Book Review #65: Surrogate Author - Authdas Journey of Nine Months Book Delivery By Santosh Avvannavar and Shilpa S.Patil

Title: Surrogate Author - Authdas Journey of Nine Months Book Delivery!

Authors: Santosh Avvannavar, Shilpa S. Patil

Publishers: Hoeffen

Genre: Non-Fiction/Writing

Pages: 40 odd pages

Source: Review Copy by Author

This is a short and sweet book I must say. It has a great material inside that could actually help the budding authors with its creative ideas and narration. It hardly takes 20 minutes to read this book, but, the idea it inculcates among the readers is exceptional. As an aspiring writer myself, I had gained a positive insights into the writing and how to build and propagate an idea of writing.

This book has a conversational type story. And, the conversation has been adopted on the lines of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hit movie Devdas, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit. There are changes to the names, the themes and the props. Devdas has become Authdas here in this story. And just like Devdas finding his lost love with Paru. Here, Authdas tries to bring his lost interest of writing his unfinished novel Paro!!

The Authdas (Author-das) here in this novel finds inspiration to write his unfinished novel Paro. However, he seeks the help of Chandramukhi. He tries all his might to write it short, in a periodic time frame to finish his novel. But, Paro was moved into a different house!! Dejected Authdas lost his cool and seeks help from anyone to find his lost love.

The book has 2 sections in it. The first section speaks about the conversation of Authdas with various characters and his never dying intentions about writing his unfinished novel Paro. In 2^nd section of the book, there are some tips and tricks for every aspiring author on how to write. It has some good information about how to start a character, how to develop a character, how to imagine the surroundings and how to write the associate character etc… 

The authors have juxtaposed Authdas with that of a surrogate mother who has to bear 9 months to give birth to a child. This horrendous task of Authdas writing his unfinished novel Paro is as difficult as giving birth to a surrogate child!

It is surprisingly impressive to write such a short book, yet make an impact to its readers. Though this book is short and to the point, the movie style narration of Authdas juxtaposing with Devdas is a cracker. I enjoyed reading it. I was kept on reminded about the movie Devdas, while I read about Authdas. This book is a total fun to read! A must read!

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.

Buy this book from here:

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My Rating:
4/5

Book Review #64: Black, Grey & White - "No one is spared from it" By Santosh Avvannavar and Santosh I. Biradar

Title: Black, Grey & White – No one is spared from it

Authors: Santosh Avvannavar, Santosh I. Biradar

Publishers: Hoeffen

Genre: Non-Fiction/Social Awareness

Pages: 90 odd pages

Source: Review Copy by Author

This particular book by the authors speaks about the AIDS and its misconceptions. It particularly creates awareness with the conversational type stories that themed around dealing with AIDS infected people and normal beliefs around it. This book has 5 short stories that deal extensively on this subject. I am impressed with the authors and their research on this subject. They have gone an extra mile to fetch the details that normally wouldn’t come across in a mainstream society.

I liked the title of the book and its tag line. Yes, “No One is spared from it”. The book has passed its message clearly with the stories. We all know, at least in India that, how the people who are infected with AIDS are treated. They are almost treated as dirt. They not only lose their social status, but also, they lose their fighting spirit to begin with. Rejection by the society upon their illness has added additional suffering to their already traumatized life. So, what this book does after all? This book has tried to break those barriers and creates a positive atmosphere and tries to “educate the educated people” to treat the HIV infected people with the same amount of affection and respect as they treat the normal people.

As I said, there are 5 short stories written in this novel. Each story debunks an associated myth of AIDS infected people.

In the very first story, there is a story of Anjali a.k.a Neha who is infected with HIV and tested for positive. A journalist Shahid, who works in a newspaper, receives letters written in blood in the name of Anjali regularly. So, Shahid sets out on a mission to solve this case. He travels to many cities tracing the origin of this letter. Later he finds out that, the person who was writing this letter is killing the innocent children who were born on a particular day. Now, here is the actual stuff that the authors try to break in. The person who was killing those innocent children is an HIV infected person, he believed that, by killing these innocent children that were born on the particular day and offering them as a sacrifice will make his AIDS disease get cured!! This particular practice can be seen among many places even today. Authors tried to educate people here by saying that, offering sacrifice and AIDS are nowhere linked to each other. In fact, what they need is a counselling and few helping hands.

In next story, there is a tale of a little boy Chintu. He was infected with HIV at the time of his birth. The virus got carried into him by their parents who were infected. He was treated by the society like he is an outcaste person. Little chintu was not sure why he was treated in such a way, where there is no fault of his. This particular story is very touching and gives us a reason to not to judge people. It passes on a great lesson on how to treat an HIV patient, so that, they can lead a normal life and can live little longer.

The next story speaks about the exploitation of young girls in various industries. This particular story exposes the insider casting couch kind of story where a budding model was forced into casting couch. The fate of this young girl was ruined by few hungry criminals, which abused her in every possible way. The end is quite heart breaking. The young girl, now infected with HIV positive will start taking revenge against these hungry predators and infected them along with her. This story speaks about how not to use a situation and persons just because you can wield power.

And, there is one more story where a young girl Savita was married to an older person. Her parents didn’t even find a detail about the person with whom their daughter is getting married. Time is very short for Savita, as she was infected by AIDS through her husband. She didn’t scare at the beginning; she went on building positivity around her through counselling and taking timely medicines. This story goes on explaining about how an HIV infected person can actually build a positive life around them. It is inspiring to many who are suffering from HIV.

The final story is of Cain and Abel. This particular story has deviated from the AIDS themed stories. However, this story particularly explains the need for care and affection that parents have to give their children. Abraham being the father of Cain and Abel treats both of his sons in equal way. However, Cain turns out to be a rebel with the influence of Lucifer, the demon. Cain starts to go astray early in his childhood resulting in losing his social status and respect from others. Whereas, Abel the good son, listens every word from this father and gains the trust and respect of the people. This is a simple, yet strong message oriented story. This particular story has been adopted from the Holy Bible.

This book certainly helps to break some taboos that are surrounded with AIDS and its misconception. This book must be kept in every high school, college libraries to teach young kids. I highly recommend this book to be read by everyone. Those who have read already must put a word to their friends and near one’s to spread the awareness.

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.

Buy this book from here:

Amazon.com

Amazon.in

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My Rating:
5/5

Book Review #63: Title Is Untitled By Santosh Avvannavar and others

Title: Title is Untitled

Authors: Santosh Avvannavar, Kundan Srivasatava, Rajashree Ghosh and others

Publishers: CreateSpace Independent publishing platform

Genre: Non-Fiction/Social Awareness

Pages: 120 odd pages

Source: Review Copy by Author

Finally I’ve read a book that kept me thinking for a while. The book made me to realize what is right is not always deemed to be right. This book covers the most important aspects of the modern Indian society and its flaws. It is more accurate to say it as flaws, since, this book covers some of the most serious happenings in our society, and be it on the male or female populace. The atrocities, the crimes, the extortions, abductions, scams, etc… has been covered in a greater detail in a conversational type. Yes, this may be a work of fiction, but, only the characters are made to be fiction, but, the story is simply straight forward.

This book "Title is Untitled" is on the category of “Social Adult Book” because it covers majorly the aspects that are mostly related to the problems that are faced by the adults. At the same time, the readers have to be reminded that, these kind of criminal offense are happening against children too. There are 11 stories that the authors have written in this novel, while each story has covered a topic, mainly, child marriages, sexual fantasies, marital rapes, suicides among men, domestic violence, prostitution, abduction, blackmailing, abuse of power, retirement scams, education scams etc… It is a serious book and it gives the readers a chance to ponder over few things. The title of the book “Title is Untitled” is very apt for this book.

Each story in the book speaks of a social evil, and the victim may be either men or women. Authors have not shied away from speaking their mind about some of the topics which are considered way too taboo in a conservative society like India. For instance, a particular story speaks about a man, who gets abducted by a group of thugs and abused him and forced him to a marriage that he was not at all consented with. This is popularly known as Groom abduction and it is quite rampant in various parts of India.

In another chapter they talk about a woman who has abused the domestic violence laws and made it as a business. Her sole purpose is to marry a gullible man and force him for divorce citing some unacceptable reasons and get alimony from him and search for a new victim.  

Another story speaks about a person who is not at all qualified for even a degree finds an institute that offers Ph.D. degrees for negotiable fees. This institute is not a legit and not even government approved. This person pay a hefty amount of money for his degree and without even doing a zilch of research of his subjects, he ended up getting his Ph.D. This particular story tells us that there are scams at even higher education level.

One more story is of a sexual fantasy of a young woman, who is all but cared for her unusual expectations when it comes to love making, which actually resulted in a more serious damage mentally and physically. And, like this, there are many stories from the book, that each speaks about a certain social evil. There are little facts at the end of every chapter that gives us the statistics about the problem that they’ve discussed in the chapter.

The writing style is a commendable job. They’ve avoided too much adult content and focused more on the issue. Grammatical aspects are quite satisfying. Content wise, it is rich and as I said it before, it is pure message oriented. In this age of money making race, several other authors try to write some garbage to make some quick money, but, these authors are an exception to that case. They have focused more on the content, more on educating the society and less on the money front.

I am highly impressed with the designing part of the book. The front cover image looks stunning and appropriate fonts helps the readers to read the book comfortably.

Towards the end of the book, you can read little profile of all the authors, through which we will come to know that, they’re working towards a better society, motivating people towards a better living and educating them.

Rating this book is a little tedious job. You don’t get to see this kind of book often. It’s short, crisp and contains a bundle of information and facts that can be used widely to teach the masses. A must read book at any cost. I highly recommend it.

Note: I received this book from the author in exchange of an honest review.

Buy this book from here:

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My Rating:
5/5

Book Review #62: Two for the hearts By Ekta R. Garg

Title: Two for the Heart (Stories in pairs: set one)

Author: Ekta R. Garg

Publisher: Prairie Sky Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-9909360-1-5

Genre: General Fiction/Short Stories

Pages: 55 (EPUB Edition)

Source: Review Copy

This book consists of 2 short stories that were written pretty well. I enjoyed reading it. Ekta R.Garg has written these 2 tales that is full of emotions, love and care. That’s the theme carried away in this novel. A short book of relatively 50 odd pages, gives us an amazing experience. Stories that is blended with pure emotions and lots of love, makes this book as a unique and a must read.

The first story from the book is “The Proposal”. A young lawyer Akshay and a doctor by profession Pooja was not ready to bother about their individual relationships. However, they both get cornered into a marriage by their elders. But, they both cleverly plan for something else. They decide to get their divorce papers ready right after their wedding. They eventually gets their divorce papers applied and it is one steps behind to get it officially termed as divorced. Some unusual circumstances make them acts otherwise. Akshay finds Pooja the more caring when she took care of his ailing mother who is on the last stages of cancer. Whereas, Pooja finds Akshay the most understanding person, when Akshay agrees to participate in a ceremonial dinner planned by Pooja’s parents where they both have to act as man and wife. These things and other favorable moments made them realize what true love is and they just no longer cared about their divorce.

The above story seems very simple as it looks. But, the intense emotions that each character displays are just more than enough. Author has not wasted time and space to shovel extra description of events, or characters or places in the novel. Author has more concentrated on the human emotions which is very apt to the above story.

The second story in the novel is “The Remembrance”. Helen wakes up in the hospital and she has no idea how she even got there. Everyone in the hospital dodges her question. And, then her sister Rose with whom she has not spoken for 11 long years comes to aid her. Without realizing Rose’s situation or what she has been through just a few days ago, Helen acts in the most unusual way and tries to avoid Rose. Rose visited Helen right after conducting their father Mr. Green’s funeral. She was advised by doctors to stay for some more time. Helen, of course, was not aware of her father’s death or her husband’s death, seems to have lost memory. She almost forgot what happened recently. So, as the story further progresses, Helen gets discharged from hospital and she was gaining her memory back. Soon she realized what she has lost. She started sobbing uncontrollably. Helen realized her loss and Rose’s love for her.

The 2^nd story also seems to be very simple. But, it gives readers a chance to ponder over few little things in life that can actually help to clear the misunderstanding.

I liked the first story more than the 2^nd one!!

There is a slight twist in both the stories. Author is very clever in linking both the stories that gives us a new perspective altogether. There are also surprises in the stories, not so shocking or breathtaking, but author holds back and keeps the secrets for the readers to reveal themselves. The overlapping of both the stories while not interrupting the each individual story adds another layer. A main character in the first story is actually a background character in the 2^nd story!!

These 2 short stories can be elaborated to make them as a novel altogether if tried. But, here it worked so well to keep it short and to the point. The focus was given more to the main characters than the props while not losing out on the quality or content. I recommend this book to the readers.

Note: This book was sent by the author in exchange for an honest review.

You can buy the book from here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

My Rating:

4.5/5

Book Review #61: Shadow of the Wraith (NEXUS) By Ross Harrison

Title: Shadow of the Wraith

Author: Ross Harrison

Publishers: Self Published

Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera

Pages: 404+ pages (EPUB version)

Source: Review Copy from Author

First things first

This is a fantastic story. I have enjoyed thoroughly. The story keeps you hooked till the end and I am not exaggerating to say that, this is the best book I've read it recently under the genre space fiction. Ross Harrison is a brilliant author. He blended space science with every possible substance that includes aliens, humanoids, humans and robots (androids). With a touch of humor, Harrison has managed to write this book fluently.

Review

The entire novel is set in the future, in which the normal human beings has mastered the space travel and learnt possible ways of mending the space ships and making themselves alliances between other space dwellers, bots and humanoids. I must remind the readers here that, though you get reminded of the stories from STAR WARS, STAR TREK and MATRIX on regular intervals, it is in no way a copy of those things. It resembles few scenes here and there, but, that’s ok. It has a great story to the readers and this is the first book in the series of NEXUS as author says.

The protagonist of the novel is Travis Archer, a freelance bounty hunter. He accepts an official assignment of destroying an unmanned ship “The Star Wraith”. This Star Wraith is a powerful ship that appears out of blue and destroys the other space ships. The intentions of it were not known to him and he builds his team with some unusual members to go on an epic journey to hunt and destroy this ship. His team consists of his buddy Miller, Jay, Zak Kirroc, and another freelance bounty hunter from the Kraathan’s Juni Lien. Juni Lien character is the most unusual to say the least. She was actually appointed to kill Travis Archer for a bounty, but, she ended up teaming along with Travis Archer in search of Star Wraith. The detailed introduction of the characters and their origin can be read from the book. It is highly interesting to read about various alliances, groups and their crazy description.

The description about the entire space atmosphere is a marvelous job. You have to be a science fiction lover to slip into the alternate world that Harrison creates in this novel. The detailed explanation of each and every machinery, space ships, plasma guns, armor suits, VI console, etc… is very fascinating.

As the story further progresses further, Travis and his team were able to finally locate and get inside the Star Wraith. There is a slight twist in the tale here, as they were prepared to destroy this ship initially, they were taken by surprise by witnessing some of the relevant man intervention in this ship. So, Travis and his team decide to take control of the ship and succeed in it. So they maneuver this ship to find out the exact intention behind its creation. Travis and his team try to get all possible details regarding its creation. They will discover that, the people from who they got this bounty contract were somehow related to this ship’s creation. Travis decides to get to the bottom of this. He and along with few team members were able to connect the dots slowly and steadily. The more fascinating of this story reveals the shadow of a villain called “Boarshraak” whose goals and intentions remained shrouded in mystery.

Other notable points—although the story starts on a small scale, it eventually escalates from Travis’s dangerous assignment to a potentially devastating interstellar conflict. Race relations between alien civilizations are touched upon—at one point, an official notes that one of Travis’ alien crew members cannot be paid like a human would. It is quite interesting to note that, they get paid in Credits! Also, there is an android called Arkuun-Marl (Became my favorite!!) with the obnoxious tendency to make lame jokes about everything. Though he is a bot (android), he prefers people calling him “HE” instead of “IT”! Arkuun-Marl has an important role in this novel. His character seems like a life saver at most of the times and also a comic relief in a serious space juggernaut.

There is also one important character that must be mentioned without fail. This character is called “Rialen” that appears as a path shower from the second half of the novel. This particular character reminds me the movie MATRIX, where NEO gets his advises every now and then.

There is also a special mention about fireflies and dragons that has a very minimum part in the novel and still plays as a part of the expedition. There is also a part where the true identity of Travis Archer has been revealed that makes him immortal!!?

The entire story runs like a movie. It has no boring aspects. The climax part of the novel is where the astounding information has been kept. Who is “Boarshraak” after all? Was he the main responsible for all these conflicts and wars? Were Travis and his team able to come out with flying colors? The answer lies in the book and I recommend the readers to read this book. This book definitely takes you to an alternate world and leaves you there to savor the moment. The entire story keeps ringing in your mind even after you finished reading it.

The book is organized pretty well. The chapters are divided according to the places that the story takes place. The violence scenes description has been taken care of really well. The grammar is perfect and the reading experience is quite lucid and engaging.

Note: I received this book from the author as a review copy in exchange of an honest review.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #60: The Eye of Rudra By Thomas Sturm

Title: The Eye of Rudra

Author: Thomas Sturm

Publishers: Exocubic Media

ISBN: 9781483536446

Genre: Thriller Fiction

Pages: 190 odd pages

Source: e-Review Copy 

Many novels have been spun around Hindu mythology stories and it has been received really well by the readers. I am quite sure; this book "The Eye of Rudra" by the author Thomas Sturm is a nice attempt in this genre. This is an excellently written novel. It has suspense, thrilling moments, covert operations, modern weapons etc... I made the right choice when I was offered to review this book by the author. I had enjoyed reading this book.

The plot of the book is quite interesting. A businessman of Hindu origin Mr. Hashim Naidu is doing some illegal business in the oil world.  Interestingly his company was being called as "Nandi". On papers he was the provider of modern machinery to the oil drillers in Arab, Asia and few western countries. Inside he is doing some research project, which could potentially kill the oil businesses in entire world. This research project is based on "Rudraksha" or "Rosary Beads". These beads had some special bacteria in it which can be used adversely on oil. Hashim Naidu was pumping a great deal of money on this pet, but dangerous project.

This project information has somehow leaked in the western world and all international intelligence agencies were going gaga over it and wanted it to stop at any cost. At this stage, the protagonist of our novel Nick comes into the scene, he is an army official trained in this kind of operations. Along with Nick, there are few more spy agents from different countries, Ian a British, Raawan Najya a Saudi female spy, IQ man and others.

This team of highly capable spies sets out on an epic journey to find and nab this Hashim Naidu and his project. The rest of the novel takes us to too many countries including Iraq, Saudi, India, Nepal and Tibet. "Mount Kaliash" of Tibet is the climax point of the novel. The vivid description of the operation and close encounters, description of spy machineries is an excellent read. I stop at this point and recommended the readers to read the book. You'll enjoy as much as I enjoyed reading it.

I sincerely felt that the book could've been cut short by at least 20 to 30 pages. Wedding participation in the final few pages could've been avoided as it proves no connection to the story whatsoever.  Najya's role was limited and I am not sure why the author had not brought her inside the operation? And made her just a radio message sender!! I expected a lot out of Najya's role.

The entire story is captivating and it makes the readers not to put down the book. A must read thriller.

My Rating:
4.5/5

Book Review #59: RISE - Rejection Is a Lie By D.U. OKONKWO

Name: RISE (REJECTION IS A LIE)

Author: D.U. Okonkwo

Publishers: A Few Words Press Ltd.

ISBN: 978-0-9931617-0-1

Genre: General Fiction

Pages: 200

This is a nice book. Author DU Okonkwo had written a fantastic tale. When I was offered to review this book by the author herself, I was instantly impressed with the blurb and before that, the cover image of the book is simply stunning. As a voracious reader and reviewer I give much importance to the cover image.

So what this book is all about? Well, this book is a story of belief, it’s a story of confidence, and it’s a story of happiness. This book speaks about art and an artist. The protagonist of this book is a sculpture artist Riana Ofor. She is a self-made artist that has a dark, disappointing story to offer us, the readers. Ria was like any other girl in her younger days; she used to go out with her friends, having a happy time, having a good time with her family etc... One unfortunate incident made her life miserable. She was accidentally trapped in a fire accident and her face was half burnt. She spent a considerable amount of time in coma and she had a permanent scar on her face that traumatized her for the rest of her life. This also resulted in losing a good relationship with her father.

The plot opens to be a promising start. Ria Ofor who has made enough sculpting work but she wasn't confident enough to approach some agents to sell her work. Reluctantly one day she decides to give it a shot and calls an agent and received an appointment. This agent is called Meg Fuller, who was thrilled to see the works of Ria and in that very instant she offered her a contract and took one of Ria's works for her personal collection. Things were looking easy for Ria until the day she landed an exhibition contract with Almarez, a prestigious art gallery house. This was envied by one of her colleague Adam and he threatened openly and called her names and even went out to mock her face!!

This was the stage where the novel takes it turn. Having received these kinds of abuses, Ria was almost broke. Her nightmare days seemed to reappear before her. However she tried to forget this incident, it used to come back. She started seeing therapist who suggested her antidepressants and sleeping pills. This was not at all working for Ria, and finally she stopped her sculpting work.

So this event sets the novel for its climax. Like, how Ria came back to herself? How she was able to remove blockages from her mind? What she had done to face the reality? What actually helped her? With whom did she seek help? Was Bible the reason that she is able to reason out? How she proved herself that Rejection is a LIE? How her thoughts and reasons made her to believe that everything happens for a reason?

She indeed encounters the bible and she starts to read it to find out few of the answers. She discusses the same with her brother, her sister-in-law and her friends. She gets this realization slowly that, she soon starts to emanate the positivity out of her life. She cared less for the burnt scars on her face and she believed in what was told in bible and moved on to build her life in a more positive way.

Overall, a thought filled book. A book you can read and re-read for questions, for inspiration and a must read when you are feeling really low.

My Rating:

4/5