A lot to say about this book. First of all the author Anuk is a friend of my husband and he is also a Sri Lankan. so this book speaks a little close to my heart. The book is mostly written around the memories of the main character Krishan in fragments and in lengthy descriptions of the smallest details and its psychologies. There are accountable descriptions of the smallest not so-important details within topic like war, Tamil funeral ceremonies, bereavement and grief. And also about relationships with other characters. I loved how Krishan describes his grandmother's condition, the funeral of Rani (the caretaker of his grandmother). 

He once mentions how after a human dies the process of letting go is done gradually, stage by state. First the funeral body then we reduce it to ashes and that also after a while we reduce to a photograph of the dead.

 

Being shortlisted for the Booker prize 2021, a lot of book critics spoke about how lengthy the sentences are, which is true. Sometimes one sentence would start from one page and the same one ends in the next page. This is something I would actually be bothered usually. However, the prose language Anuk used did not bore me except for the parts he spoke about the main character's brief relationship with Anjum, a hippie, bi-sexual girl he met in India. The rest of the lengthy paragraphs were very much interesting to me as they explored more of a psychological aspect than metaphysical subjects. 

Also this year I shall be very critical and strict the way I give star reviews to a book. This did not fall into 5 star category only because of the brief part about his relationship that I was not interested in. Other than that this is an awesome book for me to start 2022.

A nice classic and a wake up call for the moralities. It is timeless for the modern day audience as well. However, as a kid when I read the story I interpreted it in a different way. That is people 'only' need to do good because of the karma not out of genuine intensions. Now I see it the way Dickens want the people to see it's morals. That being kind to others will make sure you stay happy and peaceful in life and in death.

Also, I am not a big fan of Dicken's language which is always a bit exaggerated even though it is not hard to read and understand. 

This story started out super interesting and mysterious but ended in a disappointing manner. I honestly do not even remember the plot after midway. Some topics spoken within the story like mysterious events shutting down the communication networks on which we all rely on and having to confined yourself into your residences (during the pandemic) were cool. 
However the ending and the point of the novel was not very specific enough so I didn't feel connected with it.

"Cosy is the thing you do when no one is watching" What we think about being cosy is having sheepskin rugs and fireplaces and fairy lights. It could be that too but cosy is what we describe what cosy is. For me personally it's a clean and lit up environment, good food and good books. It was a nice little book filled with nice little information about everything to do with cosy.

Even though I liker the first story of Bluebeard retelling, I did not really like most of the other stories. The fact that the stories are fairy tale retellings facinatef me but for me the only difference I saw between the original stories and the retellings were the gore and gothic elements and the Nature descriptions by Angela Carter. Those were truly amazing though the language she used and the poetic descriptions. However I got bored during most of the stories.

I honestly had no high hopes of myself to like this book because I usually am not into gothic classics, specially old classical books. I expected this to be boring and I thought I would take ages to finish this. However, against all odds I loved the story, I loved the prose language which was really easy to understand. 

Probably because I listened to the audiobook while reading. The narrator was one of the greatest narrators ever. The change in his voice control when certain dialogs were uttered you can really feel the emotions of the characters. It was simply becautiful. 

Coraline, is a nice children's book that I would have loved as a kid. Honestly nobody is too old for Coraline. The first Gaiman book I read was The Graveyard Book and that did not sit well with me. However, Coraline was just amazing. No I understand why people love Gaiman books. I read it for the Halloween month in 2021 and I have watched the movie at least 3 times already. 

One of the best quotes on the book was when Coraline said "I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn't mean anything"

I love Coraline's character when she said that. She was a curious child who liked to explore everything and always wanted to do something. I didn't expect her to say something this mature. Something that teaches even us adults to be happy with what you have. 

Finished this in 24 hours. I just could not put this down. I am a big fan of Poirot and Miss Marple TV shows and always wanted to read Agatha Christie's mystery novels. It was amazing that this is a stand alone novel and it was still exciting and mysterious like Poirot and Miss Marple stories. I tried solving the mystery myself (too much into detective stories) and I sure was close on it except it was not the exact person I thought but I did solved it pretty close, hence I didn't give it 5 stars. Not at all a down point of the novel but because I predicted the ending too close. 

I read the audiobook of this classic and I had high hopes for it but unfortunately it did not sit well withIme. I found myself getting distracted and taking super long to listen regardless this was a short listen. The narrator did seem to genuinely do a good job but the story was meh. 

First of all the characters are all despicable. Gatsby a man going behind a woman who left him when he had nothing and by doing so he paid the ultimate price. He felt superficial and stupid. And Daisy, the woman who left Gatsby for another man because Gatsby was poor. Wow! And she I not at all guilty. Her stupid dialogues gave me headaches. And Tom the A-hole cheater plus hypocrite for blaming his wife for cheating on him. He introduces his mistress to the cousin of the wife, which was so damn stupid thing to do. 

And finally Nick, the narrator of the story the third wheel, the unimportant character made important only to tell the story. Besides the characters the plotline was very confusing and colourless. The jazz era of parties and music was not enough to strengthen the plot and the characters. 

"I am so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers"

This has been my favourite line of the book because I just was thankful for the imagery of Autumn described in the story. The beautiful green gables, the flowers and the food descriptions just made me feel like how great it is to live in a countryside. 

In the beginning Anne's limitless imagination and jabbering made me annoyed a bit but it is so great how the author made her character mature into a young smart lady gradually without rushing it l even though the story pans for only 4 years. 

The audiobook read by Rachael McAdams was so great too because she really has a soothing voice for a soothing story like this. Also she did an amazing job narrating the dialogue of different characters. High pitched enthusiastic Anne's voice and shy Matthew's voice and even the charismatic Marilla's voice and even the Anne's friends' voices were quite distinctive regardless they were the same age girls. Totally recommend the audiobook as it adds more colour to this classic.