Having finished "Inspector Singh Investigates: The Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder" I am in the process of finding the next best book to read. Should I go for profound and poignant Indian novels such as 'A Fine Balance', 'Lessons in Forgetting' or any Anita Nair's books or should I go for Japanese thrillers or should I go for stay-whole-night-and-complete kind of sci-fi novels?
For almost two months now I was in a state of book-drought thanks to 'English August' by Upamanyu Chatterjee. I haven't been able to complete it for the simple reason that the book is not compelling enough to invest time every day reading it. I have to admit it is one of the most funniest novels I have ever read depicting the story of a IAS officer posted in remote village called Madna and the realistic descriptions of the lackadaisical attitude of people in authority, the kind of hold they have on uneducated villagers, their lives in general were accurately portrayed and make you part of the lives in 40's India. The problem is it doesn't seem to hint at where the story is progressing. Almost half way through and the novel is still about the same set of people with their idiosyncrasies. As much as it made me laugh it also made me sleep quite wonderfully I might add.
Here is my review of Inspector Singh Investigates novel that I am re-posting from GoodReads -
This is a murder mystery involving a certain Singh from Singapore on assignment to Malaysia to save a high profile Singaporean celebrity accused of murder. Though this definitely is a page turner it doesn't really show any ingenuity in the police thinking or clever wits of a detective. Without giving much away the police only find out who the murder is by the murderer's own confession. Pity.
Was looking for a thriller on the levels of Keigo Higashino Devotion of Suspect X but was severely let down. Good time pass read.
I have now decided to remove the The Vishnu Puri chronicles from my to-read books as even that has a similar pot bellied sardar investigating murders. Ain't fair eh? So be it.
Coming back to the task at hand in order to avoid this predicament of knowing what to pick up next, I had chosen the root of tagging books with 'Want to Read' on goodreads. Sadly I see that it isn't helping me. Some of the ones I chose aren't available in Indian store and for the ones that are makes me think there must be better ones out there! Ironical isn't it? The reason they are there as 'Want to Read' is because I had spent considerable amount of time zeroing in on them and to make this part of search anyway.
I digress. When it comes to book selection the only God I look up to is the one and only Jai Arjun. No matter how many other book reviewing websites I have dug up, I always come back to his. His reviews are impeccable and I just lap up to the books he recommends. There were one or two instances where I didn't enjoy as much as what he wrote about a particular book. I am trying very hard to remember about someone who told me that he/she also does go through the same route of selection.
I did something similar for movies until Roger Ebert passed away. Thankfully I now have moifightclub blog. Well currently though my search is still on. Will update the blog with the one I chose.
Note- somehow I am highly inclined to Japanese thriller.
Edit-
Finally I have chosen 'The Bone Season' surprising myself and even Jai Arjun maybe. Touted as the next best thing to happen to Literary World since J.K. Rowling.
For almost two months now I was in a state of book-drought thanks to 'English August' by Upamanyu Chatterjee. I haven't been able to complete it for the simple reason that the book is not compelling enough to invest time every day reading it. I have to admit it is one of the most funniest novels I have ever read depicting the story of a IAS officer posted in remote village called Madna and the realistic descriptions of the lackadaisical attitude of people in authority, the kind of hold they have on uneducated villagers, their lives in general were accurately portrayed and make you part of the lives in 40's India. The problem is it doesn't seem to hint at where the story is progressing. Almost half way through and the novel is still about the same set of people with their idiosyncrasies. As much as it made me laugh it also made me sleep quite wonderfully I might add.
Here is my review of Inspector Singh Investigates novel that I am re-posting from GoodReads -
This is a murder mystery involving a certain Singh from Singapore on assignment to Malaysia to save a high profile Singaporean celebrity accused of murder. Though this definitely is a page turner it doesn't really show any ingenuity in the police thinking or clever wits of a detective. Without giving much away the police only find out who the murder is by the murderer's own confession. Pity.
Was looking for a thriller on the levels of Keigo Higashino Devotion of Suspect X but was severely let down. Good time pass read.
I have now decided to remove the The Vishnu Puri chronicles from my to-read books as even that has a similar pot bellied sardar investigating murders. Ain't fair eh? So be it.
Coming back to the task at hand in order to avoid this predicament of knowing what to pick up next, I had chosen the root of tagging books with 'Want to Read' on goodreads. Sadly I see that it isn't helping me. Some of the ones I chose aren't available in Indian store and for the ones that are makes me think there must be better ones out there! Ironical isn't it? The reason they are there as 'Want to Read' is because I had spent considerable amount of time zeroing in on them and to make this part of search anyway.
I digress. When it comes to book selection the only God I look up to is the one and only Jai Arjun. No matter how many other book reviewing websites I have dug up, I always come back to his. His reviews are impeccable and I just lap up to the books he recommends. There were one or two instances where I didn't enjoy as much as what he wrote about a particular book. I am trying very hard to remember about someone who told me that he/she also does go through the same route of selection.
I did something similar for movies until Roger Ebert passed away. Thankfully I now have moifightclub blog. Well currently though my search is still on. Will update the blog with the one I chose.
Note- somehow I am highly inclined to Japanese thriller.
Edit-
Finally I have chosen 'The Bone Season' surprising myself and even Jai Arjun maybe. Touted as the next best thing to happen to Literary World since J.K. Rowling.
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