The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006) A Memoir; by Bill Bryson.

Apart from all the fun, very informative in more than one way - from matinees being really a dark space for four thousand children to riot to match fights to how was alcohol stolen when no one distrusts neighbours, all of this in a prosperous and happy bygone era in a small town midwest US - and yet the nostalgia connects to those that lived that decade elsewhere and differently. Wonderful book.

Incidentally Bryson is a fan of my favourite show, and I have not found another one either until now, not an independant one anyway. The only difference is he watched it when he was young, and I watched it when I was finally free to relax a little post final graduation and during first serious professional post. Then it played at midnight and I stayed up to see it.

Everything Is Illuminated; by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Someone young goes into unknown territory, one moreover that has been demonised where he grew up, for sake of looking up a vital piece of the past, someone who had saved his grandfather from being captured and carried to death if not killed outright. To thank someone who existed once -

Gratitude is a rare virtue, and this tale a moving example of gratitude at its best, when one may not find the person to be thanked however belatedly. Belatedly it had to be, because of the various closed borders.

Love, Life and All that Jazz; by Ahmed Faiyaz.

Language mixed beyond real or tolerable for a serious reader, local background of India and Mumbai perhaps modern, perhaps imaginary, likely both. Truly ridiculous errors like someone in India waking up while a friend or a lover in UK is already in a classroom, and this is not about those that wake up late in the afternoon. An attempt to transplant a basically western, perhaps really of US, tale onto India, with poor grafting.

Down The Road; by Ahmed Faiyaz, Rohini Kejriwal.

Collection of stories with forced language - a mix of local with some English de rigueur - local colour and perhaps not quite local audience or readership in mind when editing or ordering the collection.

The Finkler Question; by Howard Jacobson.

It is not clear if he bores the reader out of socks for the sadistic fun of whether one shall chuck it after the first page or not, obfuscating the issues he deals with by the language as well as irrelevant details and descriptions, and worse. If one does plough through, one is then certain of never ever picking up anything by this pretentious bore. At the end he refuses to make it clear if the protagonist died of the attack which may or may not have been anti Semitic, in the heart of London. The porn details sprinkled like pepper all over do not work with the anti Semitic attacks described almost off hand (any concern hidden under ponderings and obfuscating language), they merely add to bad taste overall one is left with.

Almost Single; by Advaita Kala.

Reasonably good version of the corresponding variations from UK (shopping girl, what's the name?) and US (Prada et al), but is the hidebound traditional society of India, or even (New) Delhi, gone so far ahead as to let a bunch of women live alone and work and move about so freely and survive the city? Mind you they are without their own cars (most of the time) much less a hefty bodyguard or a bunch, or even chauffeurs for that matter, needed to ensure protection against stray male attackers. But on the whole definitely a feel good variation of the books of similar sort from UK and US, without pretension of local language making it unpleasant as some other recent reads do, although not without local colour and lingo for that matter.

Cranford: by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Cranford:- Life in a small town or village in nineteenth century England described with Gaskell's skill at human lives and characters' description - human nature may be pretty much the same, hence the recognition and amusement for a reader, while material life has changed and hence the value of a detailed account by a skilled and observant author.

Mr. Harrison's Confessions:- True if amusing portrait of a small town's attempts to hook the eligible bachelor new in town.

Doom of the Griffiths:- Tale from Wales of a legendary curse on someone who Brutus-like cheated a friend he owed loyalty to, the curse coming true against all possible expectations in a very roundabout way in the precise ninth generation it was for.

Lois The Witch:- Story of an innocent English orphan young girl sent to New England to seek out her only living relative by her dying mother getting caught up in the Salem mayhem due to the prejudiced and ignorant immigrants to the new lands and accused of being a witch due to a young spiteful child's plea for calling attention to herself through accusing someone of witchcraft. Sordid example of religious persecution that would not tolerate, much less understand, differences within branches of the same religion.

Curious, if True :- A man goes about looking for descendants of his illustrious ancestor Calvin in Tours and comes upon a castle with fairy tale personae come alive albeit unrecognisable - they have proceeded to live beyond the tales and are no more the same as described but have grown in directions the authors couldn't have thought of.