Book Review: Amreekan Desi

Image courtesy of http://book.amreekandesi.com/

We received this book from the Readers Cosmos to do a review.

This book is about 2 guys who have passed out of engineering in India and have applied to the US universities to do their masters.

How many people do you know who have gone to the US to do their higher studies? All my college mates and pretty much everyone I know is in the Land of Opportunities. I'm probably one of the few who stayed back in India.

I could easily relate to this book and can confirm that I know of people who have been on one of the situations described in the book.

The story revolves around Akhil Arora and Jaspreet Singh aka the Jazzminator. They turn out to be roommates and couldn't be poles apart. Akhil becomes more Indian than he's ever been in his entire life living in India and Jass becomes a pseudo american from eating burgers to wanting to marry someone like Pamela Andersonji.

It captures the hilarious moments of the cultural differences from something simple as capsicum being called bell pepper in the States.

This is a fun afternoon read and I'm sure everyone would have a good laugh.

I have friends who are either Akhil or Jass and I would like all my Amreekan Desi friends to read this one.

My rating: 3/5

Book Review: The English Girl

Gabriel Allon is back and this time to save the life of Madeline Hart, a rising member of the British ruling party. 

This is the 13th book in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva. 

The unlucky number 13 has not let Silva down. He has given us another mind blowing thriller.

For those who have never read Daniel Silva books, I highly recommend it. I'm a huge fan and been avidly waiting for this book for almost a year. 

Who is Gabriel Allon??

He works for the Israeli Intelligence aka Mossad (not explicitly mentioned in the book though. They affectionately call it "The Office") and also a art restorer which is used as his cover for most the of the operations. 

He was recruited by Ari Shamron, his mentor to avenge the Munich massacre where 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were kidnapped and  murdered. 


Coming to The English girl, Gabriel has been asked(more so requested) by the British government to get the kidnapped Madeline Hart, safe & sound. Madeline also happens to be the mistress of the British Prime minister and they want the best of the best to get her back. 

Gabriel teams up with Christopher Keller, who incidentally was hired to assassinate Gabriel in The English Assassin. The snide remarks they pass is quite funny and for once we get to see Gabriel being funny. 

As usual, Gabriel has his efficient team to help him on this operation.

The English girl will take you from the lovely island of Corsica to London and the final showdown in Russia.

All in all its a fun exciting read. I was up all night reading this one. 

My rating: 4/5

Book Review: Dongri To Dubai

This book is like India's version of The Godfather except all the stuff happened for real.

Growing up in Dubai, I have always heard of Dawood Ibrahim to the point when I came to India to study, my classmates used to make fun of me and say 'She's from the land of Dawood. We need to be careful with this one!'

This book talks about the Mumbai mafia, the rise of Dawood who incidentally was the son of a police officer in Mumbai  and becoming the kingpin of Indian mafia.

This book is brilliantly written by Hussain Zaidi. He makes it sound like he was present as each and every event that was taking place.

This book gives an insight on how mafia ruled over Bollywood and how some of the famous stars were literally peeing in their pants. Being a Bollywood starlet is not just looking pretty and dancing around trees. I mean there are serious threats to their lives.

 Bollywood had made couple of movies based on the mafia such as

Image courtesy of http://www.join4film.com

and the latest flick with John Abraham and a whole bunch of heroines doing 'item' numbers

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

I have never been a fan of these kind of movies because Bollywood being Bollywood would make the movie so far fetched that its quite impossible to believe such things happen in real life. After reading this book, I take back my words. I mean some of the stuff that these guys have pulled off in broad daylight is just unbelievable.

This book is not just about Bollywood. It talks about how the mafia has a hand in everything that's happened in India in the 80's & 90's. Its just crazy and a huge eyeopener.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. This is a must read.

My rating: 4.5/5

Book Review: And The Mountains Echoed

Image courtesy of http://khaledhosseini.com/

Set across different continents and moving across timelines, this new tale from the master story teller -Khaled Hosseini does not fail to strum the chord of emotions like his previous attempts. Clearly, the writing has set new standards, and the art of narration has reached unclaimed heights for this Afghan-born American novelist and physician.( In your face Literary critics, our man has arrived ! ) To be not moved by this heart wrenching story , is to be devoid of any sort of humane emotions( Yes, you read it right ! ).The author who moved millions with his masterful insights on Afghanistan and his awe inspiring choice of words to convey human emotions and is back at what he does best- to write about human bonding and hope that shapes our otherwise rather mundane life.

And The Mountains Echoed tells a tale about siblings Abdullah and Pari , and the bonding they shared . Unlike his previous stories, this book moves across timelines and continents and traces the lives of several important and unimportant characters to give us insights into their lives and emotions. Khaled Hosseini is known to portray freedom in his women characters , which are unheard of in modern day Afghanistan . The narration travels to Greece, France, and California, apart from Afghanistan. He is not to be blamed if one romanticizes about Kabul in the yesteryear's through his flair.  His literary critics may be silenced for a while now , but sometimes the reader finds it a little too much of desperation by the author to take his writing to newer heights by moving across time zones. Yet, he manages to connect the loose ends with a common human bonding and lets the reader out of the dark as the pages turn. Well, this book is a must read for people who loved his previous 2 books and are looking forwards to be emotionally ransacked by yet another one from his stable. This saga of heartbreak and hope is sure to keep his fans closer, and to strike new bonds.

Verdict: Strongly recommended. Go grab the tissues, its another tearjerker.

My rating: 3.5/5


This is our first guest post and it was written by

Manu Mohanan 22.Narcissist.Engineer by education. Catch up with him on http://reviewrevelations.wordpress.com/


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Book Review: Inferno by Dan Brown

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

It took me ages to finish this book, with the exams and all in the way...
Now I ask myself...Was it worth it? Spending time during my exams to read this book??? A total Yes!!! A lot of people may not agree,but I truly loved the book even though the book does bend one's ear at certain chapters. Overall the book was truly enjoyable.
I must say, this is not one of Dan Brown's best but Brown's fans (like moi :) ) would like it anyways.
Starting on Inferno as your first Dan Brown book would definitely leave you astounded by his way of writing. For those, where Inferno isn't their first Dan Brown book,there isn't much of a difference from his previous books.
Introduced to Angels and Demons during high-school left me grasping for my breath after every page and hence it still remains my favorite book of the Robert Langdon series. So in short, if Inferno was your first book then it would definitely become your favorite book and the rest of the other books from the Langdon series would seem parallel in the plot where the world is going to end due to one reason or the other and only Langdon (the history professor),  who is like "totally awesome" with symbols and stuff like that, can save it. The world kinda depends on him and if he can't like decipher the symbols then the world would die!!(this is how the plot was described to me when I asked a high schooler...:P)

Coming back to Inferno,the plot as usual is where this mad scientist (aka Bertrand Zobrist) wants to kill half the population of the world by releasing a plague so that the future generations wont die out due to over population.So what Langdon has to do is prevent the plague from being spread by finding it  before it contaminates the world. Inferno had its twists and keeps you hanging but there are times where it gets a little boring where he describes a little too intricately about the places he travels to in order to find the plague.After reading the book, I don't think I'll ever need to visit Venice.He's already told me what I would see, feel,smell, hear and what not...So this one's out of the list for places to visit in future...hooray!!!! Thanks Dan Brown!! :)

My rating: 3/5