Shivani Adib's Blog

Last night I read “The Deadly Royal Recipe” by Ranjit Lal and I am impressed and disappointed at the same time. Mr Lal’s felicity with words is quite remarkable and his story is fast-paced, hilarious, and unputdownable. But while I thoroughly enjoyed the madcap adventures of the young protagonists—a bunch of schoolchildren of unspecified age, but presumably teenagers—I am disappointed that I cannot recommend it for the middle-grade age group.

The reason I read this book was because my teenage...

My entry for the Arts Illustrated Short Story Contest. The instructions were to write a story in 1000 words or less, specifically based on the featured image. I didn’t win, but I enjoyed writing the story, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!

The old lady shivered as a cold draught snuck into her room. The errand boy must have left a door open again. She edged her chair nearer the fire blazing in the hearth, gratefully warming her hands over the leaping flames. A childhood spent in poverty and...

If you’re looking for a simple, brisk thriller, look no further! “Killing Floor”, the first novel in the Jack Reacher series, is an easy, fast-paced read that’s sure to brighten up a dull, lazy weekend.

Jack Reacher, 36-year-old former military policeman and a blond hulk of a man standing 6’5” tall and broad in proportion, finds himself charged with murder in a quiet town. As the plot thickens and the bodies pile up, you wonder how Reacher will extricate himself – and others – from the mess....

The summer vacation is a boon for children but can be intensely nerve-racking for parents as we desperately seek activities to occupy the young ‘uns. For parents like me, we’re hard put to it when our children ingest books like ravenous termites and keep clamouring for more. Those who share my boat (ow, will you budge over! Make some room!) will relate to the losing battle of arranging for sufficient books to keep these young book dragons satiated. Therefore, the pressing need not just for bo...

This slim volume is a veritable treasury of farcical crime and absurd criminals! Anecdotes of the latter’s bumbling exploits and ludicrous felonies, ranging from the oddest thefts and funniest cons to foiled getaways and bizarre capers, will have you chuckling your way through this compilation of startling silliness from the criminal world. The snippets in the last chapter verge on the gruesome with some rather dark crime but, this apart, the book focuses on the funny and baffling rather than...

A sports-loving husband is the reason I dove into “Centre Court” by Sriram Subramanian, and I’m glad I did! The book, crafted around India’s top tennis player’s Wimbledon dream, is deftly written. The narrative flows effortlessly and the story keeps the reader riveted. It’s easy to connect with 41st-ranked tennis pro Shankar and his Pa (the narrators) and Ma whether or not you’re a tennis buff. The blow-by-blow account of Shankar’s experience at Wimbledon is accompanied by relevant flashbacks...

I’d picked up “What Became of Gunner Asch” by H. H. Kirst at a small raddiwallah shop – hadn’t heard of the author or the book but the back cover looked promising:

“Gunner Asch, yesterday’s scourge of the Nazi war effort, is now a respectable civilian. But his appetite for trouble is as strong as ever, as the local military discover.

Major Bornekamp, of the blood and iron school, is Asch’s favourite target.

Lieutenant von Strackmann, a blockhead of the old sort, falls into every trap Asch lay...

I don’t know how an austere scholar of philosophy might react to “Pooh and the Philosophers” by John Tyerman Williams, but this is an enjoyable volume for the lay reader. Dr Williams has delved into the minutiae of the Pooh books and derived interpretations, metaphors, allegories that can be considered absurdly brilliant or brilliantly absurd, depending on your point of view. He has an incredible felicity with words and the sometimes serious, sometimes flippant style of writing in the first h...

Set in 1909 when Sigmund Freud visited America accompanied by Carl Jung and Sándor Ferenczi, “The Interpretation of Murder” by Jed Rubenfeld is an exceedingly well-written mystery with a gripping narrative and mind-boggling turns of events.

The first half of the book progresses at an even pace. A beautiful girl is tortured and murdered in her opulent penthouse apartment. The following night, another gorgeous young woman is similarly tortured in her handsome townhouse, but is still alive when...

5 / 5 average rating from 3 reviews on amazon.in:
https://www.amazon.in/Boy-Wouldnt-Bathe-Other-Stories/product-reviews/8126463988/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1

5 / 5 average rating from 2 reviews on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30293742-the-boy-who-wouldn-t-bathe-and-other-stories