#BookReview Black Grey & White by Santosh Avvannavar and Santosh I. Biradar

Title : Black Grey & White
Authors : Santosh Avvannavar and Santosh I. Biradar
Publication House : Self Publishing
Year of release : December, 2014
No. of pages : 127
Source : Author

Black Grey & White is a collection of five short stories depicting illicit physical relationships and its consequences I.e., AIDS. All the five stories try to bust myths associated with aids and showcase how the world perceive HIV positive people.

Now coming to the stories, I liked three of them, didn’t hate the other two but didn’t like them either. Reading the first story was a complete torture because of the way it has been written, even though it was the best among all five according to the content. Second story was crisp and short comparatively and most effective one.

Third story showcased HIV positive ppl from different angle. All that glitters is not gold, indeed! Fourth story educated about how hope is important in life.

Last story Abram & His Prodigal son is more like an Novella consisting of 6 chapters. Its been inspired by the concept of The Parable of lost son.

Rating :
***

#BookReview God’s Table The Last Supper by Santosh Avvannavar, Jyothi Byahatti and Sandeep Huilgol

Title : God’s Table – The Last Supper
Authors : Santosh Avvannavar, Jyothi Byahatti and Dr. Sandeep Huilgol
Publication Year : 2015
Publication House : Self Publishing
No. Of Pages : 69
Source : Author

God’s Table is a collection of breakfast/dinner table conversations between a couple – Amrita and Robert. The husband is a Doctor and wife is a Teacher. The conversations here are based on inhuman events, the couple witnesses in their day to day lives.

From education scams, euthanasia, elections to honour killing, each chapter discusses a sensitive topic. When Amrita and Robert fail to find solutions to these problems they reach out to Paul –  The Godly Man. Paul educates the right path to follow.

What I liked about this book is the range of the socio-moral issues taken into consideration and how relatable the conversations are. Having said that, reading these conversations one after another can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

I would have liked this book more if the people, Amrita and Robert discuss about were included as active  characters rather than just names mentioned in their conversations. Somehow I think the impact the authors want the readers to register would have been more if they had done so. Obviously, then the book would be completely different with a different title.

Rating :

***

#BookReview Surrogate Author by Santosh Avvannavar, Shilpa Patil

Title: Surrogate Author
Author : Santosh Avvannavar and Shilpa Patil
Publication Year : 2014
No of Pages : 47
Mrp : 70/-
Publication : Self Published book
Source : Author

When the author emailed me to review his books, the only thing I did was check out the blurb and few of the reviews. Unfortunately, I didn’t check the other details such as no.of pages, etc.. I was expecting a full fledged novel and what I received was a tiny booklet that was finished in 15mins.

Now coming to the story, Surrogate Author is a spoof of Sanjay leela Bhansali’s Magnus Opus Devdas. The character Devdas becomes Authdas, Paro becomes Authdas’s first novel and Chandramukhi becomes An Author’s Inspiration. The authors Santosh and Shilpa have tried to showcase an Author’s journey of writing his first book in a comic way.

Unfortunately, this book doesn’t work for me on so many levels. Firstly, why would anyone want to rip off a movie, take its synopsis only to change the circumstances (minor changes) and publish it just to prove authors are the real Devdas? Secondly, why only write 10 scenes, why not elaborate the story?
Thirdly, where was the fun I was promised?

Rating :
*. 5

P. S. The book needs some serious editing.

Award: Sisterhood of the World Bloggers

Thank you so much for the award. I will try to complete the norms as soon as possible.

Just Love: Queer Book Reviews

Thank you very much to Spellbound Book Reviews and Megan Broderick for nominating me for this award! And I’m sorry it took me so long to respond to your nomination, I was working every day for the last week. But I’m so honored that you thought of my blog for this award!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you, linking back to their site.

2. Put the award logo on your blog.

3. Answer the ten questions sent to you.

4. Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.

5. Nominate ten blogs.

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#BookReview Rise of Kali by Anand Neelakantan

Rise of Kali is book two of Ajaya – Epic of the Kaurava Clan series. If you have read Asura/Roll of the Dice and liked it then wait no more, go grab your copy of Rise of Kali. If you haven’t read Anand Neelakantan’s work before, then start with this book. Rise of Kali can be read as an independent book too.

Rise of Kali starts with the famous or should I say Infamous Panchali Cheerharan. Suyodhana (Duryodhana) and his brothers along with Karna, Aswathama and Shakuni have won the Dice game and whole of Indrapastha, making Pandavas their slaves. Suyodhana in his urge to satisfy his ego insults Panchali in front of whole sabha, thus shaming the whole Kaurava Clan.

Pandavas leave their abode for Vanvas and Kauravas start resurrecting their status. Aswathama goes in search of Shakuni to Gandhara and Karna is forced to leave Hastinapur by Bheeshma. Suyodhana feels disabled without Karna and Aswathama in Hastinapur.

There are few events in this book which I have never heard or read before, thus making this book more interesting. We know Mahabharata from Krishna ‘s point of view, Arjun’ s point of view and Panchali’s point of view too, but what about The Kauravas? What about Duryodhana?

What I liked about this book is the way Suyodhana ‘s character, suyodhana’ s relationships with his friends and wife are essayed.

Rating :

****

#BookReview Three Quarters of a Footprint by Joe Roberts

Title : Three Quarters Of A Footprint
Author : Joe Roberts
Publishing House : Aleph Book Company
Year of release : 2015
ISBN : 978-93-84067-52-6
No. of Pages : 282
MRP : 295/-
Source : Flipkart

Three Quarters of a Footprint was first published by Bantam Press in 1994. Joe Roberts visited India, more specifically South India for the first time around 1990 and this book is the result of the wonderful experience he had.

Joe Roberts stayed with an Indian family ‘The Trivedis’ in Bangalore for five months and travelled around. This book is a travelogue Cum novel. As a 20 something I don’t recognise the India Joe has written about, but then there are few things that remained the same. Joe travelled madras, Bangalore, Mysore, Benaras, Ooty, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, etc,. Where ever he travelled he made friends and exchanged knowledge.

Three Quarters Of A Footprint is a travelogue from the eyes of a foreigner,the struggles he goes through, the difference he finds between the cultures and food.
I realized few things after reading this book.

~Travelling is much easier now.

~Foreigners are cheated at every level because they know nothing about the local pricing.

Rating :
***

Buy Three Quarters of a Footprint