Love @ Internet by Rajeev Ranjan

Love @ Internet by Rajeev Ranjan

Love @ Internet, the title was not that appealing to me as I thought it will be another Love Story. But it was not the first time I was reading Rajeev’s work. I was the one to review his first novel as well and that’s what made me curious to read his second book.

It started to grip from initial pages itself.

Rohit the main lead of this novel and his balcony love made the plot right to start with and his shyness resembles any youth living in a middle town. The girl leaving him and going away with her parents and Rohit feeling lonely was a kicking flow again.

Story is with packed a pace and if someone is not reading the book with any assumptions will enjoy it thoroughly. Rajeev can write using a simple plot with a difference and that’s what provoked me to read his work. If I look at the plot it is not complicated at all but the way it is presented is very nice.

If I look at the plotting and addressing the narration, it needs some guidance of some good editor as at some places story seemed to be meeting eyes with the reader and all of a sudden the plot is left there unimpressed.  

Also some of the editorial errors which a reader might not catch but being a reviewer and editor it impacted and irritated me.

None of the flaws are there because of the Author; I think the publisher is compromising on spending on editorial part to groom the work to an international level.

I wouldn’t rate the cover more than 2.5 on a sale of 1 to 5, after reading the novel I felt there was more to be reflected on the cover page. Cover page is the first thing which a reader will look at before buying a book.

Again a good job by Rajeev Ranjan and will be glad to read more from this author in the coming years.

To Err is Human by Swarupa Chavan

“To err is human”, I wondered why this title is selected and I was curious to read the story.

I took a long time as for some or the other reason the story didn’t grip my attention. Not directly jumping on to saying about not liking the novel, I just wanted to highlight some evident turn offs.

I was happy to put hands on the book which is not written by just another engineering or MBA pass out who just wanted to tell the story of his college days or an unsuccessful love saga.

Cover page attracted the thoughts and is well designed. The quality of print is another winning part for this novel as now people don’t just buy a book; they want to buy quality which they can carry while on move. 

Quality of print and pages is also good.

The story and plot is good however the narration needs perfection. The story is about Malini and her exploits while discovering her true self. Author tried to make Malini amusing, witty and full of humor but somehow it didn't create a grip.  

Office politics drifts and search for true love – it summarizes it all.

As I say most of the times, editing plays a major role and evident editing errors blocks the reader. Editing needed more attention!

While writing a book, it happens that the author goes with the flow and unintentionally starts to use phrases in regional language. The common thought is that it will create a grip and bonding with the reader. If as a reader I would want to read Marathi, I would go for a Marathi novel, why will I pick up an English read? Also, why do writers want to block their work to a state or a region? Will anyone from any other Indian state enjoy reading the story with so many Marathi phrases and sentences? If the novel is picked up for translation in other languages, how that thing will work out? Being an Indian reader we have grip over different languages of India, what if this book is given to a foreigner, will he be able to understand the book? – With these thoughts if I had to rate the book, I would not give it a superb rating.

Author can do better and we should not forget that a book is not about the way author is presenting and writing, it is also about the support given to him/her in the process of writing and getting published. I have no idea if Swarupa was given these suggestions while the novel went in for the process of getting published.

If this novel is rated a failure, it is not because of the author. It is because of other people who did not do justice with what they did.

With the story and thought flow, I rate Swarupa to be a good thinker and can expect to see more novels from her in the future. With good supporting hands, she can do wonders and with her thoughts she can create some of the biggest best sellers.

The book is light read and Marathi audience will enjoy reading as there is a flavor of their language. 

In Course of True Love by Sanjeev Ranjan

Very simple – An easy Read – No twist – A Plain ride !!!

This book can be summarized as an unadorned book, which is written with no complications.The author just wanted to convey a story and it went on with every page of the book.

The story is a love story (as it is predictable with the name as well) which goes smooth. Expressions are well portrayed – like, phone conversations, exhilaration of opposite sex, discussion of kiss etc. Nice effort!

The book is a trouble free read, with no threads getting complicated and everything getting clearer with every page turned. It may be a good entertainment for teenagers or for seasonal readers but for a vivid reader this book gives nothing.  There is no twist, there is no suspense, everything is predictable, and language is basic though efforts come evident with some dialogues which are impressive. 

Author can do much better with helping hand of an editor.

Portrayal is something which I missed throughout the book. Proper explanation is backbone of any book without which it is difficult to hook the reader.

I would not like to speak about editing errors in this book as there is a load to discuss about. If the author is not getting support from his publisher for proper editing, he should get his work edited professionally before submitting the Manuscript to the publishers. It is very important to give a fine impression to readers as they pay to read the work.

Author showed caliber with his debut novel and we can expect better things from him in coming years.

Overall a simple yet entertaining journey for an occasional reader group.

A Splash of Love - A Kiss of Infatuation by Rajeev Ranjan

Nothing new I felt reading the book! However what I felt was AMAZING!

The narration is good and catches the senses. You feel refreshed and would like to live your college days again. The Author speaks about ‘Infatuation’ and other feelings that everyone goes through at some point or the other. Story connects with the reader.

What I liked was the way the story started, it sounded like a story based on a village background but gradually it moved to a metro and the way transformation and transition happened was smooth. Author did a good job that the reader doesn’t even feel when he reached Delhi from a village.

I felt like revisiting my teenage reading the story.

I have no idea why Authors in India are inquisitive about using “Regional Language” phrases in their books. I take this attempt as writing “Hinglish” and not “English”. I have seen books getting stuck within boundaries of the country because of this small mistake. It breaks the flow and for me it was a big look back for me in the book. Reading Hindi statements written in English is irritating most of the times.

Another editing error observed was evident and was new to me. Every time the Author mentioned any name in the story, names were given special treatment with “Quotes”. It gave a strange look to the narration and as a reader I kept on thinking, why? What? Where? When? – Nothing correlated. “Quotes” with a word in writing signifies something special in the narration and all the names mentioned in the book cannot be special.

The book needed an editor’s eye!

Overall, the story line was catchy though was no indifferent. Author showed his potential and with help of a good editor his work can reach places.

Hidden Corporate Crimes - Rs. 5000 Award waiting......

Hidden Corporate Crimes!!!

Who we are looking for  - Anyone working for a Multi National Company, a Private Firm, Big Corporate House, a Call Centre or any other place which is not a Government operated or controlled business. (Currently working or retired)

If you say that you have not gone through or have never witnessed a crime happening around you in your professional environment, you are not being true to yourself. Most of the private companies are breaking rules and crushing labor laws big time in India. Extended working hours without Overtime, Mental torture by giving threats of termination of services, promoting someone being biased and ignoring someone’s potential completely, stopping people from speaking in media about the company, asking for personal favors – these are all different kinds of exploitations and crimes.

If you ever have noticed, every company runs on different policies which are governed by them completely and there is no government or social involvement allowed, also to add, most of the private companies don’t allow their employees to form any union or to be a part of any union. Why? The answer is simple; they do not want their employees to be together or to be in a position to fight for any illegal things happening around. “Divide and Rule” is what happening openly and we have all eyes closed around.

It is time to speak; an Author needs your help in writing a Novel – “Hidden Corporate Crimes”. We understand you may want to keep your name confidential in this venture, protecting your real name or identity, confidentiality is promised at every step. If you want, your name will be published else a pseudo name of your choice will be given in the Novel. 

Best and highlighted story will get a reward of Rs. 5000

Please share the crimes happened with you or which you noticed happening but couldn’t do much about. The author will be compiling a bunch of stories and will be published by a Big Publishing House. 

It’s time to speak, it’s time to tell the world that corporate life is not full of goodies, it has a hidden black face which should be visible to the world now.

Who knows, our efforts together turn the shape of this ugly corporate world and we may have an authority overruling and guiding the corporate in India.

Let’s try to make a change, speak your story out and we promise the world will listen.

Please contact @ bestfictionbook@gmail.com 

Zero Percentile 2.0 by Neeraj Chhibba

| Author: Neeraj Chhibba | Publisher: Rupa & Co. | Price: 140/- | Pages: 257 |


I was glad to put hands on this book. The quality of print and page is something which makes the first impression and it goes all as an 'A Grade' for this book. 


Cover design speaks a tale.

This book is a sequel to 'Zero Percentile' by the Author, I did not get a chance to read his first book and was in two minds, will I be able to get a grip with the story line?

With a doubt, I started reading and I was engrossed. The Author successfully managed to keep the story line going through in a way that it does not impact the reader who is unaware of what happened in the first part of the book. At some pages it interrupted with a '*' sign, which is given in the book to the topic relates with the first book, it was awful but it did not interrupt the story line.

The story is about a group of friends, who are dreamy about opening their own software company, going through up's and down's and emotions flows along. One character in the book is fighting with a deadly decease and while reading it reminded me of 'Sumit', one of the main characters in Vikrant Shukla's debut Novel "Call Centre An Inside Story", the emotions and feeling running were expressed well.

I was impressed with the Editing as well, there are editing errors but only a professional can point that. Errors are not evident enough to pinch the reader.

It is good to see sequel series for books coming out in India as well, it will be too early to say if it will catch the mass as the Indian readers are yet not following anyone, they just pick up what they find suitable to their mood, personality and the availability of time. Zero Percentile 2.0 is a good effort and should be appreciated.

Overall, characterization in the book impressed me. It is a good read!

Hitler's Nepal Connection by Evangel Athial

A Good Effort.....

I was curious to read this book after I received it but because of other priorities had to keep it aside for a couple of days. Looking at the book daily and not reading was a tough task to do and I finally got a chance to keep my hands on it.

I started reading and with the chapters moving on, I was so much attached to the story line that I wanted to finish the book as soon as possible. Strange topics discussed in the book about Hitler, Black Magic, A silent love story in the parallel run, sex description on a mild note......a lot of things to keep the reader stick to 135 pages.

If I have to summarize, I liked the book and efforts of the author. It is a nice piece of work however needed some professional hands to make it perfect.

The book looked like a Syllabus Book to me when I saw it for the first time. But content of the book is nowhere behind a thrilling novel.

ISBN number is missing from the book which clearly shows that it will be difficult for the author to reach the correct and potential audience. The book will not be available in many world class stores as they do not keep books without an ISBN number on it. This book had the potential but have no idea to why was it self-published.

There are some major editing errors evident in the book content. The biggest example I would like to highlight here is the date of birth mentioned in the book, which says that Hitler was born on April 20th, 1929. Now this date is something which cannot be true. I know it would have been a typo error but who so ever edited the book, did not do justice to his job. These small errors questions the authenticity of the information shared in the book.

The normal trend is that book is released as "Fiction" or "Non Fiction" but this book does not give any idea of the category of the book.

I would not like to highlight any other editing errors as there are a lot and it is not to do with the author. It is all about flaws left by the editor of the book. The author has done a remarkable job and the book is a worth read. Reading about Hitler, some of the secrets about him, about his inclination towards black magic, a couple meeting after seven thousand years, having a discussion over an ice covered mountain are just enough to take reader to a different journey all together.

The Group of Fools by Yaagneshwaran G

Genre: Fiction; Pages 136; Paperback: Rs 150, ISBN no. 978-93-81205-66-2

"The Group of Fools"

The Group of Fools is a tale of a group of friends in a Business School.

Each had a different attitude, a different mindset and was from a different background.

And then there was love, ambition and more complications.

A recession that worsened the situation.

Will they rise to the occasion?

Welcome to the journey of the Group of Fools.

These lines welcomes the reader, looks light as a read and cover page compliments it. 

A nice cover page to start with, a very important factor in success or failure of any book. Cover creates a scene before even someone start to read the book. 

A light version of writing, sometimes straight, sometimes deep, sometimes lost the track, sometimes straight - The book doesn't grip till reaching the mid parts. Incidents happen very fast and with chapters time, scenes, importance, depth changes. 

While reading the book, I lost the focus many times. Author did not try to link readers to any character. Story just moved on as if no-one is very important to the book. But, I waited and read more, and it happened, story gripped me after finishing almost half of pages and later it was entertaining and the book finished with a positive and a strong message. The Author managed to close the story successfully and the book was entertaining and gripped attention in the second half.

There were other factors as well, which grabbed my attention. Minor flaws, some positives and some negatives. Content page was not really required in the book but was added, that's fine, but giving the list of content in the "Chiller" font confused me, this font is normally used to give a suspense or a horror gesture. Why it was used in the content page remained unanswered even after finishing the read. 

Later, the print of the book is in the font "Comic S", this font is liked by teens and gives a feeling of a "Light and funny" read. I was pleased and expected the book to give that content, in some chapters, yer it happened however towards the end of the book when the Author was really serious in discussion and the story line was meeting eyes, that font gave a funny feeling. 

I would call it the "Editing Errors" - for the story which is mixed in emotions, Using basic fonts like "Arial" or "Georgia" is the best strategy. Author should not be blamed for this at all.

This book will be liked by people who are/were ever related to Business Schools. I scanned a thorough life cycle of a B-School through this book. Author was successful in this part and managed to deliver his area of interest and a should read for B-School related people.


For a normal reader book may seem to be boring for fist half but the second half of the book is a worth read for all.


A good read, I personally liked it. The Editing part of the book is not satisfactory part however the Author should not be blamed for that.

Three Times Loser - Akash Verma

Overall I liked the Book. It was a decent read.

A different story line, looked fresh and I wanted to read more, a curiosity developed as three stories in one Novel were coming the way one after the other.

Megha, a home maker in Gurgaon receives a letter.

Mandira, a top MNC executive in New Delhi receives a letter.

Shonali, a Corporate slut in Mumbai receives a letter.

Three unknown people; three different lives; one common thread that binds them together, Alok.

These lines behind the book cover attracted me, I wanted to read, to know what is going to happen.

Author successfully managed to narrate three stories, one after the other; it went on well and entertaining. Characters mentioned in the book are well portrayed and locations are descriptive.

It was entertaining to read the book.


Three different stories makes the reader flow in three different ages and surroundings. Good work done by the Author on that front. 

Now coming on to the “Areas of Improvement” for the book –

There are evident editing errors in the book, those can be turn off for an attentive reader. A character by the name of Happy singh is a cut Surd, it surprises how come the shopkeeper knows that he is a ‘Sardar’ in Delhi Market. To continue the turn off for the readers, the same error was repeated with the pimp on GB road incident.

In the first story, friends go to Delhi, the chapter has no correlation with the story line and I felt it was a interruption in the story. Story was to show the relation of Alok with Megha but I felt that as a barrier for the flowing story. If we think about the reason of Author putting so much efforts to write this chapter would be only to show the way of living of characters involved in the story, which was important. 

Name of “Megha” used in place of “Mandira” – I was surprised for a moment and when I read the line again, I understood, it was an editing error. It was again a turn off a I was all engrossed with the story and all of a sudden the face changed.

Basic errors were also observed like. “Hello” spelled like “Hullo”.

Overall I liked the book and it is a good read. 

Death Wore White - Jim Kelly

Death Wore White

1

Monday, 9 February

The Alfa Romeo ran a lipstick-red smear across a sepia landscape. Snow flecked the sands at the edge of the crimped waters of the Wash. To the landward side lay the saltmarsh, a weave of winter white around stretches of cold black water. And out at sea a convoy of six small boats were caught in a stunning smudge of purple and gold where the sun was setting.

The sports car nudged the speed limit as Sarah Baker-Sibley watched the first flake of snow fall on the windscreen. She swept it aside with a single swish of the wipers and punched the lighter into the dashboard, her lips counting to ten, a cigarette held ready between her teeth.

Ten seconds. She thrummed her fingers on the leather-bound steering wheel.

It was two minutes short of five o’clock and the Alfa’s headlights were waking up the catseyes. She pulled the lighter free of its holder. The ringlet of heated wire seemed to lift her mood and she laughed to herself, drawing in the nicotine.

A spirograph of ice had encroached on the windscreen, so she turned the heating up to maximum. The indicator showed the outside temperature at o°C, then briefly – 1°C. She dropped her speed to 50 mph and checked the rear-view mirror for following traffic: she’d been overtaken once – the vehicle was still ahead of her by half a mile – and there were lights behind, but closer, a hundred yards or less.

She swished more snowflakes off the windscreen. Attached to the dashboard by a sucker was a little picture frame holding a snapshot of a girl with hair down to her waist, wearing a swimsuit on a sun-drenched beach. She touched the image as if it were an icon.

Rounding a sharp right bend she saw tail lights ahead again for a few seconds. And a sign, luminous, regulation black on yellow, in the middle of the carriageway, an AA insignia in the top left corner.

DIVERSION

Flood

An arrow pointed bluntly to the left — seaward down a narrow unmetalled road.

‘Sod it.’ She hit the steering wheel with the heel of her palm. Slowing the Alfa, she looked at her watch: 5.01 p.m. She had to pick her daughter up at 5.30 outside the school. She was always there, like clockwork. That was one of the big pluses of owning her own business: she kept her own time. And that’s why she always took the old coast road, not the new dual carriageway, because this way there were never any traffic jams, even in the summer. Just an open road. Once, perhaps twice, she’d got caught up at the shop and phoned ahead to say she’d be late. Jillie had walked home then, but Sarah didn’t want to let her down. Not tonight, when snow was forecast. She’d make it in time, even with the diversion, as long as nothing else delayed her.

Looking in the rear-view again she saw that the following car was close, so she put the Alfa in first and swung it off the coast road onto the snow-covered track. The headlights raked the trees as she turned the car, but she failed to see that they fleetingly lit a figure, stock-still, dressed in a full-length dark coat flecked with snow, the head – hooded – turned away. But she did see a road sign.

As posted at - http://us.macmillan.com/BookCustomPage.aspx?isbn=9780312570811#Excerpt

The murder is a classic locked room mystery, only this one happens in a snow-bound car, trapped at the head of a column of other similarly trapped cars. How the murder was committed and by whom is the crux of the book and the plot is handled competently by Kelly. There are several suspects, each with motives of varying degrees. There are more bodies too - one washed up on the shore near the stranded cars and one found on a sandbank by some cockle-pickers.


Book runs smoothly and locks the reader. The description is intense and it gets the reader to the scene and one can not stop visualizing reading the pages. One thing that interrupts the readership is that scenes are dragged at some parts and hits the fluency and interest of reading.


Overall it is a worth read and pick.