Hello Loves!
Long time no book haul, but don't for a moment be thinking that I haven't been buying books, because Book Buying has been going quite well, especially in June. June is my Blog's Birthday Month. And this year my Blog turned 10 and I tend to celebrate by buying books. And this June I did buy myself a few books across the month, so more hauls are coming, I've just been slacking off.
Let's start with this lot.
I went to The Crosswords Bookstore at Kemp's Corner one rainy evening. I went here after ages. I used to go here quite often a couple of years ago but with time, mainly owing to the lack of parking options and how congested this area gets, I stopped going there. But I meant to go here since they did this whole redesign and rejig and the shop looks so good. All giant windows and even their curation is so much better. There are so many kinds of books and so many different sorts of books apart from the regular bestsellers. I was so happy with how the store looks and the books they have on their shelves.
I looked around for a while, even sat on a little bench and read for a little bit. I came home with six books and here they are.
I have already read some from here.
So let's jump into it.
I knew the sequel to The Boy in Striped Pyjamas was out and I meant to read it but it completely slipped my mind and I didn't buy or read it. When I spotted this, I knew I had to get it. This book is so wonderful. I know some people (and I get it) have issues with John Boyne telling this story and focusing on these characters. They find it insincere and problematic. Well, I hear you but in the first book, we meet a young German boy who doesn't know exactly what goes on behind the fences at his new home, which just happens to be a concentration camp. While today we might find this absurd. A young boy in the 1940s was perhaps much much naiver than his counterparts in the 21st century. Kids back then were not as exposed to the world and mostly towed the line and listened to their parents and believed everything their parents told them. So I didn't see any glaring problems with poor Bruno and his sad fate, it broke my heart.
Now this book is focused on Gretel, Bruno's older sister. We see her a little bit in the previous book, she was 12 years old during the events of the previous book. We now see her as old woman, in her 90s and living in in London. She has had a seemingly nice life, married a good man, has a son and lives in a beautiful flat in central London. It's easy to judge her easy life, but as the book jumps back and forth, we see Gretel and her life as it panned out after the end of the War. The horrors of what happened to Bruno and of course the millions of people who died and the question of guilt, culpability and cruelty.
Gretel will break your heart. She isn't warm and fuzzy. She is quite stern and cold, but given the life she's led, I don't even blame her.
Decades of pain, loss and gnawing guilt will change a person.
This book is wonderful, I read with my heart breaking over and over. And the end had me smiling and crying.
I loved it.
5/5
The Circus Train by Amita Parikh is another book set in Europe during the Second World War and about a Circus forced into a Concentration Camp and forced to work and entertain the soldiers. My sister read this and really enjoyed this slice of history and events that truly happened but one hadn't heard of it before. There is so much that happened during the War, so many cruelties that people endured and I am glad all kinds of well-researched books are being written about it.
Pick it up if you enjoy well-written and well-researched historical fiction.
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett is the author's third book and between my sister and I, we've read all her books. Hallett writes her book in this unique style. All her books are told in a sort of epistolary style, well not strictly. The books are told in text message, Whatsapp messages, emails, forums, chats and documents and notes and such like. Very interesting and very, very nicely done.
We read her previous book last month before we made it to this one, which I read over the weekend. And I loved it and could not put it down. More thoughts and review coming soon, because I have so much more to say.
Ok, this was a cover buy- I mean look at how stunning the art and colours are, so the cover drew me in kinda...
I did have this on my radar and I saw it and picked it up.
Short stories are my jam and funnily enough I haven't read nearly enough of them this year. Gotta change that. Translated from Tamil, these seem to be perfect for August when I read Indian Books all month long and I try to read from every corner of India. I am really looking forward to this book, I have heard some good things.
I have meant to read Manav Kaul for a while now, I do own a copy of his short stories but I haven't read it yet. This one I hope to read next month. I have heard nothing but incredible things about his writing. I am beyond excited to finally read his words and see the magic for myself. Rooh sounds amazing.
Another book from Kashmir (Rooh is based in Kashmir too) that picked up on a whim and it's something I like the sound of, it's about displacement and what it means to lose one's home. Again, saved to read this next month.
August is going to be full of some incredible Indian Books and I cannot wait!
:)
BOOKS BOUGHT:
All the Broken Places by John Boyne
The Circus Train by Amrita Parikh
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
An Order from the Sky by Imayam, Trans. by Vasantha Surya
Rooh by Manav Kaul
A Bit of Every Thing Sandeep Raina
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