Joan Rivers - A piece of work

I knew little about Joan Rivers until she started appearing on bad plastic surgery lists. And even then I thought little of her until snaps of her acid comments started appearing.
Then this documentary came along and I was curious.
She was with Johnny Carson for 20 years as a co host! Black and white clips show a daring, caustic tongued, witty woman. With jokes that would have been shocking in those times. And the fun part is, she shocks you today too! From Vagina farts to Michelle Obama termed as Blackie O for her style. (From the previous stylish first lady Jackie O) everything is fodder for her jokes. But apart from the comic timing its the enthusiasm at 74 (when the doc was filmed) and her untiring scramble to the top even after getting knocked down more than a few times. Itsy bitsy spider, in human terms.

7/10

The Conch Bearer + The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni -

Indian. Predictable. A little preachy.


The same can be said about her novels, right?
A poor little boy is given a magical conch and has to go through lots of adventures to return it to its home in a utopian valley run by a brotherhood of monks. Accompanied by Abhaydatta, a healer monk and a street urchin girl. I found it a little tedious. The second book was much better than the first. Though the conflicts and moral dilemmas in both the books were resolved so easily. We don't empathise with the characters much and the end of the novel the only person that I could relate to was the girl who was often delegated to the back. The protagonist boy seemed a little uptight and too goody shoes for my liking.

4/10

Turbulence - Samit Basu

Hail!

Double Hail!

I have read his trilogy and loved it, now this genre bending novel with Indian super heroes and supervillians in true filmi style but realistic (does that make sense? no?) The story is fast paced, has the required moral dilemmas but doesn't sound preachy and has some cool powers. He calls it literary fiction bitten by a mutant spider. I disagree.
It's a superhero novel with a comedy sidetrack and a moral spine.
Buy it people! Buy it!
PS: I have a huge crush on his writing.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlAuvu8IYrQ

I don't understand how I missed him.

Read some more:
http://samitbasu.com/
http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.com/2010/10/turbulence-by-samit-basu.html

Mr. Dixon Disappears - Ian Sansom

Detective silly Realism.

Part of the Mobile library mystery series. My first read and I'm guessing this is the 2'nd book. Its not exactly a murder mystery detective series. There is murder, there is mystery but the detection is non existent. The hero - a bumbling english librarian called Isreal runs a mobile library in Ireland. He lives in a chicken coop and has 'romantic' problems.  He stumbles into the suspect list then stumbles around and finally get the mystery solved and a 100,00 pounds. With a lot of help from Ted, some sort of assistant/driver.  Very urban in a rural background story. Refreshing.

6/10

The Good man Jesus and the scoundrel christ - Philip Pullman

This is a story.


Well sort of. Mr. 'atheist' Pullman has pulled another one off. His Dark Materials author (I haven't read it - yet) has divided 'the son' into Jesus and Christ. One modeled after  eastern mystics and guru's, the other one after what seems to me is Mr. Flanders from Simpsons! Christ documents and later impersonates Jesus for what will later become the church. That is the story.

It's a fast paced book with nothing extremely good except the controversy. The point of view has been debated by everybody who has pretensions of being an atheist. After seeing hindu gods being slaughtered at many a writer's altar, I wasn't too taken aback by the controversy too.

5/10

Bala Takes the Plunge - Melvin Durai

Every cliche humorously explored - to the limit.

Its starts out great, you recognise that MS done, holding a job yet attached to Indian apron strings guy immediately. Bala is one among the million slightly boring and uptight middle class single Indian men in the US. The plot is as thin as the paper the book is printed on, but the puns and chuckles keep flowing. Its great at the beginning but after some time you get irritated and then it becomes a little painful. I admire the guys talent to keep the jokes going on and on, but without some character/plot development it reads like a stand up show. And we all know those are better performed than read.

Great Observational skills and great jokes but no plot.

5/10

Riding in Cars with Boys [Book n Movie]

Complicated, confusing, much like life.

When your 15!!

It's a bare all memoir. And like real life, it doesn't have a story that shows pure redemption. She just narrates every turn and twist on her journey from being a 15 year old mother to the imperfect present relationship with her son. You go what!! then you empathise and sometimes you feel sad knowing that one wrong decision would have taken you through the same path.

Drew Barrymore is great in the movie and sometimes a little too good. Because certain scenes in the book you don't imagine with the same gut wrenching intensity that she shows in the movie. Bad life, good book.

6/10