Book Review: The Return (Animorphs) by Katherine Applegate

Animorphs is awesome to begin with, mediocre in the middle, trash towards the end and awesome again at the end. The Return is absolutely one of those books that are towards the end of the series.

I understand the Applegates have had a lot of the books in the series ghostwritten, so that might explain the decidedly mediocre plot in 'The Return'. Also the books with Ellimist and Krayak or their stooges can be weird to read because the Almighty beings have no rules to contend with. They defy gravity, time, space and even logic. It makes for irritating reading.

The only book one can read in the series and walk away contended and completely mindblown with is 'The Ellimist Chronicles'. Every other book in the series is as risky to read as the Animorphs invading a Yeerk pool.

Book Review: The Animorphs #39: The Hidden by Katherine Applegate

'The Hidden' is one of those Animorphs books that manages to bring back fast paced, high octane action. The Animorphs must protect the morphing cube from the Yeerks and there a couple of very interesting story points where random animals get the power to morph. However, the book is let down by a sloppy ending, all the action ending with a damp squib at the end.

Disappointing.

Book Review: A Midsummer's Equation by Keigo Higashino

From the author who pulled off literary magic in 'Salvation of a Saint' and 'Devotion of Suspect X', this book went automatically on my reading list. I had thought Higashino's standards had lowered with 'The Name of The Game...' but this book was decidedly worse. Higashino is best at slow burn thrillers where you know who committed the crime but games are afoot to evade the law, but he struggles to put together something even half thrilling in 'A Midsummer's Equation'. The story is linear and placid. And flashes of Higashino's brilliance are rare. 

Readable only as a flight-read.

Book Review: Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire by Alex von Tunzelmann

Very rarely, do you come across a history book that commands to be read - every day, every hour, every minute. 

Tunzelmann has mined the history of our nation to give us facts hitherto unknown: the eggheadedness of Mountbatten, his rather unconventional marriage to Edwina and Nehru - Nehru the superhero. My favorite character in the book was Nehru - a man with the backbone to take on international powers, with the very Indian ability to get into streetfights with rioters and hooligans (just imagine a Prime Minister in a fistfight with a street hooligan!) and also to charm politicians when he wanted to. I know most people will pick this book up for details on the Nehru/ Edwina affair, but Tunzelmann manages to dig up more dirt on the Indian partition and its key players than any other historian I have ever read: Guha for example, pales in comparison. Perhaps the fact that she is focusing on an event, on a smaller period of time helps her uncover the amount she does. 

It is somewhat ironical, but also typical that it took a foreigner to tell us the truth about everything. I am a little surprised that this book hasn't been banned yet for one frivolous reason or the other. 

'Indian Summer' is essential reading for those who want to understand how our nation and our petulant neighbor were born.

Deals on all books

The following of my books are on deal on Amazon.

‘The Great War of Hind’ at Rs. 29 https://amzn.to/2QZthcM

‘If God Went to B-School’ at Rs. 29 https://amzn.to/2S0pJLK

‘A Year in Faking News’ available for free https://amzn.to/2RZ31Ul

Book Review: The Ellimist Chronicles by K. A. Applegate

 Between my adolescence and adulthood, I lost track of possibly my most favorite book series ever - the Animorphs. Growing up, Applegate just wasn't releasing the books fast enough for me to read them - and it so happened that somewhere around Book #28, my academic studies overwhelmed my ability to keep up.

I chanced back on to Animorphs a month back, expecting to be completely hate or at least, dislike the books a bit. After all, despite the nostalgia, the books were meant for kids. Or so I thought.

'The Ellimist Chronicles' is a cracker of a science fiction book. Forget the "Young Adult", "For kids", etc. tags: the book is good enough to be read standalone by someone who has no clue about the Animorphs series. I have never read an author trying to take a crack at the creation of life itself, and Applegate does it spectacularly with this book.

The only reason I found it a little disconcerting is because I had no clue who the Ellimist was narrating his story to. I later learnt that this is the penultimate book in the series and hence, quite a lot had transpired in the Yeerk/ Andalite/ Human war. And thus, the confusion was warranted. Without that small issue, 'The Ellimist Chronicles' is a splendid timeless science fiction masterpiece for all ages.

Book Review: The Operators by Michael Hastings

I was directed to 'The Operators' from 'War Machine' - the Brad Pitt starred on Netflix which I had really liked (War Machine is based on this book). Mostly, I wanted to understand US' operations in Afghanistan a decade after the 'War on Terror' had been announced.

The book was disappointing. Hastings goes back and forth between two timelines, and tends to use present tense for things that happened in the past far too often for my comfort. Even so, the source material is interesting enough: feuds between Obama, McChrystal and the bureaucracy, the whole elaborate pretense that the war was worthwhile or even, being won, was fascinating.

In case you are looking to catch up on 'The Operators', I would recommend watching the fantastic Brad Pitt in 'War Machine' instead. The writing style was not for me, even though the story Hastings was attempting to narrate was quite intriguing. 

Book Review: Visser (Animorphs) by K. A. Applegate

I used to love Animorphs as a kid. The series was so much richer than the other "young adult" fiction that was peddled to us - more poignant, more 'science' in the fiction. However, as an adult I struggled to finish one of Applegate's books. The plot was just too thin for my grown-up sensibilities.

The reason I bought this special edition is because Applegate's special editions tended to have thicker, more complex plots (or so I recalled from my adolescence). In terms of plot, 'Visser' provides the complete backstory of Visser One (or Marco's mom) set as a trial where she is pitted against the formidable Visser Three. The parts of the book where the two Vissers butt heads are awesome; however, the battle scenes/ parts left something to be desired. A couple of plot devices seemed to provide too easy an out for the story, as well. Again, grown-up sensibilities.

Recommended for series aficionados, but not much anyone else. 

Book Review: Never Give Up

I would have never read this book, if it wasn't free with Prime Reading. It reads like something hurriedly compiled off Wikipedia/ the internet. Far too many grammatical and spelling errors to be a tolerable book. The only reason I managed to finish it is because I found the source material of some of the stories interesting.

Avoidable.

Book Review: One Indian Girl by Chetan Bhagat

A large number of Chetan Bhagat's books are free with Amazon Prime Reading. It is for this reason and this reason alone that I read "One Indian Girl". Also because "All the money in the world" was proving to be a little long winded after starting briskly. (I kept losing track of the Getty offspring in "All the money...").

With One Indian Girl, Chetan writes from a girl's point of view for the first time. I was happy to note Chetan's grammar, ability to spell, punctuate is so much better vs 2 states, which I read for free again. (Please note the trend here - clearly, I believe subliminally that the intrinsic value of a CB book is Rs. 0.) The plot as with every CB book is wafer thin - the story of a random girl's relationships. But CB is trying to deliver a message here, I think. CB wants to be seen as a feminist. CB wants to be a politician eventually, or maybe just taken seriously.

Even so, though CB is CB, his plots are thinner than hair, and his plots are mostly purloined from his working life/ vacations, he does manage to keep you engrossed in the girl's tale: like a bad TV serial you started watching years ago and can't give up, just because you must know what happens in the end. For that and for CB learning better grammar and punctuation, I am willing to give this book 2 out of 5.