The Book Quill

The Book Thief is one of those heart warming stories that will make you deeply smile and cry. It will keep you hooked to the pages as you intertwine with each and every character’s sorrow, guilt, love, affection and personalities. The book is a historical drama based in the Nazi Germany. The author’s use of words, analogies and his easy description of events will hook you to the book instantly. Liesel Meminger, and her brother are taken to a poor foster family as her mother is unable to take care of them anymore. On the way, her little brother dies and this incident is imprinted in the little child’s memory forever. She is handed over to the Hubbermans, an old couple with a big heart. Liesel is unable to sleep at nights and is constantly woken up every night by her brother’s dead face. The night her brother is buried, she steals a grave digging book, her first thievery from the more to come. She keeps it hidden at all times, but Papa (Mr Hubbermann) finds it. As she is not a good ...

The pain of losing a spouse is tormenting and soul-crushing. It must feel like the whole world coming down on you. To be left alone in the middle of the road with nowhere to go. Rachel Watson stands on the same crossroads. After going through a harsh divorce, losing your husband to another woman and becoming an alcoholic, all she does is breathing like a living corpse. Every morning she wakes up drunk and sleeps likewise. She never has a sense of space and time, and is so lost in her grief that she is unable to pull herself into reality. She boards the train to London everyday to go to an imaginary job that she was fired from months ago to make her renter/best friend think that she is at least working. Riding senselessly, across the vast stretching lands day in and day out , she keeps noticing a particular house every day. A joyful couple resides in that house as she sees them on the terrace, embracing hugging and kissing on different occasions. She feels the coldness sinking in as s...

Reckless is the third and the last book of the Whitney series preceded by Chasing Tomorrow and If Tomorrow Comes . One of the best selling series comes with its last enduring story of Tracy. This enigmatic, charismatic and enthrallingly rich character has definitely made a place in my heart. The brave heart soul is on another mission of her life that will either break her or make her forever. Known once upon a time for being one of the most conniving thieves, her past never leaves her side. She creates a happy abode with her son Nick in an isolated part of America and lives like a law abiding citizen. The CIA somehow unearths her and asks for her help to track down a dangerous group of global hackers who have started a murder havoc. She doesn’t want to be a part of this charade as she has left all of it behind her, but then destiny never fails to amuse her. She loses her son in a tragic event soon after. With nothing left to protect, she gives in to the authority and hence begin...

Chasing tomorrow is the second sequel to If Tomorrow Comes . The once enigmatic and flawless criminal Tracy decides to have a normal life together with her partner Jeff Stevens. Together they have accomplished the most notorious of cons, but leaving all of that behind they decide to settle down. Jeff starts working in the British Museum and Tracy’s focus completely shifts to start a family. They are in marital bliss but with time things start to crumble down. They constantly try to have a baby, which turns into a nightmare for Tracy. She slips into depression, constantly yearning for a child which sidelines Jeff into a corner. He starts losing his connection with her as she mostly remains withdrawn and lost. With the entrance of a person, their marriage comes crumbling down like a stack of cards. Tracy feeling betrayed vanishes into thin air, and with that she carries away a secret with her, never to be known to Jeff. For almost a decade she remains hidden from the eyes ...

Marriage is one of the most sacred of sanctums in human culture which eternally binds a man to a woman forever. Your spouse is the most prominent part of your life as you share your soul and life with them. But what happens if your partner becomes the opposite of what you have always believed him or her to be. What happens if you are afraid of them? Amy, a beautiful and rich New York girl, is meticulous, planned and observant. An only child to her parents falls in love with Nick Dunne. Nick is the opposite of Amy, cool, calm and likes life as it is. They complete each other like puzzle pieces. They have a perfect relationship and get married to live a happy life. But on their fifth anniversary, Amy suddenly disappears. There is not a single trace of her to be found. Has she been abducted? Has she been killed? Nick is all fanatical and on the edge of breaking as the days go by, without any trace of her. She is used to create a treasure hunt for her husband every year, and this year ...

We all have read the famous Mahabharata in school or heard by our parent or grandparents. The valour of great men being glorified, with their righteousness and dedication. Their commitment and chivalry, their sorrows and achievements. But what about the women? Their voice was curbed and they were there in the backdrop as supportive actors to make the men look good, I guess. The Mahabharata , never before comes with the voice of a woman and her perspective. Draupadi, tells her tale as she is born from fire with his brother Dhri and is prophesised to bring about the biggest and disastrous turn of events in history. She grows up telling her story about how she lived in the palace, being a princess, about her aspirations and desires. It merely comes out as a tale of a girl caught in the dilemmas of life. Panchaali (Draupadi’s another name), is constantly perplexed by the future she and her brother holds. She, having a progressive outlook criticises and condemns a lot of patriarchal stanc...

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest is the third sequel to the Salander series preceded by The Girl Who Played With Fire. For all the Larsson fans, this book is obviously a must to achieve Nirvana, by knowing what really happens to Salander in the end (you have to read the second part). The previous book leaves us scratching our heads to know what happens next and, as soon as I grabbed a copy to the sequel I was hooked. The book opens with Salander in the hospital, severely injured with multiple fractures. She is constantly drifting in and out of consciousness and just able to grab pieces of information that people around her are talking about. She is frustrated with this, and as soon as she regains complete consciousness she starts planning to get out of the hospital and the country. The police have been looking for her for two murders. She doesn’t want to end up in jail, nor in a mental asylum. The story starts unfolding the series of secrets that the Sweden security police has...