iasa *The White Tiger, *Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger is the story of an Indian servant, Balram Halwai, and his rise to 'the social entrepreneur' class through the murder and robbery of his employer. He narrates his own story in letters to Wen Jiabao, the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. Over the course of a week we read of his growth from intelligent but uneducated boy, to indentured slave in a tea shop, to the driver of a upper class landlord's son.

I'm not sure why I chose this book for my list. I was unfamiliar with the plot before I began reading, not even perusing the jacket blurbs beforehand. Consequently I had no expectations ahead of time. And yet it seemed entirely predictable, inauthentic, replete with stereotypical characters and situations. All the stalwarts are represented, rich versus poor, the shining star in a pit of darkness, corruption, the hope for a better life. It's not the predictability that bothered me. It was the impression the author was trying to be shocking. There is nothing surprising about murder in abject poverty. No surprise that poverty is widespread. Perhaps making my home in a developing country makes me more aware of these things, but I think not.

Adiga can paint a visual scene, but even in his descriptions of open sewage and rampant homelessness, I feel slighted. They are too neat, merely annoyances not approached as life crushing objects. Having said that, it was not an unpleasant read. The narrative is tight and fast-paced, occasionally humorous. He has something to say but either I am not his intended audience or I am being completely oblivious, or I am grumpy today and there is no pleasing me.

iasa Book Review *Heart-Shaped Box

The Heart-Shaped Box is a supernatural debut horror novel by Joe Hill, pseudonym for Joseph Hillstrom King, son of Stephen King. It tells the story of an aging death metal musician, Jude, with a taste for the macabre. When the he receives an opportunity to purchase a haunted suit, complete with ghost, he leaps at the chance. Jude soon discovers the ghost is quite real and he has a score to settle. As with most horror novels, this too is a story of redemption. Jude never doubts that he can rid himself of the ghost, if he can only stay alive long enough to figure out how.

Hill writes a fast paced, action based novel. It is a very visual book, almost cinematic in scope. At times I find that takes away from the creepiness of the story but it is a fine line in presenting the reader with an image detailed enough to be scary but that still allows for personal fears to sneak in and up the heebie jeebie factor. For the most part Hill doesn’t cross that line too often. The back story in neatly woven into the narrative ably aiding the reader in his sympathy for the characters. However like his father, Hill is flummoxed by endings. What begins as a strong story, complicated story is quickly and too neatly tied up. Quite frankly as the reader, one wonders if the ending was stolen from a toddlers fairy tale.

However I enjoyed it and I only got up to lock the door once. Apparently in my head, ghosts can’t operate locks.

iasa - Progress Report, I'm an Eleven Percenter.

I've managed to knock out another six books on my list. I enjoyed them all and there's not a one of these I would not reread. Reviews, such as they are, of the last two can be found at The Book Book.

The High Window by Raymond Chandler
Curtain and The Mysterious Mr. Quinn by Agatha Christie
The Red Thumb Mark By R. Austin Freeman
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin

iasa 5 Down *The ZooKeeper's Wife

So far I've managed to read two books I thought I had read, but never really did,

Winnie the Pooh and The Color of Magic

one book in my quest to read all of Agatha Christie's work.

Cat Among the Pigeons

and two books I wanted to read but were a horrid disappointment

Falconer and The Zookeeper's Wife.

Whilst I can forgive John Cheever's Falconer for not living up to expectations, the same is not true for Diane Ackerman's The Zookeepers Wife. The latter tells the story of Jan and Antonina Żabiński, zookeepers of the Warsaw Zoo at the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland, who shelter Jews escaping from the ghetto as well as members of the Polish Resistance. Theirs is a courageous story and deserves to be told, but this book does not succeed. Ackerman presents the story in a disjointed, digressive manner. At times the digression is only an annoyance, other times it becomes quite tedious. For example, at one point, an insect collection receives a minor mention. However that leads to a two page description of various beetles complete with the information that Charles Darwin once put a bombadier beetle into his mouth. That may well be an interesting fact, but it is not relevant to the happenings and people of the zoo.
Many characters are present in the book, but one knows so very little about any of them, including the Żabińskis. For the most part the characters are flat and forgettable. And that is a shame. Jan's work with the Resistance is mentioned in an offhand, occasional manner. The workings of the escape route are absent. Even the day to day activities of the household receive minimal depth. I'm not sure how she manages it, but Ackerman is able to suck all the drama and the adrenaline soaked atmosphere from an occupied Warsaw.

iasa's 100

1. Xenos - Dan Abnett
2. The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman
3. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
4. A Coffin For Dimitrios - Eric Ambler
5. The Magician and the Fool - Barth Anderson
6. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance- Now with Ultraviolent Zombies! - Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
7. So Long a Letter- Mariama Ba
8. The Poisoned Chocolates Case - Anthony Berkeley
9. The Chinese Parrot - Earl Derr Biggers
10. Melody of Vengeance - Michael Black
11. The Beast Must Die - Nicholas Blake
12. The Girl With the Long Green Heart - Lawrence Block
13. A Royal Pain - Rhys Bowen
14. Madball - Fredric Brown
15. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan
16. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
17. Sunshine Patriots - Bill Campbell
18. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- Lewis Carroll
19. The High Window - Raymond Chandler
20. Falconer - John Cheever
21. Curtain - Agatha Christie
22. Cat Among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie
23. The Mysterious Mr. Quinn - Agatha Christie
24. The War of the Worlds Murder - Max Allen Collins
25. The Meaning of Night - Michael Cox
26. The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin
27. Lester Dent's Zeppelin Tales - Lester Dent
28. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit -Charles Dickens
29. The Mystery of Edwin Drood - Charles Dickens
30. The Judas Window - Carter Dickson
31. The Benson Murder Case - S.S. Van Dine
32. Faerie Tale - Raymond Feist
33. The Hounds of Hell - Ron Fortier and Gordon Linzner
34. The Red Thumb Mark - R. Austin Freeman
35. The Liar - Stephen Fry
36. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade - Diana Gabaldon
37. Dreaming in Cuban - Cristina Garcia
38. Grimm Memorials - R. Patrick Gates
39. Smallbone Deceased - Michael Gilbert
40. Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold
41. The Wind In the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
42. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon - David Grann
43. Necklace and Calabash - Robert van Gulik
44. The Accidental Time Machine - John Haldeman
45. Dead Witch Walking - Kim Harrison
46. The Punch and Judy Murders - George Hart
47. Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
48. Dune - Frank Herbert
49. Wonder of the Worlds - Sesh Heri
50. Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill
51. Falling Angel - William Hjortsberg
52. The Death Monsters - Robert J. Hogan
53. A High Wind In Jamaica - Richard Hughes
54. Sunset at Dawn - Chukwuemeka Ike & S.M.E. Lugumba
55. Someone is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe - Nan Lyons and Ivan Lyons
56. The Rising- Brian Keene
57. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larssonont
58. Independent People - Halldor Laxness
59. The Drums of Jeopardy - Harold MacGrath
60. Ice Station Zebra - Alastair MacLean
61. The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril - Paul Malm
62. The Affinity Bridge - George Mann
63. Opening Night - Ngaio Marsh
64. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson,M.D. - Nicholas Meyer
65. Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
66. The Red House Mystery A.A. Milne
67. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
68. Elric: The Stealer of Souls - Michael Moorcock
69. A House for Mr. Biswas - V.S. Naipaul
70. Redbreast - Jo Nesbø
71. Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian
72. The Spider: Robot Titans of Gotham - Norvell Page
73. The Moviegoer- Walker Percy
74. Monster - Frank Peretti
75. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
76. Silent In The Grave - Deanna Raybourn
77. The Phantom's Phantom - Robert Regianld
78. The Devil to Pay in the Backlands - Joao Guimaraes Rosa
79. Deathtroopers - Joe Schreiber
80. Donovan's Brain - Curt Siodmak
81. The Slime Beast- Guy N. Smith
82. The Party at No. 5 - Shelley Smith
83. The Ballad of Peckham Rye - Muriel Spark
84. The Red and the Black - Stendhal
85. The League of Frightened Men - Rex Stout
86. Das Parfum - Patrick Süskind
87. The 31st of February - Julian Symons
88. Secret Agent X- The Complete Series vol. 2 - Emille C. Tepperman
89. Monstrous: 20 Tales of Giant Creature Terror - Ryan Thomas (editor)
90. The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain
91. Roughing It - Mark Twain
92. Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Ancient Gods - Richard Vaughan
93. A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine
94. The Laughing Policeman - Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall
95. Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds - Wade Wellmen
96. Green Ice- Raoul Whitfield
97. The Tomb - F. Paul Wilson
98. Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf
99. The Bride Wore Black - Cornell Woolrich
100. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndman