Kevein Books and Reviews

Palm Lines by Jonathan Koven is a splendid collection of around twenty poems and prose. The book is highly readable and it becomes easy to grasp the presented themes because Jonathan Koven has segmented the collection into three parts: Life Line, Heart Line, and Head Line. Each segment is followed by a sublime and beautiful painting. It gives hunch about the inside poems and prose. Talking about the first section, which is about life, it is more or less about life experiences the narrator had had in his life. It is high on nostalgia and seeks hope, despair, reminisces of past days, especially when someone is young. The feeling of being young is brought forward brilliantly. In this part, the poem My Childhood Friend is truly heart-warming. And in the poem 'I Was a Tourist', the poet longs for a love from an unknown girl – a feeling quite common during our youth. The Heart Line touches the familial bonding and allegiance and love as an evident theme. Be it any segment, the ...

Bouquets & Brickbats by Kanagiri SN Prasad is a very meaningful book that brings forward the though-provoking blogs and articles of the author that he wrote for various sources over a period of time. The content of the book deals with social, economic and political concerns of the state and the country. The book reflects the diversity of a free thinker. Mr Prasad was into teaching and administration for a long time. He is aware of the drastic changes and issues that the society is going through. Through his writing, he puts forward his views and thoughts in a crystal clear way. The book tries to paint a picture of our society and existence based on insights, facts, analysis, and stats. On any topic, be it related to school or governance or corruption and so on; Mr Prasad has provided an in-depth analytical stance. It’s a work of non-fiction, mainly a compilation of blogs and articles from different niches. It’s evident that the book is neither interconnected nor provides cohere...

Arihant Dehumanized is the third book in the Android Robot Arihant Series. Among all three, this is the most terrific novel in terms of story and climaxes. The first part was back dropped against the state level Maharashtra, the second at national level, now this one is at international level. The novel opens up with Operation Ice Sweep which is about conflict of Siachen Glaciar and other posts between India and Pakistan. A terrific fight is going on at Siachen Glaciar, and much to the relief of the Indian soldiers, Arihant and a few more androids soldiers intervene and defeat the Pakistani soldiers brutally. Well, this did not go something likeable in the international media. Inclusion of androids in the army fight is considered a sort of transgression. In a nutshell, other countries did not like India’s rising military power with Iron Soldiers. As Pakistan puts pressure, the United World Forum orders India to humanize its Android Robot Army. In this novel, the author initially di...

‘Flowers in the Sunshine’ by Sarbajit Roy is a beautifully written collection of poems. As one can get the hunch from the title, the collection is inclined towards nature and its allied beauty. The book offers 54 poems, mostly about sublime beauty of nature and other themes. The collection starts with the titular poem, ‘Flowers in the Sunshine’. This poem tells us the significance of sunshine among flowers and around. In fact, it is the sunshine that actuates the ambience of flowers and birds and collectively all rejoice their life in a most carefree manner. The poet explores that nature fosters the spirit of life, be it flowers, birds, bees or human beings. The next poem ‘The Lonely Tree’ is a superbly penned down. It takes into account the tree as a mute spectator of the events that happened around it. The poet portrays the surrounding nature of the tree, it must have been a mesmerizing experience for the tree to witness the cycle of change in all those years. As you read the boo...

The Beautiful Sky by Harshwardhan claims to be the longest romance novel in India. Indeed, it is…running over 500 pages, while reading one could feel its expanse and traverse. The novel is built on a powerful theme: love is beyond a common vista and true love demands sacrifice. While reading this novel about Amyra and Vian, you may conjecture that love is also blind and it is not for everyone.   It is one of its kind romance novels. Why? It involves a lot of Hindi Shayaris. In fact, there is a Shayari for every event and situation. Such as; “Madad karne wala ek, Charcha karne wale dus, Aur rasta rokne wale hazaar hai. In sab logon se tum umeed Bhi kya rakhte ho, Yaha toh izzat aur iman Dono ka chor bazaar hai….” This Shayari depicts the plight of Amyra when she had to see the court for rape proceedings. Likewise, whenever there is a love in the air, you will find a perfect Shayari forming up in the heart of Vian, the lead character. Or in midway, he would do a Sha...

Puttli is a horror novella by Anuj Tikku. This book is way different from the normal horror stories as it is also about the life of Jesus Christ (JC). As we read the book, we came across Sushant Gupta, an archaeologist in his mid 40s. He lives alone in a jungle where he is busy in his current project of excavation. With him lives his servant Bhola. The story is mostly set against India and in between there is coverage of Vatican City and Pope. Apart from a fictional tale, the book marks the religious controversy as it is against the belief of Christianity that JC did not die in Jerusalem but in Kashmir, in India. While excavating, Sushant and his team discover a church and human bones and a doll with one eye. On the back of the doll is written Puttli. After some research Sushant confirms that bones indicate that JC spent his life in Kashmir after Crucifixion. And the doll was made by him as he was a carpenter. Sushant does not believe in religion and faith. He kept the doll with ...

The Night Cradles A Lonely Moon by Sumona is a riveting collection of 13 short stories. The book explores a gamut of counted and uncounted shades of love. While reading the book, one may feel that ‘Love’ is beyond the apprehension of common vista. It is ingrained deep inside, at times visible, otherwise struggles to surface. Often books based on love are warts-and-all, because they fit in a stereotype pattern. Well, this book is all about delving deep in the psychic of lovers and their hearts. There is romance, sizzling seduction, silent heartbreaks, layers of eroticism – and above all expression of love in all sorts of circumstances. Almost all stories are contemporary and ironical in their scaffolds. It’s a wonderful book for the discerning romance readers. Talking about the stories, the book opens up with ‘Tavern by the Sea’ – the story is staged against the sublime backdrop of Goa, where two lovers meet once in a year on the eve of Valentine’s Day. It’s difficult to define thei...

I love being with crime thrillers, especially the noir and slow burns. Thinking the same I picked up this novel, but inside I found a different proposition. The novel falls under the purview of crime thriller genre but it focuses on characters than on other aspects. The story is about a place called New Market, it has some history and heritage, when it is taken for other commercial re-instatement, it becomes the bone of contention and hot place for criminals. The novel sounds riveting because of its backdrop and timeline of 70s. The story is told through the eyes of Vikram, he was into the police department that time. I think that time Naxalism was coming up fervently in much part of India. His wife’s brother was involved in it, due to that his personal live was in shambles. The novel is first in the liberation trilogy. So, this focuses on despondence. The theme of hopelessness is extended right up to the end of the novel. The police was unable to find the killers or people involve...

Blue Eagle by Sharada Kolluru is a riveting novel that blends crime and romance genre into one. Running up to 266 pages, with segmented into 4 parts, this novel features the stories of two lead characters Neil Randhawa and Moe Somani from different countries. Neil hails from Italy, a sort of NRI. He is into wine business. Initially to understand his exact case, you will stumble upon his lifestyle, lineage, and profession. The author has given a lot of coverage of Italy – its landscape, culture, people and customs. When Neil lands up in India with a bottle of red wine named Blue Eagle of worth 3.75 crores, the trouble begins. The bottle gets stolen while catching a taxi. As he approaches the police station in Delhi, the story shuttles between India and Italy. The second story is of Moe Somani. She hails from Yangon, Myanmar. She has lost her certificates while riding a cab. Both characters meet in the police station. The coverage on Myanmar is really fascinating and it shows the cou...

Kavya Kislay is a Hindi collection of poems by Prafulla Kumar Tripathi. The book offers around 113 poems from various sub genres of the Hindi poetry. This is neither a shallow nor an easy collection; probably, people with discerning taste in the Hindi literature can comply with the brilliance of the book. From language to metaphor to allegory and all – it is a book with different intensity and essence. The book is visibly divided into all sorts of poetry sections, for instance there are poems for children, on nationalism, poems of vivid imagination, and satire in the end. The poems are intense and reflect the mirror of our society as a whole. Well, but the poems on India are superb and eulogize our country from all perspectives. This is also so as the poet has lost a son while on a duty protecting the mother India. Some of the poems spiral from his life’s experience, depicting his wisdom via life cycle and stages. Poems on his native city Lucknow are also worth reading. However, th...

Straight from the Horse’s Mouth by Haresh Sippy is a powerful book of 100 quotes on life, career, goals, society and much more. This is my second book from Become Shakespeare on quotes; the first one was Signposts by Tapan Ghosh, which was simplifying life lessons via quotes. Well, in this book, the wisdom and experience in the form of quotes comes from a veteran and industry leader. Quotes are a better way to put life experiences for others, as it is easy to read and relate. This book focuses more on work ethics that discusses the importance of passion in any work. But it also takes into account several situations that one could face in life. The book opens up with a very fascinating yet thought-provoking quote: Climbing is not an uphill task, descending is. It’s the same with life. In the above quote, the author has laid emphasis on uphill task. It is explained so easily with mountain climbing and descending. It is true that while climbing down one has to be more careful. The...