26. The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott

The Jewel in the Crown is the first book in the much acclaimed The Raj Quartet. Set during the British Raj of India, the first book in the series tracks the events that unfolded in the town of Mayapore. The story revolves around young Kumar, an Indian brought up in Britain, but who returns to India under after his father's death, friendless, penniless, in a country he has nothing in common with, other than the colour of his skin - the identity crisis he faces as neither the British in India, nor the Indians recognise him as one of their own - and Daphne Manners, a young British girl who finds herself caught under extraordinary circumstances, culminating in her tragic rape, even if her story doesn't end there - indeed, the strength of her character shines through after the aforementioned tragedy. The book has various other remarkable characters, be it the Rajput born princess, Lili Chatterjee, the British officers (both pro and anti Indian), a couple of remarkable ladies, who serve India and Indians in their own ways, one through education, the other by providing healthcare to those for whom no one, not even their fellow countrymen care.

I started this book, with a very skeptic frame of mind, like I usually do whenever reading books based on India, by either Indian authors (for playing to the stereotypes) or foreign ones (for just not getting it right). The premise of the book was specially an explosive one, even if the current generation of Indians blame the politics and policies of the last 60 years of Indian governance rather than the 150 years of British dominion (including 90 years of the British Raj). The author, however, managed to avoid taking sides by presenting the story from the point of view of the amazingly well conceived characters. Through the eyes of those characters, the author also managed to represent the conditions, relationships, political tendencies, etc. of both the communities - whom time had done more to separate than integrate, into an atypical master-servant relationship.

The author also, doesn't excuse the snobbery, high handedness and divisive politics of the British, while also highlighting the anti-social elements of the native population - the kind for whom events of instability, riots, are opportunities for rapine, loot and plunder, indiscriminately, if I may add. The fact that such elements are part of the Indian society, even in today's time and age, makes their existence in those times all the more believable.

The author only makes passing references to the Indian freedom struggle and the main characters of the same, which probably wasn't a bad idea. All considered, a well written account, rich in the depth of the characters as well as the plot of the story in all its complexity.

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13. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The History of Love is different, even if my writing skills fail to showcase how. This is not a sad story or a happy one, it just is. A book with the most interesting and extreme characters, this is not a love story, at least not entirely, and yet it is about love. It is about a love story with an unsatisfactory end, another with a satisfactory one, a story about lives wasted, betrayal and guilt, about never getting over a lost one, a story about a father's love for his son, friendship, a young girl in past, a young one in present and a very eccentric child.

It is extremely well written, even as it challenges the reader to keep up with the multiple threads interwoven across lives, across time. While covering the lives of so many characters in detail, the author does an even more amazing job of consciously ignoring some of them, leaving just enough to the imagination of the reader, and all the reader has are the realities and perceptions of those characters, as seen through the eyes of the ones whose lives were covered. There is not a sense of closure to  most of the characters and even that is not unwelcome.

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9. Die Trying by Lee Child

Die Trying, was almost like a back-to-back read for me, after reading Killing Floor, towards the end of January. Worried as I was, about a Jack Reacher overdose, it was just alright this one time. This was another fast paced thriller, this time about a bunch of delusional revolutionaries. Jack Reacher, once again continues to be at the wrong place at the right time, which I believe will be the theme of the series, something I don't seem to mind at all!

Long story short, the hero beats the hell out of the bad guys, etc.

I like the way Lee Child's endings differ from your typical James Bond novels when it comes to the female leads.

I think I will wait a couple of months before I read the next installment.

7. Killing Floor by Lee Child

After reading chronologically, the first Jack Reacher book, I started with Killing Floor, the first Lee Child novel, written with Jack Reacher as the protagonist, a book which won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel when it got released in 1997.

Set in a small town in America, this was a fast paced thriller, with its not-so-small plots and conspiracies. There is a lot of action, some goriness, and a whole lot of entertainment. The book doesn't strive to be real and hence avoids from becoming ridiculous - you know what you are reading, and why you are reading it. One of the takeaways from thrillers is that with the research the author puts in, or supposed to have put it, one gets to know a whole lot of interesting tid-bits, which otherwise may not have come in one's way - this one for instance gave a crash (if lacking in details) course on counterfeiting operations.

I see no harm in continuing with the series.

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3. Second Son by Lee Child

I had been planning to try this series since the movie adaptation featuring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike came out in 2012. Come 2014, and I started with this short novella the first in the series, chronologically, with a teenaged Jack Reacher. I read this book, fully knowing that this short novella was written with the soul purpose to give some kind of background to Jack Reacher, his history, his roots and nothing else; there still was more action than expected. 

A satisfying read, for now I will continue with the series.

76. The Kill List by Frederick Forsyth

This is going to be a short review, with not much worth talking about.

The Kill List is my second Frederick Forsyth read this year, third overall. Forsyth's work continue the common theme of a single individual with exceptional combat/strategic abilities, which is not bad, when executed well, like in the case of the cult-classic The Day of the Jackal. The execution suffered, despite a strong plot in the otherwise disappointing The Cobra, my first Forsyth read this year.

In this book, the character was strong, the execution, pretty sketchy. A weak plot and the lack of details didn't help either. These days, one expects to be educated, while being entertained, while reading Thrillers of this type. This book entertained a bit, but failed miserably in the other task. Add to that, the non-development of any character, including the lead character, a resume probably would have got one better acquainted with the character than the book. It was good to have a happy ending, but it seemed almost forced, with good things coming along for everyone, in an ideal world, free of any unfairness.

A below average read, I think I am done with Frederick Forsyth for now.

75. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Love gone wrong!

A delightful read. It is difficult to not like a book like this one, with all its twists and turns, even if not perfectly executed. It reads like a Spy novel, with the exception being, there are no government conspiracies, and well, there are no spies. This book is funny where it needs to be, tragic at time, and devious almost all the times. No complaints about the writing style either, very readable, and the author does quite a good job keeping the different versions of the story separate. This is a decently long read and just when one starts to get bored, Bam! comes a twist! The first of those twists, there is no way I could have seen it coming, and neither would I am sure the majority of readers, unless they are warned of it. And no, my last statement doesn't constitute that warning.

Now for the few negatives with the otherwise, did I say delightful? read. Remember when I said, *just when one starts to get bored*, well, make it *a little time after the reader has started to get bored* - point being, the aforementioned twists could have been timed better. There is also a bit of redundancy, some of the sub-plots, the book could have done very well without; a more compact book would have definitely got more pointers from me. 

67. Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup

And quite accidentally did I read a book from the Slumdog Millionaire famed Vikas Swarup. I am always skeptic picking up a book by any Indian author or about India in general; the former for the fear of being badly written (I know that sounds kind of racist, but in my experience that often turns out to be the case) and the latter for generally playing to the stereotypes (regardless of the author being Indian or not).

Hence I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this book, which suffered from neither of the two flaws mentioned here-in-above, it was fast-paced, action filled (not the violent kind, generally), quite the page turner. 

"Why only a 3 then?", the curious may ask. Well, for one, it was too dramatic! It would require a complete denial of the laws of probability to accept this book, even in the loose world of fiction. Everything that is possible in this world, is experienced by the protagonist, and all within the space of a year. Even Rand in Wheel of Time series saw less excitement, his Ta'veren status not withstanding! (The seemingly random reference to the Wheel of Time series will become clear, come the next paragraph.)

Over a casual discussion about this book in a cafe, a business and now personal acquaintance of mine, on hearing my objections with regard to the realism of the book, raised a very pertinent question, "But you read Sci-Fi, don't you?" I told her that a well written Sci-Fi or Fantasy book is almost always logically consistent, the amount of details that go into the world building is beyond what a book like this one can hope to achieve. To her credit, she grasped this point immediately, instinctively even, despite her not being a reader of either of these two genres.

The second shortcoming, if I may be allowed to call it that, was the shallow development of characters of all, but the protagonist. Swarup barely scratched the surface of all his characters, showcasing only the superficial of traits in each of them.

It is obvious that Swarup is one of those rare Indian authors who can write some really good stuff, but given the massive fame he has already accumulated, I am not too optimistic about him changing / moderating his writing style.

65. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

The Thief follows the story of a pickpocket in Japan, an unusual pickpocket, a pickpocket with a conscience, morality, a pickpocket who cares. If the choice of a pickpocket as the protagonist wasn't unique enough,  the execution in showcasing the skills and the day-to-day life of a pickpocket was above average as well. There are flashbacks, missing friends and demons from past life. There is an imaginary tower, visible/not visible to the protagonist, which seems to be the equivalent of some kind of a moral compass, this part of the book though remained too underdeveloped and undercooked. There are a few minor characters, a young mother and her kid, intermingled in the life of the pickpocket, characters which were irritating at best, probably forced onto the story to attain one of the objectives.

And finally, there is a super villain - a know it all, controller of fates, puller of strings, a most dangerous yakuza with a plan.

To me the entire package read like a plan gone awry, a good concept ruined due to lack of application. There is lack of rationality evident throughout the book and the pace of the book seemed always wrong, either too fast skipping stations, or slow and bumpy. 

My third Japanese author was not a hit. What could have been a really good book, remains a not-above-average read.