Book Review - Interpreter of Maladies By Jhumpa Lahiri

AshBooks Review for Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri:

This stunning debut by Lahiri confirmed her place as a master storyteller of Indians in the subcontinent and the immigrant Indian community in America. Herself an Indian American, Lahiri manages to jump from the heartbreaking story of When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine to A Real Durwan. These contrasting stories gives us a unique prespective into the lives of expatriate Indians and to a certain extent also gives social commentary of the lives of the lower caste’s of Indian society.

When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine tells the story of Mr.Pirzada, a Pakistani who comes to dine daily in the house of Lilia and her parents. In her household, both parties watch the horrors of the partition of India and Bangladesh’s (then East Pakistan) struggle for independence from afar in 1971. Lilia, now a second generation Indian in America provides a comparison with Mr. Pirzada’s own six daughters still in Pakistan. As she continues to learn American history she worries for his family without fully understanding the atrocities happening in India and Pakistan at the time.

This beautiful collection comes to an end with The Third and Final Continent, a story that tells the story of a first generation Bengali who first rents a room at the eccentric 103 year old Mrs. Croft’s. He develops a soft spot for Mrs Croft and eventually brings his wife, who he claims to have no feelings for, to meet her. The story has undertones of social acceptance and the intermingling of cultures as the story ends as the narrator reminisces to his son as they drive past the late Mrs. Croft’s house. Interpreter of Maladies won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is an excellent place to start for any reader interested in appreciating the complexities of the eclectic Indian culture.

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Book Review - Life’s Captivity By Sharon A Gricol

AshBooks Review for Life’s Captivity by Sharon Gricol:

Sharon Gricol’s novel illustrates the strengths and flaws in the human character. Infallible yet searching for the truth, the story charts the character’s search for happiness, salvation and love. The narrative follows four characters all from different walks of life – a supermodel, bank robber, mechanic and priest. Yet their lives are connected through their common search for the answers to the essential questions in life.

User Submitted Reviews:

“Life’s Captivity is inspirational and encouraging. The writing is lyric and rhythmic, and the pacing is relaxed enough to be calm, but fast enough to keep you interested.”

Book Review - Blind Sight, by James H Pence

AshBooks Review for Blind Sight by James H. Pence:

Blind Sight is about a man who finds his way back to God after being dragged out of hermitic life. He lived in blame for the death of his family until mysterious communications regarding two young children finds him as the caretaker of Michelle and Micah. As the story unravels, we find that Thomas’ purpose in looking after these children has to do with a cult that their mother has rejected and gone into hiding. Readable and compelling, Blind Sight follows the journey of a man who eventually comes to accept God again.

User Submitted Reviews:

The ending was peculiar. Most books leave you with a satisfied smile on your face. This one, not so much…You know what will happen in the future, and because of that he doesn’t have to spell it out for you. Once I sat back and thought about what God had in store for these characters and watched it play out in my head, I grinned. It’s wonderful!

The Mudhogs by Dalton James

AshBooks Review for The Mudhogs by Dalton James:

A book written by a charming an intelligent 8 year old boy (and this is already his third book!) that tells the tale of 3 little pigs who love mud and tried everything  to get it back when it ran dry. A good moral lesson awaits at the end.

For information: http://outskirtspress.com/mudhogs

User Submitted Reviews:

What a lovely book! . Learning life is worth waiting for is priceless.

Book Review - Lucifer Rising

AshBooks Review for Lucifer Rising by Barbara Fifield

Elsa Eldridge is a journalist sent to check out a religious semi-satanic mysterious cult leader, Tyrell. She unwittingly falls for this man’s charms but the cracks started to show on his almost perfect personality and she soon discovers more and more stuff about him  that she doesnt like.

What do we think about this book? Its a bit far fetched, hard to follow, mostly tells the story of a goody-two-shoes know-it-all who finally met the biggest challenge of her life and realise that she is still quite naive. The book is implying that what we dont know, makes them evil and give us a right to be suspicious and wary.

Read with an open mind.

User Submitted Reviews:
Though at times using sensitive topics, I rather enjoyed this book.

Book Review - Sugar By Bernice McFadden

Bernice McFadden, whom we have recently mentioned about her book giveaway has kindly got back to us to tell us more about her novel, Sugar and the campaign she is doing for its 10th annniversary:

“I believe that my ancestors speak to me and through me.

Do I hear voices? Not in the way you think. Their words come to me disguised in thought and the visions come as memory.
It’s like watching a movie. Techno color images, dialogue and off camera prose.

With my first novel, Sugar – Sugar herself came to me as a long, dark note.
Her rhythm so haunting I had to jot her down on paper, turning her music into a poem.
Some years later, when she’d made my home her home, I heard her voice; saw her slender neck, and her open mouth as she threw her head back in laughter.
So I wrote her a short story.

Even more years passed and this writing thing was inching up my spine and gnawing at my skin and Sugar was fully formed by then, standing in the middle of my living room, cigarette smoke a cloud above her head, her hand pressed firmly into her hip, those dark eyes looking deeply into my own – demanding more than thirty pages with the unlikely end.

And I obliged her.

In the early 90’s I began sending out SUGAR to editors and agents and I received 73 rejection letters over a nine-year period. In 1999 I finally acquired representation and a week later my agent secured a two-book deal. Sugar was published in 2000 to great reviews and received numerous awards.
After writing SUGAR and the numerous books that followed, I realize now that my purpose as a writer is to breathe life back into memory.

Back in 2000 Sugar, although a universally appealing story, was only marketed to African-American readers and so was immediately pigeonholed as a “Black Book.” Ten years later I am trying to reverse that damage by placing it within the radar of readers from all backgrounds who enjoy an engaging, and thought provoking read.

In order to do that as well as commemorate the 10th Anniversary, I have initiated a campaign to sell 10, 000 copies of SUGAR by Jan 9th, 2010.”

With October being the month of Halloween, it seems appropriate that this month’s genre summary should be horror!  So, what is it about some books that makes them known as horror?

The genre of horror fiction is the third of the commonly recognised forms of speculative fiction; acknowledged for around half a century as being works with a gruesome, suspenseful or frightening theme, specifically designed to scare or disturb the reader.  This is commonly achieved by introducing a supernatural or distressing element into a situation to which the reader can relate – everyday life, school trips or family holidays, for example.

Popular plot devices used throughout the horror genre include haunting by ghosts, invasions by zombies and attacks by homicidal humans.  For this reason, there is often a strong theme of violence within horror fiction, although this is definitely not always the case.  By playing to the power of the unknown, some of the best works of horror make intensely disturbing scenes few and far between; using suggestion and implication to coax the reader’s imagination and further build suspense.

One of the most famous works of horror every written is Stephen King’s The Shining; a book I shall review in my next post.