One Half From The East

Ever had your identity questioned? Just imagine, how might it feel? What happens when a 10 year girl wakes up one day to everybody calling her a boy. She is forbidden from believing otherwise. Bacha posh, as is popularly known in Afghanistan, is a 'tradition' in which one of the daughters is made to dress up and behave like a boy. This is supposed to bring good luck, and the next child born to the family will be a boy. But what happens to the bacha posh when she is asked to return to becoming a girl? Has anybody ever considered the mental trauma the child will have to experience? Amazingly written. Reminds me of Khaled Hosseini.

Manikarnika - A must watch

A fresh face for historical genre. Our minds had resigned to the fact that probably Deepika Padukone will be the only warrior princess turned maharani in every historical movie we see. But thanks to Manikarnika, all that's changed now. Kangana, at first glance, given her history of movie selections, would make you dubious about her role as Rani Laxmi Bai. But ten minutes into the movie, she will have you get goosebumps, and before you know it, you are glued to your seat, asking for more. Even the interval lights seem like a disappointment. You would wish an interrupted watch. More than satisfied with her role, and the way the whole story turned out. Must watch indeed!

Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell

This book just ended! Oh God! Why did this book have to end? If this book were a down comforter, I would lie down in it all day. I would love to come back to it after a long, tiring day and hide within its folds and fall asleep holding it close. It's warm, its cost, it's all things good.
Goodness! Biting my nails off! What did she say? What were the three words? I did not want to let go. What a book, after such a long time!

Portuguese Irregular Verbs - Alexander McCall Smith

Picked this up at the used books sale because I am a big time fan of the author. They say books say a lot about the writer. However, McCall Smith has chosen to go beyond the obvious and change tack in this one. Extremely hilarious, rantings about a certain von Igelfeld.
Apart from the part where describes Indian names, and the sad state of Goa (I was deeply saddened by the inappropriateness - what kind of Punjabi name is Janiwandillannah Krishnamurti Singh!!! Preposterous!), the book gave me a Wodehouse-ean feel. Well written.

Railonama - Anupama Sharma

Train journeys hold a lot of nostalgic memories for the people born in the early eighties and before...To the rest, the world had already become a fast-paced place where speed was the order of the day. Traveling by train, with families, as children, and then later, with friends on that first journey to college or the first study-tour or solo trip away from home...all that fills the mind with myriad stories, some of which are etched in our minds, some that we might have forgotten. However, the feeling remains. The heady smell of trains, the people who travel with you, the butterfly feeling in the pit of your stomach just before the start of your journey, everything just adds to the fun...

Railonama is a collection of such stories collected from various individuals sharing the experience which stayed with them across the years. Through this book, we get to relive that journey with them...

Claimant

Like an answer to my unsaid prayer
Like a burst of fresh breeze
Like a relief to weary feet
Like a sparkle of hope
Shimmering on the horizon
You stepped in uninvited
Made yourself at home
Like you belonged here all along
And claimed me for your own.

Heads You Win - Jeffrey Archer

How far how can you go for power? How far can you flee from people who are willing to go to the ends of the of world to have you killed?
A teenager's life changes under power-hungry Russian dictatorship from where he had to flee with his mother after his father was murdered. Possible alternatives. Where does he land? What life does he see? Can we experience a butterfly effect here? A story which will make your head spin, and how!
Can you live your life achieving success, great success, but in the back of your mind, the fear of the KGB catching up very fresh in the mind. Can you live a similar life full of terror? How would it all end? Who is the friend, and who the enemy? Wonderfully crafted into a web promising to encompass you into its fold. Who do you trust?
Archer has split the story into two possible alternatives and brought it all together in the end to give the reader goosebumps for a long time after.
Archer at his usual best. Although the book gave me the feels of Clifton chronicles, the man is master of his own trade. Gripping, and a real page turner. One of the rare books which will keep you awake the whole night, and the next day, if you haven't finished reading it yet.