booksonly

About the Fair:  The National Book Fair is organised every year in Lucknow, UP for a period of ten days during the month of September. This is the 17 th year in a row when this fair has been organised. It started on 20 th September and will end on 29 th September of this month. This year, the Book Fair is based on the theme of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 th birth anniversary. Special book stalls have been set up which offer books on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. This year the fair has been organised by Mr. Manoj Chandel along with The Federation of Publishers And Booksellers Association in India. The Book Fair consists of a number of book stalls which offer first hand as well as second hand books at minimal prices. You get a good amount of discount on books and can buy a book for less than a hundred bucks. Apart from book stalls, quite a number of stalls are set up which offer stationery, bags, food, etc. at very low prices. Many shows and competitions are also taking place daily a

About the Author:  Anand Neelakantan is an Indian author who has published five mythological fiction books in English and one in Malyalam. His first book was Asura: the Tale of the Vanquished which was a bestseller. You can check out its review by clicking the link here . He has also signed with the producers of Bahubali to write a three-book series based on the prequel of Bahubali. The first book of the series, The Rise of Shivagami was released in 2017. Anand Neelkantan is famous for his way of writing and for retelling the famous mythological stories from the side of the defeated. He is an amazing writer and is one of my favourites. You can check out his website by clicking the link here . About the Book:  Vanara by Anand Neelakantan was published on 9th November, 2018 and has been critically acclaimed ever since. It is the story of Baali, the Vanara king of Kishkinda who was killed by Lord Rama during his years in exile. It tells the story of the two brothers- Ba

About the Author:  Asfiya Rahman is an English language teacher who has published several short stories and has been associated with many writing workshops and literature festivals. She was also highly appreciated for the first part of the series- Wild Card . To know more about her, you can follow her on instagram ( @asfiyarahman.doonwriter https://www.instagram.com/asfiyarahman.doonwriter/?hl=en ). About the Book:  The Wild Card series published by Half BakedBeans is a series which focuses on the passion for playing tennis. The first part of the series was the story of Karan Mehrotra who returns to professionally playing tennis after a gap of eight years and paves his journey towards success by winning the Wimbledon Championship. You can check out the review of the first part of the series on my instagram by clicking the link here . The second book of the series, Wild Card 2 takes up from the place where the first book ended. Karan Mehrotra won at Wimbledon and made

About the author:  Jean Sasson is an American writer who is famous for her books written on the lives of women in the Middle East. She travelled to Saudi Arabia in 1978 where she met many women whose lives inspired her to write books about them. As I’ve mentioned a lot of times in my blog posts and in the book reviews on my Instagram feed, Jean Sasson is one of my favourite authors and this is the sixth book I read written by the author. She writes such amazing and inspiring books and her books should definitely be read by everyone. You can check out her website by clicking the link  here . About the book:  Desert Royal  is the third book written by Jean Sasson in the series of  The Princess Trilogy  which describes the life of Princess Sultana who was one of the many princesses of the royal Al Saud family of Saudi Arabia. You can check out the review of the first part of the series,  Princess  on my Instagram feed by clicking here and the review of the second part of

About the Author:  S. Hussain Zaidi is an Indian author and a former investigative journalist. He has authored several bestsellers like Black Friday, Dongri to Dubai, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, etc. some of which have also been adopted into Bollywood movies like Black Friday, Shootout at Wadala, Phantom, etc. About the Book:  Eleventh Hour by S. Hussain Zaidi is a crime thriller novel which revolves around the events post 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. It’s a story about another bomb blast being planned in Mumbai by five terrorists who break out from the Bhopal Central Jail along with another group of terrorists headed by a terrorist named ‘Munafiq’. It is the story of the Superintendent of Police, Vikrant Singh who is still waiting for his wounds to heal after the 26/11 attacks and therefore makes it a point to stop the terrorists and to save Mumbai from another horrible attack. The story takes an interesting turn when a ship is high jacked in the Arabian Sea by a group

About the Author:  Haruki Murakami is a bestselling Japanese writer who his famous for his writings not only in his native country but also worldwide with his books being translated into over fifty languages. He has also won a number of awards including the World Fantasy Award and is an author who is loved by all bibliophiles. You can check out his website by clicking the link here . About the Book:  Kafka on the Shore is a Japanese book which was released in 2002 and was translated in English in the year 2005 and also made it to the list of “The 10 Best Books of 2005”. It is a fantasy set in Japan which focuses majorly on two main characters. Kafka Tamura, who is a fifteen year old boy who has run away from his house to escape his father’s weird curse and Satoru Nakata who is an old man over sixty years of age who met with an accident when he was nine and as a result is not at all bright, he can’t read and write but has a special ability to talk to cats. The story

  About the Author:  Ahmed Faiyaz grew up in Bangalore and now lives in Dubai. He’s a book and film addict, and also a passionate writer. He is the bestselling author of Love, life & all that jazz… , Another Chance and Scammed , and the editor of Urban Shots – Crossroads and Down the Road. He has written and directed 6 short films and 2 feature films including Graveyard Shift. You can check out his website by clicking the link here . About the Book:  Bestseller by Ahmed Faiyaz, published by RupaPublications is the story of a publication house named Kalim Publications and how it is brought back to limelight by the new editor Akshay Mathur who returns from London in order to work at Kalim Publications. The story is all about various kinds of books and how they are edited and published at Kalim by Akshay and Zorah who is the daughter of the late owner of the publication house. It consists of a business fight which Akshay and Zorah work towards winning in order to ke

About the Book:  Ineligible is a love story written by the author Bijaya Kumar Mishra. It is the story of Saahil and Varsha who work together in order to make ends meet and finally get married. Saahil, who is the main character of the story is faced by a number of bets by Varsha’s brother Mr. Dev which he is required to win in order to marry Varsha. Saahil works hard and finally fulfills all the requirements put forward by Mr. Dev and the story finally has a happy ending with Saahil and Varsha getting married. There are also quite a few characters who remain important to the story and help Saahil and Varsha in achieving their goals. Review:  I received this book as a review copy and I was quite sceptical that whether I would like the story or not since I’m someone who is not at all into reading love stories. The book seemed to be the written form of a typical Bollywood romance and was quite unrealistic. The character building was also not on point and the characters seem

About the Author:  Rajat Chakraborty who completed his engineering degree in 2016, is now an entrepreneur. He aims at helping people in order to improve as many lives as possible and that is the reason why he writes. He motivates people not to give up and to keep working. You can check out his website by clicking the link  here . About the Book:  Trapped is a self-help book written by Rajat Chakraborty for a good cause. Through this book, he aims at igniting the minds of the youth in our country and prepare them to face the hurdles on the road to success. The book consists of five chapters and each of these chapters deal with a certain aspect of leading the way to a successful and happy lifestyle, to experiment with options, to face failures and to never give up. Each chapter of the book starts with a certain quote by a famous person in relation to the lesson being given in that particular chapter. The book also consists of a number of success stories of people who a

About the Book:  Thank God I’m Fired is a novella of just forty three pages written by Sandeep Pawar. It’s a mini success story of Raghav who works as a software developer in a corporate. The story starts with the first chapter in which Raghav is fired from his job. The story then proceeds in flashback which reveals that how Raghav was fed up of working in a corporate and was not able to use his talents and skills to the fullest. It’s the story of a guy who eventually discovers his talent and creativity in creating memes and how he finally decides to quit his high-paying corporate job in order to take a risk and follow his passion with the help of his co-worker Indu. The story brings out a reality of people employed in corporates and also the scenario of tech-parks. There are a large number of people working today in corporates  but it’s the truth that not all of them are satisfied with the work they are doing. It’s a story which brings out the reality of such people and also

About the Book:  The Case of Black Magic Murders in Mumbai is the second book written by the author, the first being ‘ I Shall Always Love You ’ . It is a story about the abduction of a 17 year old girl named Pari by an aghori in the city of Mumbai. The main character of the story is a crime investigation officer named Tanvi Yadav who takes upon herself to solve the case and find Pari, dead or alive. The story connects further to a number of killings and abductions taking place in a particular pattern by the tantriks and aghoris in and around the areas of Mumbai. It is revealed that the aghori who is believed to have abducted Pari had died in prison custody three years before. The story moves further and involves a number of plot lines and characters. Another twist in the story occurs when a secret ‘burqa killer’ is involved in killing all the criminals in Mumbai in order to take revenge without revealing her identity. The story ends on a note when the group of aghoris abdu

About the Author:  Nithya Sashi is an author and book reviewer from Chennai who has written two romance titles and several short stories. One of her short stories, Kalyani was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Award for the year 2018. Once Upon A Reunion is her third fiction novel. About the Book:  Once Upon A Reunion is the story of Nirmala, a woman living in Chennai with her husband Sreenu and working for an IT company. She is also the narrator of the story. The story revolves around a school reunion which Nirmala isn’t sure of attending since she is still not over her ex-lover from college, Suresh whom she dated more than a decade ago. All this leads to a heating argument between Nirmala and her husband but eventually gets resolved. The twist in the story comes when this tragic love story converts into a murder mystery and Suresh is found dead at the reunion. The mystery gets resolved eventually and the murderer is discovered. The story ends again on a

About the Author:  Aranghya and Jahar is the first published novel of the author Vidhya Iyer who discovered her joy and passion for writing when she first wrote an abstract on life by the seashore. Her work has been featured on the winners’ page of Zero Flash Fiction (June 2018) and her recently published short story ‘ Nine Lives ’ on the Juggernaut platform was picked up as the ‘Editor’s choice of the week’. She is currently working on the second part of The Bandahar Series which I believe is definitely going to be as great as the first part! About the Book:  Aranghya and Jahar is the first part of the fantasy series known as The Bandahar series. The story revolves around the empire of Bandahar which consists of seven kingdoms, Aranghya being the capital of Bandahar. Jahar has been described as an island in the centre of the river Veerini which is connected to the boundaries of Bandahar. The story consists of a number of characters, places and plots and ther

It happens a number of times with me and I guess it happens with almost every reader that we start reading a book but we are never able to finish it because of one or the other reason. This is something which has happened with me a huge number of times. Maybe I lose interest in the book, maybe the book is very depressing, etc. are some of the reasons why I generally give up on a book. Though I try never to leave books in the middle, but sometimes it becomes really difficult to get through with the whole book. So here is a list of books (as far as I can remember) which I started reading but never finished. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand:  So as everyone knows, this book is a famous classic and I started reading it last year. But it was only halfway through the book that I realised that I won’t be able to read it anymore. The book is too philosophical which is something I don’t prefer reading. I found it to be really slow and too philosophical which doesn’t match my ta

About the Author:  Payel Bhattacharya is an Indian author who is currently located in Delhi. She has put forward her sufferings and hardships being a patient of von-hippel Lindau disease through various poems and sketches and also through her first long poem named ‘The Warrior Princess’. Due to her mental health she took it as a challenge to write detective fiction and the book- Mum & Princess Go Spying is a result of that challenge. About the Book:  ‘Mum & Princess Go Spying’ is a novella which consists of three short stories about a girl named Princess and her mother who help the famous detectives in their city, Varma and Sharma to solve difficult cases and murder mysteries in their locality. Princess’s brother is also a police inspector who is introduced in the third story and helps in solving the final case. All the three stories are murder mysteries which are investigated by Princess and her mother along with the detectives. The first story is about the murd