Kim & Brajesh's Actual Bookshelves

Given the number of books we review, we've been asked what our actual bookshelves look like, do we give our books away once we have read them, can we lend them a book etc.

Our books are our babies. We never give them away unless we both actually hated the book in question. Those books go in our library donation pile.

Also our library functions like a reading library only, its not a lending library. You are welcome to read books at our house. Coffee, Tea & Snacks will be served if approppriate, but you can't take our books away with you, sorry. We have had too many bad experiences of not having books returned or being damaged before return, that we just don't do it anymore.

So below is a glimpse into what some of our actual bookshelves and reading spaces look like.

Kim's Review : Bath Tangle

The number of reprints (the various covers above, are just a sampling of the editions) of the Bath Tangle are a testimony to the popularity of this title by Georgette Heyer.

Bath Tangle opens with the death of the Eccentric Earl of Spenborough, leaving behind a headstrong daughter Serena and a wife Fanny younger than his daughter. While most of the land, the title and holdings go to a distant cousin (according to the law of those times, where property and titles went to closest male relatives), he does set aside some money in trust for his wife and daughter. However, Serena is to receive a small amount as allowance each year under the trusteeship of Ivo Barrasford, Marquis of Rotherham. She will gain control over her small fortune when she marries, but only if the marriage has the consent of her trustee. To complicate matters, Serena was once engaged to the Marquis and had cried off from it as she felt they wouldn't suit.

The Earl had brought up Serena more as a son than a daughter, so she is quite independent in her thinking and comportment and an excellent rider to boot. She used to manage her fathers affairs and is more comfortable taking care of his holdings than his household. Unable to bear the changes being wrought on her fathers property by the distant cousin who is now the new Earl, she and her step mother head to Bath, for a change of scenery and to wait out their period of mourning.

Here Serena bumps into an old suitor Major Hector who having remained unmarried begins to woo her again. The Marquis in the meantime gets engaged to Emily, a pretty but naive girl whose pushy and domineering mother will do anything to arrange a socially upward match for her.

The last few pages of the book are the funniest, where "who loves who" is a major tangle that needs to be sorted out with everyone seeming to be at cross purposes with the other.

The book is written in the normal Heyer style. A lot of her fans feel that the lead pair are not as endearing as some of her other characters, but not for me. Georgette Heyer's female leads have always been strong women or girls. While they may not all be as outwardly strong as Serena is, they all have an inner strength. The language is not as smooth to read as a modern day novel, but its not half as tough as The Conqueror either.

Rating : 4 / 5

Kim's Review : The Star of Kazan

Eva Ibbotson wrote the Star of Kazan in 2004 and it won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Silver Award (9-11 years category) and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Although, the Star of Kazan was selected for the Nestle Childrens Prize in the 9-11 years category, the depth of Historical and Cultural information on Vienna under Emperor Franz Joseph makes it a captivating read for older children as well.

The story revolves around Annika who is found abandoned in a country church by 2 housekeepers who adopt her and bring her up in the house of the 3 Professors that they work for in Vienna. Annika does all that normal children do, but also helps around the house. She particularly loves to cook and develops a strong sense of taste and balance at an extremely early age.

Her birth mother comes to claim her when she is almost a teenager and takes her away to their family estate - Spittal, in Germany.

While the initial part of the Star of Kazan describes life in Vienna, the beautiful countryside, the Viennese delicacies, the amazing Spanish Riding School and its horses, the second part shifts the action to Germany which is much bleaker and lonelier. But, the story hurtles forward with a series of twists and turns.

Its a lovely book and well written, so that readers across ages can find something to enjoy in the book. Eva Ibbotson also wrote a couple of adult novels which have now been recategorised and released as Novels for Young Adults. This is just further proof of her appeal to readers of all ages.

Rating : 4 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Our Iceberg is Melting

Discovered this book while cleaning up my office cabin. Actually discovered a cupboard full of books :) :) :) :) collected by my predecessors over many years - "What Joy!"

Someone once mentioned to me a speech by one of my early mentors - around the melting iceberg theme - which had made a great impact on him. While I hadn't attended that speech, the memory of that comment prompted me to pick this book up. Its a short book, which can be finished in about an hour.

"Our Iceberg is Melting" narrates a fable of penguins to explain the 8 principles of change management as outlined by John Kotter in his landmark book "Leading Change". As change is the only constant in today's fast paced world, any-one could benefit from this simple 8 step guide.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Brajesh's Review : 99 Thoughts on Ganesha

Another simple, yet powerful Devdutt Pattanaik book. The line drawings are beautiful and could have formed a book on their own, the narrative is pure bonus and what a bonus it is. As usual the mythological insights in the book are profound and intuitive at the same time, that remains Devdutt's signature in all his attempts.

Being a collector of Ganesha idols, the book evoked strong affection and feelings for me. I am a Devdutt Pattanaik fan and believe that he is a modern day Valmiki - a master story teller, hence the book gets an additional 0.5.

Rating : 4 / 5

Brajesh's Review : The Secret of Leadership

No management lessons, no global gyaan, no hi-funda philosophy .... Just a collection of stories giving simple uncomplicated but universal lessons on Leadership. Prakash Iyer has given us another beautiful collection of fables to keep in our drawer and pull out at random intervals to use it in our lives.

Easy read, great relatability and a strong recommendation for all current and aspiring leaders. The only reason I haven't rated this book is because Prakash has been an "eraser" for me. As the book says, you only thank erasers but never judge them (read the book to figure this one).

Rating : Not Rated as it is written by a friend.

Also Read My Review of Prakash Iyer's other book :  The Habit of Winning

Kim's Review : The Missing Queen

The Missing Queen is Samhita Arni's second title after Sita's Ramayana. In The Missing Queen, she completely twists the situation to address the common contentious issues in the Ramayana.

The Missing Queen takes the premise of the Ramayan and has a journalist heroine who is searching for Sita, a decade after Ram renounced her. But this tale is not set in the Ayodhya of yore. Television, phone lines, secret service headed by the "washerman", all exist in this Ayodhya.

The tale is divided into 4 distinct parts, where the journalist interacts with Ram & Kaikeyi in Ayodhya, Surpanakha in Lanka, Urmila in Mithila and finally Sita herself.

While the book is an excellent work of speculative mythological fiction, it also raises multiple current issues. The rapid expansion and modernisation of cities, winners rewriting history, exploitation of the people that lose the war, the status of women in society amongst others.

 I don't want to give away more of the story in terms of story line, but I do recommend the book heavily, especially if you like Mythological or Speculative fiction.


Rating : 4.2 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Why CEO's Fail

"Why CEO's Fail - The 11 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb to the Top - And How to Manage Them" is an Excellent book. I strongly recommend this book to all leaders who want to succeed.

Constructed around physiologist Robert Hogan's work of derailers, "Why CEO's Fail" talks about 11 reasons why CEOs fail. The interesting bit is that each of these 11 qualities are virtues if managed well, and can catapult one to the top. In fact I would say that a person who lacks some of these qualities,  will be unlikely to reach to the top level of management.

The trick as always, lies in the balance. The moment the leader crosses the balanced line these virtues turn into derailers [Arrogance, Melodrama, Volatility, Caution, Distrust, Aloofness, Mischievousness, Eccentricity, Passive Resistance, Perfectionism, Eagerness to Please].

I think this book will be a corner-stone in the future of leadership development (if not one already). The book doesn't take a holy ground on these derailers and the last page summarises it beautifully "We all need to acknowledge that a flawed human beings can still be outstanding leaders" ..... In fact I would modify the same to say "All great leaders are flawed human beings at some level".

Rating : 4.5 / 5

Brajesh's Review : Private Eye Anonymous

 

I was quite disappointed with the last graphic novel (Alchemist) which I read. Hence I picked up "Private Eye Anonymous" with a lot of initial reluctance. But this short book by Tejas Modak was funny, quirky and fast.

The story isn't much to write about, but the sketches were beautiful and the humour consistent (though it gets cheesy at places)

Rating : 3 / 5

Kim's Review : The Homing Pigeons

The Homing Pigeons is Sid Bahri's debut novel.

Sid's journey from Guwahati to Chandigarh, his current move to Majkhali near Ranikhet after giving up his job to focus on writing, his job stint with Citibank, all these experiences have shaped him and wormed their way into the story line of The Homing Pigeons.

There were a few similarities that hit home for me too. Like the hero & heroine of The Homing Pigeons, I too graduated in 1999, I had a bunch of classmates that joined Citibank (amongst other companies). I hail from Mangalore which is supposed to be the hometown of the anti-heroine in the book - Divya. So I was hoping to identify more with the lead characters.

Aditya and Radhika are the Homing Pigeons of this tale. Classmates in High School, colleagues at Citibank after a couple of years, separated by continents only to throw them back together again in a year. Life seems to be drawing them apart and yet they keep coming back to each other.

The Homing Pigeons, moves forward and backwards through a series of flashbacks alternating between Aditya and Radhika's viewpoints. A lot of historical events are covered over the years : the backlash against the Sikhs in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's Assassination, the recession that hit the job market badly, the reverse brain drain - amongst others are all woven into the tale through the perspective of our 2 lead characters.

The tale is interesting, but to me their actions at times seemed extremely impetuous and at times downright childish. And hence I couldn't really identify with the characters. But I also know that a ton of students in colleges across the country will identify with them very well and this could be the main target audience for The Homing Pigeons.

The start is quite gripping and the middle is quite fast paced too, but at the end, somehow the entire tale seemed to rush to finish in 5 pages. After agonising over every tiny detail in the preceding 300+ pages, the ending seemed abrupt.

***SPOILER ALERT***
If Aditya hated being dependent on his wife once he lost his job, how come he is suddenly OK with living off Radhika and her ex-husbands money?
Why does Radhika take him back so easily given how badly he treated her, especially during the abortion he forced her to undergo?
***End of Spoiler***

It is these questions that beg to be raised that made me feel the ending was abrupt. However, if the target audience for the book is teens and those in their early 20's, the Happily ever After Ending, may just be enough for them to love the book.

I don't think, that I'm the target audience for this book, so my rating is low, however except for some minor editing issues, the book isn't bad and I'm sure it will do very well for itself among readers of this genre.

Rating : 2.8 / 5

This Review is a part of "The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program". To get free books visit thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com and can be checked out on Good Reads