Books and more: After the Crash by Michel Bussi

Books and more: After the Crash by Michel Bussi: If you are looking for a read that's interesting, keeps you hooked and keeps you asking for more; then this is it. After th...

After the Crash by Michel Bussi

If you are looking for a read that's interesting, keeps you hooked and keeps you asking for more; then this is it. After the Crash by Michel Bussi keeps you rooted to your couch or bed or wherever you love reading books from.

The story follows the events that followed a plane crash on the Franco-Swiss border on the night of 22 December 1980. Of the 169 passengers onboard only one survived – a tiny adorable three month old baby girl. The book revolves around the fight legal or not so too by two families who claim that the child is their granddaughter. Is the child Emilie, born to a financial poor family or is she Lyse-Rose, grandchild of an affluent and popular rich family?

The story unfolds through a book/diary written by private detective Credule Grand-Duc who has been appointed to unearth the truth. The child’s true identity is revealed only on her 18^th birthday through some twists and turns and major action towards the very end.  

For all those who love a good mystery, then this is it.

Michel Bussi 

Books and more: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Books and more: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: Elanor and Park is a book about two misfits who get drawn to each other despite their inhibitions. It is about two teenagers who c...

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Elanor and Park is a book about two misfits who get drawn to each other despite their inhibitions. It is about two teenagers who come together and find love amidst ridicule, bullying, troubled broken homes and mixed race families.

It is simple, engaging and touching to say the least. Set in Omaha, Nebraska from 1986 to 1987 it follows the lives and love of two youngsters Elenor and Park who find their first love in each other. Different from the rest of the kids in their school, each is a unique individual with likes, wants and desires of an average teenager.

It has a beautifully and simply told narrative and makes for a relaxing read.

It is a book for young adults and I am sure that people that age will relate to and definitely love the book. Many might even identify with the protagonists.

Elenor with her fiery red hair, curvy body, and men's clothing and Park with his mixed race upbringing in a family that consists of a Korean mom and an Army vet dad, his love for the colour black and his obsession with music and comic books. 

If I were a teenager today, I might have rated this as the best book ever, but I am not and hence all I can do is smile at it indulgently and sigh at all the memories of my teenage days.

I would not rate it as a ‘Must read’; but I’d definitely recommend it to those who love a simple love story.

Ahh be still my beating heart...be still!!

Rainbow Rowell 

Chinese Cinderella by Adelaine Yen Mah

Who does not know the story of Cinderella! A young motherless child who was driven to drudgery and despair by her evil stepmother and stepsisters. Till one day when a Fairly Godmother comes to her rescue and well...we know the rest.

The Chinese Cinderella by Adelaine Yen Mah too follows the same path with the only and biggest difference being that our Cinderella saves herself. Our Cinderella here is Adelaine Yen Mah, the author herself and that is why this book is such an inspiration and should be included in school libraries as a ‘must read’.

Through this book Adelaine describes her experiences while growing up in a conventional Chinese Family in China during the Second World War. Her mother dies soon after her birth and her siblings blame her for her mother’s death. Always the unwanted and unloved child, Adelaine seeks love and acceptance from her father, stepmother and siblings. When that is not forthcoming she searches for that in her academics. 

Adelaine Yen Mah as a baby

Excelling in studies and at making friends Adelaine shines albeit dimly under the watchful and loving care of her Aunt and her grandfather. Unfortunately that glow is shortlived and she is shunted off to a war struck Tianjin. Her feeling of hopelessness, loneliness, sorrow and her will to survive it all is what makes this book so wonderful.

It takes immense courage to revisit a sad childhood and write about it for the world to read. It’s like baring your soul to strangers. If in her book Falling Leaves, Adelaine wrote about a girl’s journey into adulthood; then in Chinese Cinderella she has focussed only on her childhood.

Adelaine Yen Mah

This is a beautifully written book that awakens deep emotions in the reader. A must read.

Books and more: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Books and more: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult: “a story will tell itself, when it’s ready ” - Jodi Picoult There are books on the Hitler, Concentration camps, Jews and Holoca...

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

“a story will tell itself, when it’s ready” - Jodi Picoult

There are books on the Hitler, Concentration camps, Jews and Holocaust and I unfortunately have barely read a few (I must admit I am ashamed). Of them the popular ones; Mein Kampf and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, are two books that I’ve read, reread and recommended to many friends.

Recently however I came across another book The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and I honestly swear that this one takes the cake, the cream and the cherry (for lack of a better analogy). While Anne Frank described her life in terrifying and tiring times; we somewhere saw a glimmer of hope, a smile and sometimes joy in small things as she grew up. This one however makes your skin crawl.

The book has three separate stories running parallel or well intertwining all through the book. First the story of Ania and Aleks which is the story that is being written by a young girl; the second is the story of Sage Singer and her life, her friendship with a 90 year old Josef Weber and the last is that of Minka, the actual storyteller, the main protagonist, the victim, the survivor and the loving grandmother.

Jodi beautifully feeds us spoonfuls of captivating chapters as we follow the lives of Minka, Sage and Josef. There are chapters where tears ran down my cheeks, chapters where I shuddered and hated to be disturbed, chapters where I smiled and chapters where I shut my eyes imagined myself in that place and time.

The ending is shocking if not completely unexpected. I had a deep inkling about the identity of Josef somewhere towards the beginning of last chapter and yet I was shocked.

Jodi has outdone herself once again. She brilliantly keeps you glued to the book and long after you have kept it down you are still left wondering, thinking and introspecting.

I love books that make me want to go back to them long after I’ve closed them. This one sure is like a mother’s warm lap that cradles you and lulls you to sleep even through the worst of your nightmares. I know there are a few quotes that I am going to save for myself because they make complete sense to me and are so loaded with meaning.  

I would recommend this book to everyone who loves to read. It should be included in school syllabus too. This is not just a story book but a brilliant example of creative writing.

Jodi Picoult 

Once again thank you Bookelphia for sharing this book with me.