Young readers, Wildlife, Shikaar
Source: eBook
Rated: 5/5
Read: March 2015

Later

The Silkworm

Author - Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling)

Genre - Fiction, Thriller, Detective, Cormoran Strike #2

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

September 2014

Dated review:
JKR is a genius. That's all.
If you are a lover of detective fiction, you would not miss this.Go on, what are you waiting for?

Tenth of December

Author - George Saunders

Genre - Fiction, Short Stories

Source - Print

Rating - 5

September 2014

George Saunders is a genius. No, a Genius. With a capital G. I wish I can write short stories with such a macabre twist, with such an evil forbearing and such a light touch. This man is a genius. A Genius.

সেই সময় (Those Days)

Author - Sunil Gangopadhyay

Genre - Historical Fiction, Bengali

Source - Print

Rating - 5

June 2014

A monster of a book. Very strong writing. Te history comes alive. I hope this is as good in English translation as in Bengali, though (I read the original) - this is about more than anything about the rise of the Bengali people and the Bengali language.
Do tell me, friends, if the translation works.

Gone Girl

Author : Gillian Flynn

Genre: Thriller, Mystery

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

April 14

Shudder. A delicious, twisted, evil, satan of a book. Unreliable, lying, attractive, detestable, addictive narrators; the most realistic take on a crumbled marriage I've read in recent times; twists and double twists and triple twists and then --- just as we were slowly moving towards some kind of an expected conclusion, a whoosh-what-the-f**k-was-that howitzer of an ending. I hated, HATED the ending. Perfect ending. Hated it. Loved it.

Wolf Hall

Author - Hilary Mantel

Genre - History, Politics, Non-Fiction

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

December 2013

This is an incredible achievement. Really one of the books where even while reading it you know that this is a piece of high art. Hilary Mantel is a genius. How many book have you encountered where in the middle of an exciting passage of events you suddenly stop to marvel at a piece of sparkling prose? And you are never over-burdened by the literariness of the piece (something that, I must agree, happens to me often), the book, all 24+ hours of it in Audible, flows through. I am not the Booker-prize-reader kind, in fact, I am the exact opposite. This however was brilliant. Will have to start on the next part in a few days.

India After Gandhi

Author - Ramachandra Guha

Genre - History, Politics, Society, Non-fiction

Source - Print

Rating - 5

November 2013

Re-read. This should be re-read once every year. Masterful. A page-turner, it reads like a thriller. Even on the second read.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Author – Bill Bryson

Genre – Science, Popular Science, Non-fiction, Humour, History, Physics, Geology, Paleontology, Anthropology

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

August 2013

I have been having great luck with books in recent times. Or maybe I am easy to please. But really, this book here is a definite read-this-now. The dexterity is not in the physics, the geology and paleontology and anthropology, a fair bit of which (gloat gloat) I was to an extent in the know of, but in the presentation. Bryson is an awesome storyteller, and he weaves these superb, fun, and exceedingly funny stories around the mysteries of nature and creation and the men and women who solved these mysteries for us – this is the perfect book to read beforehand if you are planning to babysit a particularly inquisitive nephew or niece. 

The Cuckoo's Calling

Author - Robert Galbraith

Genre - Detective, Mystery, Thriller

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

August 2013

I am a fanboy, so let me get done with the gushing first. JKR is such a legend! Love her! 
Ok, let's talk about the book now. Ms. Rowling has an incredible ability of putting word after word, and making you look forward to the next word. A natural-born story-teller to compare with the very best. Even while reading the Potter novels, I had always thought that mystery would be her natural habitat, she is so brilliant and ingenuous at plot and storytelling. And this here is a proof. Does it hurtle through like, say, a Lee Child novel? Nope, the story builds up gradually -- this is a classic detection novel, the thrill is secondary to the detection -- but it is still effective, you can still not put the book down. I couldn't. 
Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are both such interesting characters, that I'd very much like this book to be Cormoran Strike #1. And okay then, let's have the acid test for all private-eye books --- Could I guess the killer? Nope. Not till the very end I couldn't. 

Un Lun Dun

Author - China Miéville

Genre - Fantasy, YA, Coming-of-age, Message-fiction, Parallel-world

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

July 2013

Amazing, amazing! Put Harry Potter and Neverwhere together, mix it together, and then turn the whole concept around. You get Un Lun Dun. 
So you know that I am a bit of a Miéville fan. And I read YA fiction often. Put those together, and the expectation was high. The expectation was met, to say the least.
Just to add: like the best of message fiction, the messages come in to the reader subconsciously, never becoming even a slight bit preachy; and never interfering with the story. Pollution. Using lower countries as dumping ground for waste. The experience of a subcontinental-origin person in London. And the biggest hit for me was the sublime turnaround of the sidekick. The Neville Longbottoms of the world rise up to take their rightful position in this book, and how!

The Broken Ear

Author - Hergé

Genre - Comics, Graphic Novel, 

Source - Print 

Rating - 5

July 2013

This has to be the most violent and action-packed of all Tintin stories. And my favourite. And the first Tintin I'd ever read. Love it!

Prisoners of the Sun

Author - Hergé

Genre - Comics, Graphic Novel, 

Source - Print 

Rating - 5

July 2013

There is always great value in revisiting Tintin. And in my opinion this is the best series of his.

The Seven Crystal Balls

Author - Hergé

Genre - Comics, Graphic Novel, 

Source - Print 

Rating - 5

July 2013

There is always great value in revisiting Tintin. And in my opinion this is the best series of his.

The City and The City

Author - China Miéville

Genre - Science Fiction, Detective, Society, Cops

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

April 2013

I am lucky in that I have read quite a few extraordinary books this year. This is certainly one of them. A masterpiece of the genre. Miéville is the superstar of the genre, and I was intrigued to find out why. Now I know. His acclaim is well deserved - This is top notch social commentary, a breakneck, hurtling detective story, and the best sci-fi novel I have read in a long, long time. Please read. Highly recommended.

Netherland

Author - Joseph O'Neill

Genre - Cricket, New York, Society

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

March 2013

This is incredible. This book tells me that I am relevant. Best book I read this year.

Pride and Prejudice

Author - Jane Austen

Genre - Romance, Classic, Society

Source - Audiobook

Rating - 5

March 2013

Beautiful. I read (listened to) this with a lot of apprensions - I don't like classics per se - but really, this is beautiful. It did not move me, it did not embrace me with its language; but all that is trivia. It engaged me. It was 14 and a half hours well spent.

Eye Of The Needle

Author - Ken Follett
Genre - Fiction, Thriller, Espionage, Spy, WW2

Source - Audiobook
Rating - 5

Feb 2013

Everyone should stop bothering to write thrillers after this book. Robert, yes. Fred, John G, yes, all of you. This is the definitive thriller.  

The Shadow Lines

Author - Amitav Ghosh
Genre - Fiction,
Source - Print
Rating - 5
Jan 2013

This is a fragile, delicate, beautiful thing, this book. Turn the pages with care. Be gentle. And re-read, dear reader. Like I would.

The Casual Vacancy

Author - JK Rowling
Genre - Fiction

Source - Audiobook
Rating - 5

Jan 2013

Stark, poignant, bleak and not unfunny. Loved it.