Review: The Book of Summer

The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Note: I thank to NetGalley and St. Martin press for ARC and this is my honest review of the book]

This is the third book from the author. The story has easy flow and no hiccups or dramas and has narration of two intertwined stories in parallel.

The story begins with Bess getting a call from her father to immediately visit her Mom,Cissy, who lives alone at Cliff House in Sconset, Nantucket, and persuade her to get out of the Cliff house. the Cliff House can collapse any time due to erosion. While cleaning up the Cliff House, Bess comes across a book "The Book of Summer" and the book has the memoirs written by the people who visited this house . Through the book Bess comes across to know more about her Great grand parents and other members of the family.

The character of Ruby could have been given more space. and, certainly she is one of the more powerful characters in the book.

There are some good one liners in the book coming out from Ruby in the context of her husband -
" who needed alcoholism or drug addiction ? Become a workaholic and enjoy the twin benefits of ignoring your problems and earning a paycheck."

and another one -
"A person doesn't generally self-medicare unless there's pain to chase away."

I liked the author writing style and the duel narration of the story as well. I liked Hattie and Ruby.I wish Sam's , husband of Ruby, condition was explored more .

The story is OK and I liked. Towards the end, I was expecting something surprising to come out from the "The Book of Summer" but that didn't happen. The end could have been better.

I rate this book 3.5/5.


View all my reviews

Review: Guru with Guitar

Guru with Guitar by Vikrmn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Note: I won this book in Goodreads giveaway and this is my honest review of the book]

This is a OK book. The narration is laced with some good quotes and author's writing style is also good. But, the story is predictable.

The story begins with Viktor and Kim , Who work in the same office, meet to each other awkwardly in the beginning and end up liking each other and finally they are in love. Viktor , though he earns enough,is not happy with his life and Kim helps him to find out that missing piece and fits that into his life.

The beginning and end of the book is good but it drags a bit in the middle. And sometimes I felt that the middle part was unnecessary.

The book could have captured the chemistry between Viktor and Kim a bit better.

It could have been a better book had the middle part of the book were tightened a bit.


Still it's a good read and rate it 3/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Blinks in Blackout

Blinks in Blackout by Hari Parameshwar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[I won this book in GoodReads giveaway and this is my honest review of the book]

This is good a book and my first from the author Hari Parameshwar. The book tries to reveal about the inner conflicts of Vikram, the main character of the book, and people around him, be his wife or girl friends.

Vikram has an accident at his home and remains unconscious for some time and during this duration he revisits his life from childhood to current date. he talks to himself during this period and at the end of it he recognizes whats wrong with his life. Story is good and at times the narration turns philosophical while talking about the life of Vikram and his girl friends or his corporate life. but the main focus of the narration is on the personal life of Vikram and his inadequacies.

Sometimes I found that the sub stories were slowing down the narration and sometimes it dragged.

The end of the book was quite predictable but still i wish the author had stretched it a bit more to reveal the good part of Vikram.

I rate this book 4/5.

View all my reviews

Review: You Can Be Rich Too With Goal Based Investing

You Can Be Rich Too With Goal Based Investing by P.V. Subramanyam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[Note: I won this book in GoodReads Giveaway and this is my honest review of the book]

The book gives a good insight into "money" part of our life. we earn and we spend and we save/invest as well. of late, spending habits in India has changed significantly and people do not think twice before spending. I find this true , especially, for the current generation who are in their twenties and do not take savings seriously.

The book starts with a little bit of calculations from you and author wants you to check where you stand financially and then slowly and slowly exhorts you to identify the points in you life which are hurting you financially and tries to convert you to become , if you are already not, a habitual money saver. He also pushes you to identify your unnecessary spendings through maintaining the account of your spending or rejecting the new products that you do not need and so on.

I found the explanation in the book simple enough to understand. the author also talks about the mutual funds , insurances and how to build a good portfolio.

The author has also listed some calculators at goalbasedinvesting.in which can be used to calculate how much you need to save for various goals you may have in life.

This is a very good book to understand the basics of investment and talks about various tools available in the market to do it.

I rate this book 5/5.

View all my reviews