My Sister's Keeper

By Jodi Picoult

I had picked the book solely based on the Author's reputation for page turning fiction. I am glad I read this one, for I am already a fan.

Living life as a spare part for her ailing sister is what the protagonist Anna seems to battle as the story begins. Picoult renders the controversial designer-baby balking and wanting rights over her body situation through the view points of all the characters that play a part. It helps look at this sensitive issue in a multi-dimensional way and keeps the reader unbiased.

The book has enough and more surprises stored and some leave you teary-eyed by just reading the truth as is. If honesty is the book's forte, sarcasm that leaves you ticklish is its accomplice. The author does this through one of the most interesting and prime characters, Campbell, Anna's lawyer.

Understanding one's purpose of existence is what the book finally drives at and serves it with enough suspense, court-room drama, courage and love. I only wish I had been prepared for the ending which was perfect, yet left me feeling defeated.

Read the book not as fiction, but put yourself in all the shoes, devour the core of the situation and you will see yourself part of this labyrinth, seeking justice on all sides.

Crow Lake

By Mary Lawson

Crow lake was my first book for the Orbis Terrarum. Set in the isolated farming communities of northern Canada the book tells a tale of a determination and faith. The opening paragraph of the novel, I daresay, is the real stunner; The single best sentence that carries the crux of the story and keeps you engaged to burn the night lamp and finish the book.

The story unfolds through the narration of the protagonist, who after having been the sole success of the Morrison clan, continues to remain in turmoil. The past has a stronghold on her like no other and that keeps you hooked to know what had really happened; what had gone wrong?

I loved the way she narrated without being teary-eyed and even peppered in humor from time to time. The tale is not a dark one, that pins on to irrevocable mistakes or torture. It is but family drama, we have all been part of sometime in our lives; Of brotherly wars, sibling misunderstandings, growing up before your age and running away from all that to start anew only to realize that the heart is where the home is, not matter what!

Lawson's idyllic writing about even the simplest things like the trip to the lake or genuine joy of doing dishes as a family are the real things to not miss about this book. The read is a feel good one, leaving you with an all's well that ends well feeling. Definitely an enjoyable read.

Malgudi’s child

Malgudi days is my true unfaltering favorite till date; Swami and Friends my second best. I have re-read the books so many times as to lose count. It is honestly unnerving to be writing about the author’s work that I have devoured without raising a brow, but simply taken in all that he wrote without a single lull moment.

The magic of Malgudi is in the haunting aura it created to believe in the existence of this town; so true in its map, people and teeming life that it was almost impossible to not know its geographical location. The stories were left deliberately open-ended to read between the lines, take in the strangeness of human emotions and yet interpret the ending to the reader’s discretion.

Having read the books since I was twelve, I fail to pinpoint a single best story that formed a stamp in my mind. At each age there was a different story that drove a point home or made me realize something new that I didn’t know before.

I love Engine Trouble for that subtle humor peppered against the sloth-like rules of administration. While, The missing mail had hidden messages of how we take an integral person like the postman for granted; at the same time Leela’s Friend left me feeling poignant and incomplete. Whatever be the irony or hope the stories depicted, they left enough and more room to dissect the inner meaning, so much so that you could spend a whole lifetime understanding what R. K actually wanted to convey to us.

If a plural society was what Malgudi expressed, its most loved character Swami had been the epitome of every child. His childhood is synonym to our own, even before we are old enough to read his adventures. We might have already lived a good amount of it, without realizing how adventurous and utterly satiric it had been!

 If a good book is one without an ending, Malgudi’s heritage is indeed a timeless one!