Shantanu Srivastava

The Good, The Bad, and the Funny. Adam Kay's journal is a rare glimpse into the life of doctors, any front-line worker in fact, that we only get to see a glimpse of. Always being on your toes, having to put personal life on the backseat, and dealing with the unfortunate failures, we are sure having an amazing sense of humor would've surely helped. The world is full of varied types of people and 80% of them could be found in the General Ward of a hospital. Consensus: The Highs are exhilarating and the Lows are disheartening. If you are in the health services, then go for it. If you want a memoir with a tinge of dark humor, then gor for it. If you are into body horror, then go for it.

And Then There Were None meets Big Little Lies. Lucy Foley constructs an excellent ensemble of characters each dealing with a personal issue that has come to define how they are as of today. Chapters are from the POV of few central characters and that helps us get a personal POV of the same event from different perspectives. The mystery is cleverly woven and we keep guessing what's going to happen and who's going to do it. Consensus: The Guest List is easily one of those books that you get hooked to right from the start, and it's dark and sombre setting and characters make the reading worth the while.

I had read John le Carré's Karla Trilogy before I came to this and I never expected anything to even be at par with the writing, the complexities of character, the intricacies of cross-border espionage of those three books, but ofcourse The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the root of the tree that gave those fruits. John le Carré, probably writing from his own experiences, creates characters and situations so layered that we are always left to guess till the end what core was. The world isn't Black and White and like the characters in the novel, the reader also grapples with the harsh realities of the game called espionage. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is essential reading for anyone yearning for an amazing spy novel, an amazing mystery/suspense novel, for an amazing novel. Period.

Matt Haig has created a wonderful fantasy based on everyone's number 1 regret: "What if I had done this differently". Armed with such a premise of unlimited possibilities, sprinkling it with dark humor and a likeable and relatable protagonist, the book reads like a breeze. There's a good amount of emotional depth to the proceedings as well, making the reader and the protagonist both wonder, think, and fill you with a unexpected sense of optimism. Consensus: Midnight Library is that jolt of Espresso Reading that will make you laugh, ponder, maybe a little teary eyed here and there, and culminate into a good reading experience.

Cyrus Mistri, through the tale of Phiroze shines light on the lesser known aspects of the Zoroastrian religion, and even lesser known community of Khandiyas. We get to learn about various idiosyncrasies of the culture, the unfair bias against people who help perform the crucial last rites. The book is beautifully written with passages sometimes feeling like free-flowing water, words chosen so precisely that we truly feel the emotion being described. Consensus Chronicles of a Corpse Bearer is a beautiful insight into a lesser known world through some thought provoking stories and characters.

It's just my bad luck it seems that the first novel I am reading of advocate Sandy Stern is, as the name suggests, his Last Trial. Scott Turow presents a detailed depiction of how a case is fought both on and off the courtroom. How a loose remark can lead to a revelation, how an argument is presented in court for maximum impact on the jury and ofcourse, how to fight the moral battle within. It's never the right,or the wrong who wins. It's an argument that can be proven without a reasonable doubt that wins. Courtroom Drama has always been my favorite genre in movies with 12 Angry Men being my favorite film of all time. There's something magical in dialogue that happens in a courtroom where while dissecting the testimony of a witness a cord is struck and the case takes a turn. A tid too filmy a situation, but always magical to read and listen. I believe I'll have to read the previous works of Scott Turow featuring some of these characters as a prequel to the events of The Last Trial.