Flood of Fire - Amitav Ghosh

It is 1839 and China has embargoed the trade of opium, yet too much is at stake in the lucrative business and the British Foreign Secretary has ordered the colonial government in India to assemble an expeditionary force for an attack to reinstate the trade. 
Among those consigned is Kesri Singh, a soldier in the army of the East India Company.
He makes his way eastward on the Hind, a transport ship that will carry him from Bengal to Hong Kong. 
Along the way, many characters from the Ibis Trilogy come aboard, including Zachary Reid, a young American speculator in opium futures, and Shireen, the widow of an opium merchant whose mysterious death in China has compelled her to seek out his lost son.  
The Hind docks in Hong Kong just as war breaks out and opium "pours into the market like monsoon flood." 
From Bombay to Calcutta, from naval engagements to the decks of a hospital ship, among embezzlement, profiteering, and espionage, Amitav Ghosh charts a breathless course through the culminating moment of the British opium trade and vexed colonial history. 
With all the verve of the first two novels in the trilogy, Flood of Fire completes Ghosh’s unprecedented re-envisioning of the nineteenth-century war on drugs. 
With remarkable historic vision and a vibrant cast of characters, Ghosh brings the Opium Wars to bear on the contemporary moment with the storytelling that has charmed readers around the world.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]
Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.1 out of 5 (3,345 Ratings, 465 Reviews -As on Feb 19 2018)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:
The concluding part of Ibis Trilogy is quite interesting but nothing exceptional. I found the first part of the trilogy - The Sea of Poppies the best among the three novels.
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The Floating Admiral - The Detection Club

Inspector Rudge does not encounter many cases of murder in the sleepy seaside town of Whynmouth. 

But when an old sailor lands a rowing boat containing a fresh corpse with a stab wound to the chest, the Inspector's investigation immediately comes up against several obstacles. 

The vicar, whose boat the body was found in, is clearly withholding information, and the victim's niece has disappeared.

There is clearly more to this case than meets the eye even the identity of the victim is called into doubt. 

Inspector Rudge begins to wonder just how many people have contributed to this extraordinary crime and whether he will ever unravel it

In 1931, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and ten other crime writers from the newly-formed Detection Club’ collaborated in publishing a unique crime novel. 

In a literary game of consequences, each author would write one chapter, leaving G.K. Chesterton to write a typically paradoxical prologue and Anthony Berkeley to tie up all the loose ends.

In addition, each of the authors provided their own solution in a sealed envelope, all of which appeared at the end of the book, with Agatha Christie’s ingenious conclusion acknowledged at the time to be enough to make the book worth buying on its own’.
The authors of this novel are: G. K. Chesterton, Canon Victor Whitechurch, G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley.

[Book Description Source: www.flipkart.com ]
Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.86 out of 5 (3,765 Ratings ,184 Reviews -As on Feb 03 2018)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:
They say too many cooks spoil the broth. 
This however is not the case here. But at the same time the book can't be compared to a gourmet dish, despite legends of detective fiction writing like Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton and many more writers collaborating to write this book.
You may read it for its uniqueness of being the first collaborative novel by the greatest crime writers but don't have any great expectations..

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Alex Haley's Queen - Alex Haley & David Stevens

The Story of an American Family

Once in every generation, there is a landmark book that adds a new richness to all our lives. 
For millions of people of all colors, that book was Alex Haley's Roots. Roots was an instant success, winning a Pulitzer Prize and spawning the most-watched miniseries in television history. 
Alex Haley's legacy has had as great an impact on American families as any story in the twentieth century.

Now, from the author of Roots, comes Alex Haley's Queen - the saga of his father's family.
Lovers of sweeping generational epics will find much to rejoice in here. Once again, this is a personal saga, but one played out against the broad canvas of American history. 
The story begins in Ireland, where Haley's white great-great-grandfather, James Jackson, Sr., is born. 
From there we travel with Jackson to Nashville, where he meets Andrew Jackson, the future president of the United States. 
The two men become business partners, and James Jackson makes his fortune. 
He establishes his grand plantation, The Forks of Cypress, in Alabama, while Andrew ascends to the White House, and the rumblings that will explode into the Civil War gather force.

James's son Jass Jackson inherits the plantation just as the genteel, well-ordered antebellum world begins to crumble. 
His adolescent attraction to the beautiful and strongwilled slave named Easter blossoms into a powerful and lasting love, and from their passionate union comes Queen - the heroine of the tale, Alex Haley's grandmother.

This is history at its most compelling - from the Irish sod to the settlement of the South; from the Trail of Tears to the battlefield at Manassas; from the agonies of slavery to the tribulations of freedom - all rendered with the eye for telling detail and the sense of historical significance that readers have come to expect of Haley. 
In this, his final book, Alex Haley has created a truly multicultural family saga, the capstone to one of the great, classic American stories.

The television miniseries of Alex Haley's Queen electrified and engrossed a nation. 
But that was only part of the picture; here now is the whole story, fleshed out in all its vivid detail and human drama - the journey of an American family as only Alex Haley could tell it.
[Book Description Source: Inside Book Jacket]

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.21 out of 5 (2543 Ratings ,104 Reviews -As on Dec 27 2017)
My Rating:   3.5 out of 5
My Comments:
Very picturesque and dramatic description  about the lives of slaves and slave owners in southern states of America during 1800s. Though the book is titled Queen after the author Alex Haley's grandmother, I found  the story of his great grandfather and great-great grandfather the Jacksons more gripping and interesting.

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Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm, with only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe and the will to survive .
Robinson Crusoe is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life. 
In his journal he chronicles his daily battle to stay alive, as he conquers isolation, fashions shelter and clothes, first encounters another human being and fights off cannibals and mutineers. 
With Robinson Crusoe, Defoe wrote what is regarded as the first English novel, and created one of the most popular and enduring myths in literature. 
But above all, it is a brilliant narrative, depicting Crusoe's transformation from a terrified survivor to the self-sufficient master of his island.
[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ]
Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.66 out of 5 (202,379 Ratings ,4,836 Reviews -As on Dec 21 2017)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:
Written quite realistically , gives a feeling of true story which it is not. 
Interesting in some places. Long drawn out and plainly boring in other places. 
Though one should remember that this book was written almost 200 years ago in 1719 and has been quite popular since then. 
Can't judge it by present day standards.

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Animal Farm by George Orwell

'All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' 
Mr Jones of Manor Farm is so lazy and drunken that one day he forgets to feed his livestock. 
The ensuing rebellion under the leadership of the pigs Napoleon and Snowball leads to the animals taking over the farm. 
Vowing to eliminate the terrible inequities of the farmyard, the renamed Animal Farm is organized to benefit all those who walk on four legs. 
But as time passes, the ideals of the rebellion are corrupted, then forgotten. 
And something new and unexpected emerges . . . 
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story by George Orwell-author of 1984, one of Britain's most popular novels-is a brilliant political satire and a powerful, affecting story of revolutions and idealism, power and corruption. 

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.87 out of 5 ( 2,006,569 Ratings; 36,083 Reviews  - As on September 27 2017)
My Rating:   4 out of 5
My Comments:
A hard hitting  political satire written in 1940s even today reflects the authentic picture of  political scenarios of many countries ! A must read.

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Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

Published first in the year 1999, Interpreter Of Maladies is a collection of nine short stories that revolve around the lives of Indian Americans, and their struggle to blend in with American culture.
The first story, A Temporary Matter, revolves around the crumbling relationship between an Indian couple, Shukumar and Shobha. 

Their relationship begins to disintegrate due to the passing away of their baby, which causes a change in Shobha’s personality and makes her aloof. 

With time, the distance between them increases, and they soon receive a notice about a power cut that would occur for one hour at night daily. 

Each day, they would spend that time talking about a number of dark secrets, which they never shared before, which got more, and more controversial, indicating the end of their marriage. 

The main story of this book, Interpreter of Maladies, is based on Mr. and Mrs. Das, who were NRIs visiting India. 
They meet Mr. Kapasi, who serves as their tour guide, and has a day job as well, which was that of an interpreter in a doctor’s clinic. 
Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi begin to feel a strong attraction towards each other, and she shares a highly personal secret with him about herself, which could place her marriage in jeopardy.

Another story in this book, Mrs. Sen’s, revolves around an 11 year old Eliot who begins to stay with Mrs. Sen, whose husband is a university professor. 
She spends her time with Eliot, telling him about her life in Calcutta, and how she terribly missed living there. 
One day, she drives to the market without her spouse and meets with an accident, after which Eliot stops living with Mrs. Sen.

Interpreters of Maladies has been greatly appreciated by readers worldwide, and fetched Lahiri the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This book has sold more than 15 million copies across the globe.

[Source: www.flipkart.com ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.12 out of 5 ( 125,603 Ratings , 8174 Reviews  - As on September 03  2017)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:
I liked it. Nothing exceptional though. Her novel 'The Namesake" was better.


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A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: the tale of Lata's--and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra's--attempts to find a suitable boy for Lata, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. 
Set in the early 1950s in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. 
A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]

 The book covers an engaging story that is set in the post-independence India. 
The story unfolds through four middle class families—Mehras, Kapoors, Khans and Chatterjis. 
It also describes India's caste system that has four main classes, which are further based originally on personality, profession and birth.
However, the main plot of the novel revolves around Lata Mehra, a university student, who is under pressure of her mother Rupa and brother Arun for getting married. 
Her family is looking for a ‘suitable boy’ who could meet the standards set by her family.
The novel highlights how marriage in India becomes a family affair, where all members of a family play considerable parts.
It also focuses on typical problems that were faced by India soon after independence. 
Some of the major issues mentioned in the book are tensions between Hindus and Muslims, empowerment of women and the zamindari system.
Divided into 19 parts, each chapter in the book is about different characters which keep inter-relating the stories and, at last reach, to one conclusion. 
The author has beautifully explained and intertwined the lives of all the characters in an extraordinary manner.
Regarded as one of the classic examples of Indian Literature in English, A Suitable Boy, at around 1500 pages, remains to be one of the lengthiest novels ever published in English language in a single volume.
 [Book Description Source:www.amazon.in]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.97 out of 5 ( 35,300 Ratings , 1702 Reviews  - As on July 20 2017)
My Rating:   4 out of 5
My Comments:Most probably the longest book I have ever read in my life (almost 1500 pages). Yet it kept me hooked throughout. Not a single boring moment.
An excellent portrayal of the characters from educated middle-class families, set in the times of newly independent India.


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Inferno by Dan Brown

With the publication of his groundbreaking novels The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown has become an international bestselling sensation, seamlessly fusing codes, symbols, art, and history into riveting thrillers that have captivated hundreds of millions of readers around the world. 
Now, Dan Brown takes readers deep into the heart of Italy . . . guiding them through a landscape that inspired one of history’s most ominous literary classics.
Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in a hospital in the middle of the night. 
Disoriented and suffering from a head wound, he recalls nothing of the last thirty-six hours, including how he got there . . . or the origin of the macabre object that his doctors discover hidden in his belongings.

Langdon’s world soon erupts into chaos, and he finds himself on the run in Florence with a stoic young woman, Sienna Brooks, whose clever maneuvering saves his life. 
Langdon quickly realizes that he is in possession of a series of disturbing codes created by a brilliant scientist—a genius whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written—Dante Alighieri’s dark epic poem The Inferno .

Racing through such timeless locations as the Palazzo Vecchio, the Boboli Gardens, and the Duomo, Langdon and Brooks discover a network of hidden passageways and ancient secrets, as well as a terrifying new scientific paradigm that will be used either to vastly improve the quality of life on earth . . . or to devastate it.

In his most riveting and thought-provoking novel to date, Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again.
Inferno is a sumptuously entertaining read—a novel that will captivate readers with the beauty of classical Italian art, history, and literature . . . while also posing provocative questions about the role of cutting-edge science in our future.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.8 out of 5 (337,395 Ratings; 33,395 Reviews - As on June 16 2017)
My Rating:  4 out of 5
My Comments: Fast moving thriller that holds your interest throughout.



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Barnabas - Bombay's First Private Detective by Sangeeta Nambiar

British India. 
The summer of 1942.
Bombay. 
From the leafy lanes of Wodehouse Road, a British woman goes missing from her home. 
Her husband Thomas Stanton, wants to keep the police out of the loop, and thus calls in Bombay's first Private Detective, Barnabas Mehta.

Barnabas, the son of a cook, has been brought up under the tutelage of his father's employer, Francis Curtis, and thus knows the ways of the British. But that isn't enough to solve the mystery for him. 
His search for Rose leads him to the by-lanes of Girgaum where he finds a murder to solve and webs of deceit to traverse. 
Who would murder Rose so brutally? 
Family secrets and the machinations of an evil mind they're all there for Barnabas Mehta to unveil! 
A gripping murder mystery, set against the events of the Indian freedom struggle.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.25 out of 5 (20 Ratings; 8 Reviews - As on April 14 2017)
My Rating:  3 out of 5
My Comments:   Well written enough to keep you engaged. The identity of the murderer is rather easy to guess for a seasoned detective fiction reader though.


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The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Thriller That Shook A Generation 
Five prominent biophysicists give the United States government an urgent warning: sterilisation procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. 
Two years later, Project Scoop sends seventeen satellites into the fringes of space in order to 'collect organisms and dust for study'. 
Then a probe falls to the earth, landing in a desolate area of northeastern Arizona. 
A little while later, in the nearby town of Piedmont, bodies are discovered heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. 
But the terror has only just begun, because when they try to find the cause of death, the scientists don't realise just what kind of unearthly danger they are dealing with...Brilliantly filmed by Robert Wise in 1971, The Andromeda Strain was the first book to introduce Michael Crichton's audacious combination of believable plots and white-knuckled excitement to a wide audience.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.87 out of 5 (173,920 Ratings; 2448 Reviews - As on April 13 2017)
My Rating:  3.5 out of 5
My Comments:  Keeps you fully engaged and almost convinces you that it is a true story. The narration of the climax could have been better.


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