When Leaves Fall: Book Review

A Different Point of View Story

Author: C. A. King

Book Blurb:

Ralph wakes up to what others only experience in a nightmare. Chained to a shed, he has no idea where he is, or who his captor is. His memories are blurred at best. As the days press on, he finds himself experiencing a roller coaster of feelings. Hunger, thirst and pain become his only companions. Flashbacks of a happier time are all he has to keep him going. As his situation deteriorates, he finds himself doubting he ever had the very thing he wants most – a family.

When Leaves Fall is a dramatic thriller with a twist. Keep the tissue box close for the ending.

My Review:

I came across this book as it was “OnlineBookClub.org Book of the Day”.

This is a short 56-page book. It starts with the protagonist of the book (we later learn is called Ralph), who finds himself in a strange place when he wakes up. He soon discovers that he is chained by the neck and can hazily remember that he had a family. A man, who smells of smoke, throws some food periodically near him, but that is about it.

While this is an extremely short book, its twists and turns had me in its grip. I was in tears by the end of it. The author brings home an extremely important message at the end, which I feel is important for people to understand.  I wish I could talk more about the message, but it would ruin the experience of all those who are yet to read this book.

Although I could guess Ralph’s identity since the first page, it helped me get into the story from his perspective.It helped me empathize with him and understand what he was going through.

Both the writing and the characterization is flawless. The scenes are set in such a way that you find yourself flying through the book. Each character has a distinct personality, even when someone is mentioned in passing. The writer definitely knows his craft and we can see that he is passionate about both his writing and the message that he is putting out through his work.

This book shows that it is not the length of the book, but it’s the quality that matters. I rate this book 4 out of 4. 

You can check this book here.

 

An Interview with Kaushal Suvarna, the author of Siamese Compassion

The author, Kaushal Suvarna, was born in the East but was educated in Western thought and has spent the greater part of his 35 years on earth thinking and experimenting on love, morality and life in its myriad shades, dabbling in literature, chess, music, cosmogony, quantum mechanics, psychology, neurology, genetics, philosophy and spirituality, grabbing an MSc in Mathematics along the way before retiring to work in IT.

 

1) Tell us something about your book.

In a way, Siamese Compassion was written in a span of 2 months; in other ways, it’s a distillation of over 2 decades of thinking, experimenting and course corrections thanks to multiple heartbreaks and life-altering changes in philosophy, physiology, and perception.

I present to the reader various questions, shake them up a bit, ask them to look around and beyond this shell of coziness and constant business that we’ve built and hopefully, they’ll introspect and come up with some real answers and not the hand-me-downs we’ve been doused with.
2) Your book is a collection of poems, what made you chose the varied topics that you have written about?

I have always felt deeply, inquired deeply, and cared deeply about the world, it’s people and the cosmos in general, and wondered why are things so and if we are such a logical race with such technological marvels, why is there so much disparity, suffering, bloodshed and outright stupidity?

I have tried to answer these questions by delving into various disciplines from literature to cosmogony – I wanted to do a PhD in astrophysics – to religion to philosophy and, funnily, though aptly, ultimately ending up closer to home in genetics, neurology, and biology.

I had been digesting these thoughts the last couple years while being all but bedridden thanks to Graves’ disease, it’s a kind of hyperthyroidism when an old friend suggested I start writing again to kill time. I used to be a very active poet in my college days, mostly romantic lyrical poems but had hardly written 3 poems in the last decade. And then Siamese Compassion happened 🙂
3) How important is it for the poem’s meaning to be accessible to your readers?Should one just understand it as is..or should they have to work to understand it?

Haha, I hope you’re not pulling my leg for the eclectic and esoteric mix I have here 🙂

But honestly I have given this much thought and, of course, the truth cannot come down to your level, the reader, as a seeker, must rise up to it. Having said that, I would love to write philosophical essays but I don’t see the point of sitting in an ivory tower! As a writer, if you believe in change, your thoughts, no matter how deep or difficult, must be accessible to a reasonable layman.

I understand it’s a veritable tightrope walk but the solution I came up with was to keep the tone conversational, the form free, the language contemporary and add some idiosyncratic images and colloquialisms and pop references. And perhaps if you can hold their attention long enough you might have the time and the opening to land a punch 🙂

And then that opens the possibility that perhaps the readers might research it a bit more to understand what hit them!
4) Do the happenings around you inspire you?

Oh too much, I’m too sensitive, always have been! It doesn’t show on my face and I have learned not to let it trouble me as I earn my daily bread, but my mind keeps registering everything from vegetarianism to vigilantism.

I like what one of my readers has remarked in her review, “from Linda Goodman to Freud – from washrooms to barber shops; everything makes for introspection”.

Hahaha, true 🙂
5) Which are some of your favorite excerpts from your poems and why?

I think some of the strongest images and thoughts come in the second section which is full of rage on the way things are, and our blind adherence to religion is one of the targets there:

In a world where dog eats dog

And mommy cats kittens

How furry li’l things hold our imagination!

 

And none more than a loving Father

Who watches us from a distance

As we’re innocently at play

Killing a million dispensable souls

That He must reprimand at eventide

For coming home with dirty feet

 

I love Nine Lives and Juke Box Blues coz they are very personal, e.g.

 

I’ve been the redheaded stepchild

In my blue-blooded environment

The apple that fell in alternate realities

But I hope that black sheep too have a silver lining

And some crabs walk far but eventually find their homes

 

and

 

No one asked how pure your love was

Or what price a heart sells per kilo

 

but sometimes you, of course, love it ‘cause that metaphor fits so nicely or that reference was so neat like you noticed in Stockholm Syndrome – that is one among many references by the by, this book is a literal minefield of Easter eggs from literature, movies, games and even Mathematics!

Here’s another lovely image, your loved one’s traveling alone in an airplane:

 

How it must feel above the clouds

Sipping the froth of a sleepy coffee

Or stretching on a lazy duvet

Windy sans Aladdin

But I think the poem that is the most memorable for me is Topological Mixing and not just because it was so hard to explain the concepts of Chaos Theory to the layman and still have any semblance of rhythm to your writing – I was additionally using the imagery as a backdrop for long term relationships! Boy, am I crazy!
6) Who are some of your favorite poets?

Though most know him as a playwright, I love Shakespeare as a poet more, and of course, I adore Robert Burns and Ghalib.

While this book is mostly free verse, my first love is always lyric poetry; hope to showcase more of it next, and in an equally profound way.

And lest I should forget my current favorite, Jeffrey McDaniel – if I have started writing again, after almost a decade, it’s only because of reading his The Quiet World!
7) What is the advice you would give to other poets?

I will repeat something that another of my favorite poets, Mangesh Padgaonkar, said – READ!

It is very important for all writers, but even more so for poets, to read and not just because you get better content.

I think with poets it’s a bit of an ego issue, we think mushy emotions or half-decent thoughts alone make for a good poem but there is so much to form and rhythm that one cannot just get unless one has read and analyzed great poetry!

I was part of a poetry group and was correcting someone’s poem for rhythm and suddenly other members flared up thinking me to be a snob and said something to the effect that rhythm is a myth, it just matters how you recite!

Nothing could be farther from the truth, rhythm is the single most important aspect of poetry, and if one only one knew how the great poets have played with it could you realize that most of what passes today is not even bad verse – it’s not verse!

And this is all the more relevant now that the world shifts more and more towards free verse; remember what T S Eliot, one of the original masters of the free verse, said – “No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job”.
8) Tell us something about your publishing journey.

O boy, I’m still learning, and it’s a long long way to go! Haha 🙂

There are very few publishers who want to do poetry today, and some exclusive poetry houses won’t even entertain you unless you’ve been published earlier. So you’re trapped in a vicious circle. I tried submitting individual poems to some reputed magazines and international competitions but didn’t have any luck there either – it felt more of the same and with substantial entry fees, a year down the line, I would rather use my limited budget elsewhere.

I wanted Siamese Compassion to be my first book but, since it’s quite serious and close to my heart, it would hurt if it didn’t reach anyone; which is why, to test the waters, so to say, I compiled random poems I had written earlier, mostly romantic, and published them in A Trans-Arabian Handshake.

While, thanks to CreateSpace/Amazon, the process of self-publishing was very easy and absolutely free (aspiring writers please beware and keep away from vanity publishers!) I learned the hard way that books don’t sell just by being good and being out there!

And for me personally that’s really really hard, I’m an abstract philosophical introvert with no network and zero business skills 🙂 Writing poems is the easy part, selling them is where it’s at!

Thankfully I stumbled upon ThereandTheir and, fingers crossed, good times are ahead.
9) How can the readers get in touch with you?

I do not have an author website yet, hopefully soon, but you can always drop by on the Facebook pages for either of my books:

@ATransArabianHandshake or @SiameseCompassion

You can also follow me on Twitter @lovelifeetc

Or if, like me, you prefer a more one to one, less noisy medium where real discussions can take place, feel free to drop me an email on chesslovelifeetc@gmail.com

BUY THE BOOK

Siamese Compassion: Book Review

Poet: Kaushal Suvarna

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review:

This is a short anthology of poems. The poems are in such an easy language, and yet provide such profound thoughts that one finds themselves immersed in the world of the poet’s creation. I especially enjoyed references to other literature (Like Sylvia Path and Freud in the poem Stockholm Syndrome) that have been mentioned, for me, it made reading the poems all the more enjoyable.

The topics that the author has chosen are quite random, which helps keeps the freshness of the book. When you finish reading one poem, you do not know what will come in front of you next. The way that the poems have been written, the reader finds themselves relating to the words.

Some of the poems that I enjoyed the most was “Practicum in Empathy”. I found  its last lines quite profound:

Heck, I claim to empathize with the world

And I do not know the first thing on acidity.

I had only two issues with the poems was the use of “n” instead of “and” in multiple places and lack of punctuations like comma and full stop. I would like to state here that these in no way diminishes the quality of the poems, but I feel had these been added, it would have improved the overall flow.

On the whole, I rate this anthology a perfect 4 out of 4 and would recommend it to anyone who likes reading poetry that reflects deep thoughts.

Buy this book

 

 

 

Butterflies, Parathas and the Bhagavad Gita: Book Review

A Quirky and Heartwarming Journey Through God’s Instruction Manual for Life

Author: S. Hari Haran

Publisher: Amaryllis

Book Blurb:

Two flawed, unlikely men. An ancient scripture thrusts itself into their lives. They are uninterested and try their best to flee from it. But destiny, the stubborn beast that controls human lives has other plans for them. Welcome to an illuminating journey through the wisdom of the Bhagwad Geeta – a journey that will forever change the way you look at life and the world.

My Review:

This book is unlike any other I have read. We have seen a lot of adaptations and interpretations of The Bhagavad Gita, but in “Butterflies, Parathas and The Bhagavad Gita”, the author’s style of writing is such that the readers of both fiction and non-fiction would appreciate.

The story revolves around two protagonists, Venkat and Santosh, who are best friends since they were kids. But life comes in the way and both find themselves drifting away from each other. Once they are done with their education, they decide to start their individual practices. Santosh decides to make use of the time by fulfilling the last wish of a favorite professor and starts reading Gita. He then discusses all the insights that he has with Venkat who is a devil’s advocate. Their discussions serve the dual purpose of keeping the readers hooked while ensuring that we understand how the thoughts that are mentioned in The Gita can be inculcated in our lives as well.

The language that is used is quite simple. The narration is such that at no point does the reader get bored. The pace at which the story moves, swiftly alternating between the discussions and thoughts about The Gita and the impact it makes on both the friends lives. The characterizations and the character development is quite good.

Although, this is definitely not one of those books that you can read in one sitting. If you really think about the discussions that happen between the two protagonists, you would end up in quite a pensive mood.

I especially liked the fact that the chapters were named as various Yogas, and when I looked up the meanings of those Yogas, it fit the chapter perfectly. While reading the book, it is clear that the author has seriously researched and knows what he is talking about. How else can he explain such complex concepts so simply?

Overall, I rate this book a perfect 4 out of 4 and recommend it for all those who are interested to know how The Bhagavad Gita’s teaching can be inculcated in your life.

Buy this book

 

An Interview with Soumitra Bhattacharyya, the author of “Beneath the Snows of Kanchenjunga”

1) You have taken the analogy of Kanchenjunga, how did you come across this analogy? Have you always been fascinated by the mountains?

 

I was born and brought up in Darjeeling and naturally I spent my child hood in the shadow of the mighty mountain; but realization that Kanchenjunga still holds such a special place in my heart and means so much to me, actually dawned upon me only when I moved out of Darjeeling for further studies and employment. During my stay there I hardly gave it a glance but as I rode the roller coaster of life away from it and met challenges and tacked all that life threw at me; I started missing my home town of Darjeeling. Kanchenjunga came to symbolize the jolly, gay fun filled peaceful time that I spent growing up in Darjeeling and the pristine glory of Kanchenjunga, shimmering in bright sun light – calm and confident that nothing would shake its foundation came to represent all that I wanted to achieve in life. So when I started writing one story and then the next and then the next; it suddenly dawned on me that all the characters in my book were living in and around Darjeeling and just like me,  they too were struggling and going through the motions of life and they had their Kanchenjunga right beside them.

2) You have written about ordinary people and their daily struggles, why choose such characters?

One just needs to simply observe one’s surroundings to see so many stories being told around you. A woman sitting quietly on a bench in a busy platform, gazing at the young child pestering her mother for candy, could be a story. Maybe the woman on the bench had a child but not anymore….maybe she has just come from the doctor who has just told her that she can never have kids….so many directions for a story teller to take. Another example…….A bus driver, driving his bus and sweating and cursing at traffic is looking forlornly at a billboard depicting a new residential building coming up……maybe his wife is nagging him for a home and he does not have the means to buy one….lot of stress at home…..so does he take the nefarious route to earn quick money…… or maybe he does not love his wife so much and its easier for him to just kill her and stop the incessant nagging. So much material is out there for a story teller that all he has to do is just observes the ordinary people around him.

3) What was your thought process while writing the book?

I just had a basic idea on which I started writing and I took it one story at a time. So technically there was no big plan and strategy as to what I should write and honestly there was no thought process to them at all….. other than the fact that the location which was in and around Darjeeling. The characters just evolved by themselves as I kept writing and the stories just came to life as the characters came to life.

 

4) Tell us about your publishing journey.

Well after a long period of collecting rejection slips Leadstart finally gave me an opportunity and I am hoping it will follow through to a long and successful publication.

 

5) If there was one thing that you wanted to tell potential readers, what would it be?

In a world with so much complication and choices here are stories that are simple, easy to read and interesting.

 

6) What advice would you give to people who wish to publish their work, but do not know how?

Publishing is so much easier to do these days that anyone can do it so don’t fret on how to publish and where to publish. There are many options available to get your manuscript into the hands of the reader. The most difficult part is to spread the word and get people to read your book so that they can then advocate your work to people know to them who in turn should spread the word…. Bottom line…a book sells because of good word of mouth and if you have a good story to tell….people will read it and talk about it….end of story.

 

7) Which books/authors inspire you?

Oh so many…Agatha Christie all novels, Somerset Maugham short stories, Ann Rand books, Rise and Fall of Third Reich, Mountaineering Books by Ed Viesturs; Reinhold Messner’s Annapurna..John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air…..Charles Dickens Pickwick Papers, Tale of Two Cities, Thomas Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge and Far from the Madding Crowd…..the list is endless….

 

8) How can your readers get in touch with you?

By email at soumitrasb@gmail.com

An Interview with Poulomi Sengupta, the author of “The Last Bloom”

Poulomi Sengupta is an ordinary middle-class Indian girl, who voices her opinion, as a storyteller, trying to create a positive change.

She is an alumna of IIT Kharagpur.

Presently working and residing in Mumbai, an author, and a bibliophile, she loves her share of kickboxing and a colorful dose of oil painting to brighten the apparently mundane life.

• Tell us something about your book.

The novel is a love story.

While a female perspective is given, the male counterpart is equally strong and vocal.

Though descriptive and yet conversational storyline, the essence of the novel takes on the present condition of colleges, education system and how an average middle-class student stumbles through the various ups and downs during the commencement of the adult life.

• “The Last Bloom” is an interesting name for a story. What made you chose it?

I choose the name to signify the importance of the higher education in the young adult life.

If thought profoundly, we realize that college is the threshold where we cross the adolescence and enter the mature world. It is like the ultimate blooming of a flower into its ambience.

I chose this name to encapsulate the journey of two young adults in their college lives- how the environment, the conversations, the emotions and the ambience of the places impacts the maturity, thought process and realizations of Priya and Vivek.

• We have seen a lot of stories that are based on college life, but yours was different in a way that the focus was on the impact of politics on the students. Why did you choose to focus on this?

Because it is a problem that nearly every college going middle-class boy or girl faces but we do nothing about the problem except complain.

It is high time that we do something about the political scenarios in the higher educational institutes which mar the learning environment. If the students are engulfed by the politics, boycotts and so-called movements, it takes away from them their precious time to study. Not all students aspire to have political careers, yet they spend valuable time in such pursuits.

It is important to utilize the college days in meaningful pursuit along with enjoyment.

Also, the politics in the educational system has been the prime factor of brain drain from India. Many talented students leave the country for better educational environment and work opportunities. To ensure the brain gain and consequently the development of the economy of the country, it is a mandate to improve the quality of education that is provided in the schools and colleges of India, especially the government institutions.

• The book also briefly touches upon getting admission for someone who has studied in different board or language, what are the things that can be done to ensure all students get equal opportunities?

To be very honest, in a country like India where there are 22 major languages and about 720 dialects, English is very much the lingua franca.

To ensure equal opportunities, it is important that a student must be well conversant in English and a major Indian language.

There is nothing more painful than a situation when a student is knowledgeable and yet unable to express himself due to language constraint.

• I really liked the character development in your book, was this planned or did the characters just grew with the story?

Thank you very much.

Most of the characters evolved with the progress of the storyline.

When I began writing, I thought I would control the pen. To my surprise, the pen controlled my hand. The characters unfolded themselves as I wrote the novel, especially Vivek’s character. I had put in a lot of thought while writing the conversations of Vivek and Priya but as I began writing the conversations, it turned out better than I could imagine.

• Nowadays we see a lot of young adult books, but most of them have the same generic story line, how can someone who wants to write in this genre carve a niche for themselves?

Originality is the key to success.

It is best to write something different and something incredibly original.

Anyone can carve a niche provided the person has a good storyline, depth of characters and meaningful dialogues because the audience has also evolved with time.

The audience wants something substantial yet aesthetic.

• Tell us something about your publishing journey.

It took me 4 years to write the novel and a full year for editing and proofreading.

So totally, 5 years. First, I created a matrix for the primary, secondary and tertiary characters and the plots. Dialogue creation was the later stage and description came in the last stage.
After completion of the manuscript, I sent the novel manuscript to few publishers.

I felt it would be difficult to publish because the storyline is unconventional.
I am glad that Leadstart considered it worthy, believed in the storyline and that it could create an impact on the audience of the country.
In fact, the first time I went to Crosswords to see the novel in the racks was exhilarating!

I am glad it is doing well.

• Which are some of the books that inspire you?

‘A Princess Remembers’ by Maharani Gayatri Devi -A vivid and colorful account of the life of an extraordinary woman, epitome of grace and elegance, her transition of lifestyle from the Pre-independence lavish one to the post independent mean position, her struggles, how she dealt with her victories as well as personal losses.

‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ by Oscar Wilde- amazingly well crafted, beautiful flowing language –appreciating the beauty yet pinching the duplicity of a character.

And of course ‘The Mahabharata’.

• How can the readers get in touch with you?

I am available on Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/poulomisngpta
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoulomiSenguptaTheLastBloom/