Saturday, October 29, 2016

Book Review: "Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies"

Short, to-the-point and sweetly nostalgic! "Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies" is a fun read. It is the first of a 3 book series that gathers all the tidbits of "new" information about the Wizarding World that J. K. Rowling released through the Pottermore portal. 

I could never get into that Pottermore universe much. It felt like one of those obvious cash-grabs, a feeble attempt to keep people hooked-on via a badly designed web interface. But anyhoo, the one good thing to come out of this is the official release of the material that JKR could not include in the books. 

This booklet has fully developed back stories of characters that are not exactly "central" to the Harry Potter plot but are pretty important for the whole story as such. There are stories about Prof. Mcgonagall, Remus Lupin, Sybill Trelawney and a fourth new character. And the best part - these stories are written by JKR herself, no proxy or anything like that - you can tell from the writing - feels like vintage JKR.

All in all, a surprisingly quick read but entertaining nonetheless ! Give it a go. 4/5


Sunday, October 16, 2016

Book Review: 'And Then There Were None' by Agatha Cristie


Boy oh boy, what a book ! "And Then There Were None" is by far one of the best and one of the most engaging mystery novels I have ever read !

A clever murder-mystery plot that keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat, compels you to keep playing 'guess-the-murderer' game and then literally makes your eyes pop & jaw drop as the story unfolds to its perfectly executed conclusion.

I made the mistake of starting this book on a Monday night. Little did I know what I was walking into. Had to literally tear myself away from the book to not miss work the next day. It is surprisingly fast-paced. Characters are well-rounded with no extra frills - just the relevant details. The thriller-movie like atmosphere created in the book adds to the whole sense of panic & mystery.

All in all, a definite 5/5, a great read.