Books Read

American as PaneerPie by Supriya Kelkar My grand daughter, Amara, had read this book and wanted us to read this book. I was reluctant to read it as it was a YA story. After I started to read it, it was absorbing as I was able to identify with the professional father who is not very sensitive to his daughter’s struggles as she adopts to living in a small town, USA. Well written, gripping, and brings out the tensions and stresses faced by immigrant Indians when they decide to settle in the US or in any other country.
How much land does a man need? and other stories by Leo Tolstoy This is a collection of excellent stories by Leo Tolstoy. How much land does a man need discusses the journey of Pahom who thinks, “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the devil himself.” He travels far and wide accumulating more land. In the process, he falls dead and his servants pick a spade and dig a grave six feet wide. He finishes the story stating, “That is all the land he needed.” An excellent story from Russia.
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o. An amazing book that describes life in Kenya as it gets independence from the British. It describes the story from people in Kenya who were put in detention camps and had to choose sides: revolutionaries or those who worked with the British. Their life takes a wild turn as freedom is achieved. They describe the fears and tribulations of the people as their life is changed continually.
In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom Qanta Ahmed. This is a story of an American-trained muslim doctor who spends two years in Saudi Arabia. She explores the typical biases about muslims by discussing her interactions with Saudi men and women; Wahhabism; women’s rights; being single; her visits to Mecca and Medina. She discusses the muslim religion and how it is often misinterpreted and used by people and countries to their advantage, forgetting the basic principles. She condemns anti-Semitism and quotes from Quran as to how it did not encourage killing of innocents.
An Irish Hostage: A Novel Todd Charles. This novel discusses the trials and tribulations of Sister Elizabeth Crawford who travels to Ireland from U.K. to attend a fellow nurse’s wedding. She encounters many adventures due to the tension between the English and Irish due to the freedom struggle. The story weaves a tale with history in the background.
No Land to Light On: A Novel by Yara Zgheib Sama and Hadi are a young Syrian couple in love, dreaming of their future in the country that brought them together. Sama came to Boston years before on a prestigious Harvard scholarship; Hadi landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language will be freedom and belonging. Hadi has gone back to Jordan to care for his father and is not allowed back in the U.S. The story explores the issues surrounding immigration laws and directives and how it impacts lives of people in an arbitrary manner.
How to Find What You’re Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani. Twelve-year-old Ariel Goldberg’s life feels like the moment after the final guest leaves the party. Her family’s Jewish bakery runs into financial trouble, and her older sister has eloped with a young man from India following the Supreme Court decision that strikes down laws banning interracial marriage. As change becomes Ariel’s only constant, she’s left to hone something that will be with her always–her own voice. This is an amazing book, well written, and brings out the issues of racial prejudices and reconcilement. Amazing writer.
M, King’s Bodyguard: A Novel by Niall Leonard. From humble beginnings in Ireland, William Melville has risen through hard work, intelligence, and occasional brute force to become head of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch, personal bodyguard to Queen Victoria and her family, and the scourge of anarchists at home and abroad. But when the aged Queen dies in January 1901 and the crowned heads of Europe converge on London for her funeral, Melville learns of a conspiracy, led by a mysterious nihilist known only as Akushku, to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany at the ceremony. A mystery thriller that makes you turn pages quickly.
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville . What if Elizabeth Macarthur—wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney—had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That’s the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented. This is a very well written novel that brings out the struggles women faced in the early days of Australia.
A Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler. Thousands of years ago, two superpowers of the ancient world went to war, and a treasure of immeasurable value was lost to the shadows of history. In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps with his Grand Reserve Army, Napoleon Bonaparte stumbled across a startling discovery. Unable to transport it, he created an enigmatic map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon died, the bottles disappeared—and the treasure was lost again. The novel has the two heroes: Sam and Remi Fargo outwit the villain, Hadeon Bondaruk, a half-Russian, half-Persian millionaire, at every turn. A reasonable novel, but I wished the novel would end in the mid-way point.
Mercy by David Baldacci, For her entire life, FBI agent Atlee Pine has been searching for her twin sister, Mercy, who was abducted at the age of six and never seen again. Mercy’s disappearance left behind a damaged family that later shattered beyond repair when Atlee’s parents inexplicably abandoned her. Now, after a perilous investigation that nearly proved fatal, Atlee has finally discovered not only the reason behind her parents’ abandonment and Mercy’s kidnapping, but also the most promising breakthrough yet: proof that Mercy survived her abduction and then escaped her captors many years ago. Good read, but gets dull after halfway. The twist about Bagley seems to be unreal.
Where the Light Enters by Sara Donati, Obstetrician Dr. Sophie Savard returns home to the achingly familiar rhythms of Manhattan in the early spring of 1884 to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. With the help of Dr. Anna Savard, her dearest friend, cousin, and fellow physician she plans to continue her work aiding the disadvantaged women society would rather forget. As Sophie sets out to construct a new life for herself, Anna’s husband, Detective-Sergeant Jack Mezzanotte calls on them both to consult on two new cases: the wife of a prominent banker has disappeared into thin air, and the corpse of a young woman is found with baffling wounds that suggest a killer is on the loose. In New York it seems that the advancement of women has brought out the worst in some men. Unable to ignore the plight of New York’s less fortunate, these intrepid cousins draw on all resources to protect their patients. This is an excellent book that describes the difficulties that women faced in 1990s in practicing medicine. Gripping and amazing tale.
The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to his own people and to the world. Handpicked as a successor by the “family” surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had stood in the shadows, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave, and smashed the country’s fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies. Is an excellent book written well and chronicles how Putin remains President of Russia. Shows how democracy, autocracy, and communism are terms that are melded by the leaders according to their desires and wants.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave, The lives of a sixteen-year-old Nigerian orphan and a well-off British woman collide It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn’t. And it’s what happens afterward that is most important. An excellent and well-written book. Reflects problems faced by refugees in the U.K. How they are forgotten and unaccounted for as human beings. Soul stirring book.
Ariel’s Island (The Ariel Trilogy Book 1) by Pat McKee. This is an amazing thriller that combines Artificial Intelligence (aka Chat GPT) and a lawyer working together to solve a mystery about a company. The pace is brisk and the ending was completely unexpected. The author’s legal skills are in full display in the thriller. Detailed descriptions of Georgia and Florida, the swamps, cities, and the island. The author weaves an incredible story that is fast-moving. Even though there are legal scenes, they are not dry and difficult to read. Is there going to be a sequel with Ariel and Patrick collaborating further? This is a must-read book for those who like fiction combined with legal issues.
The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. Commonly Called the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments Classic stories told by a lady who was to put to death, but escapes by telling stories keeping the Sultan wanting to hear the next story.
The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia by Paul Theorux.
In 1973, Paul Theroux embarked on a four-month journey by train from the United Kingdom through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In The Great Railway Bazaar, he records in vivid detail and penetrating insight the many fascinating incidents, adventures, and encounters of his grand, intercontinental tour. Good book with a lot of tidbits about the places and people.
On The Plain Of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux. As immigration debates boil around the world, Theroux has set out to explore a country key to understanding our current discourse: Mexico. Just south of the Arizona border, in the desert region of Sonora, he finds a place brimming with vitality, yet visibly marked by both the US Border Patrol to the north and mounting discord from within. With the same humanizing sensibility that he employed in Deep South, Theroux stops to talk with residents, visits Zapotec mill workers in the highlands, and attends a Zapatista party meeting, communing with people of all stripes who remain south of the border even as family members brave the journey north. Interesting book, well written.
Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams. This is a fascinating and funny account of his journey through some of the world’s most majestic, historic, and remote landscapes guided only by a hard-as-nails Australian survivalist and one nagging question: Just what was Machu Picchu? Interesting book.
The Other Princess: A Novel of Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter by Denny S Bryce. Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a kidnapped African princess, is rescued from enslavement at seven years old and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift.” To the Queen, the girl is an exotic trophy to be trotted out for the entertainment of the royal court and to showcase Victoria’s magnanimity. Sarah charms most of the people she meets, even those who would cast her aside. Her keen intelligence and her aptitude for languages and musical composition helps Sarah navigate the Victorian era as an outsider given insider privileges. An amazing book unbelievable for its details of Africa and England and how Sarah navigates the different cultures.
The East Indian: A Novel by Brinda Charry. Meet Tony: insatiably curious, deeply compassionate, with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company’s outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants—boys like himself, men from Africa, a mad woman from London—must work the tobacco plantations. His dream: to become a medicine man, or a physician’s assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds. As an immigrant, I found this story to be gripping and well done; the story of the first South Indian to set foot in the USA.
The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie . The epic story of the fall of the Inca Empire to Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the aftermath of a bloody civil war, and the recent discovery of the lost guerrilla capital of the Incas, Vilcabamba, by three American explorers. Extremely well written; a great book to learn about the Incas and how their kingdom fell. Amazing details and great story-telling by the author.
Spiritual Initiation – What It Is by Swami Bhuteshananda . This book is a compilation of material culled from the three articles written by Revered Swami Bhuteshananda Maharaj, former president of the Ramakrishna Order, and lucidly explains the need of guru in leading the spiritual aspirants along the spiritual path by giving a formula called mantra repeating which they can reach the Supreme Goal. It is a very handy material for those thinking of taking spiritual initiation
.The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese . The story follows three generations of a Christian family in Kerala, South India, that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning. As the novel opens, a twelve-year-old girl is sent by boat to her wedding, where she meets her husband for the first time. She joins a prosperous household and becomes known as Big Ammachi, the matriarch of an extraordinary family that will endure hardship, celebrate triumph, and witness unthinkable changes over the coming decades. Good book, but halfway through it, I was ready to read the last chapter to see how it will end. Very long.
Realizing God by Prabhavananda Swami. This book comprises of lectures and talks of Swami Prabhavananda on Vedanta and spiritual life. The Swami had an extraordinary ability to make even the most subtle of enigmatic ideas exciting and comprehensible. He contributed a great deal to the understanding of Vedanta in the West and also facilitated a better understanding of all the religions of the world. This is an amazing book and I had to read it twice to understand the gist of his comments and observations.
The Women of Oak Ridge by Michelle Shocklee 1944. Maebelle Willett arrives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, eager to begin her new government job and send money home to her impoverished family. Though Oak Ridge employees are forbidden from discussing their jobs, Mae’s roommate begins sharing disturbing information, then disappears without a trace. 1979. Laurel Willett is a graduate student in Boston when she learns about the history of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where thousands unknowingly worked on the atomic bomb. Intrigued because she knows her Aunt Mae was employed there, Laurel decides to spend the summer with her aunt, hoping to add a family connection to her thesis research. But Mae adamantly refuses to talk about her time in the Secret City. Mae’s friends, however, offer to share their experiences, propelling Laurel on her path to uncovering the truth about a missing woman. An outstanding book with historical basis. Well written.