Cannonball Read 11

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A story of incredibly passionate love and vengeance.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

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Fifty-second book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. It seems that one can only despise someone with true passion, if they have once loved them just as much. And there is no story that can equal Wuthering Heights when it comes to passion. The story is tragic, but beautifully so and the reason why tragedy is such a thing of beauty is because it takes much loving and longing to make a tragedy. Nothing that happens in Wuthering heights is subdued. There is unabashed love, longing and despair and so there is unmasked humiliation, rage and retribution. While Catherine […]

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12/31/2014 | Post by

A thoroughly enjoyable disturbing novel!

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

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Fifty-first book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. This book is not for the faint-hearted. It isn’t for those who can’t stand gore and animal cruelty and the death of children. But in its own way, this is one of the best books I have ever read. This is the story of Frank, a 16 year old living with his Father on an island. His brother, Eric, has just escaped from a mental asylum and for the major part of the book, Frank is troubled by random phone calls from Eric who keeps updating him about his progress towards […]

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12/31/2014 | Post by

Hauntingly Beautiful!

The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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Fiftieth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Oh! Is there anything even close to an Oscar Wilde novel? If there is something that is horrifying and disgusting, yet somehow most reassuring and beautiful, this is it. A novel that shook up the world into which it was born. So ahead of its times! So exquisitely written with such a rich language and splendid narrative! I honestly don’t find myself capable of reviewing such a book. I write this only because I had decided that I must review all the books that I read this year. I read this book as […]

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12/30/2014 | Post by

Inside the mind of a dull guy.

Yoga Sutras by Jackson Radcliffe

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Forty-ninth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. I wanted to read this book because I was curious about the way Yoga fits into this story. I also believed that writing a funny novel about Yoga must be terribly difficult and since Jackson Radcliffe had taken this up, it must make for an interesting read. Jackson has written a 300 page story that revolves around the life of a really dull man named Dave who is seeking an escape from his dreary existence while he attends Yoga classes on his wife’s insistence. Dave’s life is uninspiring; he keeps the company of […]

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A refreshing take on a done-to-death subject.

India's Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra

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Forty-eighth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. In India, we are taught about our freedom struggle for almost 5 years as part of the high school curriculum. But the study is just a brief overview of the entire movement and does very little justice to this major event in the history of the sub-continent. It involved millions of people and had several leaders that spanned many generations. While writing textbooks for high school history, the authors tend to concentrate on a few of those leaders that came towards the end of the movement (mainly Gandhi and Nehru) and […]

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Insightful, but that’s it.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

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Forty-seventh book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. I’m starting to appreciate this genre of books. I didn’t like them at first because they never account for their methods. But I’m beginning to understand that there is no method! The areas where they are applying data analysis and coming up with astonishing conclusions are those where such techniques have never been used. Another reason why I didn’t like these books was because they seem to hype the discoveries that they make. Malcolm Gladwell is especially good at doing that and making a sensation out of common sense. But I guess […]

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A mammoth account of India’s story over the last 50 years!

India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha

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Forty-sixth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. The history of India in the last 50 years is something that we don’t get to read about. Indians love to live in their past; reminiscing about the glory days of the ancient civilizations that thrived on the sub-continent. We love to boast about how three of the world’s major religions started in here and that at least one, found a major foothold. We are a civilization that accepted foreigners with open arms and our hospitality was so good, that they refused to leave! However, when it became far too much […]

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The Unabomber Manifesto is NOT an anarchist’s handbook nor a madman’s rant.

Industrial Society and its Future by Theodore Kaczynski

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Forty-fifth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. All of 150 pages, but one hell of an essay! He falters in a lot of places where he loses control and rants madly, but when he is coherent, he is really very sharp. His observations are quite spot on and he does seem to have seen through the charade that is the modern civilization. I started reading this book just because I was curious about the mind of a serial murderer. Ted (aka The Unabomber) is after all, a convict who has been incarcerated for the murder of 3 people […]

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