Thursday 31 December 2015

My Top Reads of 2015

It is coming up to the end of of 2015 and as I see many book bloggers doing their round ups, thoughts circled around doing one of mine.

This was a good year for me as a reader. Goodreads tells me I have managed to exceed the number of books committed to the reading challenge this year. Hmm... it felt nice. The feeling was akin to a weight watcher standing on the bathroom scales to find that the news is good.

However, this year is also great because of  my discovery of two new writers (to me) in the crime fiction genre. M R Halls's Jenny Cooper series has become a firm favourite and Debrorah Crombie's Kincaid and James duo are now old friends.

Having said that, I like to think I have a broader range of genres too as part of my reading repertoire.

Here are my top five reads:

The Flying man by Roopa Farooki:






This South Asian writer has an remarkable eye and talent for telling a story. As mentioned earlier in my review, I approached the book with some preconceived notions and once I was rid of them, it was a lovely journey. The narrative is smooth and she layers a story with complex emotions and characters.














The Taj by Colin DeSilva:

It was fascinating to how non-Indians perceive our history. I love the Mughal dynasty for its drama and the action. Alex Rutherford is yet another non-Indian who has a similar set of stories in series format. However I found De Silva's version to be more enjoyable.

Though weighed heavily on entertainment value, it was an interesting piece of historical fiction. Where Rutherford offered a more documentary style of narration, De Silva does a better job.










If You Don't Know Me By Now by Satnam Sanghera:

A brutally honest memoir which was very brave or desperate of Sanghera. The book reads well and gives us a peek into the author's family. The heart of the memoir are family secrets and how they all deal with it, especially schizophrenia. The writing was smooth and kudos to the writer for handling such a tough subject with aplomb.











The Sound of the Broken Glass by Deborah McCrombie:

My first Deborah Crombie book was Necessary as blood but
it was her latest book that had me wowed to her storytelling skills and talent. The series gets better with each book and for me, it had reached a pinnacle with this one.







The Coroner - M R Hall: 

I remember coming across this book on the shelves of the library and charity shops (my favourite place), wondering if it was worth the trouble. I also recall opening the pages with a lot of trepidation. Therefore, when it lived to the hype (or lack of it), it has found a place on this top 5 list.












I write this on the last day of 2015. Over the year, this blog has won more viewers that boosted my morale to no end.

Now that the blog has come up on the public domain, the new year should see it scale new heights in terms of latest book reviews and interesting content.

Happy 2016.

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