23. The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks

Finally a review! Even if I am the only one getting excited over the fact! This was the fourth book in the Culture Series, the version I read consisted of a number of short stories culminating with the novella titled "The State of the Art".

Short stories, as a rule, don't agree much with me, and this one proved to be no exception. Some of the stories and a few scenes were quite shocking, in their grotesqueness - that however, is far from being a reason for me not liking this installment as much as the last two. It is just that more than a few stories failed to resonate any kind of chord with me, and while some of them were quite good, on an average, I found the book, average!

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March Summary and April Plans

So, I was barely able to fulfill my March plans to the dot with the following 7 reads:-

1. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri ()

2. The Vor Game (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold ()

3. Use of Weapons (Book 3 of the Culture Series) by Iain M. Banks ()

4. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald ()
5. Salem's Lot by Stephen King ()

6. Bleak House by Charles Dickens ()
7. The Great Influenza (Non-Fiction) by John M Barry ()

Due to my illness this month and general paucity of time, I have decided to forego reviewing any of my March reads, April should see me resume with my reviews.

I have another 7 books lined up for April, here it goes:-

1. The State of the Art (Book 4 of the Culture Series) by Iain M. Banks
2. Cetaganda (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold
3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
4. Ethan of Ethos (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold
5. Insurgent (Book 2 of Divergent Series) by Veronica Roth
6. Fault Lines (Non-Fiction) by Raghuram Rajan
7. The Jewel in the Crown (Book 1 of the Raj Quartet) by Paul Scott